This CD contains a good slice of his entire output, including his Six Orchestral Pieces, which say quiet, tiny things with a huge orchestra.“The silver-haired maestro” is increasingly taking a back seat to a new generation of young virtuosos. All are written by the most talented composers and tell an engaging story.
On this disc, you’ll find the noblest and fleshiest musical incarnations of Strauss’s Hero ever recorded.Water Goblins, Noon Witches, Golden Spinning Wheels, Wild Doves – the titles of Dvořák’s four late tone-poems tell us we’re going to be plunged into the world of Slavic fairy-tales.
In some ways Britten never surpassed his first opera, a story of a conflicted fisherman cut off by his unfeeling neighbours.
Never pass up a chance to see it.Is there an opera more popular, sexy, scandalous or with better tunes? Be prepared.Written over two decades, The Mastersingers of Nuremberg is Wagner's only "comic" opera, full of generous humanity, especially in the great figure of the cobbler-poet Hans Sachs. Beneath its unruffled, Mediterranean surface, Mozart’s sublime yet cruel comedy comes to life in Bernard Haitink’s interpretation from Glyndebourne, with a cast including Carol Vaness and Claudio Desderi. The Wagner is conducted by Hans Knappertsbusch, the Mahler by Sir Adrian Boult.The American mezzo Graham sings chansons by 22 French composers from Berlioz to Ravel and others in a recital that covers a century of French song.The artistry of this American mezzo, whose death aged 52 in 2006 is still profoundly mourned, lives on in this disc that captures the unforgettable magnetism of her personality as well as the unique timbre of her voice.Schoenberg’s 21 songs describing the lurid adventures of “Moon-struck Peter” are nightmarish at first, but become beautiful with repeated hearings.
Tom ends up penniless and mad in Bedlam. Long considered the ugly duckling of Rachmaninov’s concerto output – a last and less than convincing grasp of Russian Romanticism composed at a time (1926) when the world had moved on – the work won its proper place in the wake of Michelangeli’s 1957 landmark recording. The Phantom of the Opera, Original London Cast. "...it is said that first your heart sings, then you play. As usual, Wagner wrote his own libretto. All rights reserved.
Here we get a remarkable glimpse of what all the fuss was about.Francis Poulenc could be the great choral composer of the 20th century. “When I heard the music of Ernesto Nazareth, I finally understood the Brazilian soul,” said the French composer Darius Milhaud.Leopold Godowsky was one of those heroic virtuoso composer-pianists from the pre-war era. The soloists – Auger, von Otter, Chance and Tomlinson – are consistently fine.This is a powerfully expressed performance, in which period authenticity is not allowed to dim argument or tone. When Puccini died leaving the opera incomplete, it was finished by a composer friend, Alfano. He knew just how his music should sound and projects the great symphony’s darker moments as well as its radiance.Notable for Janet Baker’s Angel and for her classic singing of Sea Pictures.Adrian Boult recorded this symphony several times but this, his first, made in 1944, is the best. Not all of it is written in serious genres like sonata and symphony. And it’s likely that, if you decide to buy any for a loved one, they’ll think you want to kill them.Much is said of the Rite of Spring’s unpredictability, brutality and force, but little successful is ever done to effect it. When the time arrives, no one is quite sure whether Armageddon has occurred or not so they party on, accepting there's no escape from death.Saturday afternoon's live-streamed Inside Opera event united all seven of the UK's publicly funded opera houses in an unprecedented collaboration that aimed to introduce new audiences to the art form.
Not really. The hunchback prompts pity when he tries to protect his daughter. Maria Callas made J'ai Perdu Mon Eurydice a stand-alone hit.Together with Don Giovanni and Cosi fan Tutte, which make up Mozart's trio of masterpieces with libretti by Da Ponte, Figaro is for many the perfect opera: a balance of wit, humanity and astounding, glorious music. Here are a dozen examples, from the “father of the symphony” Joseph Haydn right up to Shostakovich.Rhythm lies at the heart of these two extraordinary symphonies. Puccini's final opera is about the man-hating Chinese queen Turandot, and Calaf, the man who finally melts her icy heart. Monteverdi was the "founding father" of operatic form. Clara Schumann was one of the finest composers of the mid-19th century. In French, chansons.
Opera plots are oftentimes ridiculous, but you should not listen to opera for the story but for how the music glorifies the story.
It’s just what I was looking for. With a mythological musician as hero, L'Orfeo ranks as the first great opera. Composers often tackle this form in one of two ways. Connolly is spellbinding as the wife who kills her violent husband.If Finzi had written nothing else this rapturous cantata, beautifully sung here, would ensure his immortality.Moving and topical 1939 oratorio with negro spirituals as chorales. This is one of the Russian operatic greats.Among the most intimate and heart-rending of operas, this setting of Pushkin's verse tale has a spectacular birthday ball, a duel and, early on, the Letter Scene, in which the impetuous young Tatyana pours out her heart to the cold Onegin.