| “ | Tout le monde devrait connaitre certaines oeuvres classiques. Les requiems de Mozart ou de de Saint Sens en font parti, à mes yeux. | ” |
| “ | The good news is that the Piano Concerto receives a splendid reading. Barenboim has a strong feeling for the logic of the work, even down to an occasional slow tempo that works very well. His tone is generally pleasing, and Fischer-Dieskau's accompaniment is exciting and supportive. The Introduction and Allegro goes less well. It requires a degree of fantasy on the part of the soloist that Barenboim just doesn't have. His performance is just too prosaic. There are better performances by Rudolf Serkin and Christian Zaccarias. As for the Cello Concerto, it is altogether more controversial. Technically, Du Pre's playing is stunning. She plays with a tone that is consistently full and enticing, even noble. The problem is that some of her tempos are really slow, even making the piece drag on occasion. Barenboim's accompaniment is very good, but this recording should be of interest mainly to cello afficianados and Du Pre fans. For a more mainstream recording of the piece, one might start with Maria Kliegel on Naxos. | ” |
| “ | Gounod's "Messe Solennelle de Saint Cecile" was one of the last masses of the Romantic era that was actually used in a liturgical setting for a time, and probably the best. Most romantic-era masses were simply written for the concert hall- Beethoven's Missa Solemnis comes to mind. Gounod's great work is an exception, and this is the best recording of it. Though it was recorded in the 1950s, it has been preserved and restored admirably. Furthermore, the soloists in "Gloria" and "Sanctus" reach just the right balance between the lyrical and operatic sound that the music requires. In every other recording I've heard, the soloists either sing it in the syle of an art song or an opera aria, neither which does the music justice. | ” |
| “ | The disc is EMI's budget CD, but the performances included here are of highest quality. In fact I've never come across any performances that come so close to Chopin's ideal - the fragile beauty, the shimmering tone colours, the noble poetry and the heart-felt intimacy of Barenboim's playing reminds me of what Chopin's contemporaries described of his pianism. I've got dozens of CDs of 24 Preludes, but this is the one I always come back to for its radiant beauty that only comes from a self-effacing, sincere heart. | ” |
| “ | Cziffra first recorded Chopin's Waltzes 1-14 along with his electrifying account of the Etudes Op.10 & 25 (now on EMI's recent CZIFFRA plays CHOPIN 5 CD box set 5 85012 2) when he moved from EMI to Philips in 1962. This recording for EMI which includes the additional five posthumous Waltzes, was recorded in 1977/78. In many ways Cziffra's account reflects the style of the so called `Golden Age' of piano playing in that he sometimes plays the left hand slightly before the right to emphasise the melody, adds extra tonic chords at the end of a piece, and plays with some personal rubato, especially in the slower Waltzes such as Op.69 No.1 (L'Adieu), C sharp minor Op.64 No.2, and the A minor (Lento) Op.34 No.2). | ” |
| “ | Composed to celebrate the birhday of Queen Anne of England, Handel's Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne was subtitled 'Ode for the Peace' in reference to the Treaty of Utrecht which marked the end of the War of the Spanish Succession. Six years earlier, the 22-year-old composer brought the techniques he learned from writing Italian opera to his scared music. The result was the powerful, intensely passionate Dixit Dominus. Marcus Creed leads the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin in definitive readings of these works, which feature the glorious voice of counter-tenor Andreas Scholl. | ” |
| “ | This is not the English masque _Acis and Galathea_ but an earlier effort on the same story composed during the composer's youthful tour of Italy, described as a "serenade for three voices." It is deliciously scored, a perfect gem. All the parts work well--duets, ensembles, solos, and recitatives. It doesn't hold the stature of his later oratorio and operatic output, but it deserves equal renown for its pleasures are indisputable. With such refined yet expressive singing, you won't be disappointed to hear, in earlier guises, passages more familiar from Rinaldo and elsewhere. | ” |
| “ | Serse has been one of my favorite Handel operas since I first heard the old Priestman LP on Westminster (Maureen Forrester in the title role, Lucia Popp as Romilda). Despite its frequent raggedness and "harpsichord on speed" continuo, this was a thoroughly dramatic and engaging performance. I've waited for decades for a new Serse which could benefit from the new performance standards we take for granted in baroque opera today. I was strongly disposed to like this disc, since although I've found McGegan a bit uneven in the past, his more recent Handel efforts, particularly Radamisto, have been superb. I can't fault the singers or orchestra in this performance, but the dramatic spark that makes Serse so special seems to me to be missing. I went back and compared my old Priestman recording and was even more convinced that the definitive Serse is yet to come. It's surprising there haven't been more recordings, since this work has a lot of potential appeal, and is one of Handel's most accomplished pieces. Maybe I'm just too picky, but I'd love to see someone reissue the Priestman on CD-- and while they are at it, his equally engaging Rodelinda (fortunately, there is better competition for the latter). | ” |
| “ | The plot of "Jephtha" is based, with alterations, on Chapter XI of Judges. This begins, "Now Jephtha the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of a harlot." He was disinherited by his half-brothers, the sons of Gilead's legitimate wife, and went into exile, becoming a kind of outlaw leader. Now the Israelites, including [hose of Gilead, who have been following Mrange gods, are being oppressed by the Ammonites. | ” |
| “ | Italian opera, the most truly international of genres, spread far and wide all over Europe in the eighteenth century: Vienna, London, Dresden and St Petersburg were no less important as centres of Italian opera than Venice, Rome and Naples - indeed, they occasionally assumed even greater importance than Italian cities in stimulating composers to explore new avenues. A post at a court in northern Europe meant excellent pay for an Italian composer, as well as the chance to work with a degree of ease that was unknown in his homeland. This was a period in which a composer's earnings, were rarely sufficient to allow him to live comfortably. A prestigious, well-paid position abroad for a few years enabled a composer to set aside a little sum for his old age, and was a sort of gratification that none would wish to renounce. Thus it was that many successful composers set off for foreign lands, if for no other reason than to cash in on the success they had known in Italy in their youth, when the struggle to find a place at the top and the rhythm of production of operas obliged musicians to turn out as many as five or six works a year so as not to risk disappearing from the public eye. | ” |
| “ | The re-master of a 1974 Decca Record recording is excellent in execution and style. Neveille Marriner and St. Martin-in-the-Fields perform in their typical excellent manner. However, the recording over emphasize the soloist. I find this unfortunate, since the play between the opposing instruments is a little lost. | ” |
| “ | Arcangelo Corelli's remarkable reputation, established during his lifetime and maintained ever since, is based almost exclusively on his six published collections of works: the Trio Sonatas, Opp.1-4, the Concerti grossi, Op.6, and the twelve violin sonatas recorded here. Born in 1653 into a family of prosperous landowners, and trained as a violinist in Bologna, by his mid-twenties Corelli was in Rome and there rose rapidly to the peak of his profession. As both performer and composer he was renowned as a perfectionist, a fact reflected in both the size of his output and the polish with which it was prepared for publication. | ” |
| “ | By comparison with the ambitious, sometimes pioneering products of the last musically active decade of his life (1755-1765) much of Telemann's chamber music is conventional in language if not always in form. Nevertheless, we should guard against any assessment which views it as merely fluent. Telemann's chamber suites and cantatas, solo sonatas, trios, quartets and songs almost invariably carry the hallmark of a composer whose understanding of the voices and instruments for which he is writing is both imaginatively practical and technically informed.. | ” |
| “ | George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759): Italian Cantatas “Clori, Tirsi e Fileno” and “Apollo e Dafne”. Oboe Concerto in G Minor. Performed by various soloists and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, directed from the harpsichord by Nicholas McGegan. | ” |
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