STRAVINSKY
Shadow Dances (Miniatures) [Incls Suites Nos. 1 & 2 for Small Orchestra] Orpheus Chamber Orchestra [ Brilliant Classics / Deutsche Grammophon / CD - released 20/Oct/2009 ] "This is a most enjoyable disc revealing a very concise and pungent side of stravinsky which you are the poorer for not knowing. Superb recording and great notes from Emanuel Overbeeke." (MusicWeb) |
BIZET
The Complete Orchestral Works (Incls Carmen Suites & Symphony in C) Orquestra Filarmonica de Maxico / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Enrique Batiz [ Brilliant Classics / 3 CD - released 29/Sep/2006 ] French composer Georges Bizet is famous for only one masterpiece: the opera Carmen. From that we can already hear that he is a brilliant orchestrator. |
DVORAK
Symphonies Nos 5, 7, 8 & 9 / Othello Overture / Scherzo Capriccioso Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra / Mariss Jansons [ Brilliant Classics / 3 CD - released 20/Nov/2005 ] "If the coupling appeals this box will serve the listener well and deliver a Dvorak that is not merely affable but also lyrically urgent" (MusicWeb Nov 2005) |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
Rendez-Vous Royal: Music for Trumpet & Organ Otto Sauter (piccolo trumpet) & Christian Schmitt (organ) [ Brilliant Classics / 3 CD Box Set - released 1/Oct/2018 ] On this album of concertos and transcriptions ranging from the Baroque era to the present day, the Instrument of the Kings meets the Queen of Instruments. |
TELEMANN / MOLTER / TORELLI / HAYDN / VIVALDI / L. MOZART / etc
Trumpet Concertos [special priced box set] Otto Sauter, Thomas Hammes, Franz Wagnermeyer, Reinhold Friedrich, Joachim Pliquett, etc (trumpets) [ Brilliant Classics / 10 CD Box Set - released 25/May/2018 ] "Many good things: music by composers generally badly served by other labels, the standard of musicianship high and sound quality generally excellent." (Bargain of the Month MusicWeb April 2011 on the original release) |
ADRIAAN SMOUT
Thysius Lute Book Pacoloni Ensemble [ Brilliant Classics / CD - released 1/Oct/2018 ] The world-premiere recording of an early 17th-century collection of music conceived for a richly varied ensemble of lutes. Adriaan Smout (1578-1646) was a philosopher, teacher and preacher who collected and transcribed the music that came his way... |
LUIGI PICCHI
Picchi: Organ Music Paolo Bottini (organ) [ Brilliant Classics / 2 CD - released 1/Sep/2023 ] Luigi Picchi learned the rudiments of music from his father Faustino, a self-taught organist, and later studied with the Pavia-based teachers Giovanni Baroni and Franco Vittadini in preparation for admission to the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in... |
GAETANO VALERI
Valeri: Complete Organ Music Paolo Bottini (organ) [ Brilliant Classics / 3 CD Box Set - released 1/Sep/2017 ] The first recording of the complete organ works by Valeri. Gaetano Valeri (1760-1822) was born in Padua, Italy, bred and raised in the "Keyboard School of the Veneto region". A true "classical" composer he absorbed the style of Haydn and Mozart,... |
GIOVANNI BATTISTA PESCETTI
Pescetti: Complete Keyboard Music Paolo Bottini (organ/harpsichord) [ Brilliant Classics / 2 CD - released 27/Feb/2017 ] "I have thoroughly enjoyed these two discs, also thanks to Bottini's engaging performance and the splendid historical organs." MusicWeb April 2017 |
BELLINI
Beatrice di Tenda (complete opera recorded in 1992) Paolo Gavanelli, Lucia Aliberti, Camille Capasso / Chorus and Orchestra of the Deutschen & Oper Berlin, Fabio Luisi [ Brilliant Classics Opera Collection / 2 CD - released 22/Jul/2013 ] Packed with intrigue, jealousy and revenge, Beatrice di Tenda is a tragic opera in two acts that retells the final months of one of Renaissance history's most fascinating and ill-fated characters. |
LUIGI GATTI
Six sonatas for violin & viola Paolo Ghidoni (violin) Alfredo Zamarra (viola) [ Brilliant Classics / CD - released 1/Apr/2011 ] These sonatas have been played and recorded on two of the most beautiful instruments from the Violins Collection of the Municipality of Cremona: a Stradivari 1727 violin (the so-called Vesuvius") and an Amati 1615 viola ("La Stauffer"). |
LODOVICO GIUSTINI
Giustini: 12 Sonatas Op.1 Paolo Zentilin (piano) [ Brilliant Classics / 3 CD - released 22/Jan/2021 ] The very first-ever set of 'piano sonatas' in a new and highly imaginative recording. |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
The Golden Age of the Guitar in Europe Pascal Boëls (guitar) [ Brilliant Classics / 2 CD - released 4/Dec/2020 ] One of the world's foremost experts on the 10-string guitar, Pascal Boëls offers us a cross-section of the finest music for his instrument from around Europe in the Renaissance and the Baroque. He identifies this as the guitar's 'golden age' - rather... |
J.S. BACH
Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Organ Patxi Montero, Daniele Boccaccio [ Brilliant Classics / CD - released 22/Apr/2016 ] In this new recording of the magnificent (and still undervalued) sonatas for viola da gamba by Bach the keyboard is an organ, a german school Rückpositiv. The use of the organ instead of the harpsichord has changed the interpretation of the... |
SCHOENBERG
Gurrelieder (with Des Sommerwindes wilde Jagd) Paul Frey (tenor) Elizabeth Connell (soprano) / Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt / Chor des NDR Hamburg & Bayerischen Rundfunks / Eliahu Inbal [ Brilliant Classics / 2 CD - released 15/Jun/2006 ] The Gurrelieder are Schönberg at his most impressive. This recording was made in Germany in 1990 was an all-German team. The vocal soloists include Paul Frey, tenor and Jard van Nes, mezzo-soprano. The narrator is Hanz Franzen. |
W.A. MOZART.
Don Giovanni / Die Entfahrung aus dem Serail (Complete operas) (Rec 1995 & 1999) Paul Groves, Yelda Kodalli, Nancy Argenta, Elena Vink, Werner van Mechelen. Collegium Compostellanum. La Petite Bande. Sigiswald Kuijken / Scottish Ch [ Brilliant Classics Mozart Edition Vol 18 / 5 CD - released 18/Aug/2005 ] "From the first notes of the overture, Mackerras gives us a brilliant, dramatic reading of "Die Entführung aus dem Serail". Speeds are fast but not overly so and one is left in no doubt that this is a stage work. The attractive, fresh voiced cast... |
VINCENZO PETRALI
Petrali: Organ Music Paulo Bottini (organ) [ Brilliant Classics / 2 CD - released 20/Nov/2020 ] Vincenzo Petrali (1830-1889) was an organist-composer active in the north of Italy. Acclaimed in his own time as a master improviser, the equal in this regard to French contemporaries such as Guilmant and Widor, he left a small, beautifully crafted... |
RICHARD STRAUSS
Strauss, R: Orchestral works (includes Don Juan, Violin Concerto in D minor, An Alpine Symphony & Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme) Peter Damm (horn) / Manfred Weise (clarinet) / Peter Rose (piano) / Paul Tortelier (cello ) / Staatskapelle Dresden / Rudolf Kempe [ Brilliant Classics / 9 CD - released 1/Dec/2005 ] An opportunity to also get acquainted with the lesser known works by Strauss. |
J.S. BACH
Complete Secular Cantatas Peter Schreier / Edith Mathis / Arleen Auger / Berliner Solisten / Kammerorchester Berlin / Peter Schreier [ Brilliant Classics / 8 CD - released 1/Aug/2007 ] In his secular cantatas J.S. Bach tackled some of the lighter issues of life. Like coffee and marriage… Somehow these are heard not that often in concert halls. |
ALBERT LORTZING
Der Wildschütz Peter Schreier (tenor) & Edith Mathis (soprano) / Rundfunkchor Berlin & Staatskapelle Berlin, Bernhard Klee [ Brilliant Classics / 2 CD - released 1/Jun/2014 ] Reissue of one of the gems of the East Germany archive recordings of Berlin Classics: Der Wildschütz by Albert Lortzing...A star studded cast of the best German voices of the time. |