ANTONIO VIVALDI
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons Adrian Chandler (director/violin) / La Serenissima [ Avie / CD - released 25/Sep/2015 ] "an intensely dramatic account that will add spice to what has for many listeners perhaps come to resemble a dreary domestic relationship." (Gramophone Magazine award nomination 2016 - Baroque Instrumental) |
ANTONIO VIVALDI
Vivaldi: Music for the Chapel of the Pieta Adrian Chandler (Director/violin); Mhairi Lawson (soprano) / La Serenissima [ Avie / CD - released 17/Jun/2005 ] RECORDING OF THE MONTH - MusicWeb March 2005 "In performances as wonderful as these, you can't help loving it!" |
ANTONIO VIVALDI
Vivaldi: x2: Double Concertos for Horns, Oboes, Violin & Cello, Oboe & Bassoon Adrian Chandler, La Serenissima [ Avie / CD - released 20/Nov/2018 ] Vivaldi x2 TITLE: Vivaldi x2 COMPOSER: Vivaldi ARTISTS: Adrian Chandler, violin / director La Serenissima Rachel Chaplin, Mark Baigent - oboes Peter Whelan - bassoon Anneke Scott, Jocelyn Lightfoot - horns Vladimir Waltham,... |
ANTONIO VIVALDI
Vivaldi: A Tale of Two Seasons - Concertos & Arias Adrian Chandler (violin, director) & Sally Bruce-Payne (mezzo-soprano) / La Serenissima [ Avie / CD - released 30/Jul/2013 ] Adrian Chandler and La Serenissima, with virtuoso soloist mezzo-soprano Sally Bruce-Payne, continue their enlightening exploration of the music of Vivaldi focusing on two contrasting eras of the composer's Venetian operatic career. |
WILLIAM WALTON / GWENAEL MARIO GRISI / SERGEI PROKOFIEV
Walton, Grisi & Prokofiev: Heroes Adrien La Marca (viola) / Liège Royal Philharmonic [ La Dolce Volta / CD - released 2/Oct/2020 ] Three large-scale works for viola and orchestra feature on the new recording by violist Adrien La Marca with the Liège Royal Philharmonic. Musically, a programme must tell a story: here the viola becomes the central hero of each work. |
JACQUES MOREL
Morel: Premier Livre de Pièces de Violle Alejandro Marías (viola da gamba) / La Spagna [ Brilliant Classics / CD - released 1/Apr/2019 ] French Baroque chamber music by a much-admired contemporary of Marin Marais. In a personal introduction to his own authoritative booklet essay, the Spanish violist Alejandro Marías relates how he acquired the rare facsimile of an even rarer... |
KURT WEILL
Berliner Requiem / Concerto pour violon et instruments a vent Alexandre Laiter / Peter Kooy / Elisabeth Glab / La Chapelle Royale, Ensemble Musique Oblique, Philippe Herreweghe [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 1/Sep/2007 ] 'Herreweghe and his group have extricated true beauty and elegance, in this Berliner Requiem. A resounding success.' - CD Classics |
JEAN CASSANEA DE MONDONVILLE
Mondonville: Le Carnaval du Parnasse Alexis Kossenko; Hasnaa Bennani; Hélène Guilmette; Mathias Vidal; Les Ambassadeurs ~ La Grande Écurie; Choeur de Chambre de Namur; Gwendoline Blondeel [ Château de Versailles Spectacles / 2 CD - released 12/Apr/2024 ] The cornucopia of delights confirms why Le carnaval du Parnasse appealed instantly to mid-18th-century Parisian audiences. -Gramophone |
BERNARDINO de RIBERA / JUAN NAVARRO / SEBASTIEN de VIVANCO / TOMAS LUIS de VICTORIA
De Ribera & Navarro: Masters of Spanish Renaissance Amystis Ensemble / Ministriles de la Reyna, José Duce Chenoll [ Brilliant Classics / CD - released 11/Mar/2022 ] The Amystis ensemble of singers and instrumentalists have won a following for their exploration of lesser-known sacred and secular masterpieces from the Spanish Golden Age of the 16th century. |
Ana de la Vega (flute) / English Chamber Orchestra, New Dutch Academy / Simon Murphy (direction)
Baroque Bohemia & Beyond VIII: Stamič, Richter, Mysliveček [ Alto / CD ] [Mysliveček] "She is a charming, persuasive advocate ... The ECO, too, offer fine support and with a range of tone colours, match de la Vega's recreative imagination. Pentatone has captured these performances in particularly clear sound ... De la... |
FRANZ IGNAZ BECK
Beck: L'Isle deserte, Opéra comique in one acte Ana Maria Labin, Samantha Gaul, Theodore Browne, Fabian Kelly, La Stagione Frankfurt, Michael Schneider [ CPO / CD - released 24/Sep/2021 ] Franz Ignaz Beck is one of the most fascinating composers of the eighteenth century, a musical visionary as well as a »genuine European« with roots in Mannheim. His opera L'isle déserte, long regarded as lost, has resurfaced in a score manuscript in... |
HECTOR BERLIOZ
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, Orchestre du Théâtre National de l'Opéra, André Cluytens [ Testament / CD - released 4/Feb/2002 ] |
WOLF-FERRARI
Wind Concertinos Andrea Tenaglia (oboe) William Moriconi (cor anglais) Giuseppe Ciabocchi (bassoon) / Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, Francesco La Vecchia [ Naxos / CD - released 2/Nov/2011 ] Although Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari is known mainly for his operatic compositions (La vedova scaltra is available on Naxos CD 8660225-26 and DVD 2110234-35), he wrote a number of sublimely expressive and lyrical orchestral works, devoting the majority of... |
BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Missa Solemnis Op 123 Rosa Mannion (sop) Birgit Remmert (alto) James Taylor (tenor) Cornelius Hauptmann (bass) / La Chapelle Royale / Champs-Elysees / Philippe Herreweghe [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 20/May/2010 ] 'Philippe Herreweghe has the measure of this stubborn masterpiece...No-one has ever got it quite right - until now.' - Classic CD |
OLAFUR ARNALDS / LUDOVICO EINAUDI / MAX RICHTER / JOHANN JOHNANSSON etc
Pulsations Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà [ Analekta / CD - released 4/Oct/2019 ] One of the most prominent violin virtuosos of her generation, Angèle Dubeau has been leading an exceptional career, performing in the greatest concert halls of the world. While her virtuosity and musicality have seduced critics, the public has... |
AUBER
La Muette De Portici (complete opera) Diego Torre, Oscar de la Torre, Angelina Ruzzafante, Wiard Witholt / Anhaltische Philharmonie, Anthony Hermus [ CPO / 2 CD - released 29/Jul/2013 ] "[de la Torre's] singing exudes a notable confidence above the stave...[Hermus] and his excellent orchestra bring an appropriate vitality and dramatic fire to the proceedings." (International Record Review) |
FRANCESCO CAVALLI / CHRISTOPH GRAUPNER / FRANZ TUNDER etc
Celebration of Life in Death Anna Prohaska; La Folia Barockorchester; Robin Peter Müller [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 25/Feb/2022 ] Constantly in search of eclectic and meaningful programmes, the soprano Anna Prohaska here celebrates 'life in death'. An ambitious programme, conceived with Robin Peter Müller and his ensemble La Folia, which takes us on a journey across the... |
PUCCINI
Puccini Romance Antoinette Halloran (soprano) Rosario La Spina (tenor) / The Queensland Orchestra / Stephen Mould [ Universal Classics / ABC Classics / CD - released 15/May/2008 ] FEATURES THE STAR OF THE NZ OPERA'S PRODUCTION OF LA BOHEME! |
VERDI
La Traviata (complete opera recorded in 1955) Antonietta Stella (soprano) Giuseppe di Stefano (tenor) Tito Gobbi (baritone) / Milan La Scala Orchestra / Tullio Serafin [ Naxos Historical / 2 CD - released 1/Dec/2007 ] Having already recorded La Traviata for CETRA Maria Callas was contractually barred from taking part in this 1955 recording of the opera, which featured, instead, the emerging Italian soprano Antonietta Stella, who went on to become an acclaimed... |
PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY / FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY
Mendelssohn & Tchaikovsky - Violin Concertos Arabella Steinbacher (violin), Charles Dutoit, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande [ Pentatone / CD - released 1/Jun/2015 ] This release arguably features the two greatest concertos ever written for the violin: performed by one of the most brilliant violinists of her generation, together with one of the finest orchestras, and under the baton of one of the world's foremost... |