GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Xerxes [Serse] (opera recorded 1988) English National Opera / Ann Murray, Lesley Garrett, Valerie Masterson / Sir Charles Mackerras [ Arthaus Musik DVD / DVD - released 7/Aug/2011 ] "a landmark in the reassessment of Handel's genius...Mackerras understood Handel's music intimately...Murray's Xerxes is unfailingly elegant, whether serenading a plant in the shadow of Roubiliac's statue of Handel, or pausing over a demitasse." |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Horn Concertos & Concert Rondo in E-flat Eric Ruske (horn) / Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Sir Charles Mackerras [ Telarc Classics / CD - released 12/Feb/2005 ] "The Young American horn player, Eric Ruske, is..very pleasing, producing a fine golden sound throughout. The recording captures Ruske's tone beautifully and is rich and spacious." - Gramophone |
MUSSORGSKY
Boris Godunov (complete opera, sung in Italian, recorded live in 1939) Ezio Pinza / Kerstin Thorborg / Charles Kullman / Leonard Warren / Ettore Panizza (cond) [ Naxos Immortal Performances / 3 CD Box Set - released 1/Jun/2010 ] |
W.A. MOZART
Opera Highlights-Volume 2: The Magic Flute, Cosi fan Tutte Felicity Lott / Nuccia Focile / Marie McLaughlin / Jerry Hadley / Edinburgh Festival Singers / Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Sir Charles MacKerras [ Telarc Everybody's Classics / 2 CD - released 20/Sep/2008 ] "The recorded quality is unusually clear and, carefully nurtured by Mackerras, the delights of Mozart's scoring can readily be heard" (Gramophone on the Cosi) |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel/Mozart: Messiah (complete oratorio sung in English arranged Mozart rec 1988) Felicity Lott (sop) Felicity Palmer (contralto) Philip Langridge (ten) Robert Lloyd (bass) Huddersfield Choral Society / Royal Philharmonic / Charles [ Signum / 2 CD - released 15/Jul/2006 ] "If you want a traditional Messiah with added wind parts, you cannot go wrong with this. It has the added advantage of having Mackerras at the helm ... a guilty pleasure for solitary listening" (MusicWeb June 2006) |
WAGNER
Das Liebesverbot [The Ban on Love] (complete opera) Anna Gabler, Michael Nagy, Peter Bronder, Charles Reid, Simon Bode / Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, Sebastien Weigle [ Oehms Classics / 3 CD Box Set - released 1/Jul/2013 ] "[Weigle] has an excellent cast: singers such as Anna Gabler, Christiane Libor and Michael Nagy all ensure that the score's strongest, least hell-for-leather episodes are heard to full effect...Perhaps, after all, Wagner was right not to destroy it." |
TOMKINS
Above the Starrs: Verse Anthems & Consort Music Fretwork, Emma Kirkby-soprano, Catherine King-alto, Charles Daniels-tenor, Donald Greig-baritone, Richard Wistreich-bass, Jo [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 22/Sep/2003 ] " Fretwork's considerable experience in this kind of repertoire shows in these faultlessly assured performances. A clear and attractive recorded sound completes a most accomplished release." - Gramophone |
FRITZ KREISLER
Kreisler plays Kreisler (Tambourin chinois, Liebesfreud, Marche miniature viennoise, etc) (Recorded: 1942-1946) Fritz Kreisler (violin) Victor Symphony Orchestra / Charles O'Connell, conductor [ Naxos Historical Great Violinists / CD - released 28/Jul/2003 ] "The new transfers are remarkably good, and this is a gem of a reissue." (Classics Today) |
HANDEL
Sacred Choral Works (Incls Nisi Dominus) Lynne Dawson, Lynda Russell, Charles Brett, Ian Partridge, Michael George / The Sixteen Choir & Orchestra, Harry Christophers [ Chandos Chaconne / CD - released 1/Jan/2005 ] |
JEAN CASSANEA DE MONDONVILLE
De Profundis / Venite exultemus Gillian Fisher, Charles Daniels, Stephen Varcoe /Choir of the New College Oxford / London Baroque / Edward Higginbottom [ Hyperion Helios / CD - released 20/May/2008 ] 'This is a delightful bargain collection, given state-of-the-art sound' (Penguin Guide to Compact Discs) |
J.S. BACH
Cantatas Vol 23: BWV150, BWV67, BWV42, BWV158, BWV104, BWV85 and BWV112 Gillian Keith / Daniel Taylor / Charles Daniels / Stephen Varcoe / Monteverdi Choir / English Baroque Soloists / John Eliot Gardiner [ Soli Deo Gloria / 2 CD - released 26/May/2007 ] John Eliot Gardiner's award-winning series of live recordings from the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage continues with cantatas for the 1st and 2nd Sundays after Easter. |
GLUCK
Alceste (complete opera recorded in stereo in 1981) Philip Gelling, Maldwyn Davies, Janet Baker, John Shirley-Quirk / The Royal Opera Chorus & Orchestra / Sir Charles Mackerras [ Royal Opera House / 2 CD - released 10/Apr/2008 ] "A great evening at Covent Garden rescued for posterity." (Gramophone on a previous release) |
MENDELSSOHN / BRUCH / BARTOK / SCHUBERT / BEETHOVEN / etc
Yehudi Menuhin - The Complete American Victor Recordings Yehudi Menuhin (violin), Wanda Landowska, with Robert Merrill, Theodore Saidenberg / Pierre Monteux, Charles Munch, Antal Dorati [ RCA Red Seal / Sony Classics / 6 CD Box Set - released 1/Oct/2019 ] Yehudi Menuhin - The Complete American Victor Recordings, a 6-CD set bringing together legendary early recordings by this violin legend. Gems from this set include the first ever releases in any format of two previously unpublished items. |
ROSSINI
La Gazzetta (complete opera recorded in 2005) Gran Teatre del Liceu / Cinzia Forte / Bruno Pratico / Charles Workman / Pietro Spagnoli / Maurizio Barbacini (cond) [ Opus Arte DVD / 2 DVD - released 18/Jul/2006 ] G :- "A joyous version of one of Rossini's lesser known operas, well sung and acted, beautiful to look at and characterised by a riot of comic invention" (MusicWeb Sept 2006) |
ROSSINI
La Gazzetta (complete opera recorded in 2005) BLU-RAY Gran Teatre del Liceu / Cinzia Forte / Bruno Pratico / Charles Workman / Pietro Spagnoli / Maurizio Barbacini (cond) [ Opus Arte Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Feb/2012 ] '…ironic and sensual, friendly but with a light taste of satire, La Gazzetta by Rossini has been reborn in this production that has the distinctive stamp of Fo, who has been able to handle with strength the Rossinian chaos without neglecting - and... |
CHARLES IVES
Charles Ives - The Anniversary Edition Helen Boatwright (soprano), Charles Ives (piano), Gregg Smith Singers, Thomas Stewart (baritone), American Symphony Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski, etc [ Sony Classical / 5 CD Box Set - released 18/Oct/2024 ] On the 150th anniversary of the birth of Charles Ives - acclaimed by his champion Leonard Bernstein as the "first great American composer", who, "all alone in his Connecticut barn, created his own private musical revolution". |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
Holiday Classics: 5 CDs with a distinct holiday flavour National Philharmonic, Richard Bonynge / Montreal Symphony, Charles Dutoit / Cleveland Orchestra, Lorin Maazel / Detroit Symphony, Antal Dorati, etc [ Decca / 5 CD Box Set - released 25/Nov/2009 ] A specially priced five CD set featuring a talent of top Decca recording artists like Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Julius Katchen, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dame Joan Sutherland, Willi Boskovsky, Pascal Roge and the Academy of St Martins in the Fields. |
HECTOR BERLIOZ
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique Hungarian Radio & Television Orchestra. Charles Munch [ ABC Eloquence / CD - released 20/Sep/2005 ] The rarest amongst Charles Munch's many traversals of Symphonie fantastique (including those with the Boston and Paris Orchestras), this is an extraordinarily spacious reading of the first movement in particular, and will be much sought after by... |
J.S. BACH
Trauerode BWV 198 / Jesu, der du meine Seele BWV 78 Ingrid SchmithAsen, Howard Crook, Peter Kooy, Charles Brett / La Chapelle Royale / Philippe Herreweghe (dir) [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 1/Sep/2008 ] Whatever the occasions for which they were written (a tribute to a dead queen, or a chorale cantata), the two works on this recording have one subject in common: death and the soul's salvation. Performed in 1727 in memory of the sorely mourned... |
HENRY PURCELL
Purcell: Music for the Chapel Royal - Verse Anthems Inia Te Wiata, Robert Tear, Charles Brett, Paul Esswood / Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge, George Guest / Academy of St Martin in the Fields [ Decca / London Serenata / CD - released 20/Sep/1995 ] Purcell wrote so much in so many different spheres of musical activity that it is easy to forget that one of his main tasks was to be a royal composer, to provide music for the occasions of State in Westminster Abbey, just as the Gabrielis had done... |