CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3 "Organ" / Carnival of the Animals (with Poulenc: Model Animals - Suite) Maurice Durufle (organ) / Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, Georges Prêtre [ EMI Classics Encore Collection / CD - released 2/Feb/2001 ] Original recording from 1964 & 1967 |
IGOR STRAVINSKY / SERGE PROKOFIEV
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps, Petrushka, Pulcinella (suite), Divertimento (with works by Prokofiev) Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Francaise, Igor Markevitch [ EMI Classics / CD - released 18/Mar/1989 ] Recorded 1954 - 1959 |
CHARLES GOUNOD
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Gounod: Saint Cecilia Mass / Petite Symphonie Pilar Lorengar, Heinz Hoppe, Franz Crass / Choeurs RenAC Duclos / Orchestre de la SociACtAC des Concerts du Conservatoire / Jean-Claude Hartemann / Jo [ EMI Encore / CD - released 12/Feb/2007 ] Reissued at a special price |
PUCCINI / MASCAGNI / CILEA / LEONCAVALLO / GIORDANO
Piotr Beczala: Vincerò! Piotr Beczala (tenor), with Evgeniya Khomutova (mezzo) / Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana , Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana, Marco Boemi [ Pentatone SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 15/May/2020 ] "BeczaĆa never needs to force unduly, yet there's plenty of emotion to these readings" Gramophone Recording of the Month June 2020 |
PUCCINI / CILEA / MASCAGNI / UMBERTO / GIORDANO
Piotr Beczala: Vincerò! Piotr Beczala (tenor), with Evgeniya Khomutova (mezzo) / Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana , Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana, Marco Boemi [ Pentatone SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 15/May/2020 ] Global star tenor Piotr Beczala presents Vincerò!, the first fruit of his exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE. Vincerò! is a collection of heart-wrenching opera arias by Puccini, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Giordano and Cilea. |
GIUSEPPE VERDI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Verdi: Otello (highlights, recorded in 1986) Placido Domingo, Katia Ricciarelli, Justino Diaz / Milan La Scala Chorus & Orchestra / Lorin Maazel [ EMI Studio / CD - released 18/Aug/1997 ] "I have no hesitation in making this set my first choice in this ever-potent opera. I have seldom heard a more tender, vulnerable Desdemona than Ricciarelli's, absolutely ideal in the many dolce, piano moments in the role, bringing tears to the eye." |
GIUSEPPE VERDI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Verdi: Otello (highlights, recorded in 1986) Placido Domingo, Katia Ricciarelli, Justino Diaz / Milan La Scala Chorus & Orchestra / Lorin Maazel [ EMI Red Line / CD - released 18/Aug/1997 ] "I have no hesitation in making this set my first choice in this ever-potent opera" - Gramophone on the complete recording |
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra La Scala Opera / Plácido Domingo (Simon Boccanegra), Anja Harteros (Amelia Grimaldi (Maria), etc / Daniel Barenboim (cond) [ Arthaus Musik / DVD - released 10/Apr/2012 ] "[Barenboim] delivers the kind of eloquently moulded, dramatically succinct phrases heard in his Wagner performances of late...[His] status as a Verdian outsider - and the fresh insights that come with that - is a genuine drawing card." |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: String Quintets K. 515 & 516 Quatuor Van Kuijk; Adrien La Marca [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 25/Sep/2020 ] "Time and again, they seem to me to catch this music exactly where it speaks most powerfully: balanced perfectly - poignantly - between laughter and tears." Gramophone Editor's Choice Awards Issue 2020 |
GRAUN / HASSE / HANDEL / LEGRENZI / VIVALDI / etc
Cleopatra - Baroque Arias Regula Mühlemann (soprano) / La Folia Barokorchester, Robin Peter Müller [ Sony Classical / CD - released 21/Sep/2017 ] "Mühlemann makes everything sound easy. But it's not just virtuosity, as the beauty of her voice also stops you in your tracks." BBC Music |
GOUNOD / FRANCK / ADAM / FAURE / BERLIOZ / BOULANGER / etc
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Sanctus - Sacred Songs Roberto Alagna (tenor) / City Of Toulouse Choir, Les Petits Chanteurs À La Croix Potencée, City Of Toulouse Orchestra, Michel Olasson [ EMI Music / CD - released 1/Dec/1996 ] Recorded : Toulouse, Eglise Notre-Dame de la Daurade, 2-6.V.1996 |
MOZART / GLUCK / CIMAROSA / BOLOGNE
Samuel Mariño - Sopranista Samuel Mariño (soprano) / La Cetra Barockorchester, Andrea Marcon [ Decca / CD - released 27/May/2022 ] "The words "radiant" and "pure" come to mind, with "thrilling" perhaps jumping in when the throat opens wide and the notes blaze away, fierce as the unfiltered rays of the summer sun." The Times |
W.A. MOZART
Mozart: Mass in C Minor KV427 Sandrine Piau, Anne-Lise Sollied, Paul Agnew, Frederic Caton / Accentus / La Chambre Philharmonique / Emmanuel Krivine [ Naive / CD - released 20/Dec/2005 ] MARBECKS STAFF RECORDING OF THE YEAR 2006 - "Krivine offers a hard-edged reading, almost Bach-like in both its devotional austerity and its emphasis on the score's complex counterpoint...the choral singing and playing are admirably clear" (The... |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven Révolution Vol. II Symphonies 6 to 9 Sara Gouzy, Salome Fischer, Mingjie Lei, Manuel Walser / Le Concert des Nations, La Capella Nacional de Catalunya, Jordi Savall [ Alia Vox / 3 CD Box Set - released 25/Feb/2022 ] "This is a very special release...Savall's may well have just become my favourite period-instrument Beethoven cycle of them all." Gramophone Award Finalist 2022 - Orchestral |
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Verdi: Macbeth (Complete Opera) [2 CD remastered + Blu-ray audio] Shirley Verrett, Piero Cappuccilli, Placido Domingo / Milan La Scala Chorus; Milan La Scala Orchestra / Claudio Abbado [ Deutsche Grammophon / 3 CD/Blu-ray Disc - released 9/Nov/2018 ] A truly legendary opera recording from the golden age of stereo, remastered to true 24-bit Audio from the original analogue tapes, presented on High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray disc + CD in a deluxe hardback edition with libretti and synopsis. |
MOZART
Mozart: Requiem La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale Gent, Orchestre des Champs-ÉlyséesPhilippe Herreweghe [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 19/Jul/2019 ] Tired by his many voyages around Europe ever since he had been rejected in Vienna, Mozart could not find the strength to honour his promise to compose a Requiem in record time for the person who had commissioned it. |
GAETANO DONIZETTI
Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore (highlights) Simone Alaimo (bass), Roberto Frontali (baritone), Alessandra Ruffini (soprano), Vincenzo la Scola (tenor), Mariangela Spotorno (soprano) [ Naxos / CD - released 1/May/2000 ] Gaetano Donizetti was the leading composer of Italian opera in the short period between the early retirement of Rossini and death of Bellini and Verdi's first success with Nabucco in 1842. He was born in Bergamo in 1797 and had his early musical... |
MONTEVERDI / PURCELL / CESTI / MERULA / DOWLAND
Love Simone Kermes (soprano) / La Magnifica Comunità, Enrico Casazza [ Sony / CD - released 1/Jul/2016 ] "The evidence of [Kermes's] close sympathy with the players of La Magnifica Comunità is everywhere abundant…the sum total, powerfully original and committed in imaginative endeavour and fulfilment, is an inward-looking artistic vision" BBC Music |
JULES MASSENET / GIACOMO PUCCINI / CHARLES COUNOD / JACQUES OFFENBACH / etc
Sonya Yoncheva - Paris, mon amour Sonya Yoncheva (soprano), with Etienne Dupuis (baritone), Celso Albelo (tenor) Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, Frederic Chaslin [ Sony Music / CD - released 1/Jul/2018 ] "one of the most effortlessly and gorgeously sung accounts of [Sempre libera] I know...her sensual singing of unhackneyed arias by Massenet, Gounod, Messager and Lecocq announces one of the loveliest lyric sopranos before the public today." Sunday Ti |
BACH FAMILY / WASSENAER / COUPERIN / VIVALDI / etc
Karl Munchinger - The Baroque Legacy Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Members of L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Karl Munchinger, with Jean-Pierre Rampal, flute [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 8 CD Box Set - released 1/Nov/2019 ] A newly remastered treasury of Baroque ensemble music from Gabrieli to Haydn, including several recordings receiving their first international CD release. The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra was founded by Karl Münchinger in 1946, and it was only... |