ALEXANDER SCRIABIN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Scriabin: Complete symphonies - Prometheus - Poame de l'extase - Piano Concerto Peter Jablonski, piano - Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin - Vladimir Ashkenazy [ Decca Trio / 3 CD Box Set - released 14/Jul/2003 ] "outstanding sound-quality" (Penguin Stereo Guide on Symphony No 1) |
J. S. BACH
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Bach: Complete Secular Cantatas Peter Schreier, Edith Mathis, Arleen Auger / Berliner Solisten, Kammerorchester Berlin, Peter Schreier [ Brilliant Classics / 8 CD Box Set - 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. |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
The Berlin Concert - Live from the 'Waldbuhne' (complete concert) BLU-RAY Placido Domingo / Anna Netrebko / Rolando Villazon / Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin / Marco Armiliato [ Deutsche Grammophon Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Jan/2009 ] "The vocalism consistently stood out as superior...Domingo at 65 remains a phenomenon...His junior colleagues never lapsed vocally below their wonted high levels" (MusicalAmerica.com) |
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail / Die Zauberflöte René Jacobs, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor Berlin [ Harmonia Mundi / 5 CD Box Set - released 10/Mar/2023 ] The alpha and omega of Mozart! With Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782), probably his first absolute masterpiece, and Die Zauberflöte (1791 - the year of his death), René Jacobs penetrates to the heart of Mozartian singspiel. Featuring singers, a... |
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Mendelssohn: Antigone, Op. 55 Rene Pape (baritone) / Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin), Stefan Soltesz [ Capriccio / CD - released 10/Nov/1993 ] Incidental Music to the Tragedy of Sophocles for speakers, solo bass, two male choruses and orchestra. |
LUKAS FOSS / EINAR ENGLUND / WILLIAM THOMAS MCKINLEY
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Foss / Englund / McKinley - Clarinet Concertos Richard Stoltzman (clarinet) / Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Lukas Foss [ RCA Red Seal / CD - released 30/Sep/1996 ] Recorded in Berlin, May 1993 |
J. STRAUSS / SAINT-SAENS / VERDI / GODARD / ARDITI / FLOTOW / etc
Waltzes & Arias Rita Streich (soprano) / Radio-Symphonie orchester Berlin, RIAS-Symphonie Orchester Berlin [ Newton Classics / CD - released 1/Jul/2011 ] "…she delights the ear from start to finish. Highly recommended, this true Original." (Gramophone) |
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Tannhauser (complete opera recorded at the Festspielhaus, Baden-Baden 2008) BLU-RAY Robert Gambill, Camilla Nylund, Waltraud Meier / Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, Philippe Jordan, conductor [ Arthaus Musik BLU-RAY / Blu-ray Disc - released 10/Oct/2012 ] "The solo singing is the outstanding feature of this new recording. Robert Gambill might have more of the 'mad axeman' about him than Bayreuth's Spas Wenkoff, but he has immense stamina and the presence to command the stage, especially during the big... |
ZIEHRER / LEHAR / LANNER / STOLZ / STRAUSS FAMILY
Robert Stolz in Vienna : Waltzes, Marches, Polkas, etc Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Robert Stolz [ RCA Red Seal / Sony music Masters / 12 CD Box Set - released 3/Dec/2017 ] Robert Stolz was operetta royalty, and his recordings with the Berliner Symphoniker and Wiener Symphoniker document the world of light orchestral music with unique authority. Across 12 CDs, this Sony Classical Masters collection brings together... |
GIUSEPPE VERDI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Roberto Alagna - Verdi Arias Roberto Alagna (tenor) / The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Claudio Abbado [ EMI Music / CD - released 1/Dec/1998 ] "In answer to all those nay-sayers concerning Alagna's talents, the tenor here shows, in the most demanding programme imaginable, that there is little if anything wrong with his technique and a great deal right with his sense of Verdian style" Gramop |
J. S. BACH
Bach: Motets RIAS-Kammerchor & Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 21/Jul/2017 ] BBC Radio 3: Building a Library Highly Recommended - June 2005 |
BEETHOVEN / BRAHMS / DVORAK / WAGNER / etc
Icon: Rudolf Kempe: The Genius of the Podium Rudolf Kempe conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, etc [ Warner Classics Icon / 11 CD Box Set - released 1/Feb/2011 ] The German conductor Rudolf Kempe (1910-1976) began his musical career playing the oboe in various symphony orchestras. The programme begins with recordings of four Beethoven Symphonies that Kempe made with the Munich Philharmonic in 1971-72. |
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer Rundfunkchor Berlin & Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Marek Janowski [ Pentatone SACD / 2 Hybrid SACD - released 19/Sep/2011 ] Here is charm, wit and even kitsch alongside the spooky but never overdone drama. The recording is also first-rate in warmth, immediacy and clarity. |
EMIL NIKOLAUS von REZNICEK
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Reznicek: Ritter Blaubart [Knight Bluebeard] (complete opera recorded in 2002) David Pittman-Jennings, Arutjun Kotchinian, Robert Wörle, Celina Lindsley / Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Michail Jurowski [ CPO / 2 CD - released 2/Jun/2003 ] "..the musical result is impressive, and the performance here under Michail Jurowski utterly convincing. All the soloists are more than equal to the task, some of it as demanding as anything Wagner ever made of his singers." MusicWeb |
JOHANNES BRAHMS
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Brahms: Symphony No. 4 / Haydn-Variations / Nanie Rundfunkchor Berlin, Berlin Philharmonic, Claudio Abbado [ Deutsche Grammophon / CD - released 1/Nov/2008 ] ".Haydn Variations is more searching, more illuminating than any other modern version I know. Each variation is richly characterized-the fifth, for example, is delivered in a tough, insistent fashion, while the sixth has a graceful, wistful quality." |
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: Symphony No 1 / Gesang der Parzen Rundfunkchor Berlin / Berliner Philharmoniker / Claudio Abbado [ Deutsche Grammophon / CD - released 10/Oct/2006 ] "After a spacious introduction, Abbado launches into a warm, dramatic reading, rhythmically well sprung and finely shaded, with the full power of the great climaxes broughtout in the finale, from the rapt pianissimo of the opening onwards." |
RICHARD WAGNER
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Wagner: Tannhauser (complete opera recorded in 2012) Robert Dean Smith, Nina Stemme, Marina Prudenskaya, Christian Gerhaher / Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin & Rundfunkchor Berlin, Marek Janowski [ Pentatone SACD / 3 Hybrid SACD - released 14/Jan/2013 ] This is the 6th instalment of PentaTone's successful Wagner Edition. It is the first time in the recording history that a label records all major Wagner opera's with the same orchestra, choir and conductor. This makes the PentaTone Wagner Edition a... |
BEDRICH SMETANA
Smetana: Festive Symphony / The Bartered Bride & Overture and Dances Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Darrell Ang [ Naxos / CD - released 15/May/2018 ] Bedrich Smetana's 'Festive Symphony' was composed in 1854 when hopes for Emperor Franz Joseph becoming King of Bohemia were high. The splendid sounds of Smetana's only formal symphony pre-echo later masterpieces such as 'Ma Vlast,' but his use of the... |
WAGNER
Das Rheingold (complete opera) Tomasz Konieczny, Christian Elsner, Iris Vermillion, Günther Groissböck, Timo Riihonen / Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester & Rundfunkchor Berlin, Marek Janow [ Pentatone SACD / 2 Hybrid SACD - released 10/May/2014 ] "The best reason for getting this set is the Loge of Christian Elsner...Elsner does not miss a trick in catching all the elements of this complex character, but he never sings less than beautifully." (BBC Music) |
FELIX WEINGARTNER
Weingartner: Die Dorfschule, Op. 64 (complete opera recorded in 2012) Simon Pauly, Clemens Bieber, Fionnuala McCarthy, Jana Kurucova, Kathryn Lewek, Stephen Bronk / Das Orchester der Deutschen, Oper Berlin, Jacques Lacom [ CPO / CD - released 20/Nov/2018 ] Following the publication of Carl Orff's Gisei, cpo now release its sister work: Felix Weingartner's one-act Die Dorfschule (The Village School) a work also based on the plot of Terakoya. Weingartner's masterfully crafted realization of the ancient... |