BRAHMS / DVORAK / HAHN / STRAUSS / etc
Morgen: Songs For Cello & Piano Andrew Joyce (cello), Rae de Lisle (piano) [ Atoll Records / CD - released 28/Feb/2020 ] The return of one of New Zealand's favourite pianists. This is a special album for Rae de Lisle, who has created it with her son-in law Andrew (NZSO's Principal Cello) and daughter Julia (Principal Viola with the NZSO). |
HECTOR BERLIOZ
Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette / Cléopâtre Joyce DiDonato (mezzo) / Cyrille Dubois (ten), Christopher Maltman (bar) / Coro Gulbenkian, Chœur de l'OnR, Philharmonique de Strasbourg, John Nelson [ Erato / Warner Classics / 2 CD - released 31/Mar/2023 ] "What makes Hector Berlioz such a great composer?", asks conductor John Nelson. "In one word, originality ... He broke all existing traditions of orchestration, structure, harmonic language and storytelling. Even today, his music is fresh, surprising... |
GIOACHINO ROSSINI
Rossini: Colbran, the Muse Joyce DiDonato (mezzo) / Orchestra dell' Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Roma, Edoardo Muller [ Erato / Virgin Classical / CD - released 14/Dec/2009 ] "DiDonato is proving herself one of the most delightful artists of our time. She sings with a rare purity of tone, ease on the high Bs, an impressive degree of technical skill and lively powers of characterisation." Gramophone Awards 2010 WINNER -... |
GIOACHINO ROSSINI
Rossini: Le Comte Ory (complete opera recorded in 2011) Metropolitan Opera / Juan Diego Flórez, Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato / Maurizio Benini (cond) [ Virgin Classics DVD / 2 DVD - released 12/Mar/2012 ] "The terrific cast was headed by the tenor Juan Diego Flórez as Ory..The soprano Diana Damrau brought her lustrous, agile coloratura soprano voice, and charisma galore, to Adèle." (NY Times) |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
The King's Singers - When You Wish Upon a Star: 100 Years of Disney Songs The King's Singers, with Joyce DiDonato (mezzo), Pene Pati (tenor), Pene Pati (tenor), Edgar Moreau (cello), Lucienne Renaudin Vary (trumpet) [ Warner Classics / CD - released 28/Apr/2023 ] Featuring songs from Disney's most iconic animated films from every decade, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in 1937 through the hits of 2020 |
HECTOR BERLIOZ
Fantastique Berlioz [3 CD set] Simon Rattle, Renaud Capuçon, .Leonard Bernstein, Kent Nagano, Joyce DiDonato, Riccardo Muti, John Barbirolli, Louis Fremaux, Janet Baker, etc [ Erato / Warner Classics / 3 CD - released 10/Feb/2019 ] Hector Berlioz, France's greatest Romantic composer, exemplifies the spirit of his age - yet his genius was also ahead of its time. Reflecting his colourful life, his music is astonishing for its originality and ambition, and for orchestration of... |
COMEDY CLASSICS
The Driving Instructor: 20 comedy classics Bob Newhart, Tom Lehrer, Lenny Bruce, Joyce Grenfell, Peter Sellers, Max Miller, etc [ ALTO / CD - released 10/Dec/2010 ] The very best of nostalgia comedy recorded 1932-1960. |
JACK HEGGIE
Heggie: Great Scott (complete opera recorded in 2015) Dallas Opera / Joyce DiDonato, Ailyn Perez, Frederica von Stade, Anthony Roth Costanzo / Patrick Summers (cond) [ Erato / Warner Classics DVD / DVD - released 12/Mar/2021 ] WQXR, the USA's leading classical music radio station, welcomed as a "deeply moving and musically brilliant work" that "should enter the standard repertory just as Heggie's two previous masterpieces - Dead Man Walking and Moby-Dick - already have". |
JULE STYNE
Styne: Sugar Robert Morse, Tony Roberts & Elaine Joyce / Original 1972 Broadway Cast Recording [ Kritzerland / CD - released 17/May/1990 ] Sugar is a 1972 musical with a book by Peter Stone, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill. The musical is based on the 1959 film Some Like It Hot, which was adapted by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond from a story by Robert Thoeren and... |
JAKE HEGGIE
Passing By: Songs by Jake Heggie Isabel Bayrakdarian / Zheng Gao / Susan Graham / Joyce diDonato / Frederica von Stade / Paul Groves / Keith Phares / etc. [ Avie Records / CD - released 12/Oct/2010 ] "...the composer's own fluent piano-playing, an expert string group and a good if sometimes over-glossy recording provide support for some world-class singers...who are clearly revelling in the opportunities that Heggie has offered them here." BBC... |
GEORGE GERSHWIN / COLE PORTER / ROGERS & HAMMERSTEIN / etc
The Best Of The John Wilson Orchestra The John Wilson Orchestra, with Kim Criswell, Louise Dearman, Joyce DiDonato, Anne-Jane Casey & others [ Warner classics / 2 CD - released 5/Dec/2018 ] The Best of The John Wilson Orchestra - a double-album celebrating a decade of BBC Proms performances with a selection of hit songs and music from Hollywood's greatest movie musicals. Featuring Seth MacFarlane, Curtis Stigers, Joyce DiDonato plus a... |
JULE STYNE
Styne: Bar Mitzvah Boy (1978) Joyce Blair & Harry Towb / Original London Cast Recording [ Sony West End / CD - released 12/Jul/2001 ] Bar Mitzvah Boy is a musical with a book by Jack Rosenthal, lyrics by Don Black, and music by Jule Styne. Based on Rosenthal's award-winning 1976 BBC1 teleplay of the same name, it focuses on young Eliot Green who, filled with apprehension,... |
JACK HEGGIE
Heggie: Great Scott (complete opera) Joyce DiDonato, Ailyn Pérez, Frederica von Stade, Nathan Gunn / Orchestra and Chorus of The Dallas Opera, Patrick Summers [ Erato / Warner Classics / 2 CD - released 25/Jan/2018 ] "[Heggie's] gift for creative partnerships is supreme...The conceit gets DiDonato singing watery pastiche Bellini, scaling coloratura flights, surviving a mad scene and crooning in velvet; all pleasing to hear" Times |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Agrippina (complete opera) Joyce DiDonato, Elsa Benoit, Biagio Pizzuti, Franco Fagioli, Andrea Mastroni, Jakub Józef OrliĆski / l Pomo d'Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev [ Erato Classics / 3 CD - released 31/Jan/2020 ] "With DiDonato nonpareil in the title-role and a uniformly strong cast, this now becomes a first choice for Handel's Venetian masterpiece." Gramophone Awards 2020 WINNER - Opera |
DVORAK / STRAVINSKY / RICHARD STRAUSS / BERNSTEIN / SHOSTAKOVICH
New Year's Eve Concert 2017 BLU-RAY Joyce DiDonato (mezzo) / Berliner Philharmoniker [Berlin Philharmonic], Sir Simon Rattle [ EuroArts Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Apr/2018 ] With her flexible, slender but dark-timbred mezzo-soprano, Joyce DiDonato is the star guest at Sir Simon Rattle's side during the New Year's Eve Concert, singing Richard Strauss's lavishly beautiful orchestral songs. The programme also includes works... |
RICHARD STRAUSS / JAKE HEGGIE / CLAUDE DEBUSSY / GUILLAUME LEKEU
Into the Fire: Live at Wigmore Hall Joyce DiDonato (mezzo) / Brentano Quartet [ Erato Classics / CD - released 5/Sep/2018 ] "DiDonato's immaculate voice relishes every vowel sound, Pappano responds with pianistic wit and idiomatic invention. Ad libs and applause are judiciously included. All a delight." The Guardian |
HANDEL / JOMMELLUI / LEO / MONTEVERDI / PURCELL
In War & Peace: Harmony Through Music Joyce DiDonato (mezzo) / Il Pomo d'Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev [ Erato Warner Classics / CD - released 10/Nov/2016 ] "In War & Peace' finds DiDonato back on Baroque ground for the first time in a while, and it's a joyful musical homecoming. ..Drama, as ever with DiDonato, is everything. Ornamentation serves narrative first, ego second." Gramophone Award WINNER 2017 |
IVES / MAHLER / COPLAND / CAVALLI / GLUCK / HANDEL / MYSLIVECEK / etc
Joyce DiDonato - Eden Joyce DiDonato (mezzo) / Il Pomo d'Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev [ Erato Classics / Warner Classics / CD - released 25/Jan/2022 ] "I'm brought to tearful wonder by the album's close. DiDonato's farewell, 'Ombra mai fù' from Handel's Serse, is a performance so beautiful that it makes your insides ache." Gramophone Editor's Choice March 2022 |
FRANZ SCHUBERT
Schubert: Winterreise Joyce DiDonato (mezzo) Yannick Nézet-Séguin (piano) [ Erato Classics / Warner Classics / CD - released 22/Oct/2021 ] "Her quieter word paintings, ushering in pained memories, can be exquisite. When cold winds arrive, we shiver on cue. And the last song, with the organ-grinder grinding away unheeded on the ice, is as devastating as ever." The Times |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Handel: Radamisto (complete opera recorded in 2005) Joyce DiDonato, Patrisia Ciofi, Maitre Beaumont, Carlo Lepore / Il Complesso Barocco / Alan Curtis [ Virgin classics / 3 CD Box Set - released 10/May/2009 ] "Joyce DiDonato alluring in the title role of Handel's Radamisto" BBC Music Magazine, December 2005 |