VIVALDI
Viva! Simone Kermes sings Vivaldi Simone Kermes (soprano) / Venice Baroque Orchestra, Andrea Marcon [ Deutsche Grammophon Archiv / CD - released 22/Apr/2012 ] "Kermes's distinctive voice has an appealing smoothness and roundedness of tone…an intensely dramatic personality at work…super-precise coloratura…Kermes's technique is something to marvel at" (Opera Magazine) |
Lesley Garrett (soprano)
When I Fall in Love [ Universal / CD - released 10/Jul/2014 ] Lesley Garrett was around long before operatic divas Katherine Jenkins and Hayley Westenra, but she too fancied a stab at pop crossover and on When I Fall in Love, she presented 12 songs, all very familiar and most of the them covered to death by a... |
BERIO
Sequenzas I-XIII Soloists of the Ensemble Intercontemporain [ Deutsche Grammophon Duo / 2 CD - released 1/Mar/2012 ] |
FRANZ LEHAR
Live from the Semperoper - The Lehár Gala From Dresden Piotr Beczala (tenor), Angela Denoke (soprano) / Staatskapelle Dresden, Christian Thielemann [ Deutsche Grammophon / CD - released 28/Aug/2014 ] The soloists, Angela Denoke, Ana Maria Labin and Piotr Beczala, assisted by the Dresden State Opera Chorus, offer arias and ensembles that will delight you with their joie de vivre. |
PROKOFIEV
Piano Concertos Nos. 1 - 5 (Complete) Alexandre Toradze (piano) / Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, Valery Gergiev [ Double Decca / 2 CD - released 7/May/2012 ] "There are few more arresting and powerful accounts in the catalog, and Toradze plays with a forcefulness and authority that's suggestive of Martha Argerich." ClassicsToday |
W. A. MOZART
Cosi Fan Tutte (complete opera recorded in 1990) Karita Mattila, Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Allen, Francisco Araiza / Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner [ Decca Classic Opera / 3 CD Box Set - released 1/Jun/2009 ] "A strikingly light, fresh Così with a truly superb ensemble, idiomatic and characterful; the voices are large, but only Mattila sounds a little weighty." (Five Stars BBC Music) |
WAGNER
Gotterdammerung (complete opera recorded in 1967) Birgit Nilsson, Wolfgang Windgassen, Josef Greindl, Gustav Neidlinger, Ludmilla Dvoráková / Orchestra and Chorus of the Bayreuth Festival, Karl Böhm [ Decca / 4 CD Box Set - released 14/Jul/2014 ] "a performance dominated by conductor and orchestra. You will never hear so much detail of the orchestral score in the opera-house...with Böhm at his most incandescent, the Immolation must rank as one of the noblest accounts of this music ever record |
IGOR STRAVINSKY
Stravinsky: Petrushka (complete ballet) [with Bartok - Miraculous Mandarin] Wiener Philharmoniker [Vienna Philharmonic], Christoph von Dohnanyi [ Decca SBS Australian Eloquence / CD - released 1/Feb/2011 ] "Sonically this stands among Decca's best recordings from this source. A sensational reissue, and a bargain to boot." (ClassicsToday) |