Artur Rubinstein Collection, Vol 82 - Bonus Disc

Advantages: Haunting, passionate music to get lost in.
Disadvantages: It's classical and this puts people off before they even try it.

...interrupt it - particularly something as mundane as housework. Floon and I are obviously not alone in finding the quintet special. This music has aroused the passions of many and the notes say” Many musicians have spoken in awe of its spiritual Elysianism, including the pianist Artur Rubinstein (who requested the slow movement be played at his funeral), the great nineteenth-century cellist Alfredo Piatti (who asked for it to be played during his dying hours to send him into the next world), and the renowned quartet leader John Saunders who had the opening seven bars of the first movement’s second subject inscribed on his tombstone above the following Shakespearian quotation (Sonnet XVIII): So long as man can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. String Quintet in C Major, D956 (1828) The title conveys... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Great Collection
Disadvantages: None

...I am obviously going to be very biased here given that R Kelly is one of my all time favourite artist.Not only has the man got talent in writing his songs, he also has a way of singing like he is giving a personal peformance.Personally, I think he is simply brilliant which is why I am going to rate this CD as nothing short of another hit release from R Kelly.The excellent mix of the old and the new,the slow and the fast makes the compilation a must have.The Fiesta remix is placed very nicely just after I Wish and before Home Alone.The smooth flow of similar tunes is amazing.Storm is Over Now is an excellent finish to CD one. The bonus disc was a good idea with Snake and Thoia Thoing bringing in the dancehall beat.As I said,I can never fault R Kelly despite of what is going on in his personal life.The man is gifted.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Hugely enjoyable music, fresh and free of pretence
Disadvantages: Unfamiliarity?

...Brazil’s most celebrated classical composer wrote some two hundred works for piano, many of which sadly languish in the wilderness. This disc will do much to advocate his appealing musical personality. The collection begins with the suite “As Tres Marias,” a trio of movements lasting barely three minutes. Based on the stars of Orion’s belt, it is one of Villa-Lobos’ most popular pieces, here played with great panache by the Canadian virtuoso Marc-Andre Hamelin. The closing Rudepoema, a fiercesome score from the 1920s dedicated to Arthur Rubinstein, paints a completely different sound picture. It’s a concentrated work, powerful and uncompromising, and perhaps surprisingly it delves into the world of polytonality as realised by Milhaud in the same decade. It takes several listens to fully appreciate the larger scale that Villa... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful