Barber: Orchestral Works

Advantages: Great performances of popular favourites and some rare gems
Disadvantages: Barely none, with perhaps slight issues with sound.

...'s extremely wild and raucous orchestration of Bach's famous D minor Toccata & Fugue, that is more than fitting in a collection such as this (Stokowski's electric personality fully transcribes to the numerous other orchestrations he has done in the past and this is no exception). Made in 1976, the performance of the Boston Pops Orchestra under Arthur Fiedler is exciting and rugged, and full of Stokowskian electricity. Bach rarely sounds quite as thrilling. Samuel Barber's ever-popular Adagio for Strings gets a slow and a slightly exaggerated performance from Leonard Bernstein and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, but the result is still quite affecting. Beethoven's Turkish March from the play "The Ruins of Athens" is delightful and a nice make-weight; after all there always has to be some kind of Turkish flavours to be found somewhere... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: good accoustic definition, paced, broody, relentless, emotional
Disadvantages: none

...Like Vivaldies evergreen "Four Seasons", Barber's Addagio has caught the imagination of the populist Naughties culture when it was recently resampled & mixed into a more contemporary format a few months ago. however, it is to the original Barber piece that I really find one of the most highly charged & emotional scores anywhere. it is not a piece to brighten the heart & mind, it is quite the opposite. Depending on your frame of mind this can be quite a depressing score but it has the uncanny facility to carry you wherever your mind wants to take you. Although slow all the way through, it feels as if it flies by in no time at all, but so good is the power of the performance that you have to repeat the track over & over because your emotions want to be carried further & further away. This is Barber's most noted score and deserves... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: An enjoyable album with catchy melodies and haunting lyrics
Disadvantages: slightly sinister

...the demon barber of fleet street really, isn't it?!?. Okay so maybe it's not perfect, but the CD is enjoyable, a good listen --even when you are typing --the melodies are catching, the lyrics well written (though there may be some you wish to refrain from getting into your head and singing aloud with your ipod;) and, I feel that the whole story is told in song very well by Depp and his fellow actors. Helena Bonham Carter also does a great job of keeping alive some of the mystery and suspense in the story through the work of Somdheim. If you doubt Depp's abilities , I would urge you to listen to the passion he puts into singing these songs -he really does become the character and I feel does well to sing this score, which is fairly complex and has been sang on stage for more than thirty years. We go from the fast paced intoduction to the slow... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful