Beethoven: Missa Solemnis. Mozart: Mass in C minor

Missa Luba - A Must to Listen To

Advantages: Refreshingly Different
Disadvantages: None

Don't be put off by the title Missa Luba 'An African Mass' or think that it's 'too high-brow'! Missa Luba is a wonderful example of African rhythms and percussive instrumentation - drums and shaken gourds - with traditional African 'call and response' melodies together with additional harmonies. Based on the traditional Mass the work consists of just five tracks - Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei - and is just over fifteen minutes long. The remainder of the recording consists of 10 Kenyan Folk Melodies. These too are as wonderful and refreshing as the Missa Luba . Ideal for the 'serious' listener, as background music or for those who wish to listen to something a little different. Go on. Give it a try; you will be glad you did. After all you have nothing to loose but much enjoyment to be gained. This is my first ...

hawkowl 30.10.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Missa Luba: African Mass

Mozart the golden

Advantages: Effortlessly knowledgable and unfailingly entertaining.
Disadvantages: Landon is a prolific writer, so if you get hooked the addiction could be seriously expensive.

the Haydn Society, which set out to issue the Collected Edition of Haydn’s music and also make a number of recordings. More recently he participated in the editing of the new Collected Edition of Mozart’s works. Following the success of ‘1791’, Landon’s ‘Mozart: The Golden Years’ appeared, shortly afterwards, in 1989. The book covers the most productive final decade of Mozart’s life, moving seamlessly between the great landmarks of the composer’s music – from the ‘Linz’ Symphony (no. 36, K.425) to sublime sacred music like the Mass in C Minor and the operatic highlights of Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte and La clemenza di Tito – to the vitality and turbulence of Mozart’s personal life. Mozart married Constanze Weber in 1782, to whom he ...

plwood 14.08.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Mozart: The Golden Years 1781-1791 - H. C. Robbins Landon

Melodious Mozart, perfectly played

Advantages: Excellent performances in a perfect setting
Disadvantages: Very minor quibbles

and it is great to see this DVD bringing this gorgeous music to vivid life. The 6 sonatas featured on this DVD are in the following order: Sonata in G major - K.301 Sonata in E flat major - K.302 Sonata in C major - K.303 Sonata in E minor - K.304 Sonata in A major - K.305 Sonata in D major - K.306 All the sonatas have 2 movements, apart from K.306 which has 3. The musicians: Gil Shaham is the violinist, and Orli Shaham - his younger sister - plays piano. They are both Israeli-Americans in their 30s and have major solo international careers as well as a thriving partnership working together, although Orli Shaham is perhaps better known in Northern America than in Europe. Gil Shaham is regarded as one of the world's major violinists and he plays an absolutely amazing Stradivari known as the "Comtesse de Polignac" of 1699 ...

Maestrolover 26.02.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Mozart: Violin Sonatas (DVD)