Classical > Beethoven, Ludwig van Classical

The Best Review in the World...Ever!!

Advantages: All the pieces are short
Disadvantages: There are 4 of them

This is a truly awesome collection of the most popular classics. I have to say that it is probably factually correct and thus not questionable under the Trades Description Act. Here are 4, not 3, but 4 CDs packed full with a seemingly endless flow of tunes you will instantly recognise. Now, let's be honest, who will this appeal to? Well not me that's for sure, but here are the top ten reasons why buying this CD collection may be an option for you: ...
...2. You want a quick bluffers guide to classical music so you can impress your mother-in-law at the Proms 3. You are a music teacher and need a resource for the class 4. You are a Classic FM fan 5. You are writing a music quiz and have no other classical CDs 6. You have a short attention span 7. You are buying something posh for your working class granny 8. You can't stand long pieces of classical music 9. You need shiny objects to keep the ...

Rogerbyname 21.06.2007 · Read Full Review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of (The) Best Classical Album in the World...Ever!

Quite a versatile album, if not totally so.

Advantages: Good packaging, good performances.
Disadvantages: Not the artist's strongest performance.

Jonas Kaufmann isn't an Italian singer. He owns a large, dark lyrical tenor voice bordering on 'spinto'. Many of the tracks in this album feature Italian operatic arias that could only be termed his 'second best' (his best lies with German composers like Schubert, Strauss, Mahler, Mozart et al). Even so, this album offers considerable joy to the listener since Kaufmann owns not only a sizeable and expressive instrument, but also owns considerable ...
...these recordings. You may find his voice not entirely Verdian or Puccinian, but his interpretation of works of this genre is more than acceptable. The best tracks on this album are those arias from French operas. Kaufmann's French and Italian are both idiomatic, as well as his English, considering that his native tongue is German. Of these foreign languages, he is strongest in French. For lovers of French opera, the arias by Massent, Bizet et al ...

shinabel 26.06.2009 · Read Full Review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Jonas Kaufmann - Romantic Arias

What more can be said on such a popular set?

Advantages: One of the few complete sets of Mozart's piano sonatas.
Disadvantages: Not all pieces are uniformly well-performed.

Uchida's Mozart Sonatas set ranks among the most popular among contemproary recordings. Even so, I must frankly admit that I seldom go to this set for individual pieces if an alternative version is available for that particular piece. What's 'wrong' with this set lies in the taut tempi, the some times mannered approach to indivdual pieces, and the overall pursuit of speed at the expense of the music itself. Fine a pianist as Uchida, such weaknesses ...

shinabel 26.06.2009 · Read Full Review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Mozart: Complete Piano Sonatas

Pollini's early try on Schubert's solo piano works.

Advantages: Sterling pianism and marvellous interpretation.
Disadvantages: Technical constraints for the D760 apparent.

The original release on LPs in the early 1970's (1973/4) had a better sound. As for performance, the D845 is better than D760 owing to the general strike in Rome during which the latter piece was recorded that led to the recording to be done under chilly conditions. For a better remastered sound, get the 'Originals' version, in which both works got coupled with Schumann's other two solo works for piano. The Wanderer Fantasy D760 was forcefully ...
...could not escape the taut and rather shallow sound resultant from performing under adverse temperature condition. The opening movement of the sonata in a minor D845 has a hauntingly beautiful aura that either Kempff or Lupu lacked in their respective versions. As for the syncopated rhythms in the 4th movement, Pollini has a clear edge over Kempff's rather limp attacks, but still could not surpass the limpid agility of Lupu's 4th. ...

shinabel 26.06.2009 · Read Full Review
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Review of Schubert: Wanderer Fantasy, D760; Piano Sonata, D845

A tragedy in miniature

Advantages: Baker is fabulous, rich, full voiced singing, brisk pace, dramatically intense,
Disadvantages: None

Purcell's Dido and Aeneas is one of England's oldest operas, having been first performed in 1689 at a Chelsea girls school, and is one of baroque opera's most well known pieces. Based on the legend of Dido, Queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, a Trojan refugee, which appears in Virgil's Aeneid, the opera itself is an operatic tragedy in miniature - only one hour long - but when it is well performed, packs as much dramatic intensity as any grand opera. ...
...she tells her sister, Belinda, that her soul is tormented. Belinda, quite rightly, suspects that Aeneas, a Trojan visitor seeking refuge in their country, is the cause of the torment, and tries to persuade Dido that a union between the two would be advantageous to both kingdoms. Meanwhile, out on the moors, a sorceress and her clan of witches are plotting Dido's downfall and see the attraction to Aeneas as her Achilles heel and devise a plan to destroy ...

bubblegum_princess 28.05.2009 · Read Full Review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Purcell: Dido and Aeneas