Classical > Bournemouth Sinfonietta Orchestra Classical > Brahms, Johannes

The Biggest Little Box of Classical Music

Advantages: An excellent introduction to Classical Music
Disadvantages: None

This is a companion set to Naxos' "The A~Z of Opera" (previously reviewed.. It follows the same format and is an ideal compilation for people who are new to classical music as well as classical music buffs. It contains a double CD with two and a half hours of classical music (as you would expect) and a 562 page book (not quite as thick as the Opera one) compiled and written again by Keith Anderson. So what's in the pack? ~~ The Book This contains ...
...same size as a CD and fairly thick. The text is concise and clear and informative, with portraits of composers throughout. After the index you get 450 pages of concise histories of composers, with recommendations of recordings from the Naxos catalogue. It is arranged in alphabetical order, and starts with Adolphe Adam and is completed by Bernd Alois Zimmerman. As well as details about the composer there are sections on the different types of music ...

mikeydred 17.04.2001 · Read full review
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Review of A-Z of Classical Music

Classical Music is now Cool

Advantages: Soothes your Child instantly
Disadvantages: It could send you to sleep as well!

Classic Fm for Babies is a must have if you have that child who just refuses to go to sleep.With a running time on each CD more than enough for your child to fall asleep.Classical Music just became Cool Again and is a must have music for babies.If you dont know your Brahms from your Beethoven then who cares because your child doesn't.The soothing orchestral music will calm any child who just wont go sleep put the CD on shut the door and see them ...

Dexter2102 26.09.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Classic FM - Music for Babies

RADIO IN A BOX

Advantages: Every tune's a winner
Disadvantages: Nothing new

...Grieg- Peer Gynt (In the Hall of the Mountain King) If you don't know these pieces, then this would be an ideal CD for you if you feel you ought to know what the most commonly known classical pieces are. It could be treated as a mini-course on accepted masterpieces, and the booklet, (minimal, 2 CD-sized sides per CD), gives you a pert selection of related anecdotes to astound your friends with. (For example, Rutter's pick is "A Gaelic Blessing". ...
...as "garlic dressing". Radio 3 would not share this blasphemy with you I'm sure! If you already know all these pieces (and are something of a music buff), don't instantly dismiss this CD. I'm a music graduate and knew almost all of them inside out, and I usually prefer to have "whole" works on CD. But this set does fill a gap- that "I can't decide what I really want to listen to but I want something jolly or that I haven't heard for ages because ...

Tricksty 10.08.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Hall of Fame - The great Composers

Sumptuous works by a little-known composer

Advantages: Good recordings of unfamiliar, but rewarding works
Disadvantages: None

Karlowicz is a relatively unknown composer whose chief claim to fame was his untimely death in a skiing accident just before the First World War. He left a small collection of works, the later of which (figured in this disc) show a talent that was tragically snuffed out before he could achieve greatness. The Symphonic Poems featured here reveal a composer adept at interesting orchestral effects (try the sad theme at the start of the Lithuanian Rhapsody, ...
...writing for the lower-toned instruments of the orchestra. Karlowicz has clearly learnt a lot from Richard Strauss, whose shadow fell across much pre-1914 music, but it often lacks the extrovert quality of the Gernman composer's tone poems; as the inlay notes say, there is a 'brooding' quality to much of this music, particularly evident in the middle sections of these works. Another feature of Karlowicz's writing is his tendency to pick himself up ...

chivhu 15.09.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Karlowicz: Symphonic Poems Vol 1

Music for Meditation

Advantages: A good introduction to sacred music
Disadvantages: A rather niche album on which those into the genre will find nothing new

...the same. Requiem is subtitled "music for Reflection and Meditation". It takes various well known settings of the requiem mass, together with a couple of other fitting pieces and puts them together in one place. If one is so minded, one should note that this album is NOT a requiem mass. The pieces don't follow in the right order but, having said that, to the knowledgeable, the whole album stands on its own as a good religious set. One of the other ...
...who are less well-known. When one says "requiem" one might think of Verdi or Mozart but here we also have offerings from Spanish composer Lobo (a motet) and the Italian Pergolesi (an extract from his Sabat Mater). I feel that Naxos have really got it right with this compilation. The perfect balance between the known and the unknown is struck with excerpts from the more well known Requiems by Mozart and Verdi featuring more than once meaning ...

CareBear 15.09.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Requiem - Classical Music for Reflection & Meditation