Classical > Brahms, Johannes Classical > Chicago Symphony Chorus

Beautiful; a great new tenor voice

Advantages: Great voice!
Disadvantages: None!

Andrea Bocelli is a great new talent when it comes to tenor voices, and this is another excellent album. He does more than justice to the three versions of 'Ave Maria' here (including one which wasn't familiar to me), and altogether this is a very appealing choice of arias to listen to during a quiet evening by the fire or - my choice - at full volume in the car! The inclusion of a couple of Christmas carols is no doubt because of its original release ...

quadruped 20.07.2000 · Read full review

Review of Sacred Arias

Chicago Symphony Orchestra: The First 100 Years

Advantages: This is a recording containing excellent content, with wonderful sound quality due to top-notch recording technique, and the presence of stellarly talented artists.
Disadvantages: It is often disappointing to be listening to a wonderful piece of music only to discover that merely a portion of the piece is contained on the recording.

This is an eclectic and, at the same time, fascinating recording. It contains some of the more interesting repertoire of one of the USA's most famous and talented symphony orchestras, along with an assortment of conductors long-attached to the CSO. In short, my favorite piece among all of those contained in this collection, is the Mahler Symphony No. 8. For anyone who knows this piece, they will be more than pleased by this performance. The conducting, ...
...almost unmatched. Especially notable is the performance of the Mater Gloriosa, a somewhat thankless role, performed especially beautifully by soprano Jann Jaffe. Of course, anyone who knows the piece cannot help but be drawn to this music. This famous "Symphony of a Thousand" is a masterpiece whose listening is its own reward, especially this performance. ...

dandiesweet 30.07.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Chicago Symphony Orchestra: The First 100 Years

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

Remembering ABBA's Classic Songs

Advantages: Contains super hit tracks
Disadvantages: None

The ABBA Agnetha Falskog vocals Benny Anderson vocals, keyboards, synthesizer Bjorn Ulvaeus vocals, banjo, guitar Anni-Frid Lyngstad vocals Full Tracks Listing 1. Dancing Queen 2. Knowing Me, Knowing You 3. Take A Chance On Me 4. Mamma Mia 5. Lay All Your Love On Me 6. Super Trooper 7. I Have A Dream 8. The Winner Takes It All 9. Money, Money, Money 10. S.O.S. 11. Chiquitita 12. Fernando 13. Voulez Vous ...
...Your Mother Know 16. One Of Us 17. The Name Of The Game 18. Thank You For The Music 19. Waterloo About each track (This contains year of recording and running time of each track. I personally like to read some few lines of each track when I read music reviews to help me familiarized with the song, so I added some lines of each track.) Dancing Queen (1976) 3:51 You are the dancing queen Young and sweet, only seventeen This track has ...

browndoll 25.08.2009 · Read full review
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Review of (The) Greatest Hits of Abba