Classical > Santa Cecilia Academy Orchestra, Rome Classical

A Classical Review

Advantages: A great diversity of famous works
Disadvantages: Not everything is perfect

I am a huge fan of classical music, with a collection soon breaking the 700 marker. But where did it all begin? Well right here. When I got my first CD player, I played my parents CDs until making my first CD purchase. I stumbled along a 2-CD collection called "Simply the Best classical Anthems." Honestly, I had not the slightest clue about what music al the names on the back contained. But there were so many interesting pieces there so that I immediately ...
...buy. Unlike many other collections, this one features many top flight recordings of some of the most popular classical music. Some of them are still holding their own in the mass of my collection. It was also extremely useful for me in expanding my collection. TRACK LISTING AS FOLLOWS: CD 1 VERDI: Dies Irae from Requiem ORFF: O Fortuna from Carmina Burana HOLST: Mars from The Planets, Op.32 WAGNER: The Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre ...

berlioz 08.08.2004 · Read full review
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Review of Simply the Best Classical Anthems

Terrific Selection

Advantages: Golden-age singers in great sound and a good variety of performances
Disadvantages: None

I listen to this CD an awful lot and I am very happy with it. The mixture of French and Italian opera here is excellent. Some of the very best opera singers DECCA have ever had are here, Sutherland, Pavarotti (a lot of Pavarotti), Carreras (rather strained but potent beside Kiri te Kanawa in 1987), Caballe, Freni, Bergonzi all star. Particularly impressive is the duet with Mario del Monaco and Ettore Bastianini from La Forza del Destino which is ...
...but in terrific stereo sound (it is amazing that the recording, the oldest selection on this cd, is from over 50 years ago you simply couldnt tell from the sound. The quality of the stereo is good amongst all the extracts, even the only live performance, Pavarotti and Kiri Te Kanawa in Otello from 1991 with Georg Solti, is free from much background noise. A lot of good singing is brought together here and this proves a invaluable resource for finding ...

operalover2000 01.01.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Great Opera Duets

Classic Boheme

Advantages: Classic Tebaldi, fine Bergonzi, wonderful Bastianini
Disadvantages: perhaps a little slow

This is one of the classic Puccini recordings. Renata Tebaldi recorded the role of Mimi twice in the studio. This, her second recording made in the lae 1950s with stereo sound is one of her best records. Her Mimi may not give us the insights of Maria Callas (who is less consistent vocally) or the charming Victoria de los Angeles (that soprano's voice being far smaller and less powerful than Tebaldi) but Tebaldi's assumption of the role is probably ...
...the high notes with huge power and next be breathtakingly sweet and soft. Her "Si, mi chiamino Mimi" is a classic of the gramophone. Carlo Bergonzi is her Rodolfo. His voice seems rather less focussed than say Pavarotti and Di Stefano but it is sweet and powerful and he is a fine stylist. Ettore Bastianini gives a warm voiced and powerful assumption as Marcello - certainly one of the best alongside Robert Merrill. Serafin as ever, gives us a performance ...

operalover2000 04.04.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Puccini: (La) Boheme

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