Mozart: Piano and Wind Quartets & Quintets

Advantages: Haunting, passionate music to get lost in.
Disadvantages: It's classical and this puts people off before they even try it.

...it technically (hardly know the difference between a major and minor) and so you will have to forgive me this lack of knowledge and trust to my intuition that this is great stuff. But I can say that this is music to get lost in. It has so much variation in mood and imagery that it is as if Schubert has poured his very life into it, the good, the bad and the ugly of his outstanding genius, his syphilis and deep melancholic depressions interspersed with highlights of joy, passion the shine out as proof they exist. Much of what Wagner said of Beethoven can be also said of the Quintet. I find some classical music is useful for housework – I put on cordless headphones and rouse myself into action accompanied by Mozart, other music I can use as background music but this quintet deserves full attention and I find it too emotional to let anything else... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Sublime, soulful songs by Schubert
Disadvantages: Sung in German

...The Music This is the first of two albums of Schubert’s Lieder composed for piano and voice. Schubert composed the music to the work of such classical poets including, Goethe, Collins and Shakespeare. Each Lied tells a story of its own. The lyrics are sung in German but a translation is included in the cover. I won't give a track by track listing of the CD as this is easily available but will mention some of my personal favourites. 1. Lieder: Die Forelle: The Trout (Schubert) A playful a cheerful tale of a trout's journey through a stream. Most people will know and love Schubert's piano quintet also entitled The Trout. 5. Lieder: Heidenröslein: Wild Rose (Goethe) A serious ode to the beauty of the wild rose. 6. Lieder: Wandrers Nachtlied II: Wanderers Night song (Goethe) A tranquil tale of a man wandering through the deserted and quiet... Read review

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Advantages: A definite easy listen
Disadvantages: Maybe too easy

...- Romance Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis Elgar - Chanson de matin Beethoven - Pastoral Symphony CD 2 Mozart - 'Elvira Madigan' Piano Concerto JS Bach - Sheep may safely graze JS Bach - Keyboard Concerto No 5 in F minor Handel - Water Music Vivaldi - Concerto for lute and two violins JS Bach - Aria Grieg - Piano Concerto JS Bach - Double Violin Concerto Monteverdi - Beatus vir Chopin - Etude in E 'Tristesse' Elgar - Serenade in E minor Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No 2 Barber - Adagio for String Faure - In paradisum - Schubert - String Quintet Faure - Berceuse x-x-x... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful