Wilhelm Furtwangler - The Complete RIAS Recordings

Horowitz - Complete DG Recordings in one small box

Advantages: Unparalleled playing, Unbelievably good bargain for 6 CDs!
Disadvantages: Um, paper sleeves? No, seriously, it's great

This box set comprises recordings from 1985-89, when Horowitz was 81 years old! In 1986 Horowitz returned to Russia after 60 years away to give his monumental Moscow recital of which the live recording is included in this set. I personally find this performance of Liszt's Sonetto 104 del Petrarca to be the finest ever recorded. Alongside this is Scarlatti, Mozart, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Schumann, Chopin, Moszkowski, and Schubert. Accompanying this recital is 5 other discs of outstandingly unique playing. As he got older, Horowitz's playing became a sort of caricature of itself in the nicest possible way. By this I mean, his dynamics became more extreme, he became more expressive than ever, and his sense of style was heightened to new levels. Horowitz's Mozart playing has been criticized for being too free and not in Mozart ...

iain0408 16.02.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Horowitz - Complete Deutsche Grammophon Recordings

* Girls On The Record *

Advantages: Fans will love it!
Disadvantages: None!

Girls Aloud are a British girlband consisting of five members ; Nadine Coyle , Cheryl Cole , Sarah Harding , Nicola Roberts and Kimberly Walsh. Girls Aloud were formed on the reality television show ; Popstars The Rivals in 2002. Since then they have become a huge success. To date they have had eighteen top ten singles , including three number ones. Their style of music consists of pop and electro pop. Girls Aloud : Off The Record was actually a six-part series that Girls Aloud recorded for E4. The series was then released on DVD in the United Kingdom in 2006. The show comes under the reality-tv genre. The show follows Girls Aloud on their day to day life as part of one of Britian's top girl bands.. It wasn't until recently that I knew about this DVD when I saw it sitting on a shelf in Woolworths for £6. I enjoyed watching this ...

xdonzx 30.12.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Girls Aloud - Off The Record (DVD)

A Great Archive Let Down By Sequencing

Advantages: Fidelity is great, songwriting, guitar playing and vocals superb, thorough research
Disadvantages: Sequencing - the track order is frustrating

The subject of selling one's soul to the Devil has prevailed in American culture since the mid nineteenth century but is no more well known than in the case of blues man Robert Johnson. There is little information as to his life and only 2 photographs exist of him. As a young man, it has been told, he went to the crossroads and sold his soul to the devil in exchange for mastery of the guitar. Johnson died at 27 from an apparent poisoning from a bottle of whiskey. Rumour has circulated as to the identity and motivation of the alleged killer: jilted lover, scorned husband victim of Johnson's philandering, or the devil coming to collect. Johnson has influenced numerous musicians from Eric Clapton through to Jimi Hendrix and in 1990 this long over-due collection of all of Johnson's recordings was released to great critical acclaim ...

Nixu1980 03.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Complete Recordings, The (All 41 Recordings) - Robert Johnson