Amazon.com Essential Recording
This full-length opera seria--written by Mozart at age 14--has had some strong recorded exposure
in the past, but this set may bring it to a broader public than ever before. Now that Handel's
operas in the same genre are much more in evidence, what...Read more
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Rosalyn Tureck whimsically referred to this sixth of her recorded Goldbergs as a
"mature interpretation." Older, in this case, doesn't always mean wiser. She
still clarifies and shapes Bach's intricate counterpoint like few pianists in history,
but...Read more
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Though some musicians rerecord the same repertoire, refining the same concept over time,
Alfred Brendel's Beethoven concertos change significantly with every go-around. One of the
defining influences in this latest go-around is conductor Simon...Read more
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Completed in 1945, Harawi has Messiaen taking his cue from the centuries-old
Tristan and Isolde legend and extending the tale into new musical realms. Messiaen
cottoned to a rhythmic approach that decades later seems uneven or, at least, artfully...Read more
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Listening to Tavener's music requires not so much an open mind as one that has been
emptied. Onto this blank slate, or tabula rasa, Tavener projects two sorts of basic
materials: ecstatic melismas or slow-moving, simple chants. At first, the effects...Read more
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Andrea Bocelli's Sogno ("dream") is a pop album of entirely original
compositions that evoke traditional and modern influences. Bocelli himself describes the
CD as secular Italian traditional melodic music with a contemporary twist. The album's
14...Read more
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Fans of Paul Galbraith, superb guitar playing, and just plain nice listening will not want
to miss this well-produced CD of Brazilian music (transposed) for guitar. The oldest piece
is by Antonio Carlos Gomes, a 19th-century composer best known for...Read more
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Dawn Upshaw's vocals have graced a heap of recordings, none of them quite like this
collection of Vernon Duke's songs. Duke, composer of such musicals as Cabin in the Sky,
which has a rousing full soundtrack from the
1943 film production, wrote...Read more
Amazon.com essential recording
It seems oddly fitting that 1999--a year marked by Y2K paranoia and doom-and-gloom
trainspotters--is the year in which Sony chose to release this brilliantly charged version
of György Ligeti's Le Grande Macabre, the Hungarian master's comic tale...Read more
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The beauty of Steve Reich's minimalist compositions can be found not in their repetition
but in their evolution. Listening to the Kronos Quartet perform Different
Trains, the listener quickly gets over the camp value of the conductor samples
to...Read more
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If you think you've been overexposed to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, the
arrangements by 18th-century musician Nicolas Chédeville featured on this disc will give
you a fresh outlook. Although your first impression might be of a very distant...Read more
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If you heard this record in a blind test, you'd probably guess it was Philippe
Herreweghe's European
Vocal Ensemble or midcareer Tallis
Scholars (before their immaculate singing took on a glassy-eyed chill). Surely a choir
from some European hotbed...Read more
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Continuing Ricardo Chailly's topical Shostakovich recordings (he's already visited the
composer's jazz-inflected
and dance
pieces), this collection of music for film offers the series greater heft. The music here
is as entangled in politics and pop...Read more
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The inside covers of this CD's booklet show violinist and conductor engaged in a whimsical
pose of arm wrestling. It's a curious visual misnomer for the actual character of the
Brahms Violin Concerto, which is notably not cast as a bravura showdown...Read more
Classical and Opera 
