Classical / Opera CDs

“As can be seen, this is very generous measure with the complete Ma mère l’oye plus the Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2 ..... with an exciting Boléro and a splendid La valse, played with an exhilaratingly spontaneous rhythmic freedom and, like Boléro, producing ...

Adam Gorb has won three British Composer awards for Wind Ensemble pieces, two of which are on this new release: Towards Nirvana (2004) and Farewell (2009.) His first major Wind Band piece Metropolis (1992) has won several prizes including the Walter Beeler prize in the USA. In March 2010 Gorb pre...

“No need to emphasise the pathos …which blooms out unaided. Comparison withvother recordings… seems quite pointless. This very handsomely occupies a niche of its own.” © Gramophone Publications (of Palestrina Stabat Mater )

One of the World's Great Voices Puts Her Indelible Signature On Songs By Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, Death Cab For Cutie, The Mars Volta, Muse, and of course, Leonard Cohen. Renée Fleming s new album 'Dark Hope', which the opera star describes as a visit to a new universe for her, will b...

Cantate Domino is a collection of religious music primarily intended for the Christmas season. It was recorded in the Oscarskyrkan, a church in Stockholm in 1976. It features the Oscar's Motet Choir conducted by Torsten Nilsson with soprano, Marianne Mellnäs and organist, Alf Linder.

Les Arts Florissants is a Baroque musical ensemble in residence at the Théâtre de Caen in Caen, France. The organization was founded by conductor William Christie in 1979. The ensemble derives its name from the 1685 opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. The organization consists of a chamb...

The Tallis Scholars are a British vocal ensemble normally consisting of two singers per part, with a core group of ten singers. Formed in 1973 by their director Peter Phillips, they specialise in performing a cappella sacred vocal music written during the Renaissance by composers from all over Eu...

A reissue of a 1997 recording, these two CDs are presented inside a sumptuous 116-page hardback book that includes not only essays on the work and its traditions but also a large group of really beautifully printed illustrations. Some are paintings of Christmas scenes, some are pictures or old illus...

These days Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is mainly associated with his later works. Born in 1935 he wrote 'avant-garde' works at first. In the nineteen seventies he increasingly found his inspiration in medieval religious music, both western and eastern European. This first transpired in his ...

Andrea Bocelli stars in the title role of Giordano's romantic and passionate opera of life and death, set during the French Revolution. Andrea Chénier, a historical figure and poet who lost his life to the French Revolution, gave Giordano and his librettist, Illica, inspiration for an oper...

Klaus Tennstedt conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in this well renowned recording, Featuring Lucia Popp, Elizabeth Connell, Edith Wiens, Felicity Lott, Trudeliese Schmidt, Nadine Denize, Richard Versalle, Jorma Hynninen, Hans Sotin. Also features Tiffin School Boy’s Choir and Lo...

Three mighty tenors at a great price.

Staged by Ole Anders Tandberg, adapted and filmed by Anja Stabell and Stein-Roger Bull in 2010 at the Norwegian National Opera. The Coronation of Poppea was the début production from critically acclaimed stage director Ole Anders Tandberg in the Norwegian Opera & Ballet, and he lets blood flow. T...

Chopped & Screwed is the live collaboration between London based musician Mica Levi aka Micachu and the London Sinfonietta Orchestra. The concert took place at King’s Place on May 10, 2010 a recently built and specially designed venue, treated to showcase the best in classical and acou...

Chopped & Screwed is the live collaboration between London based musician Mica Levi aka Micachu and the London Sinfonietta Orchestra. The concert took place at King’s Place on May 10, 2010 a recently built and specially designed venue, treated to showcase the best in classical and acoustic...

Susanne Heinrich’s first solo release for Hyperion was a deliciously atmsopheric award-winning disc of music by Abel. She continues her exploration of the world of the viol with this fascinating selection of works by the English composer Tobias Hume. Hume is a paradoxical figure: sometime ...

The performing team of Piers Lane and the Goldner String Quartet has won many plaudits for their enlightening interpretations of the obscurer piano quintet repertoire. Now they turn to a composer who triumphed in the genre. Dvorvák’s two piano quintets were written at different stage...

2010 sees the 300th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, and among the many celebratory recordings, this disc will stand out as an historic record of the composer’s extraordinary influence and legacy. Chopin’s unique style of piano writing was to utterly transform the way in which com...

Howard Shelley’s enchanting series of Spohr’s symphonies continues to inspire interest and delight in this underrated composer. By the time Spohr came to write his Third Symphony he was established in the top rank of contemporary composers. It is a richer, more romantic work than its ...

Together with the Missa Cellensis, the Stabat Mater (1767) was one of the first sacred works that Haydn composed in his new position as Kapellmeister of the Esterházy court. The Virgin Mary’s vast range of emotions during the Crucifixion are reflected in Haydn’s music through vari...

The Naxos Robert Craft Collection has been acclaimed as “one of the most enticing Schoenberg collections around” (MusicWeb on Schoenberg; Pierrot Lunaire 8.557523), with Fanfare proclaiming that “Craft outshines them all” Chamber Symphony No. 2 (8.557526). Craft has t...

Karita Mattila is the biggest Finnish star on the international stage of classical music. She has been named by Musical America the “most electrifying actress of our day (who) drives the public into frenzies” (Musician of the Year 2005), is the winner of the first ‘Singer of&n...

Liebermann Concerto for Flute and Orchestra and works by Hüe, Poulenc and Nielsen' by Katherine Bryan (flute) with Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Paul Daniel (conductor). Young flautist Katherine Bryan is rapidly confirming her place as one of Britain's bright musical stars of the futur...

From All Music Guide: While any CD claiming to be an introduction to the music of Gustav Holst would be remiss if it did not include The Planets, it is still disconcerting that Chandos does not present listeners with a more representative sample of Holst's other genres. Is it really necessary to hav...

German composer, Ludwig van Beethoven is widely regarded as one of classical music’s supreme composers who radically transformed every musical form in which he worked. In a musical language which directly appeals to the listener, Beethoven combined elements of the traditional with the innovati...

Soprano Patricia Petibon showcases her dramatic flair and interpretive powers as she indulges her love of Luso-lberian music in her new album Melancolia - Spanish Arias and Songs. From zarzuela to art song, folk song, the Aria Cantilena of Brazil's Villa-Lobos, and the traditional Afro-Brazilian ...

Widely regarded as the greatest opera singer and performer of all time, Maria Callas is the original diva, the ultimate opera icon. Her life story, voice and performances intrigued, thrilled and inspired audiences during her lifetime and continue to do so today. Thirty-four years after her death, Ma...

Celebrate Christmas with the Choir of St. George's Chapel. This wonderful Christmas album comes to you from the "Songs Of Praise" series on BBC. With the best Christmas songs selected to bring merriment to your Christmas, and the stunning vocal work of the Choir Of St. George's Chapel, you'll be...

The 50 Best Series offer an impressive assortment of well-known and beloved classical repertoire ranging from symphonies, concertos, and solo instrumental works to chamber music, songs, and operas. CD 1 covers French opera and begins with several familiar choruses from Gounod's 'Faust', followed ...

Never released before recordings from 1950 - 1982 Wilhelm Furtwangler aptly referred to her as a "magic box", because her voice changed with every character she portrayed on stage. It was that absolute identification with her roles and the inseparable unity of singing, personality and acting that ma...

The anniversary of the destruction of Dresden was annually marked with the performance of a requiem, until February 13, 1995. For the 50th anniversary of that terrible day, conductor Bernard Haitink presented Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony "Resurrection" - in the conviction that it is perhaps the o...

Richter's interpretation reaches the true sense of greatness and tragedy of this epic work. Rather than attempting to imitate Bach as it would have been heard in his own time, soloists Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hertha Tipper and Ernst Haefliger rise to Richter's challenge and deliver a glorious perf...

Capriccio presents the world premiere recording of the soundtrack to Berlin - Sinfonie der Großstadt (or Symphony of a Metropolis), the silent film by Walter Ruttmann with music composed by Edmund Meisel. The film was largely avant-garde portraying life in a city through visual effects and music. Th...

The New Zealand-born Kiri Te Kanawa’s lyric soprano voice and captivating stage presence have, throughout her operatic career, won her critical acclaim and a multitude of devoted fans. Audiences have continually been drawn to her natural ability to bring characters to life on stage, and this effortl...

Of his rich and prolific legacy, Claudio Monteverdi, born in Cremona in 1567, is particularly celebrated for his innovations; one of the most influential figures of 16th- and 17th-century music, he extended the expressive possibilities of his craft in an inventive blend of the old and new. This 3-di...

Born in 1685, the same year as Bach and Handel, Domenico Scarlatti spent the majority of his career in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. Like his father Alessandro, Domenico wrote in a variety of forms, and chief among his output are the many sonatas written for keyboard – wo...

Christian Gottlob Neefe flourished as the Baroque was giving way to the Classical period. These Twelve Sonatas represent important steps in this transition, each having a uniquely individual character and showing a mixture of styles. Neefe is remembered today as Beethoven’s first main teacher in Bon...

Béla Bartók, born in 1881, is considered by many to be the greatest Hungarian composer as well as one of the most significant musical voices of the 20th century. Self-taught and originally trained as a pianist, he combined elements of his homeland’s traditional folk music with the influences of his ...

Containing over 50 concertos and sonatas which effectively trace the first 3 quarters of Vivaldi’s career, this fantastic 9CD box set presents a fitting tribute to one of the most celebrated Baroque composers of the instrumental style. The collection begins with the Trio Sonatas of Op.1, closely ...