Classical music reviews

I first got my hands on this CD in the late 1980's (the 1990 release date listed by Amazon is incorrect) and it ignited a life-long love affair with the music of Bach. Everything on the disc, from the thundering chords of the Fugue in D Minor to the bouncy, almost pop-like beats of the Italian Concerto, is brilliant -- and, incredibly, the choice of instrumentation doesn't sound cheesy or annoying years later (as it does with, say, Wendy Carlos' Switched-On-Bach albums). Dorsey's incredible rendition of the Fugue in D Minor drove me to learn to play the piece, a significant undertaking, which is probably the highest endorsement I can offer. And, as other reviewers have noted, the rendition of Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is really quite breathtaking (although it hasn't aged as well as some of the other material on the disc). Dorsey's done a great job of making the music of Bach more accessible -- hats off.

I purchased this album on (gasp!) cassette tape in the early 90's and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thinking it could get no better, I never put forth the effort to pick up the CD. That is until fate intervened on day at a garage sale. Both albums in new condition on CD for a buck each. How could I say no? Oh, my! I can't describe how wonderful Don's works sound in pristine digital audio. It sounded so good in the car that I went home, threw the disc into my system, and promptly smoked the voice coil on my sub. Wow! The clarity, fidelity, and dynamic range are just incredible, and Don's interpretations are just plain fun. From the thundering "Toccata and Fugue" on Bachbusters to the frenzied "Rage over a Lost Penny" on Beethoven or Bust, Don absolutely nails it.

Strict classical music snobs need not apply, but HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for all those who enjoy something a little different every now and then!

Anyone who appreciates the music of J.S. Bach will love this CD. Dorsey is truly a master of keyboard instruments, not to mention synthesized music. I've been scowering the Internet for quite a while in search of other computerized Bach renditions, mostly in vain. But there is an album called CYBACH on MP3.com which I would highly recommend. It focuses mostly on organ works, though. My hat goes off to Don Dorsey! Please, keep it up!

the sound is not very clearly, yet the record is so far from nowadays, I recommend the BOX SET edition above this.

Do you want to be transported to another place? These performances will do just that, and are among the finest recordings of ANYTHING ever made. Unbelievably beautiful and totally incomparible. How many ways can one spell "genius?"

The other posts are not exaggerating, this recording is that good. The level of passion and energy in the playing on this album places it as one of the great classical recordings ever. The Gideon Kremer and Martha Argerich recording isn't close. For some works, it's fun listening to a variety of recordings; that's not the case with the "Kreutzer." This album leaves you with no tolerance for other performances, which all seem anemic by comparison.

I was looking for the 4th specifically and happy with this recording. Entries are clear and tempos steady. Recommended

This recording is perfect to type to! Most of my day is spent writing psychological reports that require attention, exactness, and concentration. These two Symphonies are great to have on while writing. They are not overpowering in that concentration is lost, but they are stimulating to the process. The clarity of this recording is fantastic, and for music afcianados that is important, especially when one wants to hear the music and not the "background."

Both these recordings of the Beethoven Fourth and Sixth were made in Hollywood in 1958, the same time that Walter was turning in rather slack and unfocused readings of the other symphonies. Here he recovers some of the dash and intensity that marked his 1930s Pastorle with the Vienna Phil. The Columbia Sym. plays with energy and inflection, even though Walter's tempos are on the leisurely side.

As is generally acknowledged, he found magic in every movement of the Pastorale, which will surely stand as the best of the romantic versions of this symphony (far more charming than Bohm's often recommended but unsmiling recording on DG). The Fourth is in the same mode, with more incisiveness than his Eroica, Fifth, or Seventh. But Walter is somewhat less alert here; the result is another mellow performance of good if not superb quality.

Newcomers might suppose, hearing these performances, that the rest of Walter's Beethoven must be of equal stature. It's not, but we can be grateful for this charmed moment in his old age. Look to his Bruckner, Mozart, and Mahler for similar inspiration.

This is a great live recording from 1957, but it's not as good as the new live Klemperer recording of the 9th TESTAMENT just released.

This one is pretty good, typical Klemp, but the new 1961 live recording issued by TESTAMENT totally outclasses and outshines the 1957 version. The playing is more concentrated and intense, and the interpretation has more tragic feeling and greater majesty and nobility than ever before. The choral forces are like a thunderbolt from heaven, when comparing it to its predecesor!

It's Klemp like you've never known! Klemp was on fire.

Plus, TESTAMENT did a very fine job on the remastering of the mono sound.

Actually, the 1961 live Klemp has just become my new favorite 9th, after the 1942 Furtwangler wartime 9th. I would sacrifice the 1957 Klemp and get the 1961 Klemp instead, it's so much better! You go through a much more elevated experience.

(By the way...TESTAMENT have also just released the 1961 live Fidelio with Klemperer from Covent Garden!)

-We all owe TESTAMENT great thanks for the work their doing and have done on issuing rare Klemps for humanity. Thanks TESTAMENT and thanks OTTO KLEMPERER.

I love this Beethoven 9th!! It's fantastic. It's a 'live' recording - not patched together, and the timpani comes through thrillingly. This 'live' concert is far better than Klemperer's studio recording. And Klemperer's studio recording was considered a classic!! You must be prepared for some audience noise though. But I'm not really bothered about it given the incandescent performance of this Beethoven's 9th.

With modern digital technology, digital recording, why would you want to return to an old set dating from 1957? Firstly, let me say that the recording is in extremely good sound. Everything is crystal clear with a faint hint that this recording is perhaps not the most up to date digital recording. Most importantly, of course, is that this is an absolutely stunning and magnetic performance. From start to finish, the performance holds your attention and never sags. I held back from buying this version because I already have a number of famous 9ths. I have Klemperer's studio cycle from EMI. Let me say this - you'll be in for a surprise. In a live concert, Klemperer is nothing like what he is in the studio.

Klemperer was known not to like the studio all that much. To Klemperer, a studio performance for recording purposes lack that extra punch. When you listen to this recording you will realize how true it is. In a live concert, Klemperer is absolutely stunning - in peak form in 1957. When you listen to this performance, you will realize the reason Klemperer was considered one of the great Beethoven conductors, and the reason his 1957 Beethoven concerts were red-letter occasions for which tickets were like gold dust.

The 1951 Furtwangler Bayreuth was a seismic performance. But that performance is in mono. And that was a romantic-style performance with a lot of rubato. Here Klemperer's reading is straightforward. No drastic rubato. Tempi is flowing and anything but slow. Just to give you an idea, the recent Rattle cycle reads the 9th at 69.56 using period performance practices. Klemperer clocks in a little under 70 minutes - exactly the same time!! So much for the view that Klemperer was "slow". The old adage is true that there is nothing new under the sun.

The electricity carries from the concert hall 45 years ago to your living room in thid modern digital age in the year of 2003. No "patching up". Not "sewn" together like other recordings. just raw electrifying performance from one of the great Beethoven conductors of the 20th century. Superb choral singing from the Philharmonia Chorus. Unlike many other recordings - Karajan is one of the worst offenders even though the musical side of his Beethoven 9 is perfectly fine - where the chorus is balanced too far back. Here, the chorus is properly balanced forward as a main protagonist. Yes, this is the choral symphony and the chorus should be UPFRONT. The soloists are outstanding, though the tenor is rather on the weak side (Stuart Burrows for Solti 1972 is astonishing) but the performance is still excellent.

This is doubtless one of the best Ninths on record. the Penguin Guide and Grammophone, very appropriately, puts this recording at the top of the list of recommended 9ths. There are few better. This version can hold its own against the Furtwangler 1951 Bayreuth, the Furtwangler 1954 Lucerne. It definitely surpasses the 1962 Karajan and 1977 Karajan. Do yourself a favor. Solti's 1972 has a stronger team of soloists - Talvela and Burrows are exceptionally outstanding in the recording - Lorengar and Minton are superb too. The Chicago Symphony Chorus can rival the Philharmonia Chorus. But that is a studio recording.

This reading is compulsory for all classical musicians, in particular anyone who even remotely likes Beethoven.

I always love Bohm's meticulous extraction of beautiful music through slow tempi. Other conductors just skip through the nice pieces far too quickly.

It's very exciting to see Bohm's Beethoven cycle, Mozart recordings and Tristan und Isolde get the praise that it deserves. For those of you who are not familiar with Bohm, take the leap and see why everyone is so excited. You may notice that many of his lower profile recordings (such as this) often have higher ratings then the classics. Bohm is not a surface conductor; many will testify that his recordings did not appeal to them the first few times they listened to them, but suddenly grew on them. If the other reviewers seem to struggle for words, it isn't surprising. Nothing is as amazing as hearing such 'plain' recordings and realizing they are better and more miraculous then the competition. For those of you that have this recording, but don't like it, keep it on the shelf and take it down every now and then and see how it works for you. I will tell you, having the whole cycle, that these three (along with the eroica) are the best of the cycle. The fifth is rather slow at times, and (sadly) it is probably not Bohm's fault, or Beethoven, but the fact that we have grown so used to hearing it that it has to be 'Kleiberized' to make it alive again. I definitely prefer his seventh over others, and as has been attested to, it is one that has to grow with you. The only other recording to recommend is Krips cycle, which unfortunately has all but disappeared from print and public eye. It's certainly not better, but it is interesting to hear a conductor who has a Beethoven sound even more transparent then Bohm's. As for the more recent digital recording of the ninth, you will notice that it has taking a heavy critical slam for its consistently slow tempos. Although I defend the recording, I have to admit this to be the case, and except for the first movement, I would have liked to have seen it taken faster. This recording definitely cannot be recommended too much, and I agree with another reviewer that it is very surprising that DG has not made a greater effort to push this cycle. I have noticed that it has stayed consistenly in print (recently reissued again) and it may be that they know there's more money to be made in selling the recordings individually. Who can say? Whatever the case, buy it!!

Some have said that Beethoven's odd-numbered symphonies are great and his even ones are only mediocre. Well, here Bohm shows us how great the 6th and 8th symphonies are. Like many have commented, this is one of the best recordings of the 6th out on the market. The "Pastoral" symphony is rich and lush, and Vienna takes you away into the landscape that Beethoven envisioned as he wrote this wonderful work. Great attention to detail that is highly satisfying. In the 8th, Bohm doesn't let up and conducts with such precision as to create a wonderful driving energy that can be felt underlying the piece. Excellent choice of tempi and full rich sound. The 7th is not my favorite of the recordings out there but it is still well done.

This uplifting compilation CD from Imaginary Road Records, actually the soundtrack to the public television special "Celtic Harpestry at Lismore Castle, Ireland", is simply beautiful. Especially wonderful are the five numbers by the Belfast Harp Orchestra, an ensemble of 12 harpists who demonstrate remarkable intonation and stunning coordination as they play together on instruments that are difficult enough just to play alone. What a great concept, and what great musicianship! Also featured are individual performers such as Maire Ni Chathasaigh on Irish harp, Rudiger Oppermann on wire-strung harp, Cheryl Ann Fulton on a contemporary lever harp, the harp and song duo Sileas, and Deborah Henson-Conant on a "Camac `Baby Blue' Celtic electroharp". Other instruments, including Uilleann pipes and whistle, violin, viola and concertina, occasionally join in, but the focus is on the harp itself. In all its many forms and combinations, the harpestry on this recording remains soothingly delicate in timbre while at the same time scintillating in technique--in short, a pure delight. If you enjoy "Celtic Harpesty", you're sure to like it's companion release, "Harpestry: A Contemporary Collection", featuring more of a worldwide assortment of harpers. Another great harp compilation CD is "Faces of the Harp" from Narada.

I always had a desire to learn to play the Celtic harp...and the PBS special and especially this CD made that desire boil over. Don't buy another harp CD before you've listened to this one!
No matter how many times I have listened to this recording, I ALWAYS break into a smile when the Belfast Harp Orchestra begins to play. Nothing prepares you for that 12-harp sound!
Order this CD with overnight shipping!!!

One day in a music shop, my hand knocked three CDs off of a rack. The first CD, though the case was cracked, caught my eye. I bought it five minutes later. In this sweetly harmonized collection, nearly all the songs are wonderful. I would have bought the CD for only My Heart Will Go On-the song is a skillful take of the Titanic (movie) theme, and it seems almost to have a voice of its own. This is a must-have for any harp music lover!

Light some candles, run a bubble bath, put in bath beads, pop this CD into your stereo and indulge in a bath that would mean you've pampered yourself in extremis. This particular recording from the popular Set Your Life To Classical series is a real treat for Bathtime, or in my opinion, anytime. It is indeed, as the title suggests, a relaxing serenade to wash your cares away. It is therapy, a perfect companion to a massage, reading a book, drinking tea, anything you can do alone to pamper yourself and to relax. Iona Brown, a female conductor, takes Sir Neville Marriner's place and conducts the Academy of St Martin In The Fields performing such works as the opening track - the Lute Concerto by Vivaldi as well as Track 4's Largo from the Winter movement in The Four Seasons, track 12's Concerto For Two Guitars by Corelli and the Oboe Concerto in D by Telemann. Also featured on here Oboe Concerti by Handel and Water Music Suite, and other conductors featured on here are Raymond Leppard and his English Chamber Orchestra. The Canon in D has never sounded more radiant than on here as it is conducted by Sir Neville Marriner and closes the CD nicely. A more relaxing way to take a bath you'll be hard-pressed to find. This music is gorgeous, it's affordable (on the Used Item section and the regular price) and is as always, a great intro to classical music and a fun, innovative way to enjoy it.

This is pleasing, pastoral music picked to relieve that which tenses up our bodies and souls.

Turn on this excellent baroque collection from the likes of Vivaldi, Telemann, Handel and Pachelbel (among others) superbly played by such virtuosos as Rampal, Holliger et al.

Sweeping instrumental arias are so relaxing! This one will soothe the savage beast as well as those tired bods.

The cd series "Set Your Life To Classical Music", composes a variety of baroque, classical and romantic instrumental music that serves the purpose of leisure and background while you engage in the day or evening's activities. The purpose is therapeutic. There are other titles in the series, such as "Bach For Breakfast", "Beethoven For Book Lovers" "Chopin And Champagne", "Baroque For Bedtime", "Puccini and Pasta", "Mozart For The Morning Commute", the series goes on and on. It is a great way to soothe your tensions and provides stress-free, nearly New Age style music that you'd more than likely hear at a masseur's place of business. One can also make the argument that this is the music you'd hear at an elevator. What I like about all these series is that they are also a great introduction to instrumental/classical music. The ensembles performing the classical works are virtuosic and well known in world of classical performance, such as Sir Neville Marriner and St. Martin In The Fields, I Musici and the New Age, Yani-style musician, Zamfir, who specializes in rare instruments such as pan pipes.

On this recording, specifically designed to accompany your bubble bath, there are beautiful, slower-paced movements from Baroque flute, violin and oboe concertos. There are the Sicilian style movements of such composers as Vivaldi, Bach and Telemann. The largo from the Winter movement is a richly melodic and dreamy piece for strings, and the concluding work, Canon In D Major, is an elegant, graceful and heartfelt chamber piece that has become iconic in Baroque music. It was used in the film, Ordinary People and is very popular in classical music for weddings. I strongly recommend all the cds in the series. They are a perfect way to get you into some of the most beautiful classical music ever written, and are a great way to involve music as the wordless, instrumental soundtrack in your life.

I have old LP and cassette versions of the Concerto #1 and something has gone wrong, in my view, with this CD version. First, the audience applause is gone altogether, just blanked out--a shame, it seems to me. Second and more importantly, Michelangeli's wonderfully wild dynamic range has been dampened, modified, and noticeably limited, while the orchestra is now bolder. The choice of balance is regrettable here: Deutsche Grammophon has shortchanged Michelangeli of his poetic power; we no longer fully hear his crashing chords and exquisite faint passages, the jocularity and impishness of this early masterpiece by Beethoven. I bought the CD with high hopes; try listening to the original DG versions and I do think you'll hear what I mean. But then it is still Michelangeli, still stirring and blindingly accurate and memorable.

One man's view: I feel I've never heard these pieces before when I put this CD on. ABM's approach is magical to me. He's forceful yet somehow graceful and fluid. Assured. Precise. I find I want to play his CDs just to hear his touch on the piano. It's like a swim in healing tropical waters. Highly recommended!

This is a wonderful CD, at an excellent price. The interpretation of the First Piano Concerto does allow Beethoven to be Beethoven, as another reviewer has remarked. Some performances of this concerto sound dismissive, but this one is evocative and sensitive.

I love the Third, Fourth and Fifth Concertos. The Third was my introduction to Beethoven Piano Concertos through listening and following the score in Year Ten Music classes. It is a remarkable work, with some similarities to the Fifth Symphony in the way Beethoven exhaustively develops the opening theme of the first movement.

Highly recommended recording.

Whose orchestration of Schumann's 3rd is used in and what is the year of this recording?

Giulini became less vigorous as he got older, and besides getting slower, his performances eschewed detail, pointing of accents, and precision. What Giulini went for instead was the spirit of each work--in fact, he only agreed to condcut works that he felt a personal affinity for. His Beethoven Fifth is the opposite of Carlos Kleiber's. Where Kleiber wanted to rejuvenate a thrice-familiar work by sharpening its contours and details, Giulini's tendency was to soften those things. His Beethoven doesn't thunder or rage; it flows like a broad, often leisurely river. The same is true of his Schumann Rhenish, which is expressive to the point of fulsomeness.

Although these recordings were made in 1980-82, Beethoven style would soon move even further in the opposite direction. Giulini missed the trend, but even for listeners who are attuned to period performances of greater speed and much less emotional invovlement, Giulini's generous musicalaity will speak directly to the heart.

Wow, just hearing the first movement should have you jumping around and conducting with your eyes closed. The sound that the LAPO produces is just about perfect for Beethoven, I love the lush strings, the pounding timpani and the thrilling horns of this orchestra and they give a majestic performance of this most famous symphony. The first movement is absolutely one of the best I've ever heard, much better than Carlos Kleiber! The only first movement that compares is Karajan's ultra intense 1962 version, which is truly grim and thrilling but Giulini even beats Karajan in some respects. Obviously the slow movement is gorgeous, Giulini leads us on with an expansive tempo and the most wonderful playing from his orchestra, the horns are awesome, no doubt about it! Unforgettable. The scherzo is not as driven as Karajan but the transition to the finale is highly combustible. The finale starts off explosively and wrings out every drop of emotion imaginable. Giulini takes a moderate tempo in the finale, emphasizing it's majestic nature but he also observes the exposition repeat in the finale. Later, because of the overall moderate tempo, towards the end of the symphony, things drag a bit. Oh, so what? The whole thing sounds pretty inevitable and romantically grandiose anyway, it works out. I just think that Giulini should have either taken a faster tempo in the finale or used the tempo he takes but dropped the repeat. You can't have everything when it comes to such an ultimately satisfying performance.

The Schumann Symphony 3, The 'Rhenish' is the coupling. Giulini's version is among the best ever recorded, powerful, lyrical and completely involving. The Cologne Cathedral movement is noteworthy, Giulini takes a faster tempo here than I would have liked but it sounds right somehow. I know for instance Karajan's Cologne Cathedral movement is too expansive in his Schumann recording.

The sound for both symphonies is utterly awesome, weighty, powerful, lush and with plenty of detail and ambience. Who would have known, Deutsche Grammophon could actually make some great digital recordings?! This CD is a must own for fans of great music and shows how fascinating a conductor Carlo Maria Giulini really was.

Maybe we need some background checks here: Have any of these other reviewers actually been to a musical? On Broadway? Or anywhere in America?

Simon Rattle startled Berlin by taking this same Wonderful Town to the Philharmonie as a gala performance. HOw in the world did they react? This performance is not much like real Broadway. Listen to just a few moments of the original cast recording with Rosalind Russell or the current NY revival with Donna Murphy, and you'll sense how many fish are out of water here.

Rattle does the best, conducting with real verve and an almost-good-enough grasp of the Boradway-swing idiom Bernstein was writing in. Eveyrone else is too obviously trying to sound like something they're not. Audra McDonald is a too-throaty Eileen, Kim Criswell an edgy, noisy Ruth, Thomas Hampson a stiffly operatic editor, Robert Baker. Altogether, this CD is an energetic but ersatz attempt to take Broadway where Broadway don't want to go.

This is one of the better cast albums of WONDERFUL TOWN, though nothing tops the original '53 recording with Rosalind Russell. Still, time marches on and there have been several superb Ruth's in recent years, including the fabulous Kim Criswell.

Criswell has the perfect brassy voice to sing the scores of Broadway's golden classics (she's also luminous on the '91 studio album of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN), and she fits the material of TOWN to a tee. Her spin on Ruth is well worth your time and money, especially her fetching "100 Easy Ways" and showstopping "Conga!". And, as with the ANNIE GET YOUR GUN album, she's once again paired with Thomas Hampson, who plays Ruth's love interest Bob Baker (he played Frank opposite her Annie Oakley).

Audra McDonald is likewise the perfect Eileen, perhaps offering up the definitive "A Little Bit in Love", and proves she's a comical cutup with "My Darlin' Eileen" as well as "Wrong-Note Rag". Brent Barrett is sadly under-used in the role of football-mad Wreck.

Conductor Simon Rattle gives the album a cracking pace which never slackens or drags. A top studio album which is enlivened no end by its perfectly-realised cast.

If you need one reason to buy this super cd, let it be for Leonard Bernstein's brilliant music---his only score to win a Tony Award. (That's right: neither "Candide" nor "West Side Story" won a Tony.)

The lyrics of Betty Comden and Adolph Green are some of their best. The witty duo came back to Broadway for this show, their first reunion with Bernstein since the success of "On The Town" almost 10 years before. They had very recently written the wildly successful "Singin' In The Rain" in Hollywood and with "Wonderful Town" they (& the entire creative team) conquered New York City.

This CD, to my mind, is a heck of alot better in almost every way than the original cast recording which starred Rosalind Russell. Russell, of course, could not sing and although her role is heavy on comedy and light on music, Kim Criswell comes off better: she is funny & touching as well as caustic and light-handed as well as tough. Russell sounds angry and almost sullen throughout...also quite mature. Add to this, the fact that Criswell has a sensational singing voice. As her love interest,Thomas Hampson, one of our finest operatic baritones, knows exactly how to lighten his voice to sing musical comedy and does it beautifully. On the Russell CD, George Gaines merely sounds old and terribly fancy, like a serious singer who is slumming. Although Edith Adams is fine as "Eileen," Audra McDonald (a 3-time Tony winner, herself) is even better in the role of the girl that all New York City wants to woo. Brent Barrett brings his gorgeous voice, as well as comic skills to his one song as the football-playing dunce, "Wreck."

The sound on this 1999 recording is superb. The conductor, Sir Simon Rattle, throws himself into Bernstein's score with verve and shows exactly how much he loves American jazz and Broadway.

There are many comic numbers, all of which hit the mark, but I must mention that "A Little Bit In Love" and "A Quiet Girl" and "It's Love" have got to be three of the sweetest, cleverest, most charming "love" songs in any musical. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.