Manufacturer: Sony Classical
Born, the debut album by four conservatoire-trained young women has little to do with classical music. It's a gimmick, fusing a string quartet of frivolous femmes, spicy girls who all want to be "Posh", with dance beats, a big production mixing their violins, viola and cello with polished electronics. Add an enormous marketing budget and watch them top the charts. Taking themselves less ...
Manufacturer: Universal Classics
The cheesy title may raise a smile and may make you slightly dubious about this two-disc set. But The Only Choral Album You'll Ever Need is a combination of fine vintage recordings and (sometimes) cheeky programming. For example, Mahler's Symphony No. 8--the ultimate in late-romantic hyperbole--is followed by the opening of Monteverdi's Vespers, effectively a baroque composer's ...
Manufacturer: Victor
Bond is back. The all-girl string quartet which rocked the classical establishment back in 2000 has returned with a second album, Shine. Bond's first disc, Born, was famously banned from the classical charts--it was crossover alright, but crossed over a bit too much to still be considered a classical release. Shine, however, is unashamedly popular from start to finish. Don't ...
This new release is somewhat mistitled: while most of the pieces are, in fact, from the Renaissance (or early Baroque), there are works here also by Samuel Barber, Poulenc, John Tavener, Bruckne,r and Gorecki. What they all have in common is their beauty and serenity. Perhaps the CDs subtitle, "Music for Inner Peace," also refers to a type of renaissance, i.e., spiritual re-birth: in which case, ...
Manufacturer: Theta
Manufacturer: Veritas x 2
When Itzhak Perlman recorded this disc, many critics were surprised by the sobriety and quiet poetry of his interpretation, as though his many fine chamber-music recordings did not provide ample evidence of Perlman's qualities as a "serious" musician. Although beautifully written for the instrument, Beethoven's sole Violin Concerto does not offer many opportunities for the kind of virtuoso ...
Manufacturer: EMI Classics
Manufacturer: RCA Red Seal
Manufacturer: Sony
