This album, which catapulted Polish composer Henryk Górecki to into the international spotlight, takes texts born in pain and turns them into statements of affirmation through the use of music that ebbs and flows in mystic minimalism. The clear voice of soprano Dawn Upshaw, singing the Polish texts, is a large part of the success of this particular recording, but the music, contemporary without ...
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
What is left to be said, musically, about a work that features on around a hundred recordings in the current UK catalogue alone? In explaining that he has not been "seduced" by the "authentic" movement, Kennedy notes, "In my opinion, if a piece of music belongs only to the time in which it was written, it should not be played today". Thus his approach draws on the entire tradition of violin ...
Manufacturer: EMI Classics
Manufacturer: Naxos
Manufacturer: L'Oiseau Lyre
Manufacturer: Universal Classics
Long regarded as the quintessential interpretation of the most popular and best-loved symphony ever written, this performance of the Fifth has everything: passion, precision, drama, lyric beauty, and a coiled fury in the first movement that sets your pulse racing from the very first note. Carlos Kleiber has made very few recordings in his distinguished career, but almost all are special. If you ...
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Stephen Hough's recording of Saint-Saëns' piano concertos comes as no surprise: he is our leading champion of once-lost pianistic causes--Scharwenka, Sauer and Mompou being among the composers he has brilliantly committed to disc. For all his fame, Saint-Saëns is a harder cause to champion than any of the above, since his music really is at times mere padding. But what those who deride him fail to ...
Manufacturer: Hyperion
Manufacturer: Wigmore Hall
Manufacturer: Legends
