Whoever first dreamt up the title "The Only Piano/Opera/Banjo Album You'll Ever Need" must have been hoping record buyers wouldn't take it too literally. A translation would be "We Hope That When You've Listened To This You'll Want To Buy Lots More Piano/Opera/Banjo Albums". So as an attempt to lure listeners into the world of the piano, how does this set measure up? Most of the all-time favourite ...
Manufacturer: Victor
Manufacturer: Lso Live
Manufacturer: Universal Classics
Manufacturer: EMI Classics
Decca has gotten around the perennial problem of filling Mozart Piano Concerto CDs by splitting No. 25 between two discs, giving us 155 minutes of Mozart for the price of a single top-line CD. The performances are top-line, too, if you like big-orchestra Mozart. Ashkenazy performs this music in a public, large-auditorium style, without the intimacy or niceties we hear from period instruments or ...
Manufacturer: Virgin Classics
Manufacturer: Sony Classical
Manufacturer: emi classics
This is a super performance, slightly outside the common mould. In 1977, when this was recorded, Claudio Abbado was a great opera conductor, filled with sharp insights and a nice sense of the architecture of whole operas. He always seemed to know where he was going, and his ability to build to climaxes was second to none. Abbado has a rather elegant Carmen here in the smallish-voiced, ...
