Manufacturer: Universal Classics
Herbert von Karajan was a Strauss specialist, and if ever composer and conductor were united in musical philosophy, then these two were. Both favoured making a beautiful, creamy, homogenised sound over just about all else, and von Karajan clearly relished the opportunities this music offered for playing that combined both tonal opulence and virtuosity. His Zarathustra (aka 2001: A Space Odyssey) ...
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 ...
At the ripe old age of 19 Mozart wrote five violin concertos, and they represent his coming of age as a composer of orchestral music. From here on, it's basically one masterpiece after another. Though not difficult works, technically speaking, they partake in full measure of Mozart's uniquely sensual brand of melody. That means that successful performances must know how to spin out a singing ...
Manufacturer: Philips
Manufacturer: Double Decca
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer: Naxos
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
