5 Great Operas On DG

Now, completing Jochum’s entire recorded legacy on DG and Philips, comes Jochum’s Complete Opera and Choral Recordings. These 38 CDs include creative and insightful bonus content, original jacket presentation plus a newly-remastered and new-to-DG CD set of Wagner’s Lohengrin with the sensational yet little-known Lorenz Fehenberger, described by Sir Georg Solti as, “one of the most extraordinary tenor talents I have ever worked with.” This latter operatic addition to the catalogue also becomes a stand-alone digital album. Social tools and a trailer will be announced shortly. Booklet notes include an introduction by Jochum’s daughter who clearly understood her father’s art and musicianship.

The Italian conductor Claudio Abbado is one of the most outstanding conductors of the 20th century. It was his unique ability to make sound and music shine (Deutschlandfunk Kultur), for which he was celebrated internationally by both the press and the audience. In addition to his long-standing relationship with the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Vienna Philharmonic, he has also been chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra for many years (1979 to 1986), with which he has recorded a rich discography over the years.

In celebration of Carlos Kleiber's 80th anniversary, here, for the first time ever, is a unique, limited-edition 12-CD box-set of his complete Deutsche Grammophon recordings: each one a classic — presented in top audio quality.

This is the fourth instalment in Deutsche Grammophon’s new Mozart cycle. In the end this will encompass the seven great operas, from Idomeneo forwards. I haven’t heard the previous three, but from the reviews I have seen the reception has been rather mixed. Concerning this latest issue I am also in two minds. The problem, as I see it, is that Nézet-Séguin hasn’t quite decided what he is up to. He has the excellent Chamber Orchestra of Europe at his disposal.

The greatest strength of Oehms Classics' live recording of the Hamburg Staatsoper 2005 production of Mathis der Maler is the supple and dramatic conducting of Simone Young, the Australian general manager of the company. The score contains some of Hindemith's most overtly romantic and emotionally expressive music, as well as some extended passages that sound like academic note-spinning. Young is remarkably successful in accentuating the score's moments of sensuality, such as the opening "Concert of Angels," and manages to keep the dramatic momentum up during the more pedestrian passages. The sound is full, clean, and well balanced for a live opera performance.

Of Rossini’s thirty-nine operas Il barbiere di Siviglia is the only one to have remained in the repertoire since its composition. When the composer met Beethoven in Vienna the great man told Rossini to only compose buffa operas like Il Barbiere. Verdi was also a great admirer of the work as he was of Rossini’s opera seria and particularly his William Tell. Il Barbiere was one of the works Rossini squeezed in during his contract as Musical Director of the Royal Theatres at Naples and where he was supposed to present two new works every year.

A Limited Edition, Original Jackets collection showcasing the artistry of the magnificent American soprano, Kathleen Battle. Kathleen Battle enraptured opera audiences of the 1980s and 1990s. Here was a lyric soprano combining unsurpassable beauty of tone with a keen musical intelligence, a way with words and a communicative warmth that drew listeners to Strauss and spirituals alike. She has the easy phrasing of a great jazz singer combined with the breath, breadth and precise projection of a trained voice. James Levine coached her at the Metropolitan Opera, and when he accompanied her at the 1984 Salzburg Festival and DG recorded the recital as Battle's debut solo album, nothing less than a phenomenon was launched.

A Limited Edition, Original Jackets collection showcasing the artistry of the magnificent American soprano, Kathleen Battle. Kathleen Battle enraptured opera audiences of the 1980s and 1990s. Here was a lyric soprano combining unsurpassable beauty of tone with a keen musical intelligence, a way with words and a communicative warmth that drew listeners to Strauss and spirituals alike. She has the easy phrasing of a great jazz singer combined with the breath, breadth and precise projection of a trained voice. James Levine coached her at the Metropolitan Opera, and when he accompanied her at the 1984 Salzburg Festival and DG recorded the recital as Battle's debut solo album, nothing less than a phenomenon was launched.