One of the leading mezzos of our day in a Schubert recital which offers seventy minutes of pure pleasure. The twenty-one songs recorded here are among Schubert’s finest, from ‘Erlkönig’ (written in the composer’s annus mirabilis of 1815) to ‘Leise flehen’ (which dates from his final summer).
It is usually the big nineteenth-century opera sets that are bought for their singers; but with a line-up of principals such as we have here Handel too is swept into the golden net. Lucia Popp, two years into her career after her Vienna debut, Christa Ludwig, Fritz Wunderlich, Walter Berry: that is a quartet which in its time may have seemed no more than standard stuff, but at this date looks starry indeed. […] The Orfeo, for one thing, is sung in German instead of Italian; it has cuts, though many fewer than the Mackerras recording in English with Dame Janet Baker; it has the solo voices recorded very close indeed (those that are supposedly off-stage are just about where many modern recordings would have them except when off-stage); and the orchestra sounds, to our re-trained ears, big and thick, with the heavy bass-line that used to seem as proper to Handel as gravy from the roast was to Yorkshire pudding.
Anna Gann (soprano) and Naoko Christ-Kato (piano), the two musicians of Gernsheim Duo, present sensational finds on their GENUIN CD. The 22 lieder by Friedrich Gernsheim, which they interpret with high sensitivity and insight, are recorded here for the first time. The composer is one of those Jewish musicians who was influential before the Holocaust and is almost forgotten today. The Gernsheim Duo is committed to the musical works of such composers and deserves praise for their efforts! The historical and musical value of these lieder, which have been meticulously compiled, cannot be overestimated—and the mastery of the two interpreters does them justice.
Wagner at The Met is the first authorized release of Richard Wagner's operatic masterpieces, including the complete Ring Cycle, captured live in historic broadcasts from The Metropolitan Opera.
Not being a lifelong Wagner devotee, I'm not sure if this particular performance has been released before or not, but I do know that it was included in a 2013 9-title release of Wagner operas recorded live from The Met from 1937 through 1954.
Why this performance? 3 words: Flagstad, Melchior, Huehn. I would add to that Leinsdorf, especially since the recording quality is so bad; his faster-than-the-norm tempi help cut through the densely muddy sound quality.
A 50-CD set of legendary recordings celebrating the world-renowned Decca Sound. Classic-status pioneering stereo recordings from the past 60 years and starring a galaxy of internationally-acclaimed artistic talent.
Rodelinda, Regina de' Longobardi was the 7th opera Handel wrote for the Royal Academy of Music founded in 1719. It was premiered at the King's Theater in the Haymarket on February 13, 1725, with great success, as chroniclers report. There were 14 performances in the first season and 8 in each of the revivals in the following season and in 1731, for which Handel revised the work. Thus, it is not surprising that, after nearly 190 years of oblivion, it should have been Rodelinda, now in a German language version and called Rodelinde, which marked the beginning of the 20th century revival of Handel's operas on June 26, 1920, during the Gottingen Handel Festival.