Lamomali Bel Ami

The collection includes piano works composed over the past 30 years from "Piano Media" (1972) to "Piano Poem" (2003), selected by composer Toshi Ichiyanagi himself, a master pianist who has earned the composer's great trust. Ami Fujiwara performs with deep understanding and empathy various types of music, from difficult pieces that push the pianist to his or her technical limits to pieces that focus on issues of expression, such as poetry readings. Please listen to these contemporary masterpieces by a virtuoso pianist who has earned the composer's great trust.

On her second solo album Lisette Oropesa has combined two of her greatest loves, the French language and Italian bel canto. This recording with the Dresdner Philharmonie under the baton of Corrado Rovaris showcases the variety of lesser-known and more popular works by Rossini and Donizetti, featuring arias that contain coloratura, lyricism, drama, heightened emotion, and even comedy.

Kathleen Battle's voice is the finest I have heard and this CD of Italian opera, Bel Canto, is perfect to show off her incredible talent and natural gift of an amazing voice. Her voice is clear and yet emotive. Her colaratura is so beautiful and warm. It is my understanding that Bel Canto was the insertion of 'show stopper' musical numbers in a opera that is characterized by beautiful tone, total command of vocal techniques, and coloratura. Kathleen Battle demonstrates this wonderfully. The London Philharmonic Orchestra does an excellent job. The french horns in Bellini's I Capuleti ed i Montecchi are hauntingly beautiful…

By C. B Collins Jr

Bel Canto Spectacular, a recital featuring tenor Juan Diego Flórez, delivers exactly what it promises: a spectacular release of vocal showpieces by one of the rising superstars of the early 21st century, singing scenes and arias by the great bel canto composers, Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. Flórez's voice is not particularly large, but he has a terrific, agile technique, a warmly enveloping tone, and a dramatic flair for fully inhabiting these operatic characters. He also has a sure grasp on the stylistic conventions of this repertoire and knows how to exploit them without going overboard. The album opens with "Amici mei," from La figlia del reggimento, an aria that helped secure his reputation because of his confident delivery of its multiple high Cs. He is equally impressive in the more lyrical selections, such as "Una furtive lagrima," to which he brings an especially sweet, limpid tone. Flórez is joined in some of the scenes by artists of the caliber of Plácido Domingo, Anna Netrebko, and Mariusz Kwiecien; mezzo-soprano Daniela Barcellona is not quite in their league in a rare but delightful duet from Il viaggio a Reims. Domingo is featured on a bonus track, the duet, "Ah, vieni, nel tuo sangui," from Otello. Daniel Oren leads Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana in sensitive accompaniment. Decca's sound is clean and present with good balance. (Stephen Eddins)

The two-piano arrangement of orchestral music remained a commercially viable form until the advent of recordings, and even beyond. This recording by the veteran French team of Pascal and Ami Rogé includes several works originally written for two pianos: Ravel's Rhapsodie espagnole and Ma mère l'oye (Mother Goose Suite), the latter better known in its orchestral version, and Saint-Saëns' underrated Scherzo, Op. 87, whose use of whole-tone scales shows that Debussy was not alone in breathing that wind from the east.

This release by The Tallis Scholars, the seventh of nine in a project to record the complete masses of Josquin des Prez, explores two unique and contrasting works. Missa Gaudeamus represents Renaissance artistry at its most intense. Based on the first six notes of a chant melody, it deploys mathematics in a number of clever ways. Missa L'ami Baudichon represents Renaissance artistry at its most playful. It is based on just three notes from a secular folksong that sounds distractingly like the opening of Three Blind Mice. Known as the most adventurous composer of his time, Josquin's restless, searching intellect is on display in all his works.