The performances on this 2 disc set, which includes extensive liner notes and the complete libretto, were recorded at the Barbican Center, London, in August 2007, with the London Symphony Orchestra and the same vocalists who performed in Vienna.
From a pure-pleasure standpoint, the first Beethoven's Wig was nothing to flip over, and the second disc in the series follows suit. However, that is not to say that this is not a valuable and possibly ingenious record. Those unfamiliar with the premise will quickly get the picture: Producer/writer/lead singer/chief clever guy Richard Perlmutter gathers a bundle of important classical works ...
This is the eagerly awaited final instalment of András Schiff's acclaimed complete Beethoven cycle. Collectors can now finally explore the extraordinary interpretative and editorial qualities of this cycle in full.Schiff's much-admired art of musical characterisation is particularly evident in these last six sonatas that combine dramatic and symphonic grandeur with intimate beauty. As Schiff ...
In another original pairing violinist Hilary Hahn brings together the familiar, highly commercial and long-awaited recording of the famous Sibelius Violin Concerto with the rarely performed Violin Concerto by Arnold Schoenberg. Hahn brings out the romantic qualities of Schoenberg's Concerto--known as one of the most difficult pieces in the violin repertoire--showing why it makes an ideal coupling ...
Neville Marriner's 1976 account of the Covent Garden version of the score (1743), with the Academy and Chorus of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and soloists Elly Ameling, Anna Reynolds, Philip Langridge, and Gwynne Howell, is positively plush-sounding but nicely animated. I'd love to have this kind of string tone for, say, the Dvorák Serenade, but for Handel it may be just a bit much. --Ted ...