Mstation Classical Reviews

Age of the Diva Albinoni Almost Christmas Arias, Hampson, Harnoncourt Bach Keyboard Concertos Bach Viola Bach, Barenboim Bach, Cantatas Bach, Concertos Bach, JS, Keyboard Works Bach, Mass in B Minor Bach, Mutter Bach, trio-sonatas Baroque Christmas Album Baroque Trumpet Bartok, Concertos Bartoli Bartoli, Opera Proibita Bax, Baroque Beethoven Piano Beethoven String Quartets Beethoven and Brahms Beethoven, piano Bella Donna: Courtly Love Belle Epoque Melodies Berlioz, Les Troyens Binchois, Dufay Boccherini, Cello Concertos Boxed Baroque Boyce, Eight Symphonies British Light Classics British Piano Concertos Brubeck, The Gates of Justice Bruch, Violin Concerto Callas Canteloube, Chants d'Auvergne Carols Chanticleer, Sound in Spirit Charpentier Charpentier, Lebegue Christmas 04 Christmas Vespers Contemporary and Medieval Copland Delius Der Rosenkavalier Dukachev - Beethoven, Prokofiev, Rachminov Elgar Elgar, Marches Elgar, The Enigma Variations Faure songs French Medieval Songs Fux Gounod, Faust Graham: Causon, Ravel, Debussy Great Ballets Grieg, Franck Handel Arias Handel, Deborah Handel, Messiah Handel, The Triumph ... Handel, Water Music DVD Hapsburg Music Haydn Haydn, Handel DVD's Herz Piano Jane Austen's Songbook Josefowicz Recital King's Singers La Fille Mal Gardee Lang Lang and Yo Yo Ma: Farewell Isabella and Chinese things Lauridsen Llibre Vermell Luci, Bartoli, and a dead diva Lully, Comedies-ballets, Phaeton Maerzmusik sampler Mahler Symphony No 7 Mahler, Berg Mantovani Matsudaira Medieval French Songs Mendelssohn Sacred Mendelssohn, Dvorak Messa di Gloria Michael Haydn Miles Davis ... sorta Monterverdi, Orfeo Monteverdi Vespers Monteverdi, Poppea Monteverdi, The Sacred Music 3 Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Handel Montiverdi Vespers Morricone Mozart Symphonies Mozart, Cosi fan tutte Mozart, Exsultate Jubilate Mozart, Mass in C Minor Mozart, symphonies 40, 41 Mozart: Die Zauberflote Mozart: the string quartets Mozrt Requiem Mutter Mozart New English Hymnal New RSS system and Feeds Nikolay Roslavets Peerson, Latin Motets Penguins March Pergolesi, La Serva Padrona Philip Glass, Symphonies 2 and 3 Poulenc concerto Proms Purcell - Dido and Aeneas Purcell Sonatas Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Rachmaninov, Piano Ramallah - Beethoven No. 5 Rameau, Les Paladins Reger, Bach and Telemann Variations Renaissance Organ Music Romantic Cello Concertos Romantic Violin Russian Album -Anna Netrebko Rutter Mass Sanctuary, the heart has its reasons Scarlatti, The complete Keyboard Sonatas Schubert and Mozart piano Schubert Ð Death and the Maiden Shostakovich Shostakovich and Schnittke, Cello Shostakovich/Josefowicz Sibelius String Quartets Sixteen: Ikon South American Baroque Stainer, The Crucifiction Sting does Dowland Strauss tone poem Takemitsu Tallis Tchaikovsky, Symphony No 5, Verdi, Sibelius The Kirov celebrates Nijinsky Toshiro Mayazumi Vaughan Williams Verdi View from a dark tunnel Virginal -Susann van Soldt Vivaldi Cello Vivaldi, Motezuma Vivaldi, Sacred Music Vivaldi: Dixit Dominus Von Otter Wagner, Das Rheingold Wagner, Gotterdammerung DVD Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks Weir, Gillian Weiss / Lindberg Lute Whitacre, Cloudburst Williams, Bingham: Mass von Weber, Chamber Music

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 Russian Album -Anna Netrebko Anna Netrebko, various Russian Album Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre Valery Gergiev LP, Deutsche Grammophon Here we have excerpts from works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Prokoviev. The orchestra is St. Petersburg's Mariinsky and the voice Anna Netrebko. Rather nice it is too even if excerpts are a dumbing-down that I don't particularly approve of. They do serve a purpose though and if they act like samplers then maybe people will be drawn in and investigate some of the works more fully. As luck would have it, I'm listening to this in a hotel room in what used to be Russia - in the Ukraine. It's an awfully long way from here to St. Petersburg but there is much of the old Russia still here and those rich, long string lines that punctuate these Russian pieces speak of the Steppes (which are in this part) as well as they do of the lands of the north. (Baron K) [] permanent link Sting does Dowland John Dowland, Songs from the Labyrinth Sting and Edin Karamazov LP, Deutsche Grammophon There are some who say that all you need to know about Dowland is that he was chronically sad and wrote chronically sad songs. There are those who think Sting is rather sad as well. Still, let's be fair here. The album has sold very well and the only Dowland expert of my aquaintance thinks Sting made a fair fist of this. For me, his voice is a little harsh these days for a true troubador and the project smacks a lot of using a well-known name to promote a project when I'm sure that there are lots of better voices around. Still, it could have been worse. It could have been the fellow with the funny hats. (Baron K) [] permanent link Christmas Vespers Christmas Vespers at Westminster Cathedral, incl. Sweelinck, Tallis, Victoria, Shutz, Langlais the choir of Westminster Cathedral, Martin Baker LP, Hyperion The cathedral not the abbey - it's easy to get the two confused and this is from the catholic cathedral just down the road from the abbey. Interestingly, and totally tangenitally, when I was last at an Abbey service last Easter, most of the congregation were catholics. Perhaps they were reclaiming the once catholic place. The cathedral can be problematic for music in the sense that frequently, at minor services, there isn't much. Alternative places with very high musical standards are the Brompton Oratory (my home church, so I'm prejudiced) and Farm Street, Mayfair. However, the cathedral does have very fine music on certain occasions - and Christmas Vespers is one of them. And this recording is, as is usual from Hyperion, a very nice capture of the whole thing. (Baron K) [] permanent link