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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Recorded on 26 November 1964 (mono)
Gwyneth Jones, Giulietta Simionato, Bruno Prevedi, Peter Glossop, Joseph Rouleau, Elizabeth Bainbridge, William Clothier, Handel Owen & John Dobson The Covent Garden Opera Chorus & The Covent Garden Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini When Covent Garden announced for its 1964 season the reuniting of director Luchino Visconti and conductor Carlo Maria Giulini considerable excitement was engendered. Harold Rosenthal wrote in Opera Magazine after one of the performances of Il Trovatore that “this was one of the GREATEST SINGLE PERFORMANCES of Italian opera we have heard at Covent Garden in recent years, not least because of the genius of Giulini in the pit. Giulini, with his burning sincerity, musical integrity, complete belief in Verdi's music, and his wonderful rhythmic sense is without doubt the greatest conductor of Italian opera, and Verdi in particular, since Toscanini.” The highly distinguished Welsh soprano Gwyneth Jones (born 1936), who replaced Leontyne Price at short notice, made her international breakthrough in this 1964 performance by giving a wonderful account of Leonora's music. She was here at the absolutely peak of her achievement. After these performances in 1964 her career developed rapidly. She was awarded the C.B.E. in 1976 and was promoted to Dame 1986. Jones never recorded Leonora. Bruno Prevedi (1928-88) as Manrico was not at the time considered a particularly outstanding tenor; here proves his detractors wrong. Throughout he has just the right combination of the lyrical and heroic to fulfil the taxing role's needs, without any of the coarseness of his successors. Prevedi belonged to a group that included James King, Mario del Monaco, James McCracken, Gino Penno and Franco Corelli and was only overtaken by the arrival of new types of tenor like Pavarotti and Domingo. Yet, Prevedi was a much different artist with a far larger voice than the more famous ones to follow him. The great Italian mezzo-soprano, Giulietta Simionato (born 1910) gives her classic portrayal of Azucena, the gypsy mother of Manrico. Simionato was very much in the veteran stage of her career by 1964 and probably had sung innumerable performances of this part, giving her performance great authority. As for the sound, this is as good as any we have had so far in this Covent Garden series. It is particularly helpful in bringing out the fine instrumental balance achieved by Giulini. | 
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Dean Peterson, John Del Carlo, Anthony Dean Griffey, Felicity Palmer, Patricia Racette, Jill Grove, Greg Fedderly, Anthony Michaels-Moore, Bernard Fitch, Leah Partridge, Erin Morley & Logan William Erickson Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Donald Runnicles Anthony Dean Griffey and Patricia Racette excel in John Doyle’s new production of Britten’s most celebrated opera, Peter Grimes – filmed live at the Metropolitan Opera in Hi-Definition. This new MET production by award-winning director John Doyle (2006 Tony Award® Best Direction of a Musical – Sweeney Todd) of Britten’s haunting seaside tale continues EMI Classics’ recent collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera : Live in High-Definition series. Peter Grimes, Britten’s second opera, is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of postwar opera, and its premiere 63 years ago marked a turning point in the history of British Opera. It is now considered a masterwork of 20th Century opera, and since its premiere, it became the first opera by an English composer to enter and remain in the international repertory. The work is based on a poem by the turn-of-the-19th-century writer George Crabbe entitled The Borough, and is set in an isolated English fishing village in the 1830s. Much of the emotional drive of the opera comes from the six ‘Sea Interludes’ – calm, storm, at dawn and by moonlight. These are among the most brilliantly evocative music that Britten ever wrote and which help to establish the constant, overpowering presence of the sea as the opera’s dominant force. Anthony Dean Griffey, as Grimes, is ‘superb’ (San Francisco Chronicle). Patricia Racette, as Ellen Orford, the schoolmistress who tries and fails to rescue Grimes from his anger and self-pity is ‘near faultless’ (New York Sun). Donald Runnicles, music director of the San Francisco Opera, “drew an inspired performance from the Met Orchestra, full of passion and commitment yet free of bombast. Without slackening the dramatic tension, he found ways of drawing out both the music's austere lyricism and its violent extremes.” – Boston Globe Production: John Doyle, Set designer: Scott Pask, Costume designer: Ann Hould-Ward & Lighting designer: Peter Mumford |
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| |  | Libretto in French with English translation. Sung in French
Gregory Kunde (Cellini), Laura Claycomb (Teresa), Darren Jeffery (Balducci), Andrew Kennedy (Francesco), Isabelle Cals (Ascanio), John Relyea (Pope Clement VII), Peter Coleman-Wright (Fieramosca), Jacques Imbrailo (Pompeo), Andrew Foster-Williams, (Bernardino) & Alasdair Elliott (Cabaretier) London Symphony Chorus & London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis This title will not be issued on standard CD A high density DSD recording (5.0), live
at the Barbican, June 2007
Slimline double case & booklet in slip case with notes in English, French & German. “In Davis's hands, its [the opera's] originality and imagination are fully vindicated. The cast attack the piece with skill and immense vigour. Gregory Kunde rises to the full stature of Berlioz's thinly disguised self-portrait of the artist as romantic hero. Davis's identification with the score brings out the best in his forces, allowing this neglected work to register as a masterpiece.” The Guardian Concert Review ***** “Compared with The Damnation of Faust, Béatrice et Benedict and The Trojans, Benvenuto Cellini has always been Berlioz's Cinderella opera, a strange mixture of farcical comedy and hymn to the supremacy of art. But Colin Davis vindicates its dramatic qualities magnificently in this recording, despite the fact that it derives from concert performances. Its success is partly down to the vibrant playing of the LSO, but also to the way the cast members seem to interact vocally as if they were on stage. And the cast itself, mainly of younger singers, is very fine indeed, led by the resolute Cellini of Gregory Kunde.” The Telegraph, 3rd May 2008 “Conductor and tenor are the joint heroes of this exhilarating release...The American tenor Gregory Kunde doesn’t have the most immediately appealing timbre, but the high tessitura holds no terrors for him, his sung French is good and, even in his early fifties, he manages to counterfeit the youthful braggadocio of Berlioz’s likeable rapscallion. Davis remains the supreme Berliozian of our day, brilliantly evoking the mercurial wit of the comic repartee, the abandoned gaiety of the Roman carnival and the high drama and suspense of the climactic scene in the foundry, for the casting of Perseus...At LSO prices, this is a steal, and anyone who doesn’t know this fabulous score should snap it up.” Sunday Times, 27th April 2008 **** “The combination of technology and the conductor's unimpaired élanmakes for glowing textures and shattering climaxes.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2008 **** “Davis and Co give Berlioz's joyous opera all the love and vitality it deserves. In a score that grows and growls from the bottom up, Davis's Berlioz sound comes into its own, certainly weightier than Nelson or Norrington but always watchful as the melodies and cross-rhythms cascade across the barlines.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2008 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | The English Song Series Volume 17 - Alwyn
Elin Manahan Thomas (soprano), Jeremy Huw Williams (baritone), John Turner (treble recorder) & Iain Burnside (piano) William Alwyn composed prolifically in virtually all genres; orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental. His major works for the voice were composed during the latter part of his career, between 1965 and 1980, and include four of the song-cycles recorded here. “Jeremy Huw Williams brings conspicuous ardour and intelligence to the task in hand… Elin Manahan Thomas sings with chaste purity and unfailing accuracy… Iain Burnside proffers immaculate support. …this is music of strong appeal which should hopefully win the composer new admirers.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2008 “…performances are never less than convincing, especially Elin Manahan Thomas's bright, pure soprano interweaving exquisitely with John Turner's treble recording and Iain Burnside's piano in Seascape…” BBC Music Magazine, March 2008 ***** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Yo-Yo Ma - AppassionatoRomantic Music for Cello
Brahms: | Swallow Song with Kojiro Umezaki, shakuhachi Double Concerto for Violin & Cello in A minor, Op. 102 (Andante) with Isaac Stern, violin | Franck, C: | Cello Sonata in A major with Kathryn Stott, piano | Gershwin: | Prelude No. 2 with Jeffrey Kahane, piano | Kabalevsky: | Doce De Coco from Obrigado Brazil with Paquito D’Rivera, clarinet & Romero Lubambo, guitar Cello Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 49 (Largo) The Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy | Mendelssohn: | Song Without Words with Emanuel Ax, piano | Mimiya: | Mikin Pekko (Finnish folk song) with Joel Fan, piano First Impressions from Appalachia Waltz with Edgar Meyer & Mark O’Connor | Morricone: | Nostalgia from Cinema Paridiso Ennio Morricone Gabriel's Oboe Ennio Morricone | Piazzólla: | Soledad with Octavio Brunetti, piano | Saint-Saëns: | Le Carnaval des Animaux: Le Cygne with Robert Casadesus, piano | Vivaldi: | The Four Seasons: Winter - Largo Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ton Koopman | Williams, J: | Going to School from Memoirs of a Geisha Soundtrack with John Williams, piano |
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| |  | An Opera in two acts Libretto - Michael Hastings
John Graham-Hall (tenor), William Sheldon (boy soprano) & Vivian Tierney (soprano) Michael Nyman Band, Paul McGrath | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Russell Warner, William David Brohn, William Daly, Donald Johnston, Larry Wilcox, Sid Ramin, with Wendy-Jo Vaughn, Stephen Johns, Albert Regni, Lois Martin, Rebecca Luker, Joe Gustern, Joanna Glushak, Susan Jolles, Mitchell Stern, Beth Ravin, John Redsecker, Charles Goff, John Taylor, Scott Kuney, Ann Leathers, Atsuko Sato, Brent Barrett, Joyce Nolen, Juliet Lambert, Roxann Parker, Jason Graae, Jack Doyle, Seymour Red Press, David Gale, Les Scott, Deborah Unger, Martin Agee, Robert Ingliss, Beth Fowler, John Moses, Clay Ruede, Kevin Bailey, James Rocco, Peter Ecklund, Crystal Garner, Benjamin Herman, Stephen Lehew, John Campo, Sally Shumway, Colleen Clausing, Ronald Sell, Laura Conwesser, Douglas Edelman, Jack Gale, Kevin Ligon, Paul Cortese, Don Chastain, Shelley Wald, Mary Lou Barber, John Frosk, Marilyn Reynolds, Mineko Yajima, Don Bradford, Dale Sandish, Mark Agnes, David Braynard, Jeff Lyons, Sharon Moe, Ralph Olsen, Frederick Zlotkin, Suzanne Ornstein, David Barron John Mauceri 1990 Studio Cast Recording | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Vaughan Williams - Symphonies Nos. 4-6
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| |  | The Art of the Guitar
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| |  | The McCormack Edition Volume 6The Acoustic Recordings (1915-16)
John McCormack (tenor), Emil Keneke (trumpet), Harry Macdonough (tenor), Reinald Werrenrath (baritone), William F. Hooley (bass) & Fritz Kreisler (violin) “Apart from the classic rendition of 'Il mio tesoro' from Don Giovanni, almost all the material recorded here by the great Irish tenor is salon if not parlour music, but his voice had no flaws at this period (1915-16) and his performances possess huge charm.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2008 ***** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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