One of the most popular of modern choral works, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana has found its way into many collections just on the strength of its foreboding opening, "O Fortuna." Because this work is well represented in all the major labels' catalogs, one has a wide array of performances to choose from; while several are excellent, it is difficult to ...
Long familiar as a concert suite, Béla Bartók's one-act ballet The Miraculous Mandarin (1926) is now more frequently recorded in its entirety, thanks to the CD's abundant playing time; the full piece easily fits with additional works. This 2004 release from Naxos offers not only the complete Mandarin, but also the rambunctious Dance Suite (1923) ...
No, these 2006 recordings featuring mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly with Simon Wright conducting the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus are not the finest recordings of Elgar's "Sea Pictures" and "The Music Makers" ever made. Those honors go to Janet Baker and John Barbirolli's incredibly moving 1965 recording of "Sea Pictures" and Baker and ...
The F minor may well be Ralph Vaughan Williams' most dissonant work. But, let's face it, how dissonant is that? Vaughan Williams was no Berg or Bartók and, even at his most dissonant, he's still not all that dissonant. Because no matter how dissonant Vaughan Williams gets, he's never without his trusty key signature as a guide. So no matter how ...
British composer Richard Blackford has devoted a large part of his career to dramatic music -- opera, ballet, incidental music, and film scores -- but he has also written a number of large scale choral works. Mirror of Perfection, for soprano, baritone, chorus, children's choir, and orchestra, uses texts by Saint Francis of Assisi. The composer ...
There are good reasons for considering William Walton's oratorio Belshazzar's Feast his masterpiece. Although relatively short in duration, it is massively scored for baritone soloist, gargantuan mixed choir, immense orchestra and two off-stage brass bands. But it is more merely than loud: it treats a great subject -- hubris and nemesis -- with ...
Perhaps no other English composer of the first half of the twentieth century had the talent of fitting words to music that Gerald Finzi did. So complete was the unity of his art that Finzi was acknowledged in his time to be the finest composer of English songs. Even in his larger works for soloist, chorus, and orchestra, Finzi never faltered but ...
Gerald Finzi, and important and prolific English composer in the first half of the twentieth century, had a life unduly filled with loss. Although he only lived 55 years, he survived through the death of many family members and close friends. By 1951 -- five years before his own death -- he was diagnosed with a form of leukemia and knew that it ...
Devotees of the composer might argue that a collection called The Best of Ralph Vaughan Williams ought to be at least a 30-disc set containing all his symphonies, operas, and oratorios, plus a large selection of his songs, concertos, and other orchestral works. But since a large part of the purpose of a best-of collection is to introduce listeners ...
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![Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony [Hybrid SACD]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/m10333uw9mu_t.jpg)
![Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin [Hybrid SACD]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/m09351det5c_t.jpg)
![Vaughan Williams: The Complete Symphonies [Box Set]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/m68353nphcn_t.jpg)
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