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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Recorded live at the Glyndebourne Opera House, East Sussex, on 14th & 17th August 2005.
Note: This Blu-ray Disc (BD) is not compatible with standard DVD players David McVicar’s production of Giulio Cesare manages to combine serious insight with entertainment, bringing Handel’s masterpiece to life in a powerful, convincing and highly intelligent way. In every line of the complex narrative the subtle nuances are apparent, reflecting perfectly the transparent and exquisite nature of Handel’s musical expression. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true surround sound, the outstanding singing of the all-star cast, led by a superb Sarah Connolly, and the vivid playing of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under the energising baton of William Christie reveal the colour and dramatic character of Handel’s music in a most delightful manner. ‘…a production with performances to savour, led from the pit by William Christie and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on stylish form. Sarah Connolly… gave a ‘complete’ performance full of intelligence and subtlety. Danielle de Niese stole the show as a wily, fun-filled sex kitten who renders men helpless with her irresistible charms.’ Opera Now Bonus material/features: Illustrated synopsis & cast gallery. Entertainment is not a Dirty Word - documentary including interviews with William Christie, David McVicar and the cast. Danielle de Niese & the Glyndebourne experience - an informal portrait of Danielle de Niese in her first-ever Glyndebourne season. Production photo gallery & rehearsals photo gallery. PICTURE FORMAT: 1080i
LENGTH: Approx 305 Mins
SOUND: 5.0 & 2.0 PCM
SUBTITLES: EN/FR/DE/ES/IT “David McVicar's 2005 staging, revived the following summer, provoked a deal of contrasting views among the critical fraternity but was adored by the Glyndebourne public. Chief cause of their delight was the overtly sexual, high-hoofing performance of Cleopatra by the irrepressible Danielle de Niese (who is accorded a delightful 22-minute narrative on her Glyndebourne experience among the extras here). Her vocal command and stage presence are spectacular in every sense, and from her first aria she utterly seduces her audience.
McVicar took advantage of her attractive skills to build the opera around her personality.
We are here in the high noon of British imperialism and the Ottoman Empire, with Caesar more like a late-19th-century English general than a Roman emperor, and with the Egyptian milieu heavily underlined by milling extras, now always a not-altogether welcome feature of a McVicar production. They clutter the stage and draw attention away from the principals, although one has to admit that the highly disciplined and often captivating choreography is brilliantly executed within Robert Jones's exotic sets. McVicar does at least allow the moments of serious drama to be played out without undue interference – such as the deeply moving duet that closes Act 1 and Cleopatra's 'Piangerò'.
Finally it has to be said that only Glyndebourne allows for the rehearsal time to prepare such a complex and ingenious staging.
The musical side of things is equally well prepared and thought-through under William Christie's knowledgeable and commanding direction. He manages to balance with the same finesse and care the light and serious parts of the score, even if his love for Handel leads him to a few self-indulgently slow tempi. The OAE play lovingly and with period skills for him. By the time of this DVD recording, near the end of the run, the whole thing moves with eloquence matched by elegance.
De Niese sings her airy numbers as to the manner born, seconded by expertly erotic dancing.
She manages most of the emotional substance of her sadder arias, but they sometimes seem wanting in the tonal weight ideally required. Sarah Connolly's thoroughly believable Caesar is sung with her firm tone and well schooled mastery of Handelian style, including subtle embellishments.
This wilful and imperial Caesar manages to change moods as his music demands.
Some of the most accomplished and tender Handelian singing comes from Patricia Bardon's moving Cornelia and Angelika Kirchschlager's concerned Sesto, although the latter does slightly overplay the character's seemingly neurotic state of mind following his father's brutal death. The young countertenor Christophe Dumaux playing Tolomeo is suitably brat-like and spoilt. He, like most of the cast, fulfils all the stringent demands of this very physical staging. Christopher Maltman makes Achilles as nasty as he should be. The sense of teamwork all round is confirmed in the interviews included in the extras. Robin Lough's DVD direction is faultless.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010  BBC Music Magazine
DVD Choice - June 2006 |
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When Sir Colin Davis was asked to select a composer to write a new work for his 80th birthday he chose James MacMillan, about to celebrate his own 50th birthday. MacMillan had previously considered writing a passion and used the opportunity of the commission to produce a setting based on the Gospel of St John.The result is a highly dramatic passion, fusing MacMillan's own Catholic faith, compositional style and musical influences with the long tradition of settings for the passion of Christ in both the Catholic and Lutheran faiths. In addition to the choir and orchestra, MacMillan uses a small choir of professional singers to provide the narration and a solitary baritone soloist to portray Christus.The work received its première on 27th April 2008 at the Barbican, in London, and follows the LSOLive release of two of James MacMillan's earlier works: The World's Ransoming and The Confession of Isobel Gowdie in January 2008. CONCERT REVIEWS: "MacMillan won the night's Oscar for making contemporary music matter. He undoubtedly deserved his standing ovation" The Times "Clearly,the archbishop shared the ecstatic audience's view that a great new work had entered the repertoire. MacMillan's writing made huge demands on the London Symphony Chorus, but they sang with distinction, producing some inspiring sound, particularly in the ravishing tone clusters of the opening pages. Chief credit for the night's success should go to Joseph Cullen, the LSC's director, who not only rehearsed the chorus, but also selected and trained the superb professional narrator choir" The Observer "The first performance of his St John Passion by Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus drew a standing ovation from the Barbican audience last Sunday. Among the first to his feet was the Archbishop of Canterbury … there can be no doubt that his Passion is a towering monument of Catholic culture" Catholic Herald "James MacMillan has delivered a St John Passion that stirred its premiere audience to a standing ovation, Maltman sought out the lyrical core of this striking portrayal, while acknowledging its angry edge. Both choruses delivered with panache, while Sir Colin Davis - in a work commissioned for his 80th birthday - conducted the LSO with the directness he brings to one of the select few living composers that he champions" The Independent “In the central role Christopher Maltman gives one of his finest performances to date, sonorous, assured… and reassuringly firm of tone. The choral and orchestral contributions are likewise beyond reproach, with the superb LSO brass in particular totally unfazed by MacMillan's at times scarily vertiginous demands.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2009 “An 80th-birthday gift for Sir Colin Davis, James MacMillan's 90-minute setting of the St JohnPassion divides into two parts and is cast in 10 movements, the last of which comprises a deeply affecting and cathartic orchestral elegy (described by the composer as 'a song without words'). A baritone is allotted the sole principal part of Christus, a chamber choir acts as the Narrator/Evangelist and a large chorus is assigned all other duties. In the booklet Mac- Millan relates how some ideas from his 2007 opera The Sacrifice have found their way into the score. “I was also aware,” he continues, “of the paradoxical tension created between the two highly contrasted musical contexts – liturgical chant and music drama.” In the central role Christopher Maltman gives one of his finest performances to date, sonorous, assured and reassuringly firm of tone. The choral and orchestral contributions are likewise beyond reproach, with the superb LSO brass in particular totally unfazed by MacMillan's at times scarily vertiginous demands. The microphones convey it all with startling immediacy, although, as is customary from this source, there's precious little in the way of ingratiating glow.
Even after a number of hearings, nagging doubts remain as to whether the work as a whole measures up to the exalted level of inspiration or possesses quite the communicative force of Quickening but it's valuable to have such an imperious realisation of what is a hugely sincere and often gripping narrative. MacMillan's many admirers will deem it an essential acquisition.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Richard Strauss: The Complete Songs 4
Strauss, R: | Stiller Gang, Op. 31/4 Funf Lieder, Op. 15 Der Arbeitsmann, Op. 39, No. 3 Lied an meinen Sohn, Op. 39, No. 5 Leise Lieder, Op. 41a No. 5 Des Dichters Abendgang, Op. 47 No. 2 Das Lied des Steinklopfers, Op. 49 No. 4 Gefunden Op. 56 No. 1 Mit deinen blauen Augen, Op. 56 No. 4 Im Spätboot, Op. 56, No. 3 Alastair Miles (bass) Vom kunftigen Alter, Op. 87 No. 1 Alastair Miles (bass) Erschaffen und Beleben, Op. 87, No. 2 Alastair Miles (bass) Und dann nicht mehr, Op. 87 No. 3 Alastair Miles (bass) Im Sonnenschein, Op. 87 No. 4 Alastair Miles (bass) |
Hyperion’s Strauss Lieder series is fast becoming a worthy successor to the seminal Schubert and Schumann Lieder sets on the label. This fourth volume features a veteran of these recordings, the great British bass-baritone Christopher Maltman. Contrary to a commonly held perception of Strauss as a Lieder composer, what most of the songs in the present volume show is that he was not shy of addressing serious themes. Settings of Rückert, Dehmel, Goethe and others are tinged with a dark regret which is enhanced by their bass tessitura. Strauss the opera composer is evident in the epic scale of the lieder written post-Salome. Roger Vignoles provides his famous extensive booklet notes, with commentary about each individual song and scholarly discourse on the poetry. “This fourth volume of songs in the Hyperion series matches Strauss's masterpieces to weaker offerings, all given equal shrift by the pianist Roger Vignoles and his singers. Maltman has the lion's share, his molasses-rich lower range and walnut-polished upper melting into the ethereal Am Ufer and finding gruff humour in Das Lied des Steinklopfers. Alastair Miles's robust, sensitive bass excels in Im Spätboot, perfectly capturing the eerie, dark atmosphere of Strauss's weary boat passenger.” The Times, 14th February 2009 **** “Maltman and Vignoles strike the right note of hard-won simplicity for Goethe's 'Gefunden' and Heine's 'Mit deinen blauen Augen'. Miles then signs in with the wonderful night-boat meditation of Op. 56 No. 4, underlining the need for a true bass with the last low D flat. ...his imposing timbre fits the operatic scope of the three Rückert settings.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2009 **** “With one possible exception, these are all among Strauss's more rarely performed songs, and quite undeservedly so. Most are highly characteristic and clearly written with affection, while those that may not immediately proclaim the composer's identity ('Das Lied des Stein- klopfers' for instance) are among the most interesting.
Perhaps that sense of a structured improvisation may (as in the Rückert setting 'Und dann nicht mehr') call for a restraining hand, but more often it is such an appealing personal quality that complaint would be sourly puritanical.
Indeed some of the joy arises in just those moments, such as the inspired passage between verses in 'Des Dichters Abendgang', when Strauss the pianist takes over and claims his composer's freedom.
Roger Vignoles captures well the expansiveness and generosity of the writing for piano. He is also a sensitive accompanist in songs where the piano part is relatively simple. “Heimkehr”, the last song of Op 15, is one of these, and this is also the exception to the songs' general unfamiliarity.
It is well sung, with finely controlled high pianissimi, by Christopher Maltman, who has all but the last five songs (mostly Op 81), which are written specifically for bass. It must be said that with the first sound of Alastair Miles, one is immediately aware of a change, not merely in the quality and nature of the voice, but in its production too. Maltman is a valuable artist in many respects, but recording exposes an unevenness of emission which his art is usually able to render inconspicuous 'in the flesh'. Miles impresses deeply, down indeed to the depths of his low D flat.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Recorded live at the Barbican Centre in November 2007, Richard Hickox conducts Carl Orff’s immensely popular dramatic cantata Carmina Burana with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and soloists, Barry Banks, Laura Claycomb and Christopher Maltman. MusicOMH.com wrote of the performance, “The London Symphony Orchestra performed the work with all the commitment and exuberance that one expects from them... The three soloists were outstanding, singing with a unified dynamic power and depth of expression that is rare to find today…Christopher Maltman’s baritone is large, and he dramatically projected every emotion and quirk in the text.” Classical Source said “Hickox and his forces certainly conveyed an appropriate sense of the dramatic…Maltman had the sense of the music and histrionic demands down to a tee… Banks provided strong characterization in the high tenor writing… Claycomb conveyed the vulnerability of the soprano’s music.” Orff is reputed to have declared around the time of Carmina’s first performance, ‘Everything I have written to date, and which you have printed, can be destroyed. With Carmina Burana, my collected works begin.’ He had a strong interest in theatrical presentations and conceived the work as a pageant. The idea came to Orff in 1935 when he encountered an edition of medieval songs edited by the poet Johann Schmeller. The vivid and colourful songs were those sung by the goliards – hedonistic students and traveling monks who celebrated their riotous pursuits in bawdy and profane poetry. The 24 ‘cantiones profanae’ chosen by Orff were translated and the composer set them to music for three vocal soloists, three choirs and a large orchestra featuring triple woodwind, two pianos and no fewer than five percussionists. The score’s combination of gloriously infectious vulgarity interspersed with moments of genuine beauty has assured it an unquestionable position as one of the most popular of all twentieth-century choral works. “Hickox leads a vibrant performance that has a real sense of occasion.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2008 “…it's the excellence of choruses and orchestra you keep coming back to… a richly enjoyable performance of a much-recorded masterpiece.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2008 ***** | | | (also available to download from $10.75) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Howard Goodall - Eternal Light – A Requiem
EMI Classics is proud to release Eternal Light: A Requiem, a new work by the award-winning British composer and internationally acclaimed broadcaster, Howard Goodall. Goodall’s unusual setting of the liturgical service is performed by Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford and London Musici conducted by Stephen Darlington with soloists Natasha Marsh, Alfie Boe and Christopher Maltman. The writing of a Requiem is a special challenge for any composer. The great Requiems of the past by composers such as Mozart, Verdi, Fauré and Duruflé interpret the sacred Requiem text literally, and represent a prayer for the salvation of the departed soul(s). Howard Goodall’s Requiem, by contrast, is intended to provide solace to the grieving. The composer said, “For me, a modern Requiem is one that acknowledges the terrible, unbearable loss and emptiness that accompanies the death of loved ones, a loss that is not easily ameliorated with platitudes about the joy awaiting us in the afterlife. … Musical expression can I hope provide some outlet, some reflection, some transportation, even some comfort….This was to be a Requiem for the living, a Requiem focussing on interrupted lives.” Eternal Light: A Requiem is also distinguished by the inclusion of English poetry, mixed with fragments of Latin, sung simultaneously or antiphonally between the soloists and the choir. Goodall explains, “One section of Latin text comes not from the Requiem mass but from the Book of Revelation, with its description of the coming of the Angels of the Apocalypse. The Recordare movement combines with Phineas Fletcher’s early-17th century sacred verse Drop, drop, slow tears. Other texts are drawn from John McCrae, Francis Quarles, Mary Elizabeth Frye and Ann Thorp.” Commissioned by Mark Stephenson on behalf of London Musici to celebrate the orchestra’s 20th anniversary, Eternal Light: A Requiem is a stand-alone choral work that will have its London premiere in November 2008 in an exciting collaborative version for choir, soloists, orchestra and dance. The dance, Eternal Light, commissioned by Sadler’s Wells Theatre, will be performed by Rambert Dance Company, its associate orchestra London Musici and Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford. Rambert Dance Company and its artistic director, Mark Baldwin, worked closely with Howard Goodall from the conception of the project to find ways in which the themes of the Requiem might be explored further in dance. The result of this collaboration is a work that should appeal to a broad-based audience. Following the premiere, Rambert Dance Company will tour Eternal Light nationally across the UK. Over seventy dates have already been confirmed, including the London premiere, which will take place at Sadler’s Wells on Armistice Day (November 11), the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I. And, as the composer said recently, “although it was not deliberately conceived thus, it is powerfully appropriate that the central Dies Irae movement takes as its vision of hell the horror of armed conflict. Alongside the Latin text phrases I have juxtaposed John McCrae’s haunting war poem In Flanders Fields. McCrae, a Canadian military doctor of great distinction, died on the Western Front in January 1918.” Three other choral works by Howard Goodall are also included in this CD: his setting of Psalm 23, well known as the them tune of the BBC’s Vicar of Dibley series; Love Divine, a hymn of praise set to Charles Wesley’s reassuring, open-hearted words; and, finally, Goodall’s setting of Spared, Wendy Cope’s poem capturing the feelings of many people following the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. “[The work] acts, I hope, as a fitting companion to Eternal Light: A Requiem.” | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Christopher Maltman & Julius DrakeSongs by Warlock, Debussy, Duparc, Schubert and Wolf
“It's Maltman's superb breath control which gives shape and sensuous beauty to Debussy and Dupare. And, thanks to Drake's restraining pace, Warlock's Captain Stratton's Fancy' has real swagger. Flanders and Swann's little masterpiece… about the Honeysuckle and the Bindweed, ends the recital in raptuous applause.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2008 **** “Christopher Maltman… is remarkably skilful in the management of his voice, dealing wonderfully well with Debussy's high tessitura and still plumbing the depths with ease as he does at the end of "Der Wanderer" and "La vague et la cloche". Julius Drake is his perfect counterpart...” Gramophone Magazine, Janurary 2008 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Fauré - The Complete Songs - 3Chanson d’amour
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| |  | Fauré - The Complete Songs - 2Un paysage choisi
“There's a high standard of singing throughout and… Geraldine McGreevy offers delicacy, shape and direction, combined with an intelligent variety of tone, and Christopher Maltman's more forthright approach gives impetus to 'Le voyageur' and 'Prison'. Though her tone is a touch mature, Jennifer Smith is able to draw on the warm colours of her voice for the late cycle Le jardin clos (1914), a sombre, understated piece that emphasises the oblique, unpredictable harmony of the composer's final period.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2005 **** “Volume 2 of Hyperion's superb Fauré song series takes its theme from Clair de lune and an idealised landscape peopled with dreaming birds and sobbing fountains. It follows the composer from youth to old age, from the young charmer to the mature master to the inscrutable sage, imaginatively side-stepping all possible monotony.
Fauré's dream world is a mirror of an occasionally innocent nature that received too many cruel knocks, reflected in music of light and darkness, courage and despair. All the singers involved in this ideally presented and recorded offering perform with a special ardour and commitment; Graham Johnson is, as always, a matchless partner and commentator.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Fauré - The Complete Songs - 1
“Few singers would give over a whole evening to Fauré's songs on the concert platform, and choosing a way of presenting them on disc obviously poses problems. Previous sets had all the songs in chronological order; others chose poets or moods: Graham Johnson and company have begun with songs about water. This means a lot of dreaming and melancholy, whether in Gautier's Chanson du pêcheur ('Ma belle amie est morte', also set by Berlioz), or Richepin's Aucimitière. The latter is given a most beautiful rendition by John Mark Ainsley, who otherwise only sings on two tracks, with Jennifer Smith in the sentimental Pleurs d'or, and the homage to Venice and its lovers in Marc Monnier's Barcarolle.
Three cycles are the main items here. Felicity Lott sings the Cinq Mélodies de Venise, which includes some of Fauré's best-known songs, 'Mandoline', 'En sourdine' and 'Green'. She brings to bear on them a lifetime's devotion to French song. Her other contribution is Au bordde l'eau, to a poem by Sully-Prudhomme. This is made to sound very sad; taken faster it can be quite merry; it's a celebration of love, as well as a meditation on the passing of time.
Stephen Varcoe sings Mirages, Fauré's penultimate cycle (1919). As Graham Johnson writes in his fascinating notes, these poems by Brimont permitted Fauré 'uneventful passion'. Christopher Maltman is the other featured singer, in five separate songs and L'horizon chimérique. All the performances are elegant and well-balanced, but one misses the extra slight note of acid that native French singers bring to Fauré's songs.
Hyperion's sound is impeccable and in both his playing and accompanying essay, Graham Johnson penetrates to the heart of one of music's most subtle and enigmatic geniuses.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | The English Song Series Volume 6 - Gustav Holst
“The Four Songs for voice and violin, settings of medieval texts, were inspired by the composer hearing one of his pupils singing to herself and playing her violin in Thaxted Church.They're singularly moving, especially in this plangently toned performance by Susan Gritton. She is no less remarkable in the Six Songs, early pieces in which Holst perfectly responds to an eclectic choice of poetry, nowhere more so than in the opening piece from Tennyson's 'In Memoriam'.
Philip Langridge is equally well suited to the 12 Humbert Wolfe settings, to which he brings his customary gift of an immediate response to the texts in hand. His empathy with poet and composer here couldn't be closer. The Vedic Hymns are more rarified, mystical territory and not so easy for singer or listener to encompass. Christopher Maltman does well by them, except where an incipient beat sometimes spoils pleasure in his singing.
Pianist Steuart Bedford is responsive to all the varying moods of these groups, and in the opening group Louisa Fuller is the sensitive violinist.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Gramophone Awards 2006
Gramophone Magazine
BBC Music Magazine Awards 2007
