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Jon Vickers (Grimes), Heather Harper (Ellen), Jonathan Summers (Balstrode), Elizabeth Bainbridge (Auntie), Teresa Cahill (First Niece), Anne Pashley (Second Niece), John Dobson (Bob Boles), Forbes Robinson (Swallow), Patricia Payne (Mrs Sedley), John Lanigan (Horace Adams), Thomas Allen (Ned Keene), Richard Van Allan (Hobson) Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Sir Colin Davis “the cast is fine and the tension cumulative” BBC Music Magazine, July 2011 *** “Sir Colin Davis takes a fundamentally darker, tougher view of Peter Grimes than the composer himself. Jon Vickers's powerful, heroic interpretation sheds keen new light on what arguably remains the greatest of Britten's operas...A genuine bargain.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition *** “Convincingly dark reading from Covent Garden” The Times, 10th May 2013 | 
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| |  | Tony Palmer’s Film About Benjamin Britten: A Time There Was…
Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, Leonard Bernstein, Sviatoslav Richter, Janet Baker, Julian Bream, Heather Harper, Imogen Holst, John Shirley-Quirk, Rudolf Bing & Henry Moore English Chamber Orchestra, Steuart Bedford This definitive portrait of the great composer Benjamin Britten from director Tony Palmer has been newly re-mastered in wide-screen stereo. It tells of one of the most profound love affairs of the 20th Century, between Britten and his lover and life-long companion and inspiration, Peter Pears. At a time when it was illegal to be openly homosexual, Britten and Pears faced up to a hostile world with unflinching dignity, producing a string of masterpieces that, together with the works of Vaughan Williams, established English music as internationally preeminent in the middle years of the 20th century. Among the music featured is extracts from: ‘Peter Grimes’, ‘Billy Budd’, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ‘ War Requiem’, ‘Curlew River’, ‘Death in Venice’, ‘Nocturne’ and ‘The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’. “This multi-award winning documentary, made in 1979 at the invitation of Sir Peter Pears, is quite simply the best film that will ever be made about the composer.” Simon Heffer Region: 0 (All Regions) Rating: E (Exempt from Certification) Duration: 101 mins Picture Format: NTSC (all regions) |
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| |  | Benjamin Britten and His Festival
Music featured includes: A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Burning Fiery Furnace, The Building of the House, Nocturnal, Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, The Golden Vanity, A Ceremony of Carols, and the Spring Symphony.
With: Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, Imogen Holst, John Culshaw, Sviatoslav Richter, Julian Bream, Margaret Price, Henry Moore, Colin Graham, James Bowman, Owen Brannigan, Robert Tear, Heather Harper, Sir William Walton, Joyce Grenfell, E. M. Forster & Osian Ellis The Vienna Boys Choir & The English Chamber Orchestra. Ahead of next year’s Britten centenary, Tony Palmer’s 1967 classic film is made available again. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the Aldeburgh Festival, cofounded by Benjamin Britten along with singer Peter Pears and writer Eric Crozier, and the opening by The Queen of the new concert hall at Snape. Sean Day-Lewis of The Daily Telegraph raved, "A superb film (which) may well achieve the status of a classic, repeated again and again over the years... the brilliant editing (was) of the highest quality, making a natural partnership of music and picture." DVD specifications: Region: 0 (All Regions) Rating: E (Exempt from Certification) Duration: 53 mins Picture Format: NTSC (all regions) | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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“Britten's devastating master-opera is graced with a performance to match, with stellar playing and a mesmerising tour de force each from Robert Tear's Quint and Helen Donath's Governess.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2012 ***** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Walton: Belshazzar's Feast, Choral Works & Songs
Walton: | Coronation Te Deum Salisbury Cathedral Choir, Winchester Cathedral Choir & Chichester Cathedral Choir Belshazzar's Feast Benjamin Luxon (baritone) London Philharmonic Choir & London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti Jubilate Deo First release on CD Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, Simon Preston Set me as a seal upon thine heart First release on CD Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, Simon Preston Where does the uttered music go? First release on CD Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, Simon Preston Missa Brevis First release on CD Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, Simon Preston The Twelve First release on CD Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, Simon Preston A Litany 'Drop, drop slow tears' First release on CD Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, Simon Preston All this time First release on CD Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, Simon Preston Make we joy now in this fest First release on CD Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, Simon Preston What cheer? First release on CD Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, Simon Preston A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table First release on CD Three Sitwell Songs First release on CD Heather Harper (soprano) & Paul Hamburger (piano) |
This 2CD set reveals two sides of Walton, the composer of music for the voice. CD1 features the extravagant side of the composer with multiple choirs and a huge orchestra for swaggering performances of the Coronation Te Deum and Belshazzar’s Feast, both with Sir Georg Solti conducting. CD2, with all items released on CD for the first time, features the more intimate side of the composer, with settings of choral miniatures, from the earliest setting (Drop, drop, slow tears of 1917) up to the 1972 Jubilate. Simon Preston’s LP was released on Argo to mark Walton’s 70th birthday. The remainder of the items come from a L’Oiseau-Lyre LP coupling songs by Walton and Machonchy and performed by Heather Harper. A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table was commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths for the first City of London Festival; the texts were chosen by the English dramatist and poet Christopher Hassall and the poems come mostly from 18th-century verse related to London. The collection is rounded off with Walton’s Three Songs to poems by Dame Edith Sitwell date from 1932, all based on the composer’s Façade. “Solti's Belshazzar's Feast is more symphonic than dramatic but monumentally impressive. Preston directs a useful anthology of short choral works.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2012 **** “Decca have done it again, transferring this highly spectacular choral work [Belshazzar’s Feast] with incredible aplomb. The Coronation Te Deum is hardly less impressive, the choral sound richer textured to suit the occasion, and there is a great bass pedal effect near the end. … Solti has come to Belshazzar's Feast, a great British masterpiece, and in his refreshing way has given it a crisp, international look … It is certainly a most distinctive performance, sharply focused and helped by a recording of superb clarity and brilliance … Indeed the range and bite of the sound here is little short of miraculous” Gramophone Magazine (Belshazzar’s Feast, Coronation Te Deum) “The disc thus gives a panorama of the composer's choral development over five decades … Preston has welded the choir into a most expressive and flexible instrument … The disc does credit to all concerned and will add lustre to the already high standard of Argo recordings in this field.” Gramophone Magazine (CD2: Choral works) “Heather Harper’s singing … is a constant pleasure. Paul Hamburger, a first-rate accompanist who has appeared far too little on records, plays the quite demanding piano parts with great skill and sensitivity” Gramophone Magazine (Songs) | | | (Sorry, download not available in your country) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Essential Gilbert & Sullivan
Artists include George Baker, Owen Brannigan, John Cameron, Richard Lewis, Monica Sinclair, Marjorie Thomas, Elsie Morison, Heather Harper, April Cantelo, Pamela Bowden, Sir Geraint Evans, Jeanette Sinclair, Alexander Young, Edna Graham, John Shaw, Joseph Roleau | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | William Steinberg
William Steinberg (1899–1978), a native of Cologne who spent almost all his career in the U.S., was known principally as Music Director of the Pittsburg Symphony (1952–76), which he made into one of the world’s leading orchestras, and also as the distinguished Music Director of the Boston Symphony (1969–72) at the end of his career. He was celebrated as an orchestra builder, co-founding the Palestine Orchestra which became the Israel Philharmonic as well as helping one of his mentors, Arturo Toscanini, to form the NBC Symphony Orchestra. His other mentor was Otto Klemperer and, like Klemperer, Steinberg conducted and recorded Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler superbly together with a fondness for 20th-century works. Steinberg’s recording of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis has never been issued before on CD and is in excellent stereo. “In Steinberg's Gloria, the choir's accent on 'hominibus' is just right: quiet, not overdone...Steinberg hammers out 'consubstantialem Patri' in fine style...Peter Meven intones the the opening to the Agnus Dei with gravitas.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2012 “Steinberg impresses by keeping a firm hand on the tiller. Almost without exception I thought his tempi were judiciously chosen...Beethoven makes the most unreasonable demands on the chorus, the sopranos especially, yet the German singers never flinch and I admired the tenors who produce strong, incisive singing yet never force the tone” MusicWeb International, July 2012 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Gilbert & Sullivan: Pirates of Penzance & Overtures
In a high-spirited romp that irresistibly parodies the dramatic and musical gestures of Italian grand opera, The Pirates of Penzance tells the story of Frederic, apprenticed in error to a shipload of good-natured buccaneers. Famously featuring a loquacious major general and an ineffectual police squad, the operetta received its premiere in New York in 1879, thus pre-empting any ‘pirate’ American productions of the kind that followed the London success of its maritime predecessor, HMS Pinafore. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Jon Vickers (Grimes), Heather Harper (Ellen), Jonathan Summers (Balstrode), Elizabeth Bainbridge (Auntie), Teresa Cahill (First Niece), Anne Pashley (Second Niece), John Dobson (Bob Boles), Forbes Robinson (Swallow), Patricia Payne (Mrs Sedley), John Lanigan (Horace Adams), Thomas Allen (Ned Keene), Richard Van Allan (Hobson) Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Sir Colin Davis Beautifully packaged, and at budget price. Full track-lists and synopses in English, German and French. “the cast is fine and the tension cumulative” BBC Music Magazine, July 2011 *** “Sir Colin Davis takes a fundamentally darker, tougher view of Peter Grimes than the composer himself. Jon Vickers's powerful, heroic interpretation sheds keen new light on what arguably remains the greatest of Britten's operas...A genuine bargain.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition *** | | | (Sorry, download not available in your country) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Handel: Alexander's Feast & The Choice of Hercules
“Arias from two distinguished teams...and King's Choir is still attractively fresh.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 *** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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