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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | 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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| |  | Lambert: Summer’s Last Will and Testament
Primarily a renowned music critic and conductor and composer of ballets, Constant Lambert wrote very few choral works. Summer’s Last Will and Testament is an extensive cantata of stylistic diversity and emotional power. Completed in 1935, this setting of writings by the poet Thomas Nashe has strong claims to being one of its composer’s finest works. Despite attracting little attention at its premiere, Malcolm Arnold called it “one of the undiscovered treasures of the English choral repertoire”. This benchmark recording by the English Northern Philharmonia and David Lloyd-Jones is a first-class demonstration of orchestral and choral brilliance. “Nothing short of a triumph. With the bittersweet Aubade héroïque as makeweight, no disc makes a better case for Lambert’s importance” BBC Music Magazine “One is very reluctant at the conclusion to disturb the silence by standing up and switching off the CD player” CD Review “A masterpiece buried for far too long” The Guardian | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Stravinsky: Duo Concertant
The acclaimed Naxos Robert Craft Stravinsky Edition continues with this fascinating album of diverse pieces by one of the 20th Century’s iconic composers. The Duo Concertant reconciles the contrasting timbres of violin and piano, while the breezy Sonata for Two Pianos, written in America, draws on Russian themes. The Requiem Canticles was performed at Stravinsky’s funeral, while the ‘sacred ballad’ Abraham and Isaac is a dramatic and moving retelling of the Old Testament story. The Élégie for solo viola is one of his most affecting works, and Bluebird is a loving arrangement for chamber orchestra of excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty. “It's the performances of the two late serial works [the Requiem Canticles and Abraham and Isaac] that make this disc worthwhile. Craft brings real urgency to these masterpieces, and a dramatic clarity in particular to Abraham and Isaac.” The Guardian, 26th May 2011 **** | | | (also available to download from $5.75) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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Full track-lists and synopsis in English, German and French “Francisco Araiza's Almaviva is graceful, Agnes Baltsa's Rosina conscientious and Thomas Allen's Figaro ebullient.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2011 *** “Neville Marriner directs his first complete opera recording with a fine sense of the theatre and the music's inner detail.” Gramophone Magazine, April 1984 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Filmed at Hampton Court House
Purcell’s much-loved tragic masterpiece is an intense tale of heroism, passion, betrayal and ultimate tragedy, played out against a backdrop of fiery rituals, evil spells and pageantry. This film was first shown on television in 1995 to celebrate the tercentenary of Purcell’s death. The American soprano Maria Ewing stars as Dido, with Karl Daymond as Aeneas. They head an excellent British cast including Rebecca Evans as Belinda, Sally Burgess as the Sorceress, Patricia Rozario as the First Enchantress and James Bowman as the Voice of Mercury. The Collegium Musicum 90 is conducted by Richard Hickox, and the film was directed by Peter Maniura. This production of Dido & Aeneas was filmed entirely on location at Hampton Court House in 1995, where spectacular settings were created in the house and grounds by the Dutch designer Niek Kortekaas. Director Peter Maniura said of the production, “Purcell’s masterpiece is a miracle of dramatic compression. Inspired by the paintings of the 17th Century, I have tried to recreate a rich filmic world which places a classical love story with its heroes and heroines, magic and intrigue, in a Baroque setting”. “Maria Ewing is a lugubrious Dido laid in fire as much as earth in Manuira's production for television. Flaming torches culminate in a funeral pyre that Bellini's tragic heroine Norma might have envied.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2009 *** “Interiors flicker by torchlight and the outdoor scenes are a highly attractive mixture of Poussin and period drama, with sumptuous costumes and thoughtfully designed set pieces… a rich feast that makes fulsome use of the location, and the director Peter Maniura complements Purcell's music with consistently sensitive imagery.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2009 | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| | .jpg) | Sung in English (translation by Tom Hammond)
Sir Charles Mackerras’s recordings are well-established collectors’ items. His consistently brilliant reviews confirm that his music-making belies his years, and his new opera recordings have become benchmarks for the Chandos Opera in English series. Chandos’s disc of the month sees Sir Charles pick up his baton to conduct leading dramatic soprano, Susan Bullock and the Philharmonia Orchestra in his first ever recording of Richard Strauss’s Salome. This is also the premiere recording in English and follows the Grammy win for Hansel and Gretel earlier this year. Richard Strauss is a composer for whom Sir Charles holds in deep affection. He explains “I’m just amazed that he could have written it [Salome]. Every page has something that hadn’t been done before, not even by Wagner. Bitonality, whole tone scales, everything! Endlessly varying the leitmotifs so that they take on different meaning… remarkable, and such a lesson in the use of the orchestra… it’s just superb… even if you have not heard a note of Strauss before you will be swept along by the power of the music.” Susan Bullock has previously performed Salome in the concert format and her performances in the role of Strauss’s Elektra have brought her international acclaim. MusicWeb International wrote of her Salome “we were treated to a show-stealing dramatic performance in which her character’s complicated and confused emotions were plainly visible.” She performed the role of Elektra at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in November 2008 “…Bullock underlines the increasing insistence of Salome's demand for John's head… and keeps the meaning clear even when riding the orchestra in her love-death. If it were only for the orchestra alone, this would now be the Salome of choice… ineffably paced towards shocking climaxes, diaphanously clear, full of expressive orchestral solos (first violin especially) and naturally balanced...” BBC Music Magazine, December 2008 **** “Language apart, the distinction of this recording lies in the superb playing of the Philharmonia Orchestra under Sir Charles Mackerras.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2009 “Mackerras is not usually mentioned when outstanding Strauss conductors are considered. But as this latest addition to Chandos's Opera in English series shows, he is an outstanding Straussian, and it's his account of a score that, in the past, has been characterised as a tone poem with voices, together with the Philharmonia's gorgeously vivid playing of it, that makes this so memorable.” The Guardian, 7th November 2008 **** | | | (also available to download from $20.75) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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‘A quite outstandingly successful re-creation of the work … it is a hugely important contribution to preserving our British musical theatre heritage’ (Gramophone) “One of the major West End hits of its period shines brightly here in a vivid account by a strong team of singers under Ronald Corp.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2006 **** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Sung in English (translation by Chester Kallman)
“This new version… is splendidly recorded, and Farnes coaxes some superb playing from the orchestra. Sally Burgess makes a fine Judith, bringing out the firmness of her love for Bluebeard, as well as her vulnerability. …Tomlinson… is as commanding as ever, and to listen to this performance as a whole is to marvel anew at the richness and inventiveness of Bartók's score.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2006 ***** “This recording grew from performances by Opera North but the absence of a visual element hardly matters. Nor in this instance does the language issue either. Bluebeard is perfect food for the mind's theatre, the tale of a man alone (as John Tomlinson reminds us in the cryptic spoken prologue) and while under normal circumstances Hungarian would win over any translation, here vivid vocal acting and clarity of diction more than compensate. And there's Farnes's conducting, which even from as early as the introduction counters the pervading darkness with deftly pointed woodwind phrases and a light, expressive curve to the string lines.
Tomlinson's Bluebeard is godlike, cautioning and doleful, the voice hugely resonant. Sally Burgess sounds old enough to know better than to stray thoughtlessly from her father's home. When Judith first views the castle's interior she sounds suitably tremulous and awestruck, though when she blurts out the words 'tell me why the doors are bolted?' an air of petulance spells trouble: her command to 'open!' cues forceful thwacks on timps and bass drum. And so the drama unfolds, Burgess's Judith, shrewish and fatally curious, Tomlinson's Bluebeard, inwardly tortured but fired by Judith's dark beauty. The instruments of torture, the armaments, mountains of gold, tender flowers and spacious kingdom, all are graphically tone-painted, Farnes delivering with distinction every time – though when Burgess gasps at the kingdom newly revealed she keeps her high C fairly short. Tomlinson's most sensitive moment, as so often with him in this work, comes when he recalls his former wives, and Farnes's comes at the 'lake of tears', the perfect dovetailing of winds and strings, mournful but also extremely beautiful.
The later climactic moments are delivered with enormous power, the sum effect very moving.
For a thoroughly sympathetic, theatrically effective English-language Bluebeard's Castle, this new release is about as good as it's likely to get.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “Burgess manages to make Judith the multi-dimensional character she deserves to be...John Tomlinson's Bluebeard broods magnificently, his voice and personality as overpowering as the atmosphere of his castle...let me introduce the third member of the cast: the Orchestra of Opera North conducted by Richard Farnes, who provide vivid colours and deep shadows” Andrew McGregor, bbc.co.uk, 8th August 2006 “Moving and powerful, this English Bluebeard is as good as it gets. …while under normal circumstances I'd favour Hungarian above any translation, here vivid vocal acting and clarity of diction more than compensate. And there's Farnes's conducting, which even from as early as the introduction counters the pervading darkness with deftly pointed woodwind phrases and a light, expressive curve to the string lines. Tomlinson's Bluebeard is godlike, cautioning and doleful, the voice hugely resonant. Tomlinson's most sensitive moment, as so often with him in this work, comes when he recalls his former wives (track 19), and Farnes's comes at the 'lake of tears', the perfect dovetailing of winds and strings, mournful but also extremely beautiful.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2006  BBC Music Magazine
Opera Choice - July 2006 |
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James Gilchrist (Albert), Pamela Helen Stephen (Nancy), Roderick Williams (Sid), Stephen Richardson (Mr Budd), Rebecca Evans (Miss Wordsworth), Alan Opie (Mr Gedge), Anne Collins (Mum), Susan Bullock (Lady Billows), Robert Tear (Mr Upfold), Sally Burgess (Florence Pike) City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox “Richard Hickox more than any rival brings out the fun of Britten's comic chamber opera, lifting rhythms in an infectious way. The result is warm and welcoming...James Gilchrist is outstanding, with a tenor light enough to sound wimpish in the first half of the opera, and then to convey the anger of the character in the monologue that marks his change of heart” Penguin Guide, 2010 *** | | | (also available to download from $20.75) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Delius - Songs
Gramophone Award winner “ Sea Drift is a sublime conjunction of Whitman's poetry and Delius's music describing love, loss and unhappy resignation, with the sea (as Christopher Palmer put it) as 'symbol and agent of parting'. Written in 1903-4 (the same years as Debussy's La mer), it's surely Delius's masterpiece; right from the swaying opening bars its spell is enduring and hypnotic. Hickox in his second recording of the work now gives us the finest recorded post-Beecham Sea Drift. The shaping of the opening falling woodwind figures at a slow tempo more than usually (and very beautifully) portends the sad turn of events; and the climax is broad and superbly co-ordinated. Terfel's bar-by-bar characterisation (and glorious voice), conveys the full expressive range of the role from impassioned appeal to gentle call without artifice; and the choral singing is superb. The whole is recorded with warmth, spaciousness, depth and clarity.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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