Gioacchino Antonio Rossini

Since the beginning of opera, the convention of the duet, in which two characters simultaneously express their feelings, has been one of the staple ploys of musical dramatists. Characters may join their voices in a unity of feeling, or in extreme disagreement, or in any one of the thousand shades in between; though in the examples we have here, all involving the combination of soprano and mezzo-soprano voices, the feelings expressed are held in common between the two singers.

If it were not for the operas of Gioachino Rossini, the operatic repertory of the mezzo soprano would lack many of its most fascinating characters and music. Silvia Tro Santafé, a fast-rising star on the international stage, proves herself a true 'Rossini Mezzo' in this collection of Rossini's scenes and arias, accompanied by the excellent Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra and Lluís Vich Vocalis.

A collection of everyone’s favourite sacred choral music, including Mozart’s Ave verum corpus, Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine and Franck’s Panis angelicus.

In addition to these famous works is music by Bruckner, Stanford, Grieg, Byrd, Mendelssohn, Lotti, Rachmaninoff, Elgar and Brahms. This is music to soothe the soul!

Beecham had his 'lollipops', short works he used as encores and Sir John Barbirolli had his favourites, too, but more often than not he included them in his lighter Hallé programmes or as Promenade Concert encores. He never regarded popular pieces as beneath his notice or in any snobbish light – they were pieces thousands of people liked to hear and their popularity was a sign of how good they were as music. He grew up in Edwardian London where the theatre orchestras revelled in the music of Edward German and Lionel Monckton. As a child he listened to the band playing in Lincoln’s Inn Gardens and that was where he decided he wanted to be a conductor. We can be sure that it was there he first heard the William Tell ballet music, the Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana and the Dance of the Hours. He loved them then and he loved them all his life. So when he conducted them – as the performances on this disc eloquently testify – he lavished as much artistry on them as he did on symphonies by Elgar and Mahler. No one in the audience could fail to know that he loved these pieces, he communicated his affection with a smile, with a little extra touch of showmanship, with a glance round at the audience to see if they were enjoying it as much as he was. The last two tracks of this disc comprise a brief snatch of Sir John rehearsing for a stereophonic test ‘take’ of Shepherd’s Hey, which is here issued for the first time.

Victoria de los Ángeles’ son Alex has Down's Syndrome and she used to sing many of the songs on this disc to him. The CD is a collaboration between the Victoria de los Ángeles Foundation and the Catalan Down Syndrome Foundation. The project includes the voices and paintings of children with Down Syndrome.

2 CDs for the price of 1

This new release entited Classical Love Songs on Profil is a compilation of the most beautiful love songs by Mozart, Schumann, Brahms, Rossini, Donizetti and many more.

The songs are sung by an exceptional array of artists including Fritz Wunderlich, Rudolf Schock, Hermann Prey, Richard Tauber, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Joseph Schmidt, Anneliese Rothenberger and Heinz Hoppe.

In 1955, he sang Jaquino in Beethoven's Fidelio for the reopening of the Vienna State Opera, and performed internationally in roles such as Mirko Zeta in The Merry Widow until the turn of the century. During all this time, the tenor Waldemar Kmentt gave countless dazzling performances on the world's greatest opera stages. This portrait in honour of his 80th birthday is an impressive reflection of his versatility, with excerpts from roles he performed at the Vienna State Opera, where he was based, and where he received the title of 'Kammersänger' and was eventually made an honorary member.The flexibility and brilliant timbre of his voice brought him many roles at the State Opera, both in the legendary Mozart Ensemble under Karl Böhm and as an 'Italian' tenor (though, as usual at that time, mostly in German).A brilliant rendering of the Italian tenor’s aria from Der Rosenkavalier in 1968 under Leonard Bernstein, concludes the cross-section of the prodigious career of a tenor who, ever modest, never relied on mere showmanship.

World premiere recording, and a major addition to the classical guitar discography.

Full booklet notes and synopsis of the operatic plot.

Izhar Elias was born in Amsterdam in 1977, and has been praised for his ‘fantastic musicality, highly developed sense of style, elegance and allure’ jury of the International Tromp Music Competition, The Netherlands.

‘A musician of outstanding ability, whose whole approach to his art displays a maturity beyond his years’ Classical Guitar

Rossini’s opera seria Semiramide of 1822 is one of his most famous works, and like many other hits of the period was subject to various arrangements for piano, barrel organ, and in this case guitar. Many such arrangements were not sanctioned by the composer or publisher (there being no effective copyright laws at the time), but some were approved as in the case of the Giuliani arrangements now receiving their premiere recording on Brilliant Classics.

Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) was possibly the greatest guitar virtuoso of the period. Born in Italy, he studied cello and counterpoint, but took up the guitar as his main instrument and became the first guitarist/composer to compose seriously for the instrument. He produced three concertos, typical of the late classical and early romantic period – highly virtuosic, and in style similar to concertos by Hummel and Moscheles. He moved among and became friends with some of the greatest musicians of the day. He played cello in the premiere of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony in Vienna in 1813, and was friends with Beethoven, Hummel, Moscheles and Spohr. Later he became ‘virtuoso onorario di camera’ to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon’s second wife. He left a large body of work running to 230 works. In a time before cinema, recordings and such like, the nearest the public could get to having a souvenir of a great night out at the opera were arrangements for domestic instruments of the big tunes. Giuliani’s arrangement of Semiramide wasn’t published until after his death, but is a Rolls Royce of adaptations, following the plot and orchestral dynamics closely, capturing the drama of the original.

A fun disc featuring repertoire as diverse as Mozart’s ‘A Little Laugh’ to Rossini’s famous ‘Cat Duet’, this bassoon ensemble continue their series of virtuosic performances for MDG.