Penguin Guide Rosette Winners

“Sutherland crowns her long recording career with a commanding performance. Dazzling as ever in coloratura, above all exuberant in the defiant final cabaletta, she poignantly conveys the tragedy of the wronged queen's fate with rare weight and gravity. Samuel Ramey as the king is outstanding” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition

“Pacing the music naturally and sympathetically, Sir Colin Davis proves a superb Puccinian, one who not only presents Puccini's drama with richness and force but give the score the musical strength of a great symphony... Caballe may not be as sharply jealous a heroine as her keenest rivals...[but] she still presents Tosca as a formidable siren-figure” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****

“One of the better Toscas” BBC Music Magazine

“Waxman's command of his forces is impressive, his general musical language redolent of Mahler and Bloch. Rod Gilfry is a virile tenor soloist as both Moses and Joshua, but Ann Hallenberg is outstanding in the part of the harlot Rahab.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2006 ****

“John Adams's stylistic range is vast, yet even in such a diverse output, I Was Looking at the Ceilingand Then I Saw the Sky (1995) stands apart. Conceived, in the composer's words, as 'a Broadwaystyle show', it draws its musical inspiration from popular song, moving from doo-wop to gospel, from pop ballad to the blues. The text, a poetic piece of social and political commentary by June Jordan, introduces us to seven young Angelenos whose intertwined lives are transformed by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. There's no recitative, no spoken dialogue; the story is told through song and ensemble. This posed a problem when Nonesuch issued a composer-conducted recording of excerpts in 1998, cutting seven of the 22 vocal numbers. Here, Naxos gives us the complete score.
It hard to state that the narrative flows a whole lot more smoothly when the show is heard in its entirety. There are still quite a few jarring gaps, although one certainly gets a better sense of the characters as well as a heightened sense of drama. Missing from the Nonesuch recording, for example, was the crucial post-earthquake scene involving Tiffany, Mike and Rick – the score's longest number.
As for the performance: the Freiburg-based Holst-Sinfonietta Band plays its intricate part with tightly coiled energy for conductor Klaus Simon; the mostly German cast copes reasonably well with the different American dialects (only Lilith Gardell's Tiffany fails to convince); and although the women's voices can turn shrill Adams Opera when pressed, all the singers sound fresh and youthful. Indeed, Martina Mühlpointner may not have the extraordinary tonal richness of Audra McDonald (Nonesuch) but her wideeyed rendition of 'Consuelo's Dream' – one of the piece's prettiest and most effective numbers – is also deeply affecting. Not all the songs in Ceiling/Sky are as successful as this one but I'd guess that there's enough here to make this daring experiment in American musical theatre attractive to more than just Adams's fans.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“So what's so special about the performance? Try Canadian tenor Ben Heppner, outdoing his fellow countryman Jon Vickers on Sir Colin's first recording of Les Troyens. The other principals are very fine too...The playing is formidable, revelatory, and the big set-pieces have an epic sweep to them.” Matt Fernand, bbc.co.uk, 20th November 2002

“Davis's second live recording...magnificently crowns his whole career as a Berlioz interpreter on record, generally outshining even his pioneer version of 30 years earlier...[Lang] is superb, firm, rich and intense, investing every phrase with emotional power, instantly establishing her dominance...Heppner excels himself” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“The splendiferous climax of Davis’s first Berlioz cycle” The Times, 10th May 2013

“As perspectives on the Solti/Culshaw enterprise lengthen, and critical reactions are kept alert by the regular appearance of new, or newly issued, and very different recordings, it may seem increasingly ironic that of all conductors the ultra-theatrical Solti should have been denied a live performance. There are indeed episodes in this recording that convey more of the mechanics of the studio than of the electricity of the opera house – the opening of Die Walküre, Act 2, and the closing scenes of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, for example. Yet, in general, dramatic impetus and atmosphere are strongly established and well sustained, sometimes more powerfully than is usually managed in the theatre.
As just one example one would instance the superb control with which the intensity of Donner's summoning up of the thunder in DasRheingold is maintained across Froh's greeting to the rainbow bridge into Wotan's own great salutation.
At the majestic climax of this scene the power of feeling conveyed by George London's fine performance counts for more than any 'artificiality' in the way the voice is balanced against the orchestra.
Equally memorable in a totally different context is Solti's management of the long transition in Götterdämmerung between Hagen's Watch and the appearance of Waltraute. Nothing could be less mannered or unnatural than Solti's grasp of perspective and feeling for the life of each phrase in this music. On CD the clarity of instrumental detail is consistently remarkable, and while not all the singers sound as if they're constantly in danger of being overwhelmed there are some vital episodes, especially those involving Windgassen and Nilsson. Awareness of what these artists achieved in other recordings strengthens the suspicion that they may have been giving more than we actually get here.
Windgassen isn't allowed to dominate the sound picture in the way his part demands, and Nilsson can seem all-too relaxed within the comforting cocoon of the orchestral texture.
Factors like these, coupled with those distinctive Soltian confrontations between the hard-driven and the hammily protracted, have prevented the cycle from decisively seeing off its rivals over the years. It's questionable neverthe- less whether any studio recording of The Ring could reasonably be expected to be more atmospheric, exciting or better performed than this one. The VPO isn't merely prominent, but excellent, and such interpretations as Svanholm's Loge, Neidlinger's Alberich and Frick's Hagen remain very impressive.
Above all, there's Hotter, whose incomparably authoritative, unfailingly alert and responsive Wotan stands up well when compared to his earlier Bayreuth accounts. Nowhere is he more commanding than in Siegfried, Act 1, where one even welcomes Stolze's mannerisms as Mime for the sparks they strike off the great bass-baritone.
Earlier in this act the interplay of equally balanced instruments and voices in relatively intimate conversational phrases displays the Culshaw concept at its most convincing. He would have been astonished to hear what his successors have achieved in renewing his production through digital remastering. One now realises how much of the original sound was lost on the old pressings. In comparison with the 1980 Janowski/RCA version, the approaches are so different they almost seem like different experiences.
Culshaw was intent on creating a theatre on record with all the well-known stage effects; the rival version eschews all such manifestations.
In general, Janowski presents a much more intimate view of the work than Solti's.
However many other Rings you may have, though, you'll need this one.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Solti himself developed in the process of making the recording, and Götterdämmerung represents a peak of achievement for him, commanding and magnificent.” Penguin Guide, 2010 ****

“even Solti's detractors have to admit the awesome status of Gotterdammerung, in which performance and recording unite with seamless strength to evoke the power of cosmic, cathartic tragedy. It hasn't been surpassed; it may never be.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2012