No comments about Collection 1: The Solo Piano Recordings (Box).

5 comments about Cello for Relaxation.

1. I play this for my son when he is going to sleep and it is enjoyable for both of us. A few of the songs are a little "off" the purely soothing edge, but it's still very nice.



2. Currently I'm enjoying this cello music while in the car, as it lessens the stress of traffic. It contains a variety of cello pieces that have beauty and grace. As a cellist I appreciate the supurb execution of each piece. This CD is everything I hoped it would be.



3. I really enjoy this CD. I go to sleep with it playing almost every night.



4. It's not a bad CD, although I believe there has got to be a better rendition of The Swan somewhere out there. The problem with this version is that the piano overwhelms the cello playing.
   
   The rest of the CD is pretty nice and relaxing. Worth what I paid for it.



5. My wife is a lover of a good cello, so when I gave her this disc for Christmas, she loved it!

4 comments about Handel: Complete Violin Sonatas.

1. This is a magnificent recording. I would say that this is probably the best recording ever of the Handel sonatas.



2. Handel's five authenticated violin sonatas are gems of the late baroque violin repertoire; why they have not been more widely recorded is hard to understand. Leave it to baroque violin superstar Andrew Manze to put a complete version before the public. Manze plays the opening slow movements in a rhapsodic, dreamy manner, like improvisations, and lends his accustomed humor and audacity to the fast movements. It is enlightening to learn that the opening of the D major sonata is marked AFFETTUOSO, not MAESTOSO! I am continually surprised too by Manze's frequent use of finger extensions (creeping up to higher positions on the fingerboard) for expressive effect.
   
   Now, recording the "complete" anything can be a questionable enterprise. The violin sonatas for which Handel's authorship is undisputed are five in number. In addition to these, Manze and Egarr have decided to record several spurious works, some of lesser merit; these tend to diminish the effect of the whole and give the impression of having been included simply to justify the title of the CD. (Indeed, Manze performs these selections in an off-hand, careless manner, as if he himself isn't convinced of their worth.) My second contention is with the absence of a cello or other sustaining bass instrument. In his historical note Manze does not provide a serious justification for omitting the cello beyond the fact that it was done in Handel's time. I miss the strength in the bass line that a sustaining instrument can provide, especially in contrapuntal material, but also in the slow movements, where there is a lot of right-hand "doodling" with no firm "bottom".
   
   Are these reservations important enough to dissuade one from buying this disc? Well, consider this: the only other version of these works on baroque violin - by Hiro Kurosaki on Virgin - appears to be no longer available except in used copies; as it happens, that recording also lacks a bass instrument! Manze is always a charismatic performer, and for buyers on a budget who really want this repertoire, this will likely be the disc to choose.



3. Alongside the Handel of the oratorios and operas -- the Handel of what George Orwell called the Big Bow Wow -- there was also the composer of "pure" music. The violin sonatas are among the finest of Handel's chamber compositions, elegant, concise, and full of affect.
   There are at least three performances of these sonatas available on CD at this time, a bonanza of musical choice. In addition to this performance by Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr, there's another by Hiro Kurosaki and Bill Christie, and yet another by violinist Rachal Barton. Each CD has attractions; you might use the "sample" function of amazon before you choose, for choose you must!
   Kurosaki's violin playing is more varied, more imaginative, and (dare I say) more baroque. However, Christie's harpsichord continuo, though utterly authentic, is awfully sparse, hardly a partnership with the violin at all.
   Manze plays the four sonatas which he regards as genuine Handel masterworks very masterfully indeed. Manze is not the subtlest of baroque fiddlers; I'd love to hear what Biondi or Holloway would do. Also, he pays scant respect to those other sonatas that he clearly regards as inauthentic Handel. He plays them perfunctorily and with occasional lapses of tuning. Richard Egarr's harpsichord continuo is expressive and solid throughout.
   The chief attraction of Rachel Barton's performance is that the continuo is enriched by the cello of JM Rozendaal. Not to denigrate Ms Barton's fiddling! She plays wonderfully, but perhaps less specially than Manze or Kurosaki.
   All in all, you can't go wrong with any of the three. Trust your own ears.



4. It is not without a sense of awe that I write these words. I believe Mr. Handel himself, had he been alive to hear this recording, would have been thoroughly delighted and not perhaps devoid of a tear or two.
   
   The grace and elegance with which these endearing sonatas are played is simply astounding. Both Manze and Egarr ought to be given knighthoods for this CD. It just has no peers. I find this supremely enjoyable CD to be an absolutely essential part of any serious baroque music fan's collection. The liner notes provide great background information of each of the sonatas, even those of less than certain authenticity, with a meticulousness that could concieveably allow for acceptable academic referencing, which is saying something!
   
   With a careful attention to detail, the performers have given us a brilliant interpretation (I am willing to say the BEST I have ever heard, as obsequious as that may sound), of these works, in what must be considered a benchmark of high standards. Five out of five, for the purchase of the decade.

5 comments about Mozart: Horn Concertos Nos. 1-4.

1. This recording has good production values, considering its date. I found the orchestra somewhat lacking, but Tuckwell is hard to beat. It was the first "used" CD purchased through Amazon and I was satisfied with the product and the service.



2. After years of searching for my favorite version of the Horn concertos I found this one thanks to the recommendation of the penguin guide (they're good for some things y'know).
   
   I've heard about a dozen versions and never settled on any of them (even the Brain and the other Tuckwell's).
   
   This version should be the best example to Tuckwell's art. He brings out the depth and range of the instrument while staying commited to beauty and life.
   
   The recording actually sounds like a live recording or like they didn't talk about anything at all...just went in there like geniuses and taped them down in one session!
   
   Tuckwell and Marriner are truly insipred in this recording. Tuckwell is daring, strong, and passionate...Marriner is brisk and thoughtful, with strong and clean orchestral attacks (like in his other excellent version with the less individual Civil).
   
   Enjoy!



3. In this repertory, you can't do better than Neville Marriner and Barry Tuckwell. These are excellent performances at a great price.



4. It was what was expected. The best known horn conderti by one of the worlds best hornists.



5. If you love the sound of French Horns, trumpets, etc., you will really enjoy this CD.

5 comments about Beethoven: The Complete Piano Sonatas.

1. How wonderful to hear Herr Kempff doing Beethoven again! I don't know how many recordings he's made of the complete piano sonatas - "not enough" comes to mind. He's in no hurry and the "virtuoso" element is thankfully nowhere in sight so we're left with the music itself and it never sounded better. The earlier sonatas in particular are clear and to the point without frills or too much soul searching. The music stars here and the vehicle, Wilhelm Kempff, is completely in tune with it.
   The way the line is treated is magnificent. Kempff has a narrative quality in his playing like no one else. He can spin a yarn and we're almost afraid to look away for fear of missing a key ingredient.
   
   Curtis Stotlar



2. Like all of the music he recorded, Wilhelm Kempff has a way of applying his own unique interpretive style to these sonatas and making them his own, without taking away from the composer's intention. Unlike some of the recordings by today's artists, who play at speeds that tend to blur the notes, Kempff articulates each line clearly, cleanly and accurately. Now, I'm not saying that each one of these sonatas is my favorite interpretation, but several are. Two that I'm not particularly fond of are his readings of Nos. 21 & 23, both of which I prefer Gilels. He takes the Hammerklavier at a much slower tempo than any other I've heard, but he pulls it off remarkably. To my ears, of the more conventional approach to No.29, Serkin and Soloman do it a little better. As for the rest of the late sonatas, which I feel is the weakest part of this set (if I had to pick a weakness), my personal taste leans more towards Pollini, Arrau or Richter. Of the complete sets of 32 that I own (this one, Arrau, Schnabel, Barenboim [EMI], Annie Fischer and Gilels [nearly complete]), this one is my all around favorite. The sound is also very good.



3. These are my favourite interpretations of the thirty two piano sonatas although Brendel's collection of the same mid '60s period comes a very close second.
   
   I have heard many of the other sonata sets and own a few, but musical gravity invariably pulls me back to Kempff. For me, he provides the most satisfying interpretations and performances of one of Beethoven's two most significant non-symphonic contributions to music; the other being the string quartets.
   
   The musical evolution between the first and last Sonatas is enormous - the authorship of the last cannot be guessed from listening to the first. The early works recognise his indebtedness to those who had gone before and for whom Beethoven had a profound regard. If Beethoven's Opus 2, Nr1 had been published as Haydn's sixty third Sonata, the attribution would not have been questioned and I suspect Bach's Chromatic Fantasia was buzzing around in his consciousness when he wrote the last movement of the second Sonata. Beethoven, whilst being determined to set his own course, was no iconoclast.
   
   Kempff's playing, along with that of several of his contemporaries like Gieseking, Schnabel and Wuhrer, has a refinement inherited from the 19th century; a refinement I find lacking in some modern performances, aspects of which can be unpleasantly brash by comparison. He was 70 years old when he made these recordings and which may account for a more contemplative approach to some works but age has not dimmed the sparkle of bravura passages. I have lived with this collection of the "32" for a long time and love it.
   
   The recording is fine with a bright treble but the lower registers occasionally seem a trifle short of punch. But this is to quibble . .
   
   The choosing of which set/artist to purchase is a serious matter and price should be an irrelevance but it is difficult not to have one's judgment influenced by these nine discs being available in 3-disc jewel cases for as little as $42, brand spanking new! Extraordinary performances at extraordinary value.
   
   I have no reservation in my recommendation - I think it's simply the best.



4. These works are true state of art performances are like the great masterworks, they seem to change before us, but not they are, but us what we experience its infinite grandness every time we used to watch or even to approximate them.
   
   This is the case of Wilhelm Kempff, regarded by many as the most authentic "voice of Beethoven."
   
   His cantabile line was so natural, that flew organically, effortless with that peerless refinement and unique fingering, that really shaped every single musical idea contained in the score.
   
   Although is easy to notice the tempos in general are slower respect the set of the Fifties (mono), there are Sonatas (like Moonlight or The tempest) that are played with cosmic approach. As a matter of fact, the main difference between him and the rest of the pianists is that he depicted the spirit of every work, through a smart dissection and then expressed all those pieces gathered systematically and then expressed with a symphonic lexicon, without affection and theatrical pose
   
   A fundamental set that under no pretext must be in your priceless collection.



5. This is the Beethoven piano sonata set to own, hands down. While Kempff was not perfect in interpreting all of Beethoven's piano works -- for instance, I never liked his playing of B's piano concertos -- he did an absolutely marvelous job with pretty every work in this set. (Note: the "complete" here means all of B's "regular" piano sonatas with opus numbers, e.g., op.6 is left out, as are WoO ones). Kempff's interpretation is both highly technical and enormously emotional. His most brilliance comes through in the more difficult late works, such as the Hammerklavier -- a piece I never liked as a young person but have come to appreciate as I approach middle age. The recording quality is also excellent, making this a pleasure to listen to anytime.

5 comments about Hush.

1. This music has a song that I was obliged to have played as my wedding march. The musical is etherial and loveable. Our favorite!!!



2. This is truly a great piece of work. Having picked up a MD with McFerrin conducting an orchestra and using his voice as an instrument and being pleased by those works I was anticipating this CD. Had I known about it's release 15 years ago I would have bought it then! The tracks are individual masterpieces. If you don't have the heart to laugh at the musings of McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma then you really should just keep your stone cold heart away from this collection. You really don't know what to expect as you listen because each track takes such a different swing. Track 7: Musette has an opening that had me rolling and after that goes into a beautiful track. Track 9: Allegro Prestissimo is pure art. Track 8: Hoedown! throws Yo-Yo out of his loop but is good fun. Definitely read the liner notes. Oh, not for the stuck up crowd that's for sure. Think outside the box once in a while!!



3. The idea of this album is certainly interesting, and artfully carried out. Jazz icon, McFerrin, and master cellist, Ma, parter together to bring a diverse selection of pieces on this recording. McFerrin's own virtuosity in the area of composing, is shown in this recording that includes several originals by him.
   
   The nearly seamless marriage of voice and strings is beautifully presented and the recording is certainly presented in an easy sound. Not only does McFerrin show his outstanding versatility as a vocalist, but Ma shows his lovely artistry in playing a wide range of styles.
   
   My favorite pieces in this recording would be as follows:
   
   Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakov. This piece is charming in it's quick-tempo and change of timbres throughout the performance, primarily within the voice of McFerrin. The composition is widely known, and is likely to infect the listener with joy and smiles.
   
   Rachmaninoff's Vocalise is a great piece preformed in nearly a traditional manner, with McFerrin sticking closely to the originally composed melody line, and showing his skill as a lyric, if not full-voiced singer.
   
   McFerrin's compositions, Grace, and Hoewdown are great pieces, bringing to light the virtuosity of the man's compositional skills. The ability to compose in a way that brings out the color of both instruments (voice and cello), and shows a diversity of sound and styles, is artfully displayed here.
   
   On the less notable side, I was disappointed in Ave Maria, which has the staccato accompaniment performed by the vocals of McFerrin, and the melody by the cello. McFerrin is lacking in pitch accuracy, and while that is to be expected with such detached notes being sung in a widely varying succession of intervals and order, this piece should have been eliminated from the project. Ma is flawless in his execution, however.
   
   I don't know that I would want to listen to a lot more recordings just like this, but being very much interested in crossover recordings and merging of styles, this album is charming and even has some very sophisticated musical moments.



4. While I have the utmost respect for Yo-Yo Ma, I was looking for something quintessentially McFerrin, to start, and this was not it. There was one piece I'd heard before that led me to it, Coyote, which I like, but most of the rest was just too abstract for what I wanted. Will probably give away if I can't sell it.



5. B McFerrin it's a genius and YoYo Ma as well, great cd. I recomend it

5 comments about Prayer: A Windham Hill Collection.

1. Prayer: A Windham Hill Collection (CD)
   by Michael Manring
   If you're a high-strung person like me, I recommend this beautiful, gentle, instrumental music that is both soothing and emotionally engaging, yet never maudlin. It has been a "God-send" while driving in heavy morning rush-hour traffic. Despite all the aggravations caused by socially-challenged drivers who don't know how to share the road, I find that I still arrive at work calm and centered thanks to the beneficial effects of this masterful Windham Hill CD. After weeks of listening to it every single morning, it's still not boring. I strongly recommend it for Type A personalities!



2. Prayer: A Windham Hill Collection
   
   Deeply moving and comforting. Unusual arrangements that breathe new life into the compositions.



3. This is a delightful collection of music appropriate to meditative prayer. It is often my prayer companion, and I like the style and performance found on this CD. I highly recommend it to people who enjoy deeper reflection with a wordless musical background.



4. Track 3, Be Thou My Vision, was a surprise as the song was the final song played at my father's funeral. It set the closing mood most fittingly. While Be Thou My Vision is my favorite the entire collection is wonderfully mellow. I recommend it for for the mellow moods.



5. After criticizing Windham Hill in the past for often recycling the same songs over and over in various collections, I have to hand it to them with the new "Prayer" CD. It's a fine set of all-new acoustic versions of hymns or spiritual songs, plus a good number of original compositions. Producer Dawn Atkinson has done an excellent job of lining up a bunch of top-drawer people for "Prayer," and in working with the artists on the song selection.

   Things get started with Tim Story's lovely piano rendition of the "Sanctus" from Faure's Requiem. The quiet and reflective tone of that piece carries throughout the CD. Other highlights include Paul McCandless's moving "Lord's Prayer" version and Steve Erquiaga's "Ave Maria." "Prayer" is a perfect disc for background listening if you're engaged in some activity that needs harmonious yet unobtrusive accompaniment.

3 comments about Strauss: Four Last Songs; Songs with Orchestra; Rosenkavalier Suite.

1. As Renee Fleming conveyed her dramatic ability in "Homage The Age Of The Diva", she also demonstrates superb depth and intimacy in the Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss!
   Fleming has outdone herself here, by the remarkable serenity she delivers throughout all of the songs. Fleming's musical output is enormously varied, and when she encounters Strauss's moments of operatic oeuvre, her expansive sound allows these moments to blossom with superb adore! Fleming's respect to the texts is quite distinguished. Her capacity for sublime melody and rhapsodic melodic variation, or "Schwung", is almost always strung together, and creates an element of fantasy or fable with real drive and eloquence. The Four Last Songs are, I think, Strauss's most perfect realization of the form. The songs are extremely difficult, but Fleming never hesitates in diction, expression or balance between herself and the ensemble, consequently never tearing the fabric, or rendering it banal and awkward. Even when Fleming is concluding, she lingers, moves, and sidesteps as if asking the songs to last a little longer. This is Fleming's way of linking herself to the modernist movement. It is strangely fitting that the last of the Songs,"Aberdrot," (At Dusk), is literally elegiac, but in fact opens out at the end, with a quizzical doubt as if the actual reality of ending--"can this perhaps be death?"- as if to suggest that it might not be! Throughout the Four Songs, and even the additional ones, Fleming's resolutely minute economy of aesthetic, makes her a sovereign, as well as a supreme figure, in the genre of post-Romanticism.
   In the surely, popular Der Rosenkavalier, Fleming comes to the forefront, conveying Strauss's own imaginary Rococo, Vienna style-veritably creating invitation to the waltz, its dance now sensuous, aristocratic. Steeped with nostalgia, Fleming's sensationalism provides a fairy-tale atmosphere that brings all the delights to an enlightened finale!
   
   Author: Raymond Vacchino M.Mus.(MT) A.Mus. L.R.S.M. Licentiate (Honorary)



2. It is hard for me to imagine that Renee Fleming began her career singing Mozart and Strauss roles, considering the career that has been skyrocketing her into the international scene with bel canto roles and recently, Handelian successes. Most sopranos who succeed in the "Mozart and Strauss" repertoire do not usually become great Italianate sopranos, but Renee Fleming apparently has the throat to sing them all. Now to get to the matter of this recording, I would like to look back to many of the great recordings of these four pieces. Great Straussian staples like Jessye Norman and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf have given these pieces a genius of interpretation that puts a lot of the Vier Vetzte Lieder to substandard class. Schwarzkopf, whose interpretation of the pieces is considered by many the quintessential recording of the work, is in my opinion one of the most expressive renderings of Strauss' final masterpiece. Indeed, one can listen to the emotional inflections Madame Schwarzkopf inserts in every word, and although her attention to detail may bother some, I think in the realm of interpretation no one can ever surpass her. Not even Kirsten Flagstad, who pioneered these songs. Jessye Norman is of course, by far, one of the greatest Straussian vocalists, and it may seem to others that La Norman has a more beautiful timbre, but then I think her recording lacks the intelligence of Schwarzkopf's recording. Janowitz is another great singer of the role, but then Elisabeth's intreprative skills will usually stick to you when you listen to it enough that you find value in every word she utters. Then comes along Renee Fleming. This recording, in my opinion, balances vocal beauty (naturally, it's Renee) and interpretation to a level that will easily place itself with Schwarzkopf's reading of Strauss' piece. Her Fruhling is simply haunting, her September calming, Beim Schlafengehn a jewel to behold, and her Im Abendrot, I believe, to be the greatest Im Abendrot of them all. This undoubtedly is an essential recording, and with the addition of a few songs plus a great reading of Strauss' music by Christoph Eschenbach, I will highly recommend this along with Schwarzkopf's rendition of the Four Last Songs.



3. I'm in LOVE with Strauss...someday I'll sing this and I can't wait!!!! Renee is amazing and molto expressivo, as usual. She soars as if she's as light as a feather yet her voice carries with it so much emotion and heaviness...wow! A MUST have for any serious music lover/collector!

5 comments about Hymns.

1. This album contains some of the most beautiful music one can hear; stunning in its simplicity. The Donna Nobis Pacem brings me to tears and gives me goosebumps at the same time.



2. This has to be my favorite CD of Beth Neilsen Chapman's collection. It is very unlike her other CDs, being mostly composed of Catholic hymns. I've never cared for Catholic hymns, for the most part, or Gregorian chants either, but Beth does such a nice job with these hymns that I think almost anyone would enjoy listening to this CD. The hymns are sung in a very peaceful, haunting manner with beautiful harmonies and minimal instrumentation.



3. Absolutely divine. Beth Nielsen Chapman sings every word of every hymn like she is alone in a room with God or with Mary and singing for them alone. When you listen to this CD, you will feel an epiphany too.



4. I received this CD for my birthday and loved it so much I listened to it while in labor in the hospital. My doctor and nurse both commented on how much they liked the CD. Beth Nielsen Chapman has a very mellow voice that is perfect for reflection, meditation, or just relaxing, and listeners who are Catholic will recognize many Catholic traditional hymns on this CD. But the CD is not for Catholics only. I bought several copies for friends and highly recommend this CD.



5. A very bland CD sung by a VERY average voice. I've heard better voices in the different churches I've attended.

5 comments about Baby Neptune.

1. Our 2 month old LOVES (I can't stress that enough) all of his baby einstein cds. I recommend buying all of them as they really do cater to different moods.



2. Nice, baby-friendly arrangement of classical music pieces. Heavy on the flutes; half the CD is the same composer. Not quite as good as Baby Galileo, which was more varied in both instrumentation and composers.



3. Great music and soothing sounds for any babies and even older children. Our children really enjoy them in the car.



4. This CD is mandatory in the car and it relax everybody. It has classic music but without many sudden ups and downs. I would like to buy the whole collection next time.



5. We were given one from these series of CDs for babies and our daughter loves it, so we bought this one. It is a really nice collection of soft music and we usually play it in the car. A great addition to your baby's music collection.