pt
Philip Tsaras
Lehár: Schön ist die Welt (cpo)
A qualified recommendation for a new recording of Lehár’s final operetta for Berlin [PT]
Bellini: Norma (Pristine Audio)
A pleasure to be reacquainted with Callas’s Norma in this remastering of her second studio recording [PT]
Puccini: Madama Butterfly (Pristine Audio)
De los Ángeles is a winning Butterfly in this classic set, now reissued by Pristine [PT]
Michael Spyres (tenor): In The Shadows (Erato)
An interesting and enterprising recital but a question mark over the suitability of the voice for some of the material [PT]
Mozart & R Strauss: Lieder (Erato)
A worthwhile disc, even if I am equivocal about some of the singing [PT]
Donizetti: La favorite (Naxos)
A complete recording of Donizetti’s La Favorite is let down by some less than beautiful singing [PT]
Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana & Leoncavallo: I Pagliacci (Pristine Audio)
A pleasure to hear Björling in these excellent Pristine transfers, even if these two roles are not amongst his greatest [PT]
Mozart: Requiem (BR Klassik)
A good, though not inspired version, which doesn’t compare to an earlier Jansons performance with the Concertgebouw [PT]
Elisabeth Schumann (soprano): Elisabeth Schumann’s Swan Song (Parnassus)
Late recordings, issued in their entirety for the first time, do not show the much loved soprano at her best [PT]
Gershwin: Gershwin Rhapsody (Decca)
The concert platform meets Broadway in this thoroughly enjoyable disc of piano music and songs by Gershwin [PT]
In Relations – song recital (Hänssler Classic)
A young soprano evidently to look out for, in a lovely debut recital [PT]
Sonic Alchemy (Sono Luminus)
An absorbing, rewarding programme, despite reservations about a couple of the performances [PT]
Sir Bryn Terfel (bass-baritone) Sea Songs (Deutsche Grammophon)
A disc to be enjoyed by all but the most curmudgeonly [PT]
Romantic Songs – So tief im Abendrot (Hänssler Classic)
Disappointingly inadequate performances of Lieder arrangements, neither necessary nor desirable [PT]
Rossini: Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra (Naxos)
Rossini’s rarely performed Elizabethan opera is given a lacklustre performance in the latest in Naxos’s Rossini Wildbad series [PT]
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (Pristine Audio)
Pristine refreshes Callas’s 1959 stereo recording and prompts a re-evaluation of its considerable merits [PT]
Schubert: Lieder. Love’s Lasting Power (Delphian)
Two recent competition winners in an impressive debut recital, more than promising [PT]
Sandrine Piau (soprano) Reflet (Alpha Classics)
An attractive programme of French orchestral songs that will provide much enjoyment, but there are better versions of the well-known songs [PT]
Schubert: Winterreise (Genuin)
An imaginative and thoroughly rewarding re-working of Schbert’s Winterreise for voice, chorus and two accordions [PT]
Cherubini: Medea (Pristine Audio)
Callas’ stereo studio Medea gets the Pristine XR treatment [PT]
Diana Damrau (soprano): Operette (Erato)
An interesting and unhackneyed programme of operetta arias, with a soprano who possibly divides opinion [PT]
Dreams Desires Desolation – English Song (Divine Art)
An interesting disc of English Parlour Songs suffers from a lack of personality and variety [PT]
Noel Coward and Friends: A Most Marvellous Party (Signum Classics)
What an absolutely splendid party! Darling, I couldn’t have liked it more [PT]
Puccini: Tosca (Pentatone)
A sonically splendid recording of Tosca overshadowed by ghosts from the past [PT]
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