Wagner
Lise Davidsen (soprano): Live at the Met (Decca)
The soloist shines in this live recital; the technical side of things is disappointing [MP]
Berlioz & Wagner: Orchestral Excerpts (SOMM Recordings)
Beecham live at the Royal Festival Hall, galvanizing in Berlioz and Wagner [JW]
Wagner: Orchestral Music (Sony Classical)
Another splendid vintage collection of Wagner overtures from two great pairs of American orchestras and conductors [RMo]
Wagner: Götterdämmerung (Hallé)
(Déjà Review) Strongly competitive in a hotly contested field [BW]
Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (C Major)
(Déjà Review) A great success overall and this DVD needs watching just once before you go out and buy the whole thing [DBi]
Wagner: Das Rheingold (Pristine Audio)
A fine performance in excellent sound for the provenance, well enhanced, but with attendant flaws and failings [RMo]
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano) Perfect Prima Donna (Warner Classics)
A very special collection of lieder, opera and operetta from one of the great post-war sopranos [DBe]
Wagner: Orchestral music from Der Ring (Sony Classical)
Extraordinarily vibrant orchestral extracts from Wagner’s greatest works by an orchestra and conductor at their peak {RMo]
Mahler: Symphony No 1 (Le Palais des Dégustateurs)
An erratic, unsettling account of a symphony which needs steadier, more coherent governance [RMo]
Pierre Monteux in Boston (West Hill Archives)
(Déjà Review) Authoritative, finely played, well recorded and transferred [JW]
Lise Davidsen: Live at the Met (Decca)
The greatest soprano of our age in recital from the stage of the Met [PH]
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas (Nimbus Prima Voce)
(Déjà Review) Fascinating to hear such singers as Flagstad and Schwarzkopf in these roles [EML]
Sir Adrian Boult: Complete Warner Stereo Recordings (Warner Classics)
A cornucopia of patrician music-making that has rarely been rivalled [RMo]
Gundula Janowitz (soprano) In Concert (VAI)
I’d be willing to stay up all night to hear her [RMo]
The Golden Age of Singing Vol 1, 1900 – 1910 (Nimbus Prima Voce)
There is a reason why “The Golden Age of Singing” is so named here… [RMo]
Wagner’s Tannhäuser – a survey of the major recordings
by Ralph Moore
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Arthaus Musik)
(Déjà Review) A very likeable performance [GF]
Wagner’s Lohengrin – a survey of the major recordings
by Ralph Moore
Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (Testament)
Greater than the “Recording of the Century” [LD]
Rosa Ponselle: Songs and Arias (Naxos Great Singers)
(Déjà Review) We must be grateful for the opportunity to hear this great soprano [ABo]
Wagner: Parsifal (Marston)
The Holy Grail available complete at last: The 1938 Met Parsifal [PH]
Wagner: Lohengrin (Unitel)
Fully cooked singing in a half-baked production [ST]
The Eule Organ: Magdalen College, Oxford (Convivium Records)
Magdalen’s Eule organ: a monument to musical continuity and change [JF]
Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer (Naxos)
Vocally flawed and dramatically inert; you can do much better with either a vintage recording or the recent Decca issue [RMo]
