Posts tagged as "staatskapelle-dresden"

Dance of the Hours – Opera Intermezzi & Ballet Music

July 6, 2016

Ballet music was very much part of the great operas, sometimes inserted later for a bit of relief from the drama. Together with popular overtures – Rossini’s ‘Thieving Magpie’, Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ – this is a collection of some of those best-loved instrumental moments, some of which have even eclipsed the whole opera in popularity.

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben; Don Juan; Also sprach Zarathustra; Tod und Verklärung

May 25, 2016

Four great Straussian heroes (including Strauss himself), in sumptuous readings by Giuseppe Sinopoli. ‘Also sprach Zarathustra’ and ‘Tod und Verklarung’ receive taut, thrilling readings from the New York Philharmonic. ‘Ein Heldenleben’ and ‘Don Juan’ are spacious and gloriously recorded with plenty of colourful orchestral detail.

Richard Strauss: Don Quixote; Till Eulenspiegel; Metamorphosen; Opera Interludes

May 25, 2016

Beginning with two rascally characters, the deluded Don Quixote and the prankster Till Eulenspiegel, this set includes remarkable recordings from the catalogues of Philips and Deutsche Grammophon with some recordings appearing on CD internationally for the first time – Haitink’s ‘Don Quixote’, Jochum’s blazing ‘Till Eulenspiegel’, shimmering Rosenkavalier Waltzes (both sets) and Munchinger’s recording of […]

Mozart Opera Gala

May 25, 2016

The greatest opera singers of this century perform arias from six of the finest Mozart operas

Favourite German Opera Choruses

May 25, 2016

Never has a more sublime recording of German Opera Choruses been made. Varviso and his Leipzig and Dresden teams deliver some of the most ravishing sonorities you’ll ever here in a compilation that focuses on Wagner and is surrounded by Weber, Nicolai and Beethoven.

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8

May 25, 2016

The first release at super-budget price of these towering performances. Many of the recordings in this Beethoven cycle have never before been locally available.

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5

May 25, 2016

The first release at super-budget price of these towering performances. Many of the recordings in this Beethoven cycle have never before been locally available.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica’; Overtures

May 25, 2016

The first release at super-budget price of these towering performances with a generous selection of Overtures. Many of the recordings in this Beethoven cycle have never before been locally available.

Wagner Duets

March 22, 2016

Looking back at ‘Tristan und Isolde’ twenty years after its composition, Wagner told his wife Cosima: ‘My model was Romeo and Juliet – nothing but duets!’ He was invoking Bellini’s opera,’I Capuleti e i Montecchi’ which he had conducted many times as a young man. Indeed, there had been much in the Italian master’s legacy that […]

Ben Heppner sings Wagner

March 15, 2016

On this album, Ben Heppner – recognised as one of the world’s leading Heldentenors – features a selection of the finest excerpts for tenor voice from Wagner’s ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’. Tracing the life of Wagner’s ultimate hero, Siegfried, from his father Siegmund (‘Die Walküre’) to Siegfried’s youth (‘Siegfried’) and death (‘Götterdämmerung’), the album features famous […]

Richard Strauss: Elektra

March 12, 2016

Karl Böhm made the first complete stereo recording of Elektra in 1960 for Deutsche Grammophon and to this day it remains one of the sonically and artistically most exciting recordings of this work. Böhm knew Strauss personally (the booklet includes a delightful photo of the two of them relaxing together!) and conducted several premieres of […]