The perfect introduction to ballet music as little ballerinas take their first steps into the magical world of ballet. From sugar plums to fairy princes and skating couples to waltzing flowers, each track is carefully selected to delight young listeners.
Aromatherapy, the quiet moments of classical music. And the seventh volume, Reflections in the Water, is the ultimate tranquility! Water is a force of nature that inspired composers to some of their most languid compositions, from the Baroque (Handel’s Water Music written for a royal party held on a barge) to Impressionistic (the aqueous ripples and shimmer […]
Aromatherapy, the quiet moments of classical music. And the fifth volume, The Heart of Tchaikovsky, showcases classical music’s ultimate Romantic, his music often a reflection of his passionate, sometimes torrid life. From the love theme of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, to music from his ballet, ‘The Nutcracker’ and the core of his First String Quartet (Andante cantabile), […]
Herbert von Karajan’s famed 1960s recordings of the Second and Fourth of Beethoven’s symphonies. Of his recordings of the Fourth, the present one is perhaps the fiercest and the most obviously lyrical. Grecian and golden-toned, the spirits of Dionysus and Apollo held in a rapturous balance.
There is a celebrated letter from the year 1810 in which Bettina Brentano enthuses to the poet Goethe about a recent meeting with Beethoven. ‘When I open my eyes’, Beethoven had announced to her, ‘I must sigh … I must despise the world which does not know that music is a higher revelation than all […]
The classic recording of the nine Beethoven Symphonies – Karajan’s 1960s effort – returns to the catalogue now on Eloquence at super-budget price.
Rich, warm and resounding, the Ferras/Karajan Brahms Violin Concerto has always been one of the mainstays of the catalogue.
Blazing and saturated sound – of the aptly-described ‘gold brick’ variety – characterises these celebrated performances of eight of Beethoven’s best-loved Overtures. All the favourites are there and the recordings have been stunningly remastered for this release.
Herbert von Karajan turns his attention to the swaggering pomp of favourite marches by the ‘other’ Strauss family and many others in this good natured and emblazoned romp.
It is often said that Richard Strauss had a lifelong love affair with the soprano voice, and it is certainly true that many of his finest operatic roles were written with that voice in mind. In addition, the quality of his writing for sopranos regularly shows their instruments off to maximum advantage. Sopranos have genuine […]
Herbert von Karajan’s mighty ‘Ring’ cycle, here represented through extended highlights allows us to sample Karajan’s choice of different singers for the same character in different operas – Fischer-Dieskau’s Wotan in ‘Das Rheingold’ and Thomas Stewart’s in ‘Siegfried’. There are notes on the music as well as an essay by Karajan expert, Richard Osborne, on […]
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 […]
