Posts tagged as "engelbert-humperdinck"

Fiedler Encores

February 15, 2018

One of the last century’s great popularisers of art music who introduced the names of Mozart and Strauss to millions, Arthur Fiedler recorded for several labels during his half century as music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Eloquence has already reissued the Deutsche Grammophon ‘Sleigh Ride’ album (480 6715) of festive-themed treats by Handel, […]

Witches’ Brew

May 26, 2016

Issued in the US under the title ‘Witches’ Brew’, Alexander Gibson and the New Symphony Orchestra of London recorded this album in 1959 and the performances remain today as characterful and incisive as they were then. While pieces from this recording have previously appeared on Decca, this is its first complete release on the label. […]

Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel (highlights)

May 25, 2016

This is one of the most sought-after and highly-praised recordings of ‘Hänsel und Gretel’, Engelbert Humperdinck’s everlasting fairy-tale opera. What’s more, the sonics are thrilling and the stellar cast is a veritable Who’s Who of the great opera stars of the 1970s.

Flower Duet

April 22, 2016

Since the beginning of opera, the convention of the duet, in which two characters simultaneously express their feelings, has been one of the staple ploys of musical dramatists. Characters may join their voices in a unity of feeling, or in extreme disagreement, or in any one of the thousand shades in between; though in the […]

Matthias Goerne sings German Arias

April 18, 2016

‘Operatic justice’, writes J.B. Steane in his informative and amusing note for this album, ‘is a law unto itself, and the baritone has been prominent among its victims. Unlucky in love, he is seen in the most favourable light as a father-figure and is otherwise all too often the villain of the piece. He may […]

Sleigh Ride

April 18, 2016

Arthur Fiedler took great pride in bringing classical music to the world at large. While Leonard Bernstein was busy with his Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic, Fiedler and his Boston Pops Orchestra (most of the members drawn from the Boston Symphony) gave concerts of popular classics that became a fixture on America’s […]