Best Classical Quintets
does its best to cover both well-worn classical favorites (Bach's "Air on the G String," Pachelbel's "Cannon," Debussy's "Clair de Lune") and some eclectic left-field choices (an excerpt from Gerick's Symphony No. does its best to cover both well-worn classical favorites (Bach's "Air on the G String," Pachelbel's "Cannon," Debussy's "Clair de Lune") and some eclectic left-field choices (an excerpt from Górecki's Symphony No.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"He finds it very relaxing and soothing to listen to, and finally decided he wanted a copy of his own."
"This is a must buy for anyone who enjoys classical music while they are busy working, relaxing, knitting, reading a book or just want to sit down and listen to beautiful music."
"The cover says it all."
"love this cd, great choices & many well known; totally worth the price."
"Don't get me wrong, I don't spend my time in a coma, but beautiful music floating thru the room is so much more enjoyable, and conducive to my reading.... and infinitely better than the tinnitus I hear 24-7."
"The 1999 set retains the cuts I love most--the Canon and Delibes' Flower Duet, cuts 3 and 7 on disc one."
"I have loved this collection for decades now."
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Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Trying to find classical music I like and Mozart seems to be one I have enjoyed the most."
"Can't stop listening to this music, and you'll love it too if you are a Mozart fan like me."
"I just like to listen to Classical music especially Mozart."
"It's such a rich and wonderful album; the sound, in the car, perfect."
"Excellent collection for classical."
"This CD I heard first on KUSC, L.A.'s publicly supported classical station during one of their fund drives."
"I nice, broad selection of Mozart pieces that I enjoy."
Those who know and love Mozart's music will not need this, but it's a great introduction, a great overview.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Since I frequently listen to these as background music to reading or doing various things about the house, the fine points of its structure and performance are beyond my appreciation -- so these are excellent."
"If I just wanted to listen to Mozart for Mozart's sake I would have bought something else."
"The amazing thing about this CD is actually not the music presented, but the unbelievably low asking price for the CD, particularly considering that the recording quality is excellent with little to no background noise detectable, even at fairly high volume."
"The product came new and so was obviously in excellent condition."
"This is a compilation of the best of Mozart's works..."
"Mozart is classic."
"The compilation has no other useful qualities, such as timings for the individual tracks or any educational/interpretive text. Considering the wealth of information available online these days, the publisher wouldn't have needed to hire a professional musicologist to write such information. Such a compilation would have been much richer had entire movements been selected, rather than short excerpts, even if that meant producing a CD with only 10 or 12 pieces, or perhaps a 2-CD set."
Best Classical Dances
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"My 8 yr old son LOVES these."
"This was a gift and the recipient was delighted to receive it; she had a very happy day and plays it often."
"We have this set, as well as volume 1."
"a must have for long car rides... great stories about composers and their music for the family."
"bought as a gift for nephew's family."
"My son listens to these over and over since he was 5 and he is now 13. if you pic any classical children's cds, pick these!!!"
"I love these Classical Kids CDs."
Best Classical Toccatas
This Collection of Three Centuries of Trumpet Music Ranges from Baroque Concertos by Vivaldi and Albinoni and Cornerstones of the Trumpet Repertory Such as the Concertos by Haydn and Hummel, to Contemporary Classics Such as Luciano Berio's Sequenza for Trumpet.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Hakan Hardenberger is a FANTASTIC trumpet player....this cd is FULL. of songs with his exceptional finesse."
"Wonderful CD- Don't pass it up!"
"The person who got this was happy to receive this."
"Super performance, and sound."
"Arrived in good shape and ahead of time."
"Born in 1961, and originally schooled at the Paris Conservatory, Haredenberger is a fantastic performer--The Times once called him "The greatest trumpet player on Earth", and his own website confirms that he is the greatest trumpet soloist today, so it must be true. He performs an impressively wide repertorie, from the baroque to the present--the 5 CDs in this collection include one of the Classical concerti I've mentioned; two of baroque music; one of unaccompanied modern pieces, and one of works from various periods for trumpet or cornet and piano. But I have to admit to feeling let down by someone who bills themself as the greatest trumpet soloist today, if that's all I'm going to get."
"This was a gift to my brother, and within 24 hours of giving it to him, he was already raving about it."
Best Te Deum
Though these pieces are typical of Pärt's style, they seem less bleak than those on previous discs.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I love the Arvo."
"The booklet accompanying the CD carries a generous set of black & whites from the sessions, and the atmosphere and richness of the background come through of the photographs, which show Part collaborating with the Tonu Kaljuste and the performers. When I first heard the Te Deum, it immediately struck me as an exceptional contemporary piece, sprawling and ambitious, rising very gradually from the depths of silence – a full 15 seconds passes before the music becomes audible -- to a climax and then fading away into sacred oblivion. There are monophonic antiphons interspersed among ensemble sections, including a refrain high up in the women’s voices that may be the Te Deum’s signature theme. I found this to be an attractive and easy to listen to work but, based on my many experiences with contemporary music, also a fairly ordinary one, without any of the distinctive ardor of Part’s other pieces. I think of Part’s style as a floating admixture of minimalism, archaic references to ancient music and a fervent mystical Christianity."
"Part's work creates a bridge between Gregorian chant in a monastery and Prokofiev."
"04-21-2015 This ECM CD contains four orchestral works by the contemporary Estonian composer Arvo Part. The Tallinn Chamber orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Choir perform, led by Tonu Kaljuste. The total disk time runs a healthy 65:27. ARTISTC IMPRESSIONS AND IDEAS. Shortly after graduating from Indiana University as a Nuclear medicine Technologist, I accepted an offer over the phone to practice in San Jose, for a generous amount of cash, took it and moved my gang West from Chicago. My advise is this------Buy this CD and simply listen to it, closely, and try, very hard not to let your mind wander, but take note of the structure, form and effect of the composer's skills. I feel comfortable saying this, because I am a VERY careful collector, no longer wooed by the "new," "unique and austere voice" that simply MUST he heard."
Best Classical Quartets
The Most Relaxing Classical Music in The Universe, the 1st 2-CD set in the & Most Relaxing, series features some of the most well known classical pieces of all time, including Canon in D, Clair De Lune, Fur Elise, Ave Marie, Moonlight Sonata, Adagio for Strings, Greensleeves, and More!
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This collection of Classical music is superb."
"I love listening to this on the speake's of our travel trailer."
"Very good for relaxing."
"love this collection of classical music."
"Added this to my collection of relaxing music to fall asleep to."
"great music, very soothing."
Best Classical Octets
2007 issue of 22 CD's filled with the works of the great composer drawn from the vaults of Columbia Records.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I found all the performances (as conducted either by Stravinsky or Craft) gave me a strong sense of how Stravinsky personally envisioned his works."
"22 discs, conducted by The Master himself (with one exception, and exceptional, disc conducted by friend and protege Robert Craft. I purchased that 22 disc set for about $30 (that's not a typo) from a UK seller listed on amazon/us and received it in less than a week - many US sellers take longer to ship their product!"
"Stravinsky is the conductor for almost all the performances with the CBS orchestra and, though recorded in the early to late 60's, the sound is spectacular. Bravo for this generous release and anyone, both new and familiar with Stravinsky need not think twice about purchasing this."
"I originally purchased this set in order to replace a few worn out LP's from the 60's."
"Having just watched Jewels by the Paris Opera Ballet on DVD, I was curious about his Capriccio for Piano, which was the first from this set I played."
"oh my this is great music."
"The price for this many works is astounding, and I highly recommend this to any classical enthusiast."
"Loves the whole collection and would recommend it to any fan of Stravinsky you literally get all of his works famous and not but excellent selection."
Best Classical Sextets
Mozart Edition: The Complete Works will make a great gift this Holiday season for the music lover in your life or someone who is hard to buy for.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"If you are loading some of the works into your iTunes library for use on an iPod, as I am, there are inconveniences in variability of the disc labeling such that the format of the labeling varies between parts of the same opera so that iTunes loads the tracks on one part out of order in the library. You will have to manually correct the labeling of each track in order to get the tracks of the operas affected by this problem in correct order for iTunes and your iPod to play them in correct order. For instance, the CD in the envelope labeled part 3 of Cosi Fan Tutte, volume 9 CD 40 with the CD itself labeled part 3, volume 9 CD 40, actually contains the tracks for part 1, volume 9 CD 38, so you get a duplicate of CD 38 but no CD 40, thus missing the last tracks of Cosi Fan Tutte. There are also several cases so far of tracks that "freeze" and cycle the read head in the CD drive and preventing ejection of the CD without closing iTunes and starting it up again with the offending track unchecked to cause iTunes to bypass it. So far (about 60% of the discs reviewed) the errors have occurred on only a few discs, with manual relabeling correcting all but a couple of incorrect track content problems."
"It is hard to justify spending $120 for one opera, but if you do buy this Mozart box set you will be rewarded with a delightful Così fan tutte. Huub Claessens brings the correct blend to Don Alfonso -- a character actor's comic patter plus a lyrical ability to actually sing the music. Soile Isokoski tosses off Fiordiligi's "Come scoglio" without making it sound like an Olympic routine on the uneven parallel bars. While her trouser impersonations of the doctor and notary are somewhat sloppy (albeit for intentional comic purposes), I'll take her chesty blustering over the standard drill of ear-piercing nasality. Don Giovanni is quite good, although the cast is not as strong as for Così, and the tempos seem out of proportion in the Act One finale. I like Le nozze di Figaro despite its flaws -- blatant nepotism is perpetrated by Marie Kuijken (the conductor's wife? I have found a few unfamiliar (to me) treasures in the box set: The Divertimenti of Volume 3 make pleasant background music while I am working."
"Mozart, along with all piano music composers/players of that period, would have given his right arm for a modern piano; well maybe not an arm, but possibly a leg. Most of those are very well done as well, although I must point out to those performers as well as all other "period practice" cultists, that Bach did not write for countertenors."
Best Classical Septets
2007 issue of 22 CD's filled with the works of the great composer drawn from the vaults of Columbia Records.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I found all the performances (as conducted either by Stravinsky or Craft) gave me a strong sense of how Stravinsky personally envisioned his works."
"22 discs, conducted by The Master himself (with one exception, and exceptional, disc conducted by friend and protege Robert Craft. I purchased that 22 disc set for about $30 (that's not a typo) from a UK seller listed on amazon/us and received it in less than a week - many US sellers take longer to ship their product!"
"Stravinsky is the conductor for almost all the performances with the CBS orchestra and, though recorded in the early to late 60's, the sound is spectacular. Bravo for this generous release and anyone, both new and familiar with Stravinsky need not think twice about purchasing this."
"I originally purchased this set in order to replace a few worn out LP's from the 60's."
"Having just watched Jewels by the Paris Opera Ballet on DVD, I was curious about his Capriccio for Piano, which was the first from this set I played."
"oh my this is great music."
"The price for this many works is astounding, and I highly recommend this to any classical enthusiast."
"Loves the whole collection and would recommend it to any fan of Stravinsky you literally get all of his works famous and not but excellent selection."
Best Classical Duets
Mozart Edition: The Complete Works will make a great gift this Holiday season for the music lover in your life or someone who is hard to buy for.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"If you are loading some of the works into your iTunes library for use on an iPod, as I am, there are inconveniences in variability of the disc labeling such that the format of the labeling varies between parts of the same opera so that iTunes loads the tracks on one part out of order in the library. You will have to manually correct the labeling of each track in order to get the tracks of the operas affected by this problem in correct order for iTunes and your iPod to play them in correct order. For instance, the CD in the envelope labeled part 3 of Cosi Fan Tutte, volume 9 CD 40 with the CD itself labeled part 3, volume 9 CD 40, actually contains the tracks for part 1, volume 9 CD 38, so you get a duplicate of CD 38 but no CD 40, thus missing the last tracks of Cosi Fan Tutte. There are also several cases so far of tracks that "freeze" and cycle the read head in the CD drive and preventing ejection of the CD without closing iTunes and starting it up again with the offending track unchecked to cause iTunes to bypass it. So far (about 60% of the discs reviewed) the errors have occurred on only a few discs, with manual relabeling correcting all but a couple of incorrect track content problems."
"It is hard to justify spending $120 for one opera, but if you do buy this Mozart box set you will be rewarded with a delightful Così fan tutte. Huub Claessens brings the correct blend to Don Alfonso -- a character actor's comic patter plus a lyrical ability to actually sing the music. Soile Isokoski tosses off Fiordiligi's "Come scoglio" without making it sound like an Olympic routine on the uneven parallel bars. While her trouser impersonations of the doctor and notary are somewhat sloppy (albeit for intentional comic purposes), I'll take her chesty blustering over the standard drill of ear-piercing nasality. Don Giovanni is quite good, although the cast is not as strong as for Così, and the tempos seem out of proportion in the Act One finale. I like Le nozze di Figaro despite its flaws -- blatant nepotism is perpetrated by Marie Kuijken (the conductor's wife? I have found a few unfamiliar (to me) treasures in the box set: The Divertimenti of Volume 3 make pleasant background music while I am working."
"Mozart, along with all piano music composers/players of that period, would have given his right arm for a modern piano; well maybe not an arm, but possibly a leg. Most of those are very well done as well, although I must point out to those performers as well as all other "period practice" cultists, that Bach did not write for countertenors."
Best Classical Nonets
GRAMMY® Winning artist Laura Sullivan has created another blissful masterpiece that you will love for MEDITATION MUSIC, MASSAGE MUSIC, HEALING MUSIC, RELAXING SPA MUSIC, MUSIC THERAPY, BACKGROUND MUSIC, YOGA MUSIC, MUSIC FOR RELAXATION, CALMING MUSIC FOR KIDS, DINNER MUSIC, CALM MUSIC, and RELAXING MUSIC FOR SLEEP. This album of of BEAUTIFUL PIANO MUSIC combined with violin, guitar, flute, oboe and other ambient instrumentation, takes listeners on a SOOTHING MUSIC journey of music inspired by America s mystical and sacred places. CD PRODUCT PACKAING: The product packaging of this CD is an all new, simple, and eco-friendly trademarked professional packaging for CD and DVD duplication called an eco-pack.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This is really nice music to."
"An absolutely fantastic album!"
"Beautiful and relaxing music."
"This is my favorite CD ever!"
"Extra ( 7 ) cds for Christmas gifts. My favorite piano artist ever and a wonderful friend .!"
"Ms. Sullivan is a musical genius."
Best Classical Trios
Aside from the technical mastery and beautiful tone that are absolutes in all of his playing, one is dazzled by his curiosity and ability to adapt to so many forms and types of music. His Bach and Vivaldi are pellucid and played with non-sentimental crispness, his tango music gritty and rhythmically pungent, his jazz seemingly spontaneous, the "Meditation" from Thais simply ravishing, "Anything Goes" a romp, and the Appalachian music performed with both respect and a great twang, while the traditional Chinese music is fascinating.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Excellent recording of this master of the cello."
"A very good value as it is two CDs with something for every taste, from classical to folk to "show tunes" to world music, and of course all impeccably performed."
"I bought this album primarily for Alison Krauss singing "Simple Gifts," one of the finest (and hard to find) renditions of that wonderful song that is often badly covered, both instrumentally or vocally."
"What a fabulous and diverse collection: Classical, American traditional, Chinese traditional, Appalachian, Brazilian, baroque, and jazz."