Best Classical (c.1770-1830)
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon""In April 2006, Vanessa-Mae was ranked as the wealthiest young entertainer under 30 in the UK in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006, having an estimated fortune of about £32 million[3] stemming from concerts and record sales of over an estimated 10 million copies worldwide. [citation needed]". "She represented Thailand at the 2014 Winter Olympics as an alpine skier with the name Vanessa Vanakorn. "Autorip" successful from Amazon cloud to PC, a nice feature. Nice insert with good pictures of VM, and some expected shameless self promo. When I throw it in my Sony Bluray player it would be nice to see a pictures folder while the music plays."
"I found the use of the drums to be uninspired and heavy-handed, relying on them to emphasize the basic time of the pieces, rather than as an instrument in their own right."
"Pretty much the most exciting violin you will ever hear!"
"Great mix of classical greats with new techno sounds."
"I am highly anticipating her next work, as I am interested to know how she is developing her violin skills - some of the compositions on this CD, although still refreshing, are around a decade old...!"
"Vanessa-Mae shines in this wonderful music CD."
"sound quality isn't as great as I expected."
"I'm stunned at the low star reviews."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This album in particular features the orchestra prominently and they are excellent musicians; they could play in any major symphony in the world. My favorite tracks on this album are Sweet Hour of Prayer, Abide with me 'Tis Eventide, Take Time to be Holy, All Things Bright and Beautiful, Sing Praise to Him, I Need Thee Every Hour - practically every track!"
"Good performances but not the best choice of songs."
"I gave it a 5 star rating because (1) Excellent sound recording, using DSD(Direct Stream Digital)system,date of production:2001 (2) Very good hymns selection (3) Hundreds of members' strong choir with superb orchestral accompaniment (4) It uplift my mood instantly when listen to it."
"Wonderful sounds."
"Filled with powerful arrangements of the hymns that are strong and emotional!"
"A perfect marriage with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's majestic sound and the recording prowess of Telarc."
"At the top of the Mountain the Morman Tabernacle Choir stands alone."
"Another fine CD by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I really liked this recording of Bach's cello suites, but still prefer EMI's recording by Mstislav Rostropovich."
"After years of telling myself "sometime I will get a recording of Casals playing the Bach suites" I finally did."
"Few pieces of music are as lovely and flowing as a Bach Cello Suite."
"Read a Marquez novel that specifically referred these suites."
"It is the rarest of pleasures to hear his actual performances as nearly as current sound technology can bring them to us."
"This cello music is beautiful and so relaxing to listen too."
"I won't discuss the merits of Pablo Casals' version of Bach's Suites for Solo Cello, other reviewers have already done that. I find Ma to be too slick for his own good - he is indeed so technically correct that he plays the notes a bit too perfectly and in doing so somehow loses the essence of the music... if that makes any sense? I do not mean to suggest that both Ma and Rostropovich do not have their moments or that others have not found them satisfying, but overall there are other performers that just do a better job for me in terms of what I find important. I also passed on the Pearl and instead purchased both the Opus Kura and the Remastered EMI versions, as those were also the ones done most recently and hopefully with the latest technology. But, note that the hiss levels can always be adjusted very easily with a graphic equalizer or more preferably with a noise gate. I did make an experimental CD-R copy of the Opus Kura on a CD-R with a noise gate (using Nero) and the result was very good and comparable to the Remastered EMI version in terms of hiss. Opus Kura has all the room ambiance and lower bass tone, overtones and frequency range that the Remastered EMI version has filtered out. The Remastered EMI in the same test sounds cleaner, but without the deepest overtones it sounds less like a real cello and more like just a deep toned viola - this is a solo cello we are talking about and you don't just EQ out the tonal quality of the instrument (and the room ambience) without losing some of the realism. On the other hand, some listeners will actually appreciate the different tonal emphasis on the mid bass that the Remastered EMI offers. I did an A-B blind test with a friend who noted immediately the lack of bass in the Remastered EMI, yet still enjoyed listening to that one as much as the Opus Kura. The Opus Kura version strives to keep all the music regardless while the Remastered EMI compromises a bit to lower the noise levels. So, I made my own CD-R recording of the Opus Kura with the NERO noise gate set at 62db for the level and 30db for reduction. The Remastered EMI, however, is a fair enough alternative with lower hiss levels and hardly any surface noise (most of the time) and an emphasis (rightly or wrongly) on the just the mid bass."
Best Quartets
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Mozart For Your Mind. Very melodic and nice."
"Enjoy listening to this cd to help focus."
"I wasn't impressed with the quality of this CD."
"I put this on as background music as I'm working at my desk, baking, or puttering and I love it."
"Bought for my 2 month old for car rides and she loves it!"
"I can't honestly say it boosts my productivity or the quality of my output, but, unlike a lot of instrumental music, it doesn't put me to sleep either."
Best Octets
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The audio quality is excellent."
"Just as his work is recognisable, well written, entertaining and frequently quite catchy melodically, it is also fair to say that once it has finished it is hard to remember anything memorable about it, unlike Mozart or Beethoven for example. Whereas Mozart and Beethoven could be described as the best of the top rank composers of their time, Krommer could reasonably be described as writing excellent second rank music, hence his obvious popularity. Although none of these three partitas, (three of the thirteen written in this form and sometimes described as mini-symphonies), is in the same class as Mozart's various wind serenades and divertimentos, they nevertheless are very enjoyable and entertaining in their own way and as described above. If you like Mozart's wind music it is likely that you will be enjoyably entertained by these examples by Krommer, but don't expect to remember so many of the themes when they are finished."
"The playing is warm and clear, with incredible candor.It is a record that you can play several times in an afternoon and still find pleasure in each one."
"While the tempo that Berkes selects here allows the tremendous virtousity of his musicians to be clear to all listeners, I pause to wonder whether the tempo is faithful to the traditional polacca dance tempo, and again wonder if a slower tempo would not yield more of the true DNA of the composition in terms of musical shaping of the line and over-all accents."
"This cd proves that a great cd doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg."
"This is a charming and welcome disc in my collection but to the ears of one lucky enough to grow up with the live sounds of the (Szell/Dohnanyi) Cleveland and the Solti-era Chicago orchestra the winds, pardon me, sound rather hard edged and unrefined, especially the "sour cream and capers" European oboes."
"The original review I sent contains a typographical error in the word "conditions.""
Best Modern & 20th Century
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I'm always on the lookout for good background music to write to, and my goodness, this album is incredible."
"Blackheart is worth the price of the entire album all by itself."
"Two Steps From Hell specializes in the increasingly popular genre known as "Trailer Music"; compositions that are clearly in the style of action-adventure symphonic scores, but which are clearly not from movies you've ever seen."
"When I love a track or feel my mind creating visuals for some epic movie trailer or thrilling fight scene. It's like I mentally become a movie director and start visualizing scenes that excite my imagination to no end. But the auto tuned lyrical songs are terrible and certainly not a strong point for the Two Steps team."
"Imagine trying to find inspiration to tackle on dull chores, or even finding the drive to make yourself finish that half-block of a morning jog."
"Which is nice to have - the album flows rather well, and the tracks do lend themselves quite well to the title of Skyworld.."
"I've been a fan of TSFH for a bit now so as amazing as this album sounds to me there is some bias in my opinion."
"Since first coming to this genre after listening to their first album and finding many other offerings, I've found TSFH to not be capable of delivering consistently album to album. Their albums have two versions of each track, one with vocals and one without."
Best Classical (c.1770-1830)
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Rebuilding my somewhat deficient Classical collection."
"Beautiful sound and presentation."
"A thrilling interpretation of The Ring, without all that awful singing."
"WOW you've got to hear this!"
"His personal behavior was low....yet, these orchestral excerpts show the God-given musical genius he possessed right up there with Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. The conductor was able to capture "the Noble Savage" aspect in Siegfried with those musical bits."
"Berlin Philharmonic is one of best orchestras in the world."
Best Czech
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"There is something to be said for a conductor who does not rely on 'cycles' to warrant respect ; there's nothing wrong with regular thought and feeling from a conductor - as in Karajan and others - yet an expansive interpretive range will come, too, from the performance of various composers ; Fritz Kreisler is a master of interesting sentiments in the same vein as L. Stokowski (another underrated conductor, if I may say) but he - Kreisler - always is best in front of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra."
"a perfect piece for the New World , hit's you right in the heart."
"The "New World Symphony" is a work I've loved since my teens but only recently realized was missing from the classical library on my iPod."
"I first heard this symphony in high school in a music appreciation class."
"This work represents a series of sweeping, majestic melodies that range from serious as in Op."
"Dvorak's New World Symphony is one of my favorites."
"Again, a wonderful presentation of RCA's "Living Stereo" era."
"This recording of New World proved to be one excellent replacement choice."
Best Trios
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"A great pipe organ, brass, & percussion CD! This CD is a must have for pipe organ CD collectors and./or Michael Murray fans!"
"The problem lies in the arrangements and the lack of stereo separation. that I'd learned to expect hearing these classics."
"The quality of this CD work is only matched by a handful of other brass & organ projects."
"This was a gift for my husband and he loves it."
"It is okey for me, the music is nice and well played, it has a traditional focus."
"I have been in church of the advent,"
Best Quintets
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The piece is turgid, with a largely homogenous texture and, what I'm coming to conclude is Chausson's fatal flaw as a composer, a complete lack of creativity in rhythmic and metric terms. I downgraded to 4-stars because of the Chausson's mediocrity and this sound engineering, but the Franck interpretation is excellent and makes me happy to own the disc for that reason alone. The Chilingirian version has more differentiated textures, which heightens my understanding of the work's structure and avoids the homogeneity of the Ludwig rendition, and the sound engineering is much, much better."
"I love César Franck."
"The Franck piano quintet is one of the best examples of late-19th century chamber music, along with the works of Fauré and Brahms."
"The Franck Piano Quintet is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, piano quintet I've ever heard. There aren't a ton of great piano quintets, but composers of the Romantic era seemed to make the greatest contributions to this sub-genre. The only other piano quintets I would put at or near the same level as Franck's entry would be those composed by Brahms, Dvorak and Faure (I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, but those are the three other greats that immediately come to mind). While Chausson is also very romantic, like Franck, the music is more chromantic and tonally adventurous, which is to be expected considering that he was much younger than Franck, who was one of his teachers, and it was composed after Franck's death."
Best Improvisation
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I really like the calm music for me and my son."
"Great relaxing nursing and naptime music."
"Looks cute haven't had a chance to listen because it is a gift."
"The music is all very soothing and my daughter drifts off to sleep every night by the 5th-7th track."
"I always fall asleep listening to classical musin - finally someone sells it as a sleep aide."
"A delightful, sleep inducing album."
"I originally received this CD as a baby gift and played it every night for three years."
"all babies should have soothing music."
Best Symphonies
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I feel queasy whenever I see a photograph of Alfred Cortot - the Vichy High Commissioner of Fine Arts. Even so, just as salvation was vouchsafed to the Good Thief, is redemption possible for our swish, goosestepping friend? If the likes of Horowitz and Richter have a rival in this domain, it is surely Cortot. Every sentiment and state of being in Schumann's lexicon is given utterance and vibrantly so. Repeats are also sparse, particulary in Davidbundlertanze (Frisch in particular - my favourite - is disappointingly truncated). One almost raises a votive offering to Cortot when the Poet at last falls silent."
"After having played Appassionata's first movement in front of Anton Rubinstein, A.R told him: "Beethoven's music must not be studied. Consider besides, the happy meeting with two legend musicians as Thibaud and Casals; I mean, in despite of the fact the natural gifts, Cortot was surrounded for wisdom companies. & March 1929, Small Queen Hall) have been one of the main battle horses and most beloved preferred compositions by the most of high caliber pianists (as in the case of Frau Carreño, for instance) ; while Kempff gives a dreamy approach, Cortot makes a mesmerizing, disturbing and nervous performance, plenty of electricity and sublimate passion. It owns an overflowing poetry and is to my mind the nearest composition related with the autumnal approach of Franz Schubert in his last days. 2 (rec.4 July 1935) we find seriously less gifted pianist but at the meantime, a wiser man , this admirable set of variations are played with hat sense of elusiveness and dreams so typical of the youth years. 4 July 1935) - conceived by Schumann as " Souvenirs for those who have grown up" - is a superb poetic homage to those years of the childhood seen through adult eyes. We have to recognize and acknowledge the impressive and notable Engineering process about the clean and almost imperceptible hiss for Music & Arts personal."
"Cortot brings his own well-thought-out views to several of Schumann's central piano works, including Kreisleriana, Kinderszenen, and Symphonic Etudes."