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."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"One of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve heard."
"The same goes for those who think of it as "filth" in regards to its Old-Church Slavonic pronunciation - I'll in fact (having now heard samples from Chjernushjénko as well as Korñijev and Poljánskiy's complete recordings as studiously as possible) go as far as to say that Shaw's choir is even BETTER than all those three so-highly-acclaimed Russian groups in that field alone!! [Those other choirs stray more into modern Russian than they ought to be (note the tenor soloists on both Poljánskiy's and Chjernushjénko's recordings in the "Nï'ñe otpushchájeshi rabá tvojegó" {movement 5} - they slur the "shch" sound into a regular Muscovite "sh" {St. Petersburgers still have the "shch" sound {e.g., "fresh-cheese"} clearly audible!!)! Thirdly, the very slowness of Shaw's interpretation (compared to the samples I tried out of Cleobury, Rostropóvich, Chjernushjénko, Korñijev, and Poljánskiy - the last two of which I've now heard in full) lends an air of deep mysticism to this work - and, following with the score (as well as having at least some direct knowledge of both Russian and - as in this case - old Church Slavonic {not to mention that in my former church yours truly was able to perform movements #6 and 9}) I see nothing otherwise disregarded."
"If you at all love Russian Orthodox choral music, this is for you."
"Shaw does stretch many phrases, some may say almost too much or too frequently, but this group performed it beautifully."
"I really like this version of Vespers."
"A Choral reference in sound."
"Robert Shaw is, of course, the premier choral conductor and this choir is not only trained, but musically expressive like no other."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Low on energy?"
"This interpretation is wonderful, it sounds just as amazing and full of life as it did the first time I heard it when it came out during the heyday of car audio. The MP3 version sounds great here played via Amazon MP3 player, from a tablet through two high sensitivity 1-1/8" soft domes, 7" mids and a single 8" sub woofer."
"This was always one of my favorites for showing off my car audio system when I was in high school."
"Very good music, very relaxing, to me."
"Heck I do not like Rap or Hip Hop but I am not condemning the genres."
"Brings bach (pun intended) echos of my youth."
"A classic album with that Disney Like Synth sound....but classical!"
"Dorsey knocks this one out of the park."
Best Romantic (c.1820-1910)
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"If you have any love of piano music, Clair De Lune is a must."
"BEAUTIFUL, VERY SOOTHING AND GREAT FOR RELAXING."
"Lovely music, well-performed."
"I love this performance of "Reverie" more than any I've heard ."
"Great CD, totally enjoying the clarity & beauty of Debussy's music."
"I love this music...I can't believe such grand music exits on this disc."
Best Baroque (c.1600-1750)
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"If one has to give an extra-special Christmas gift, I strongly recommend, as I have, at various times here, the complete set of Bach Cantatas recorded at performances throughout Europe, and ending at St. Bartholomew's in New York (that odd faux-byzantine episcopalian contraption on Park Avenue two blocks up from my old office) each on its appropriate sunday, by John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir, Bach Soloists, and a batch of wonderful solo vocalists including Magdalena Kozena, Mark Padmore, James Gilchrist, Nathalie Stutzman, Robin Tyson, Katherine Fuge, Peter Harvey, etc. Throughout my life I have dipped into the various collections of Bach cantatas beginning with the pioneering Harnoncourt/Leonhardt collection, Suzuki, Ton Koopman, Richter, Gonnenwein, but as individual performances and overall, I think John Eliot Gardiner captures the beauty, liveliness, gravitas, virtuosity, drama, and devotion in the music in ways others did not realize was present."
"The singing is glorious, in part because the group was recording their Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in a succession of churches where Bach had worked."
"BWV 178 is an ingeniously constructed and intensely dramatic work; it is also (as Gardiner notes in his unusually insightful commentary) formidably difficult to perform. BWV 45, long a favorite, has recieved many distinguished recordings, including those by Karl Richter and Ernest Ansermet from the early stereo era. They should not be forgotten, if only because the solo singing--though more operatic than many listeners may feel comfortable with today--was so splendid (both Krause for Ansermet and Fischer-Dieskau for Richter eclipse all subsequent competition in the dramatic bass arioso). Gardiner conveys the deep unease at the heart of the work (more in the two arias than in the unexpectedly jubilant-sounding opening chorus) quite as well as his traditional performance-practice forbears, though once again I must note that the solo singing is not quite up to par. Gardiner's rendition of the great opening chorus stresses the dramatic contrast between the elegaic first half (which Bach later used for the "Qui Tollis" of the B-minor Mass) and the minatory fugue which follows. BWV 101 is probably the most harrowing cantata in the Bach canon: a deeply troubling evocation of peril, fire and sword--in both the literal and spiritual senses. Fischer-Dieskau and Richter are at once more animated and more alive to the dramatic potential of the text (one of St. Paul's most scathing denunciations of hypocrisy); Schwartz and Gardiner give a subtler and more subdued account that is just slightly disappointing for those who were expecting more incisiveness. There is not a hint of routine in any of these performances, even when the solo singing falls below standards set by the formidable competition in Suzuki's equally outstanding cycle."
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."