Best Sextets
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This 2006 recording by the Ying Quartet, an American ensemble, features Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky's three quartets as well as the sextet "Souvenir de Florence," the last of the music to be written. The Ying and the Borodin take similar approaches but I found the Borodin's version marginally better because the Ying don't quite have the emotional intensity or the textural variety lent the music by the Borodin Quartet."
"It was Quartet 3 of Tchaikovsky played by the Ying Quartet."
"Maybe it's my system but the violins sounded very harsh on this recording."
"I bought this CD after reading the stellar review it got in the Gramophone or Penguin Guide."
"Having just read the Tchaikovsky life story again I realized that I didnt have a recording of the String Quartets."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Brilliant performance of This work, great sound and recording as well."
"CD arrived as promised and in good condition."
"A nice, albeit remastered, recording of some of Tchaikovsky's most beautiful music."
"The performance of the Serenade for string is good, but the performance of the string orchestra arrangement of Souvenir de Florence is really breathtaking."
"While Serenade for Strings is somewhat well-known through the ballet by Balanchine, Souvenir de Florence is less so, but just as worthy."
"Tchaikovsky: Serenade For Strings considered for those who hate Tchaikovsky the best work by the russian composer."
"The strings sounds bright, passionate and played very skillful."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Although this reduces the "march" feeling of the first movement and the exquisite and sensuous dreaminess of the third movement, it does prevent these movements from dragging on, and gives the entire performance the ambiance of a light-hearted serenade--probably what Dvoark intended--and not a heavy symphony. The third movement is beautiful on this recording, with each individual player singing his line beautifully. Perhaps one of the outstanding qualities of this piece--its beautiful instrumentation (including flutes, oboe, clarinets, english horn, french horn, and bassoons)--has also worked to the detriment of the piece's popularity (where can you find so many musicians!). For instance, the first and third movements have passages of devilish syncopation; the last movement has the french horn playing repetitive sixteenth-notes (double-tounging) while the oboe, flute and clarinet sing folksy melodies. The Oslo players fill this score with color and liveliness appropriate to the styles of each of the work's varying movements."
"You can hear the cello and bass accompanying the bassoons in the 3rd movement- something that is not even listed on the cover information."
"Delightful collection of brass."
"This was my first attempt at using the he Amazon Cloud downloader for .mp3 files."
"Then there is Janacek's quirky Mladi, a tribute to the composer's music-inspired youth, written when the master was seventy-a piquant and memorable piece. Enescu's Dixtuor is maybe a little less memorable than either of these works, written in what the writer of liner notes for the CD calls an "international style," which translates to something like the wind music of Richard Strauss without the pomp and circumstance-fine with me, by the way. In the slow middle movement, Enescu seems to use Romanian folk elements, and the sounds are both attractive and very interesting, by far the most arresting music in the piece. Mladi, not easy to bring off, has never seemed more cogent to me, and the Enescu undoubtedly sounds like a finer piece than it really is in the Norwegian musicians' capable hands."
"The Oslo Philharmonic Wind Soloists is a superb ensemble."
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 Septets
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"A great CD with some wonderful singers and great instrumentalists!"
"Despite being a big Stravisky fan I can't get too enthusiastic about this disc."
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 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 Duets
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Norbert Kraft!!"
"I love this CD."
"Norbert Kraft has mastered the spanish guitar."
"You will love the selections on this CD."
"t service and music!"
"Norbert gives us a fine selection of favorites performed with consummate mastery of the instrument recorded here, in what must be close to acoustic heaven, the St. John Chrysostom Church, Newmarket, Canada."
"Let's face it: There are far more classical piano recordings available than guitar recordings."
Best Nonets
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,"