PUCCINI / BELLINI / ROSSINI
Maria Callas: Toujours - Paris 1958 BLU-RAY Maria Callas (soprano) / Orchestra & Chorus of the Paris National Opera [ Warner Classics Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/Nov/2015 ] This Blu-ray disc is part of a collection of three that gather together concert and stage performances from the latter phase of Callas's career, 1958-1964. These are the only professional video recordings of Callas in performance on stage. |
PUCCINI / BELLINI / ROSSINI / BIZET / VERDI / BELLINI / etc
Maria Callas: In Concert London, Hamburg & Paris BLU-RAY Maria Callas (soprano) / Orchestra & Chorus of the Paris National Opera, Symphonieorchester des NDR, Orchestra & Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Cove [ Warner Classics Blu-ray / 3 Blu-ray Disc - released 25/Sep/2017 ] Callas at Covent Garden (London 1962 & 1964) Callas in Concert (Hamburg 1959 & 1962) Toujours (Paris 1958) |
GIOACCHINO ROSSINI
Sì, Sì, Sì, Sì!: Rossini Opera Arias & Duets Marie Nicole-Lemieux (contralto) / Orchestre national de Montpellier Occitanie, Enrique Mazzola, with Patrizia Ciofi (soprano) [ Erato Classics / CD - released 1/Mar/2017 ] "The Quebecois singer recalls the great Marilyn Horne in this repertoire, though her voice is more feminine in timbre, her persona perhaps more coquettish for Rosina's and Isabella's arias...The rarities are treats." Sunday Times |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
Marie Oppert - Enchantée Marie Oppert (soprano) / Orchestre National De Lille, Nicholas Skilbeck, with Natalie Dessay & Melissa Errico [ Warner Classics / CD - released 4/Sep/2020 ] In her debut album on Warner Classics, Enchantée, Marie Oppert embraces both the classics of Broadway repertoire and treasured songs of French origin, in order to represent her own musical upbringing and passion. The program explores the idea of this... |
W. A. MOZART
Clarinet Concerto (with Beethoven - Clarinet Concerto [arr Collins]) Michael Collins, clarinet, Russian National Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev [ Deutsche Grammophon / CD - released 15/Nov/2000 ] An extradinary version of the Beethoven Violin Concerto on Clarinet |
SCRIABIN
Symphony No. 3 'Le Divin Poame' Russian National Orchestra / Mikhail Pletnev [ Deutsche Grammophon / CD - released 25/May/2000 ] 1001 Classical recordings you must hear before you die (1901-1950) - The latest addition to Pletnev's catalogue of Russian music! |
BEETHOVEN
Piano Concerto No 5 Mikhail Pletnev / Russian National Orchestra / Christian Gansch [ Deutsche Grammophon / CD ] "For me Beethoven is like a god. I worship him, and I admire his music. It always produces very deep emotions in me when I'm conducting it or playing it on the piano." |
The National Bank
Come On Over to the Other Side [ Universal Music / CD - released 25/Feb/2008 ] This Norwegian band consists of musicians already well-known in their native country, from such bands as Jaga Jazzist, Susanna & The Magical Orchestra, In The Country and Bigbang, and featuring the accomplished singer/songwriter Thomas Dybdahl on vocals. |
CHABRIER
Espana / Suite Pastorale / Gwendoline Overture / etc Orchestre National de France, Armin Jordan [ Warner Apex / CD - released 20/Aug/2007 ] |
National Head Band
Albert 1 [ CD ] |
MIKLOS ROZSA
Spellbound: - Classic Film Scores of Miklos Rozsa National Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Gerhardt [ RCA Red Seal / CD - released 10/Apr/2011 ] Miklos Rozsa already had a promising career as a composer in the concert hall when he started writing movie scores in the mid-1930s. By the end of that decade, he was working on the most expensive movie being made in England, and by the end of the... |
JOHANN STRAUSS II
Aschenbradel, Ritter Pasman, Le Beau Danube (Ballets) National Philharmonic Orchestra / Richard Bonynge [ Double Decca / 2 CD - released 11/Jul/2002 ] "The orchestra plays with enthusiasm and the 1974 sound is strikingly vivid." *** (Three Stars) Penguin Stereo Guide |
PUCCINI
Tosca (complete opera recorded in 1978) Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti, Sherrill Milnes / National Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicola Rescigno [ Decca Operas / 2 CD - released 24/Oct/2011 ] "The great merit of this new version of Tosca...is that the stage picture is so clear, with the words sharply audible from beginning to end...Pavarotti makes an unusually positive and bright-eyed Cavaradossi, by no means the cipher this character can |
The National Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, BBC Symphony Orchestra
Michael Kamen - The New Moon in the Old Moon's Arms [ Decca Records / CD - released 23/Jan/2001 ] The first recording of Kamen's complete symphonies!! |
SAINT-SAENS / TCHAIKOVSKY / VERDI / BERLIOZ / de FALLA / MOUSSORGSKY / etc
Olga Borodina: Portrait Olga Borodina (mezzo) / Royal Opera House, Covent Garden / Orchestra of Welsh National Opera / etc [ Philips Portrait of an Artist / 2 CD - released 10/Jun/2006 ] "A mezzo-soprano is usually a woman with a tragic past, a tragic life - strong women, wilful women, and these roles have strengthened me as a character" (Olga Borodina) |
ROUSSEL / FRANCK / LALO / BEETHOVEN / RAVEL / BERLIOZ / etc
André Cluytens: The Complete Orchestral Recordings Orchestre du Théâtre National de l'Opéra, Orchestre de l'Association des Concert Colonne, Orchestre National de France, Wiener Philharmoniker / André [ Erato / Warner Classics / 65 CD Box Set - released 1/Jul/2017 ] André Cluytens, though born in Belgium, achieved fame as one of the supreme French conductors of his era, renowned for his refinement and the sheer joy of his music-making. In the mid-20th century he built a substantial, varied and distinguished... |
MILHAUD / BERLIOZ / SCHUMANN / BLOCH / RACHMANINOV / RAVEL / etc
Leonard Bernstein: An American In Paris - Recordings & Concerts with Orchestre National de France Orchestre National de France, Leonard Bernstein, with Boris Belkin (violin) Donald McInnes (viola) Marilyn Horne (mezzo) etc [ Warner Classics / 7 CD Box Set - released 20/Aug/2018 ] This 7CD set is the fruit of the love affair that developed in Paris between Leonard Bernstein and the Orchestre National de France in the 1970s. Beside long-admired studio recordings, featuring Mstislav Rostropovich and Alexis Weissenberg among the... |
HECTOR BERLIOZ
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique / Overture: 'Le Corsaire' / Royal Hunt and Storm & Trojan March ('Les Troyens') (recorded 1957-59) Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Francaise; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Thomas Beecham [ Warner Classics Masters / CD - released 1/Feb/2012 ] Rosette Recording (highest rating) Penguin Stereo Guide - 'If you want a genuinely French Symphonie fantastique, wonderfully performed and superbly recorded, go out and get this release before it's snapped up by your neighbour.' (Gramophone) |
CLAUDE DEBUSSY / MAURICE RAVEL
Debussy / Ravel: Orchestral Works (Incls 'La Mer', 'Images', 'Bolero' & 'Daphnis et Chloe') Orchestre National de l ORTF, Orchestre de Paris, Jean Martinon, with Aldo Ciccolini (piano) Itzhak Perlman (violin) [ Erato / Warner Classics / 8 CD Box Set - released 25/Jul/2018 ] "If you are satisfied with performances that are lucid, imaginative, thoughtful and unselfconscious then you will be very happy with Martinon." (MusicWeb on the Debussy) |
LIDARTI
Esther-Oratorio in Hebrew in three acts (1774) Orchestre National de Montpellier / Anne Lise Sollied / Laurent Naouri [ Accord / 2 CD - released 17/Apr/2006 ] World premiere recording an oratorio in Hebrew composed by Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti. |