Category: Uncategorized
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LA WALLY
Strominger (bass) desires to arrange a marriage between Wally (soprano), his only daughter and Gellner (baritone), and thus slight their old enemy, Hagenbach (tenor), whom they suspect to have designs on Wally. Wally refuses. A year later Stromminger has died, Wally has inherited his fortune, and Hagenbach is now engaged to Afra. Wally, enraged through…
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GITY RAZAZ
The Strange Highway is the title of the fascinating debut album of Iranian-born, American composer Gity Razaz. BIS Records will release it on August 5, 2022. Razaz’ music is represented in the album by the opening The Strange Highway for cello octet. Inspired by a Spanish language poem by the late Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño: You wish…
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VERDI’S DON CARLO
VERDI’s DON CARLO OPUS ARTE DVD ROYAL OPERA HOUSE PRODUCTION DESIGNED AND DIRECTED BY Luchino Visconti Conducted by Bernard Haitink Revival staged by Christopher Renshaw In the cast: Luis Lima (Don Carlo) Ileana Cotrubas (Elisabetta) Bruna Baglioni (Princess Eboli) Robert Lloyd (Philip II) Giorgio Zancanaro (Rodrigo) Joseph Rouleau (Grand Inquisitor) TRAILER https://youtu.be/0JmuYKlInbY Verdi’s Don Carlos,…
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BELLINI’S ROMEO AND JULIET
In 1830 Vincenzo Bellini was commissioned to write an opera for the Venetian Carnival with only a month and a half before its premiere. The harried composer had no other recourse but to pilfer music from Zaira, another work of his that had had a disastrous reception sometime before. I Capuleti e i Montecchi premiered…
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LILI KRAUS PLAYS SCHUBERT
Two piano sonatas by Franz Schubert are included in the Vanguard Classics CD LILI KRAUS PLAYS SCHUBERT (OVC8098) The Piano Sonata No. 16 in A Minor, Op. 42 and the Piano Sonata No. 13 in A Major, Op. 120, were originally issued on LP by Vanguard. In this impeccably remastered and engineered CD, the listener…
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OISTRAKH’s MOZART
David Oistrakh (violin) Moscow Chamber Orchestra conducted by Rudolf Barshai and Kirill Kondrashin. Catalogue Number: ALC 1454 The late Russian violinist David Oistrakh is accompanied by the Moscow Chamber Orchestra in Mozart’s Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante K364, and in the Violin Concertos No.1 K207 and No.3 K216 in a recent ALTO release. The lineup of seldom heard…
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THE MUSIC OF FLORENCE PRICE
The ALTO recording of the music of Florence Price (ALC1461) – Mississippi River Suite; The Oak; Symphony No. 3 – with the former Women’s Philharmonic Orchestra of San Francisco, led by Apo Hsu playing up a storm is yet one more invaluable offering by the British label ALTO whose mission has encompassed to restore and…
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CINCINNATI OPERA’s “LA BOHEME”
La bohème, an opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini, is one of the most frequently performed operas worldwide. Composed to a libretto by the team of Illica and Giacosa, La bohème is based on the 1851 Henri Murger novel Scènes de la vie de bohème (Scenes of the Bohemian Life) set in the Paris…
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LET’S HEAR MORE LATIN AMERICANS
Earlier in the middle of Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15) I looked once and sadly have yet to find the inclusion of one single piece of music by a Latin American composer in the programs of any of our musical institutions. Here I provide a list of over two dozen composers of…
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ELIZABETH NEWKIRK’S AMERICANIST
The Americanist – another wonderful CD by Bright Shiny Things. Elizabeth Newkirk makes her solo debut with The Americanist. The album features piano reductions of orchestral works by Maurice Ravel, George Gershwin, and William Grant Still. Maurice Ravel’s short tone poem La valse, was written between February 1919 and 1920. Ravel dubbed this piece poème…
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