Welly Wu
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- May 16, 2003
- Posts
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I am recommending some classical and opera music for fans:
The Essential Yo-Yo Ma
Renee Fleming, Richard Strauss Daphne
The 5 Browns
Anne-Sophie Mutter Mendelssohn * Brahms: Violin Concertos
Joshua Bell Romance of the Violin
I know that these are not necessarily the latest releases by the respective musicians, but they represent a solid repetoire through which to explore classical and opera music by some of the finest performers in the business today. From pensive and reflective to highly sensational and engaging, each album is worth listening to especially The 5 Browns. This isn't boring music to put you to sleep, but it does make for a very fine listen on a lazy September Sunday afternoon while sipping fine coffee and tea. Through my All American Reference System, I can detect no single album or track as being flawed sonically and all sound great especially The 5 Browns DualDisc which is absolutely engaging and is changing my mindset against DD. All are CDs so no need for special hardware to replay. Lastly, these titles alone are solid choices to put into your classical / opera short list of top 5 albums to replay daily. Fleming's Daphne opera is perhaps her showcase piece so far this year but she is releasing another opera album on 09/27/05 which I will absolutely buy as well. I am eagerly awaiting her second jazz and pop standards album following Haunted Heart, but that might not happen until 2006 if at all.
Now, allmusicguide.com is worthless to me. It hardly has as deep and wide of a database for classical and opera music; so much so that I think that they just developed it to cater to the growing fans of opera and classical music to generate more revenues. Really, they have to hire more people and produce more quality reviews faster because it is sorely lacking. It's too bad because they are really the best free music database website that I know of, but they are too concentrated on pop, rock, alternative rock, etc and they really should consider either hiring more classical reviewers sooner or they may want to pay to have the right to borrow established classical and opera reviews published concurrently on their own website now. It seems to me that they don't devote as much resources to reviewing the latest classical albums and God forbid that they should do so on special formats such as DVD-Audio, SACD, or HDCD. It sucks for classical and opera fans. Looks like the Deutsche Grammophon, Opera, and BBC Classical music magazines are the way to go for now. Their websites aren't too shabby as well, but I like one stop destinations for information as it is more convenient.
The Essential Yo-Yo Ma
Renee Fleming, Richard Strauss Daphne
The 5 Browns
Anne-Sophie Mutter Mendelssohn * Brahms: Violin Concertos
Joshua Bell Romance of the Violin
I know that these are not necessarily the latest releases by the respective musicians, but they represent a solid repetoire through which to explore classical and opera music by some of the finest performers in the business today. From pensive and reflective to highly sensational and engaging, each album is worth listening to especially The 5 Browns. This isn't boring music to put you to sleep, but it does make for a very fine listen on a lazy September Sunday afternoon while sipping fine coffee and tea. Through my All American Reference System, I can detect no single album or track as being flawed sonically and all sound great especially The 5 Browns DualDisc which is absolutely engaging and is changing my mindset against DD. All are CDs so no need for special hardware to replay. Lastly, these titles alone are solid choices to put into your classical / opera short list of top 5 albums to replay daily. Fleming's Daphne opera is perhaps her showcase piece so far this year but she is releasing another opera album on 09/27/05 which I will absolutely buy as well. I am eagerly awaiting her second jazz and pop standards album following Haunted Heart, but that might not happen until 2006 if at all.
Now, allmusicguide.com is worthless to me. It hardly has as deep and wide of a database for classical and opera music; so much so that I think that they just developed it to cater to the growing fans of opera and classical music to generate more revenues. Really, they have to hire more people and produce more quality reviews faster because it is sorely lacking. It's too bad because they are really the best free music database website that I know of, but they are too concentrated on pop, rock, alternative rock, etc and they really should consider either hiring more classical reviewers sooner or they may want to pay to have the right to borrow established classical and opera reviews published concurrently on their own website now. It seems to me that they don't devote as much resources to reviewing the latest classical albums and God forbid that they should do so on special formats such as DVD-Audio, SACD, or HDCD. It sucks for classical and opera fans. Looks like the Deutsche Grammophon, Opera, and BBC Classical music magazines are the way to go for now. Their websites aren't too shabby as well, but I like one stop destinations for information as it is more convenient.
