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Rated: To Be Announced
Staring:
Donald Gramm,
Florence Kopleff,
John McCollum,
Charles Münch,
Theodore Uppman
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List Price: £5.99
Our Price: £9.99
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Rated: Exempt
Staring:
Donna Brown,
Cornelia Kallisch,
Roberto Sacca,
Helmuth Rilling
Director:
Helmut Rost
  Mozart's Arrangement of 'Messiah,' Sung in German, 2005-02-15
This DVD is actually titled, correctly, 'Der Messias,' as this is a performance sung in German of Mozart's 1789 arrangement of the work. Between 1788 and 1790, Mozart's sometime patron Baron van Swieten contributed to Mozart's welfare by having him arrange for private performance several works by Handel, including Acis and Galatea (K566, November 1788), Messiah (K572, March 1789) and Alexander's Feast and the Ode for St Cecilia's Day (K591 and 592, both July 1790). For 'Messiah' Mozart added winds and percussion and composed new inner voices in places, enough that this work has its own designation, as noted above, in the Köchel catalog. I am old enough to have heard this arrangement in live performance but in the last thirty years there have been very few performances of it as the tide of musical taste has dictated a return to Handel's original orchestration and arrangement of the numbers (although, as many people know, there are questions even yet as to what should be considered Handel's final thoughts about some of the individual numbers; at least one number in the oratorio had seven different arrangements from Handel's own hand!). Still, if one wants to see and hear Mozart's arrangement one would certainly need go no further than this DVD. Helmut Rilling and his Bach-Collegium and Kantorei of Stuttgart are old hands at this sort of music. The Bach-Collegium is a modern-instrument group who nonetheless play using some of the historically-informed performance practice from the baroque and classical eras. The Kantorei, a forty-voice group that has recorded all of the Bach cantatas, is well-versed in baroque vocal music. The four soloists--the Canadian soprano Donna Brown, German mezzo Cornelia Kallisch, Italian tenor Roberto Saccà, and British basso Alastair Miles--acquit themselves admirably. I was particularly impressed with young Signor Saccà whose light tenor falls sweetly on the ear. One more versed than I could tell you the differences between this version of 'Messiah' and the one we generally hear. The most noticeable, of course, is the use of a German text. 'Messiah' was set to King James Version biblical verses chosen and arranged by Charles Jennens, and it is in English that most people reading this review will know the work. It is a bit unsettling to hear 'Every valley' as 'Alle Tale,' and 'Glory to God in the Highest!' as 'Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe!,' for example. It also seems strange to hear the male chorus's 'And peace on Earth' intoned to martial timpani or to hear clarinets tootling countermelodies. One other oddity that I noticed is that 'For unto us' ('Uns ist zum Heil ein Kind geboren') is arranged as a solo vocal quartet rather than sung by the whole chorus who come in only at the end at 'Wonderful, Counselor.' Although it is not stated anywhere in the DVD's booklet or case, I discovered by going to ArtHaus's website that this is a performance from 1991. It was filmed in the small baroque Stadtkirche in the Palatinate city of Ellwangen. Sound is reasonably good, videography is a bit frenetic at times, sometimes cutting away from soloists for no obvious reason. This is not really objectionable but it does get one's attention. Also, opening and closing credits are scrolled for each of the oratorio's three parts; one suspects this DVD was put together from three separate TV presentations, one for each part. The bottom line on this release is this: If you are interested in hearing Mozart's arrangement of 'Messiah,' or if you are a big fan of Rilling's performances of baroque music, then this one might be for you. Otherwise, be warned and read the fine print: This is not the usual 'Messiah.' TT=136min. Scott Morrison
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List Price: £19.99
Our Price: £9.99
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Artist:
Nat 'King' Cole
Pure Christmas, 2000-12-13
This album is a Christmas masterclass from one of the most mellifluous singers of all time. From first to last this will leave you feeling warm inside and bring back childhood memories of days before your older brother told you FC was really your mum and dad!! I especially enjoyed the relaxing classic "Silent Night" and the more upbeat "Buon Natale" and if "The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot" doesn't bring a lump to your throat and a tear to your eye, you are a stonger person than I am. Well worth a listen this Christmas.
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List Price: £6.99
Our Price: £28.56
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Artist:
Frank Sinatra
Talk about your gifts of Christmas past; The Christmas Collection is a must-have for any Sinatra-phile, right down to its family photos and one priceless shot of Sinatra swinging a golf club next to the tree wearing a Santa suit. Complete with four previously unreleased tracks (some from live TV specials)--including two with Bing Crosby ("The Christmas Song" and "White Christmas"), the 18-song collection surveys Sinatra's holiday output and its effects are often chilling. Listening to him glide soulfully through Jimmy Webb's melancholy but romantic "What Ever Happened to Christmas?" or hearing him do his immaculate phrasing on "Silent Night" when he was visibly fra...
Not the happiest Christmas collection, 2004-12-03
The title of this CD "The Frank Sinatra Christmas Collection" is quite significant, because it has been compiled by Warners from various sources, including a 1964 album with Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians, a 1968 one with the other members of the Sinatra family, previously unreleased snippets from a 1957 TV show with Bing Crosby, and a 1991 recording for charity.
Highlights are The Christmas Waltz and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. The songs with Fred Waring are good, too, although on some of them there's not much Sinatra - in fact Go Tell It On The Mountain is nearly all Bing Crosby.
Crosby takes the lion's share of the three short duets from the 1957 TV show; Sinatra joins in, rather reluctantly and out of time at the end.
The family album must have sounded like a good idea at the time, but the songs and their arrangements now sound toe-curlingly embarassing. And he definitely sounds uncomfortable with the setting of Little Drummer Boy.
Christmas Memories, a single from 1965, is a maudlin tune, reminiscent of I Will Drink The Wine, belying the lyric about stringing popcorn and cookies baking in the kitchen. By this time Sinatra's voice was getting beyond its prime, and it sounds like it.
And so we come to Silent Night, which was originally recorded in 1991 for charity, with just a piano accompaniment - Johnny Mandel has added orchestration for this album. Daughter Nancy admits, in the accompanying booklet and DVD, that he was unwell at the time and had to be coaxed (to put it kindly) to do it. Listening to him struggling for breath is painful, and as much torture for the listener as it must have been for him - you end up feeling relieved he made it to the end.
The "bonus" DVD, all seven minutes of it, contains soundbites from members of the family as well as Johnny Mandel and some of the Sinatra alumni gathered together to record the orchestral backing for Silent Night. Then follows the recording itself, with very brief flashes of a young Sinatra and a Christmas tree.
Throughout all of this the orchestral backing, arrangements and production are as good as you would expect with any Sinatra recording - with the involvement of Nelson Riddle, Jack Halloran and Johnny Mandel they couldn't be anything else. It is the vocal input of Sinatra himself that falls short, which is a shame. There are other Sinatra Christmas CDs available, recorded during his spells with Capitol and earlier with US Columbia and these may be more rewarding; as emotional as his last recording here is I prefer to remember him at his peak rather than trying to eke out one last song in the twilight of his years.
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List Price: £15.99
Our Price: £1.95
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Artist:
Vienna Philharmonic,
Harnoncourt
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Artist:
Rosemary Clooney
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List Price: £4.99
Our Price: £0.35
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Staring:
Bing Crosby,
Fred Astaire,
Barry Fitzgerald,
Marjorie Reynolds,
Virginia Dale
Director:
Leo McCarey, Mark Sandrich
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List Price: £15.99
Our Price: £4.99
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Artist:
Jackie Leven
One of the most honest & moving albums about being a man, 2000-02-08
The closest I have heard to the power of Jackie live, songs such as "Fear of Women", "Extremely Violent Man" & "Desolation Blues" are raw portrayals of man today with a sense of compassion & encouragement. "When your heart is dead, you've got desolation blues" are lyrics right on the money. The album is not justifying the way men are, it is acknowledging it, but with a view to doing something about it, with hope. "Just f**k right off" are the screamed words of a woman that kicks off the album and you can tell this is not staged. Jackie is portraying men who are not happy with how they are, but are recognising why they are...
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List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £19.49
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Artist:
Peggy Lee
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List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £7.48
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