Average Rating:

.

Pärt: Alina

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > General
from: ECM New Series

October 25, 1999
If someone was to ask me to go through my music collection and pick out the perfect piece of music, Alina would be it. Neither offensive nor boring or shallow, it's uncomplicated with thought provoking phrasing, holding one's attention time after time without growing tiring. Yes, the tracks are slightly repetitive and the CD only has 2 tracks (albeit varied), but believe me you could stick your player on repeat and have this running for a couple of hours without wanting to change it.

What is interesting is that everyone who has heard this CD playing has complemented the music and asked for the details. It's a winner with my wife, who despises at least 90% of my music taste. It even manages to calm my baby down.

Average Rating:

.

The Ultimate Guitar Collection

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > General
by: John Williams

August 20, 2007
If someone was to ask me to go through my music collection and pick out the perfect piece of music, Alina would be it. Neither offensive nor boring or shallow, it's uncomplicated with thought provoking phrasing, holding one's attention time after time without growing tiring. Yes, the tracks are slightly repetitive and the CD only has 2 tracks (albeit varied), but believe me you could stick your player on repeat and have this running for a couple of hours without wanting to change it.

What is interesting is that everyone who has heard this CD playing has complemented the music and asked for the details. It's a winner with my wife, who despises at least 90% of my music taste. It even manages to calm my baby down.

Average Rating:

.

Orff: Carmina Burana

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > General
from: Great Recordings of the Century

October 05, 1998
Okay, first, for the uninitiated, what is Carmina Burana? It is that piece of music which they play if someone (prizefighters love it) needs a particualrly ostentatious entrance. Those in the UK who remember the Old Spice ads of the 70's and 80's featuring a surfer - that's Carmina Burana; specifically the first and last track "O Fortuna", "Fortune, you are like the moon; waxing and waning, bringing one man good forune and the next man ill luck" being an approximate translation. It is one of those pieces everybody has heard if they watch television or films at all (Oh yes, John Boorman's Excalibur uses a version). So, subtle it ain't? Wrong! - it has some of the most beaufiful, subtle, sophisticated, and charming pieces of music in it. Dulchissimo ... Read More:

Average Rating:

.

Officium

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > General
from: ECM New Series

September 05, 1994
I can see how sax fans find this album a revelation but it is a stain on the track record of the Hilliard Ensemble. I can see (kinda) what the involved parties tried to do but it still is painful to listing to it and even with a lot of good will this is simply a waste of money and time. To all those admirers of the Hilliard Ensemble: Don't do it to yourself!

Average Rating:

.

Gorecki - Symphony No.3: Sorrowful Songs

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > General
from: Nonesuch

July 06, 1992
I can't judge this from a musicians point of view, or from anything apart from that this music connects with some bit inside of me that I can't explain in technical language.

Sorrowful yes, you certainly feel that raw emotion from this album. It is also very peaceful and grounding - not great over-worked symphony that makes you wallow in your own depression. Very simple and beautiful.

All I can say is that this music connects with some inner part of me and that I love it. It's rather personal and you should take a listen to it before you buy it - but I'm sure you'll love it.

Average Rating:

.

Puccini: Turandot

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > General
from: Decca

February 07, 1985
Read all the other reviews for soloist analysis etc. What I wish to add is do not be put off by the age of this recording. This was recorded by Decca in their glory days.The dynamic range, frequency range, soundstaging, capture of the hall sound, can (and does) put many a modern recording to shame. The breathing sounds and creaking stage boards only cement the performance. If you want to know how good your system is, can you hear the tube trains passing underneath and the birds outside.

For many including myself this is and will always be a definitive/landmark recording/performance.

Average Rating:

.

Born

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > General
by: Bond

August 25, 2003
I'm a hardened, dyed-in-the-wool classical music lover. I have hundreds of classical cds and maybe one shelf of what you'd call pop.

This cd, as has been said, is not classical. Oh sure, the tunes are familiar, but there's a disco beat to them and they've been heavily arranged. When I first saw this group, I did wonder if they were following the lamentable modern trend of looks over talent.

But you know what? I actually really enjoyed it. These ladies can play. Very well, in fact. It's perfect if you like classical, but are in the mood for something a little wilder, or maybe if you are not at all into classical but want to dip your toe in the water.

In short, this was the first Bond album I bought. I now own three.

Average Rating:

.

Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > General
from: Philips

May 10, 1993
I agree with the other reviewers here: this is a marvellous set, and a real bargain, too. Not only do you get all five of the Violin Concertos, but the sublime Sinfonia Concertante too, and all in impeccable performances.

Grumiaux was universally hailed as a truly great violinist and a wonderful interpreter of Mozart, and he shows why in this set. His technique is superb, he uses his virtuosity to show the music to its best advantage rather than to draw attention to the virtuosity itself and he has real feeling without ever slipping into schmaltz. For example, the well-known (perhaps over-exposed) Adagio of K216 is sublime, uplifting and heart-string tugging stuff without a hint of sentimentality; just sheer beauty, beautifully expressed. I have never come across ... Read More:

Average Rating:

.

Karl Jenkins - Requiem

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > General
by: Karl Jenkins

March 21, 2005
This disc was a birthday present from a friend. I'll leave aside the issue of what kind of friend purchases a requiem for a birthday present, but I think it's important to say that I had not consciously listened to any of Karl Jenkins's music before I was given this CD. I understand that there is a kind of snobbery concerning the popular Jenkins - the Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music briskly moves non-stop from the seventeenth-century cavalier composer John Jenkins to US conductor Newell Jenkins - so there may be something in this, but listening to this CD made it clear that Karl Jenkins certainly has talent. Perhaps it is the self-promotional aspect of his activities that rubs people up the wrong way. For instance, on the informative sleeve-notes I learned that Mr Jenkins has 28 ... Read More:

Average Rating:

.

Haydn - The Creation

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > General
by: Academy of St Martin in the Fields

November 06, 2006
This disc was a birthday present from a friend. I'll leave aside the issue of what kind of friend purchases a requiem for a birthday present, but I think it's important to say that I had not consciously listened to any of Karl Jenkins's music before I was given this CD. I understand that there is a kind of snobbery concerning the popular Jenkins - the Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music briskly moves non-stop from the seventeenth-century cavalier composer John Jenkins to US conductor Newell Jenkins - so there may be something in this, but listening to this CD made it clear that Karl Jenkins certainly has talent. Perhaps it is the self-promotional aspect of his activities that rubs people up the wrong way. For instance, on the informative sleeve-notes I learned that Mr Jenkins has 28 ... Read More: