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Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

from: EMI

September 16, 1996
This recording of the Young person's guide to the orchestra takes you right into the concert hall, the excitment, invigoration and sheer power of the recording leaves you breathless.

The transition of music from live performance onto disc is not an easy one and only a handful of recordings achieve it - but this is one of them

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The Most Relaxing Classical Album in the World...Ever!

from: Classics

October 27, 1997
While there are some lovely pieces of music on these CDs they don't match the titles. When I bought this 2-set CD I thought that maybe I had received Vol2. or something by mistake as none of the tracks match the information on the CD insert. I decided to check by listening to the samples here on Amazon & discovered that they too are incorrect. Just to ensure I wasn't going mad I found the CD set on a US website and listened to their samples & they were correct!!! I wish someone could explain.

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Mahler - Symphony No 5

from: EMI Classics

October 07, 2002
It is difficult to understand the hostile contemporary response to Mahler's music, at times uncomprehending, at others vitriolic. Where did the problem lie? In trying to unravel the symbolism of 'programmatic' works like the Fifth? Viennese anti-Semitism? A misunderstanding of the man and his motives? Whatever the initial difficulties with such music, the Berlin Philharmoniker's inspired presentation here allows for a relatively untroubled appreciation of sublime music that is more multi-faceted than complex and more difficult to play than to listen to.

Leading Mahler critic Michael Kennedy has called this symphony, the first of the so-called Ruckert series, 'Mahler's Eroica, progressing from tragedy to triumph'. He also considers ... Read More:

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Haydn: The Creation

from: EMI

March 11, 1991
Brilliant, voices, music, conducting. Wow. Everything superb. Bought it for a present and may have listed to it more myself!!!

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Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms / Symphony in C / Symphony in Three Movements

by: Sir Simon Rattle

June 02, 2008
Not the biggest Stravinsky fan, but I keep coming back to this disc. I particularly want to hear the Symphony in C, probably because of its clarity and elegant facade. The other two pieces are notably more dramatic, I think. Excellent singing and instrumental playing.

I just want to know, what exactly does "in concert" mean? Live and maybe padded with rehearsal takes? Strictly live on the night? Not live at all? Someone else review this disc and please explain.

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Mahler: Symphony No.10

from: Emi Classics

April 03, 2000

As usual, Simon Rattle ticks all boxes. All meticulously done and calcurated, and manages to kill great spirit of Mahler's music as happened to most of Rattle's Mahler recordings. Where is warmth of humanity, violent primeval force, and spiritual depth so essential to Mahler symphonies?

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Mahler: Symphony No. 9

by: Sir Simon Rattle

March 03, 2008
Even if you're happy with whatever great Ninth/s you already have in your possession, think seriously about buying this. It's really affordable, much cheaper than the Vienna recording, and better recorded by far. You must know by now what a superb Mahlerian Rattle is. He has spoken, I believe, about the Ninth as part of a triptych with Das Lied and the Tenth Symphony. The new Berlin Ninth is to my mind the realisation of Schoenberg's description of the symphony as (paraphrase), a series of dispassionate statements of beauty. There is something pure, almost glacial, and finally purifying about this recording's voyage into Mahler's loving, sublime, mortified psyche. At times I thought I was with Karajan's orchestra of the 1980s.

I love the way rattle is able, ... Read More:

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Adams: Orchestral Works

from: EMI

April 05, 1994
John Adams' status as the premier living American composer is well-earned: he manages somehow to fuse an awareness of the time he is writing for and a real artistic integrity with the ability to write music of incredibly broad appeal . This CD provides a fantastic introduction to his work, performed with zeal , intensity and accuracy by a top-notch ensemble, with a first-rate conductor, in a world-beating concert hall. What more could you want?

The focal point of the disc is undoubtably Adams' masterpiece 'Harmonielehre', which fuses Minimalism's sense of drive and energy with the lush harmonies and langorous melodic lines of late Romanticism (hence the title, taken from a textbook on late Romantic harmony by none other than Arnold Schoenberg) - its jaw-dropping ... Read More:

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Elgar: Violin Concerto/Vaughan Williams: Lark ascending

from: EMI

November 03, 1997
There is no doubt that this is a great CD. The performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams' `The Lark Ascending' is outstanding . The case is made for Elgar's Violin Concerto being the greatest of his major orchestral works; however the performance has a weakness as well as its strengths, as I will explain.

The pairing of Simon Rattle and Nigel Kennedy is inspired. The great conductor anchors Kennedy's playing in a rock solid foundation of perfectly judged orchestral playing. He brings his wealth of experience in giving life to the rich sound worlds of early 20th century composers to the project. The same feeling he has shown for composers such as the better known Mahler, and the more exotic Szymanowski is shown here. Rattle's great gift is be able to conjure great richness of texture ... Read More:

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Janácek: Choral and Orchestral Works

from: Great Recordings of the Century

September 06, 1999
There is no doubt that this is a great CD. The performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams' `The Lark Ascending' is outstanding . The case is made for Elgar's Violin Concerto being the greatest of his major orchestral works; however the performance has a weakness as well as its strengths, as I will explain.

The pairing of Simon Rattle and Nigel Kennedy is inspired. The great conductor anchors Kennedy's playing in a rock solid foundation of perfectly judged orchestral playing. He brings his wealth of experience in giving life to the rich sound worlds of early 20th century composers to the project. The same feeling he has shown for composers such as the better known Mahler, and the more exotic Szymanowski is shown here. Rattle's great gift is be able to conjure great richness of texture ... Read More: