Warner Classics

Opera Album Commentary: Maria Callas — Believe Her

October 31, 2023
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A massive, comprehensive new box set once again shows us the diva’s indomitable place in the history of opera.

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Classical Album Review: Violinist Maria Ioudenitch’s “Songbird” Soars

May 26, 2023
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Violinist Maria Ioudenitch seems to know how to get directly at the expressive core of this fare without devolving into showboating or histrionics.

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Classical Music Album Review: Beatrice Rana plays Schumann

March 7, 2023
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Pianist Beatrice Rana, joined by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and conductor Yanick Nézet-Séguin, plays the daylights out of Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor.

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Classical Music Review: Violinist Augustin Hadelich’s “Recuerdos”

October 4, 2022
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Augustin Hadelich has the feeling of this music – its bittersweet melodic phrases, dancing riffs, and restrained passion – well in hand.

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Classical Album Review: Weill & Shostakovich Symphonies

July 28, 2022
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Taken together, this is a release that showcases both the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and its chief conductor – as well as their repertoire choices – in a brilliant light.

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Classical Album Review: Augustin Hadelich plays Bach

June 29, 2021
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The most striking thing about violinist Augustin Hadelich’s approach to these Bach pieces is his emphasis on the music’s dancing line.

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Classical CD Reviews: A Banquet of Beethoven from Daniel Lozakovich, Midori, and Gidon Kremer & Friends

November 27, 2020
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Nothing to recommend in Daniel Lozakovich’s take on the Beethoven Violin Concerto, but Midori’s performance of the piece is completely unpretentious, natural, and exciting. Gidon Kremer & friends serve up a terrifically flexible version of Carl Reinecke’s adaptation of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto.

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Classical CD Reviews: “Clytemnestra,” Max Reger’s “Der Einsiedler,” and Richard Strauss “Lieder”

March 26, 2020
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Soprano Ruby Hughes’ album is fine, well played, sung, and programmed; baritone Christoph Prégardien delivers vocal works by Mahler, Alexander von Zemlinsky, and Max Reger with warmth; soprano Diana Damrau is in her glorious prime singing the songs of Strauss.

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Classical Album Reviews: “Strangers in PARadISe,” Camille Saint-Saëns’ Orchestral Works, and Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique”

December 27, 2019
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Diana Tishchenko’s a violinist well worth keeping an eye on; Jun Märkl leads the MSO in brisk, shapely readings of pieces by Saint-Saëns; Françoix-Xavier Roth and Les Siecles come up with some winning Berlioz.

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Classical CD Reviews: “La Damnation de Faust,” Villa-Lobos’ Guitar & Harmonica Concertos, and Messiaen Orchestral Works

December 26, 2019
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John Nelson’s La Damnation de Faust is a triumph; you will rarely encounter Villa-Lobos played with greater understanding or in better sound than here; Paavo Järvi and his orchestra’s survey of Messiaen orchestral works early and late is resplendent.

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