Archive for December, 2008
Last Word on Puccini: The Complete Operas
By Daniel Felsenfeld
I could just go on and on about Puccini, because I think he’s weirdly underrated (despite being one of the more performed composers in the world). He’s given short shrift by the more “serious” among us as a composer of “shabby little shockers,” of over-the-top melodramas. But I’ve always thought of him as [...]
George Szell, Devoted to Mozart
By Daniel Felsenfeld
I promise—and this is a promise I will try to keep—that I won’t keep on about how beautiful and fulfilling these Original Jacket Collection boxes are as items (though they are) and will instead turn to the content, the music. Conductor and pianist George Szell spent almost 35 years helming the Cleveland Symphony [...]
More on Puccini: The Complete Operas
By Daniel Felsenfeld
Like I said before, I am one of those people who loves a series, a complete edition, a one-stop-shopping experience. So the Puccini: Complete Operas box is really something because you can get all of Puccini’s fantastic operas in one place, almost his entire life’s work (minus his exquisite Mass, but I’ll not [...]
Fanciulla from Puccini: The Complete Operas
By Daniel Felsenfeld
How weird is Puccini’s opera La Fanciulla del West (which translates roughly as “Girl of the Golden West”). I mean, its an Italian’s Frenchfied approach to the Wild Wild West. It is hard for us Americans (or certainly for this American), whose cowboys and swinging saloon doors are part of our own mythology, [...]
Last Bow to Broadway: The American Musical
By Daniel Felsenfeld
I’d say that disc two of Broadway: The American Musical is a great outline of commercial theatre coming into its own. It was the era of true greats throwing their first stones: Leonard Bernstein (here represented for On the Town and the inimitable West Side Story, about which more later of course) and [...]
I Love Kristin Chenoweth!
By Daniel Felsenfeld
Holiday records are not really my bag, for the most part. Maybe it is because I am from Los Angeles and Jewish (though as I type this, I think of Christmas as being a weirdly West Coast phenomenon; I think of the Christmas scenes from Almost Famous and the Christmas record of [...]
Yo-Yo Ma Celebrate & Collaborate Contest Update
Watch a special message from Yo-Yo Ma!
For more information on the “Celebrate & Collaborate with Yo-Yo Ma” contest, visit Indaba Music website or Yo-YoMa.com. (The contest ends December 31, 2008.)
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Yo-Yo Ma: Songs of Joy and Peace
For more information, visit www.Yo-YoMa.com
Click HERE to learn [...]