classical music: Paul Johnson

classical music: Paul Johnson

classical music:

Paul Johnson

Linda Eder

Atlantic / Wea, 2003

the best female singer of the great american standards.
i am turning 60 years old this year. i went to my 1st.broadway musical in 1960. over the years i have had the honor to see almost all of the giants of american song, garland, streisand, patti lupone, lena horne, betty buckley, barbaracook etc. in "broadway, my way" ...

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Original London Cast

Sony, 2005

altogether a fine cast album
CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, the cheerfully-mindless musical by the Sherman Brothers, was mounted for the West End stage in 2002, opened at the London Palladium and enjoyed a run of nearly three and-a-half years (the subsequent Broadway production fared less well). The ...

Christmas Echoes, Vol. 1

William Billings, Alfred S. Burt, ...

Gothic Records, 2005

Wonderful music for the season
Beautiful songs sung with clarity, interpretive artistry and attention to blend. Some of the more particularly lyrical songs (e.g. Zgodava's Out of Oriental Crystal Skies, and Paulus' Sing Hallelu to name two) are not found in more common choral album Christmas ...

Adagio: A Windham Hill Collection

Patrick O'Hearn, Michael Manring, ...

RCA, 2003

Good Contemporary Arrangements!
I am a lover of classical music from my earliest days. I play the piano and have played in high school bands and briefly a college ensemble as a bassonist. Just a two Christmases ago I discovered Windhill's Christmas collection and fell in love with the different ...

On My Journey: Paul Robeson's Independent Recordings

Paul Robeson, Anonymous, ...

Smithsonian Folkways, 2007

Definitive Superb Collection of Rare 1950's Recordings
These are recordings that Robeson made with his son Paul Jr. as engineer, for his private label Othello in the blacklisted years of the 1950's. A good number were released on the independent LP label Monitor, but these are now the definitive issue on CD. The essay is ...

Prayer: A Windham Hill Collection

Michael Manring, Philip Baker, ...

RCA, 2003

Music for Meditation
This is a delightful collection of music appropriate to meditative prayer. It is often my prayer companion, and I like the style and performance found on this CD. I highly recommend it to people who enjoy deeper reflection with a wordless musical background.

Welcome Christmas: Carols and Lullabies From Around the World

Philip Brunelle, VocalEssence Ensemble Singers

Clarion, 2004

Diversity in Christmas Traditions
It is getting more difficult each Christmas Season to find discs that offer Christmas choral music that is infused with a sense of "rootedness" borne out of time-hewn tradition and at the same time compliments--rather than rehashes--the existing repertoire of age-old ...

Bach - Christmas Oratorio / Gardiner

Johann Sebastian Bach

Archiv Produktion, 1990

an essential part of my yearly Christmas experience
It surprises me that a number of people here have given this splendid recording negative reviews, but that is , I guess, proof that people's tastes and expectations are different. What I expect from any Bach performance by (Sir) John Eliot are forward-moving tempi ...

Olivier Messiaen: Des Canyons aux Etoiles; Oiseaux Exotiques; Couleurs de la Cité Celeste

Olivier Messiaen, Michael Thompson, ...

Sony, 1989

beauty ¤ lies not in scale passages
Des Canyons is a beautiful & transcendently absorbing score, one which is emerging as the archetype in Messiaen's canon -- his best & best-loved. Leave the notoriously difficult score on the shelf and listen. This, its only available recording until recently, is ...

Encore

Russell Watson, Leonard Bernstein

Decca, 2002

Smashing!
What a glorious voice Russell Watson has! I keep this CD in my car so I can enjoy it while driving.

Royal Lewters: Music of Henry VIII & Elizabeth I's

Paul O'Dette

Harmonia Mundi Fr., 2003

great CD
I'm a big fan of Paul O'Dette - I stumbled on vol. 4 of his "Complete Works of John Dowland" in a used record store a while back and have been enchanted with lute music ever since. The Royal Lewters is a collection of Tudor-era lute music: lots of charming pieces by ...

Back in Baroque: The String Quartet Tribute to AC/DC

Paul Johnson, Thomas Saunders, ...

Vitamin Records, 2003

Totally Suprised!!!
I read about this CD on an AC/DC Fan site and they had a link to purchase it here. I bought the CD without hearing any clips or anything. So, buying it sight unseen, made me feel a little aprehensive. Well, when it arrived I couldn't wait. I took it with me to work and ...

Moonlight Bay: Songs as Is Songs as Was

Carrie Jacobs Bond, David Braham, ...

Albany Records, 1999

Joan Morris and William Bolcom return to their roots
Back in 1974, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, and her husband, William Bolcom, recorded "After the Ball," a collection of turn-of-the-century popular songs, some of which hadn't been recorded since the early part of the century, if ever. Now, after bringing their talents ...

L'Invitation au Voyage: Mélodies from La belle époque

Jules Cressonnois, Leo Delibes, ...

Hyperion UK, 2006

I want some more
A John Mark Ainsley recital of French song, built around four different settings, by four different composers, of Baudelaire's poem, L'invitation au voyage has to be a treat. It is. (Take your pick which setting supplies the title to the disc.) Mr Ainsley's French is ...

Fauré - The Complete Songs, Vol. 4 ~ Dans un parfum de roses

Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Felicity Lott, ...

Hyperion UK, 2005

Disappointing
Faure's songs are exquisite. Unfortunately, this album does not show them in the best light. Three of the five singers - Felicity Lott, Stephen Varcoe and Jennifer Smith - are closer to sixty than fifty, and they sound it. Geraldine McGreevy and Jean-Paul ...