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Classic FM Guitar - The Ultimate Collection

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > Classical Instrumental
by: Various Artists

June 16, 2008
As the previous reviewer said, this is a great introduction to the world of classical guitar music. As usual with ClassicFM Cd's, the quality of the music on offer is superb, with a few well known pieces that have been arranged for the guitar; like Elgar's Nimrod etc.. As said before, if your new to this style, or you want something to just relax to, then you can't go wrong with this.

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Classic FM Anthems 2008

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > Classical Instrumental
by: Various Artists

July 14, 2008
I have a number of classic fm albums, and this one was the first real disappointment. Less of an 'anthem fest', more of an 'oh yes, that is not a bad tune'.

For me it is the audio equivalent of a film I saw many years ago called 'good guys wear black'. The advertising poster looked great - 6 scenes of excitinbg action portrayed. When I watched the film, they were the only scenes of any interest in the entire movie.

The adverts for this album were a bit like that for me.

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Bach: The Art of the Fugue

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > Classical Instrumental
by: Glenn Gould

September 09, 2002
The Church that Gould recorded the first nine works in Bach's seminal 'Art of the Fugue' burned down before he got round recording remaining pieces: a great shame given the masterful playing on this CD. People forget (or simply have no idea) that Gould studied organ alongside piano at Toronto Conservatory. He graduated in both instruments aged 12! Gould's mother was organist at a Toronto Anglican church, so not surprisingly organ playing was very much in Gould's blood and may go a long way to explaining his remarkable abilities in contrapuntal music.

Original reviews of this set (when it came out on LP) complained about the closeness of the recording, the microphones shoved close-up to the pipes. This was part of the Gould plan, and conceptually ... Read More:

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Fiesta

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > Classical Instrumental
by: Gustavo Dudamel

May 19, 2008
The Church that Gould recorded the first nine works in Bach's seminal 'Art of the Fugue' burned down before he got round recording remaining pieces: a great shame given the masterful playing on this CD. People forget (or simply have no idea) that Gould studied organ alongside piano at Toronto Conservatory. He graduated in both instruments aged 12! Gould's mother was organist at a Toronto Anglican church, so not surprisingly organ playing was very much in Gould's blood and may go a long way to explaining his remarkable abilities in contrapuntal music.

Original reviews of this set (when it came out on LP) complained about the closeness of the recording, the microphones shoved close-up to the pipes. This was part of the Gould plan, and conceptually ... Read More:

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Vaughan Williams: Orchestral Works

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > Classical Instrumental
from: British Composers

September 09, 1991
I JUST WANT TO AGREE WITH EVERY WORD THAT MR JORDAN HAD SAID ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR RECORDING, NOT JUST OF 'THE LARK', BUT OF SERENADE TO MUSIC ALSO. IN FACT I JUST LOVE EVERYTHING ON THIS ALBUM! I BOUGHT MY VINYL COPY IN THE EARLY 70'S AND IT IS NOW SO WORN OUT THAT I DECIDED TO LOOK TO SEE IF A CD WAS AVAILABLE. WHAT JOY! NOT ONLY HAVE I BEEN ABLE TO FIND A CD OF MY TREASURED RECORDING, BUT WITH BONUS TRACKS, AND AT AN INCREDIBLY LOW PRICE. FOR ME THIS IS THE PURCHASE OF THE MONTH.

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Spanish Guitar Music

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > Classical Instrumental
from: Essential Classics

November 19, 2001
This is a clasical guitar album recorded by John Williams in his style of ultimate perfection. Don't confuse this with Flamenco Spanish guitar.

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Classic FM Music for Babies

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > Classical Instrumental
from: Classic FM.(Export

July 18, 2005
A few of the tracks on this CD are perfect, beautiful, soft, mesmerising and something Mummy could enjoy too... but I found the majority of tracks incredibly depressing - and thats not what you need after having a baby!!! I wish I'd paid more attention to the track listing and bought something else...

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Works of Igor Stravinsky [22cd]

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > Classical Instrumental
by: Igor Stravinsky

July 02, 2007

It's common to find good value box sets from labels such as EMI Classics, Brilliant Classics and Warner Classics, but not so often on the Sony label.

In general, the bigger the set the better the value, with collections of more than ten discs often falling into the bargain category of under £1 a disc.

This collection though represents not only value for money but also provides pretty much all of Stravinsky's lifetime works (he composed around 127 pieces) in a compact box of just 5cm width thanks to the CDs being supplied in card sleeves.

The enclosed 24 booklet provides a biography of the composer, and more importantly full recording dates, venues, orchestras, soloists and conductors, and if this doesn't sound reason enough to ... Read More:

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Nigel Kennedy - A Very Nice Album

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > Classical Instrumental
by: Nigel Kennedy

June 16, 2008
This is definitely not a classical album,for Kennedy has thrown off the shackles of very conservative genre of music and produced an album that he can be very proud of,he even played this at that bastion of the establishment "The Proms", all the tracks are self penned,and are played with gusto and panache,the quintet are superbly talented kennedy drawing from the new young lions of Polish jazz,as Poland is now his adoptive home,this album will grow in stature and do Kennedy no harm at all.

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Holst: The Planets / Elgar: Enigma Variations

Childrens Toy Shop > Classical Music > Classical Instrumental
from: EMI Classics

March 11, 2002
This version of The Planets has replaced my recent LSO version.
Why? Well, the balance between the contributing elements is the best i've heard so far: The bass is thunderous analogue and the high woodwind/strings are like crystal in equal measure. This is a superb achievement and exceptionally important for, 'large orchestra' where Dynamics become a recording engineer's delight or problem depending on how good they are. And these people are the best: Abbey road have done a fantastic job on the remastering of a late 70's classic, although there is one thing they could never tackle: Is this as Holst intended?

Bolt was a friend of Holst and was given the opportunity to first conduct the piece; Bolt read and heard the original 'two piano' score and must have got ... Read More: