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Testament Records (UK)
The Testament Records label, based in Great Britain, specialises in historical classical music recordings, including previously unreleased broadcast performances by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the pianist Solomon. It has also issued DVDs of kinescopes of Toscanini's 10 televised concerts on NBC from 1948 to 1952, adding sound taken from magnetic tape recordings of the broadcasts. In 2004, Testament released the complete Verdi Requiem conducted by Toscanini from a BBC recording of a live concert at Queen's Hall, London on 27 May 1938, with soprano Zinka Milanov, mezzo-soprano Kerstin Thorborg, tenor Helge Rosvaenge, bass Nicola Moscona, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. ''The Gramophone Classical Musical Guide'' described the Testament issue as "skillfully remastered" and a superior performance to Toscanini's better known recording on RCA from 1951. In 2008, the company released the complete 1955 Bayreuth Wagner Ring Cycle conducted by Joseph Ke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historical Classical Music Recordings
Historical classical music recordings are generally classical music recordings made prior to the stereo era of vinyl disc recording, which began around 1957. As time passes, even later recordings, made in the early stereo era are also being released as "historical" recordings, especially if they were never released or were dropped from the record catalogs due to loss of popularity or "antiquated" sound. Typically such recordings are of artists and performances that were particularly notable at the time they were first released, or were unavailable because they were private recordings made at concerts or radio broadcasts. The latter can be of rather high quality if the recording derives from tapes made and archived by the broadcaster or the organization mounting the performance. Recordings issued by arts organizations Important sources of historical recordings are the broadcast archives of orchestras and opera companies. For instance, the Met Opera of New York has issued a numb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haymarket Group
Haymarket Media Group is a privately held media company headquartered in London. It has publications in the consumer, business and customer sectors, both print and online. It operates exhibitions allied to its own publications, and previously on behalf of organisations such as the BBC. The company expanded outside the UK in 1999. History Haymarket began in the 1950s, under the name Cornmarket Press. Clive Labovitch and Michael Heseltine – later a Cabinet minister under Margaret Thatcher and Deputy Prime Minister under John Major – who had met at university, started out with the 1957 ''Directory of Opportunities for Graduates'', and in 1959 relaunched ''Man About Town'', which was to become an influential (if unprofitable) men's consumer magazine. The company failed in its relaunch of the British news weekly ''Topic'', the title closing at the end of 1962, within three months of the takeover. The partners split in 1965, with Heseltine renaming his half of the business Haymarke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fanfare (magazine)
''Fanfare'' is an American bimonthly magazine devoted to reviewing recorded music in all playback formats. It mainly covers classical music, but since inception, has also featured a jazz column in every issue. History and profile ''Fanfare'' was founded on 1 September 1977 "as a labor of love"Rockwell, John (29 June 1980)"The New Crop of Music Magazines" ''The New York Times''. by an elementary-school teacher turned editor named Joel Bruce Flegler (born 1941). After years, he is still the publisher. The magazine now runs to over 600 pages in a format with about 80% of the editorial copy devoted to record reviews, and a front section with a substantial number of interviews and feature articles. It avoids equipment and pop music coverage, and includes reviews of more classical releases than most similar magazines.Rockwell, John (29 June 1980)"The New Crop of Music Magazines" ''The New York Times''.Kimmelman, Michael (20 December 1987) ''The New York Times''. "The most prolific ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolfgang Windgassen
Wolfgang Windgassen (26 June 1914 – 8 September 1974) was a heldentenor internationally known for his performances in Wagner operas. Life and career Born in Annemasse, France, he was the son (and pupil) of a well known German Heldentenor, Fritz Windgassen (who was also the teacher of Gottlob Frick). His mother was the German coloratura soprano Vali von der Osten, sister of the much more famous soprano Eva von der Osten, who created the part of Octavian in Richard Strauss' ''Der Rosenkavalier''. Both Windgassen's parents were longtime mainstays of the Staatsoper Stuttgart. Wolfgang made his début at Pforzheim as Pinkerton in '' Madama Butterfly.'' After army service he became a member of the Stuttgart opera company, and succeeded his father as principal tenor. Stuttgart opera remained his home base throughout his career, and for the last two years of his life he was its artistic director. Windgassen sang at all the important opera houses all over the world. He was invited to p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astrid Varnay
Ibolyka Astrid Maria Varnay (25 April 1918 – 4 September 2006) was a Swedish-born American dramatic soprano of Hungarian descent. She spent most of her career in the United States and Germany. She was one of the leading Wagnerian heroic sopranos of her generation. Background Both her parents were Hungarian and born in small towns in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but she was born in Stockholm, where her parents were living during part of World War I. During a Da Capo interview in 1988 Varnay claimed that although she was born in Stockholm, her ancestry was Hungarian, French and German. Her mother, Maria Junghans (who changed her name to Javor when she took to the stage as a singer), born October 15, 1889, was a noted coloratura soprano with acoustic recordings to her credit. Her father was Alexander Varnay (born September 11, 1889), a spinto tenor. Opera was the family business, and Varnay grew up backstage at the world's opera houses. Her father founded, and both parents ran, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ramón Vinay
Ramón Vinay (August 31, 1911 – January 4, 1996) was a famous Chilean operatic tenor with a powerful, dramatic voice. He is probably best remembered for his appearances in the title role of Giuseppe Verdi's tragic opera ''Otello''. Biography He started his operatic career as a baritone in Mexico in 1938. He later switched to tenor, making a second debut in 1943 and forging a successful international career after World War II. Vinay eventually returned to the baritone fold in 1962 and retired from the stage in 1969. Even as a tenor, however, his vocal timbre retained its dark, baritonal colouration. He was the son of Jean Vinay Robert and Rosa Sepúlveda. Born in Chillán, Chile, Vinay earned particular renown throughout the operatic world for his interpretation of the role of Otello. For a time, he made the part his own. Perhaps his most significant appearance as Otello occurred in 1947, in a radio broadcast of the opera under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. His colleagues on th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gustav Neidlinger
Gustav Neidlinger (21 March 1910 – 26 December 1991) was a German bass-baritone, known as a performer of Wagner's villains, especially Alberich and Klingsor, from the early 1950s to the early 1970s. Born in Mainz, Neidlinger studied at the Frankfurt conservatory, where he was trained by Otto Rottsieper. He debuted in 1931 at the Stadttheater in Mainz, where he sang until 1934. In 1934 and 1935, he performed at the Stadttheater in Plauen, Sachsen. From 1935 to 1950, he was a member of the Hamburg opera, where In 1937 he took part in the world premiere of the opera ''Schwarzer Peter'' by Norbert Schultze. In 1950, he joined the Stuttgart Staatsoper, where he became very popular and was, in 1977, named an honorary member. In Stuttgart, he sang in Igor Stravinsky's ''The Rake's Progress''. In 1956 he moved to the Vienna Staatsoper, where he had sung as early as 1941. He also sang at the Paris Opéra (1953–67) and at Covent Garden in London in tandem with the Stuttgart ensemble (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hans Hotter
Hans Hotter (19 January 19096 December 2003) was a German operatic bass-baritone. He stood 6 ft 4 in and his appearance was striking. His voice and diction were equally recognisable. Early life and career Born in Offenbach am Main, Hesse, Hotter studied with Matthäus Roemer in Munich. He worked as an organist and choirmaster before making his operatic debut in Opava in 1930. He performed in Germany and Austria under the Nazi regime, avoiding pressure on performers to join the Nazi Party, and made some appearances outside the country, including concerts under the baton of Bruno Walter in Amsterdam, who advised him that if Hotter could not leave his family members he had little alternative but to remain in Germany. Hotter was unable to pursue an international career until his Covent Garden debut in 1947. After that, he sang in all the major opera houses of Europe. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut as the title character in ''Der fliegende Holländer'' in 1950. In four sea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Keilberth
Joseph Keilberth (19 April 1908 – 20 July 1968) was a German conductor who specialised in opera. Career He started his career in the State Theatre of his native city, Karlsruhe. In 1940 he became director of the German Philharmonic Orchestra of Prague. Near the end of World War II, he was appointed principal conductor of the venerable Saxon State Opera Orchestra in Dresden. In 1949 he became chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, formed mainly of German musicians expelled from postwar Czechoslovakia under the Beneš decrees. Ring Cycles at Bayreuth and in recording Keilberth was a regular at the Bayreuth Festival in the early 1950s, with complete Wagner Ring Cycles from 1952, 1953 and 1955, as well as a well-regarded recording of ''Die Walküre'' from 1954 (the whereabouts of rest of the cycle are unclear) in which Martha Mödl, perhaps the greatest Wagnerian actress and tragedian of her time, sang her only recorded Sieglinde. He made the first stereo recording of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ring Cycle
(''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelungenlied''. The composer termed the cycle a "Bühnenfestspiel" (stage festival play), structured in three days preceded by a ("preliminary evening"). It is often referred to as the ''Ring'' cycle, Wagner's ''Ring'', or simply ''The Ring''. Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The four parts that constitute the ''Ring'' cycle are, in sequence: * ''Das Rheingold'' (''The Rhinegold'') * ''Die Walküre'' (''The Valkyrie'') * ''Siegfried'' * ''Götterdämmerung'' (''Twilight of the Gods'') Individual works of the sequence are often performed separately, and indeed the operas contain dialogues that mention events in the previous operas, so that a viewer could watch any of them without h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bayreuth Festival
The Bayreuth Festival (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a special festival to showcase his own works, in particular his monumental cycle and ''Parsifal''. Performances take place in a specially designed theatre, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Wagner personally supervised the design and construction of the theatre, which contained many architectural innovations to accommodate the huge orchestras for which Wagner wrote as well as the composer's particular vision about the staging of his works. The Festival has become a pilgrimage destination for Wagnerians and classical-music enthusiasts. Origins The origins of the Festival itself lie rooted in Richard Wagner's interest in establishing his financial independence. A souring of the relationship with his patron, Ludwig II o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gramophone (magazine)
''Gramophone'' is a magazine published monthly in London, devoted to classical music, particularly to reviews of recordings. It was founded in 1923 by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie who continued to edit the magazine until 1961. It was acquired by Haymarket in 1999. In 2013 the Mark Allen Group became the publisher. The magazine presents the Gramophone Awards each year to the classical recordings which it considers the finest in a variety of categories. On its website ''Gramophone'' claims to be: "The world's authority on classical music since 1923." This used to appear on the front cover of every issue; recent editions have changed the wording to "The world's best classical music reviews." Its circulation, including digital subscribers, was 24,380 in 2014. Listings and the ''Gramophone'' Hall of Fame Apart from the annual Gramophone Classical Music Awards, each month features a dozen recordings as Gramophone Editor's Choice (now Gramophone Choice). Then, in the annua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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