by: Various Artists July 14, 2008
Search: 2. Tuba mirum - Ildebrando d' Arcangelo, Kirov Chorus, St Petersburg, Kirov Orchestra, St Petersburg, Valery Gergiev
Classic FM has attempted to provide the classical music version of `rock anthems' to shake your head and punch the air to, an equivalent of Rainbow's `Long Live Rock 'n' Roll' anthem of the 1970's. Does it work? Yes of course it does because the Classic FM marketing team are in touch with the needs of today's classical music listeners.
The track list is comfortably predictable - Ride of the Valkyries (Wagner), Carmina Burana (Orff), Jupiter (from Holst's Planets), Pomp & Circumstance (Elgar's Land of Hope and Glory), A Night on a Bare Mountain (Mussorgsky) and many, many more.
Those `many more' include three outstanding performances - Alfie Boe's version of Nessun Dorma, David Garrett's virtuoso (and breathtakingly ... Read More:
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... but unfortunately the choir sounds muddy and the soloists are trite (Fleming and D'Archangelo) or downright disastrous (Bocelli).
Gergiev certainly has a sense of drama that becomes a magnificent piece like the Verdi Requiem. The tempi and dynamics provides the right setting for the words. For instance the bass drum in Dies Irae and Tuba Mirum sounds like an artillery cannon and it makes my hear skip a beat no matter how many times I hear this part of the recording... Marvellous... Other conductors take note. Trumpets are clear and distinct makin the triplets stand out intense and insisting. And I could go on about the opening cello melody and so on and so on. Unfortunately the choir doesn't deliver clear diction, so the text is inaudible ... Read More:
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