Best Baroque (c.1600-1750)
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"So so good; a must for your collections; peaceful soothing spiritual music."
"Five stars for the music; 0 stars for the degree of difficulty in the Amazon Music app about how to re-upload downloaded music back into the Amazon Cloud."
"I grew up listening to Robert Shaw Christmas on the huge console stereo that took up half the living room!"
"As a Christmas music and classical music lover, I'm delighted by the inspired creativity and imagination shown by selecting these particular pieces. This is pretty much the very best Christmas CD I've ever heard."
"I have been forfunate to have sung with Robert during my college years-it was a truly wonderful experience to have him pop in on our rehearsals once in a while."
"The arrangements are simple, tasteful, and transparent; if you like BCM (Bombastic Christmas Music) this is not for you."
"This is some of the most beautiful Christmas music I own."
"A cappella music is difficult to sing and the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers do an amazing job of it."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Really fine playing and with varied repeats."
"Really very relaxing and enjoyable listening to this album."
"If you like the cello suites, and you like guitar, you should get this."
"I've listened to the Cello Suites played on cello for decades."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Maybe it's just a coincidence but all of my favorite Vivaldi/Four Seasons recordings are done with in-house soloists (Corigliano/Bernstein, Schwalbe/Karajan and this, Silverstein/Ozawa)."
"Love the Boston Symphony Orchestra's interpretation of this great work by Vivaldi."
"Didn't realize each "season" was interspersed with other violin pieces unrelated to the 4 Seasons suite.."
"The CD was wonderful."
"Just what I was looking for in classical music."
"I've said this before in other reviews, but I love Vivaldi."
"I bought this for my daughter-in-law."
"Audio at times was awful and skipped a few times."
Best Improvisation
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I really like the calm music for me and my son."
"Great relaxing nursing and naptime music."
"Looks cute haven't had a chance to listen because it is a gift."
"The music is all very soothing and my daughter drifts off to sleep every night by the 5th-7th track."
"I always fall asleep listening to classical musin - finally someone sells it as a sleep aide."
"A delightful, sleep inducing album."
"I originally received this CD as a baby gift and played it every night for three years."
"all babies should have soothing music."
Best Renaissance (c.1450-1600)
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Wonderful, relaxing holiday music."
"Gorgeous music!"
"CD had a great collection of songs!"
"Great collection."
"I gave this as a Christmas gift and the receipient was charmed by the sounds of the Middle Ages."
"A Feast of Songs is a gorgeous journey through a millennia of different cultural takes on the Christmas theme."
Best Classical (c.1770-1830)
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon""In April 2006, Vanessa-Mae was ranked as the wealthiest young entertainer under 30 in the UK in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006, having an estimated fortune of about £32 million[3] stemming from concerts and record sales of over an estimated 10 million copies worldwide. [citation needed]". "She represented Thailand at the 2014 Winter Olympics as an alpine skier with the name Vanessa Vanakorn. "Autorip" successful from Amazon cloud to PC, a nice feature. Nice insert with good pictures of VM, and some expected shameless self promo. When I throw it in my Sony Bluray player it would be nice to see a pictures folder while the music plays."
"I found the use of the drums to be uninspired and heavy-handed, relying on them to emphasize the basic time of the pieces, rather than as an instrument in their own right."
"Pretty much the most exciting violin you will ever hear!"
"Great mix of classical greats with new techno sounds."
"I am highly anticipating her next work, as I am interested to know how she is developing her violin skills - some of the compositions on this CD, although still refreshing, are around a decade old...!"
"Vanessa-Mae shines in this wonderful music CD."
"sound quality isn't as great as I expected."
"I'm stunned at the low star reviews."
Best Romantic (c.1820-1910)
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Songs as bleak as the Russian landscape are strangely addictive if a duo as good as Hvorostovsky and Ivari Ilya are interpreting them."
"This series is extremely well recorded with beautiful heartfelt singing and interpretations."
"", the haunting "She is as beautiful as the moon", opening with strummed arpeggios reminiscent of Schubert's "Dioskuren" and continuing with melismatas in a distinctly Polovstian minor mode, and "In the silence of the mysterious night" climaxing with a magnificent G-flat and a long-breathed piano D to conclude. This is Hvorostovsky's first recording on the Finnish Ondine label, with whom he has signed a long-term contract, and although he has recorded some of these songs before, his voice is now perfectly weighted and his artistry honed by long experience sufficient to give them his finest interpretation."
"Hvorostovsky's voice is powerful and beautiful, his musicianship is top-notch, and his interpretations are probing."
"His Rachmaninov Romances reflect his passion for dragging the listener into his music, with pure empathy."
"Fine Russian pronunciation; articulation and accent (without which singing have no power and not able to be identified as 'Russian')."
Best Early Music
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I plan to buy more classical choral music as I used to sing with the choral affiliates of the Indianapolis and the Detroit Symphonies."
"CD Arrived Timely and Nicely Packaged!"
"I have admired Robert Shaw and I love Choral arrangements."
"Anyone who pursues the art of choral excellence - and with it a representation of the masterpieces will want and enjoy this CD."
"I like knowing that music I have hunted for can be found at Amazon."
"As usual, the articulation of words is such that you can hear them clearly, even sung by a large chorus."
"Robert Shaw (1916-1999) founded his Chorale in 1948 in New York City."
Best Modern, 20th, & 21st Century
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I'm always on the lookout for good background music to write to, and my goodness, this album is incredible."
"Blackheart is worth the price of the entire album all by itself."
"Two Steps From Hell specializes in the increasingly popular genre known as "Trailer Music"; compositions that are clearly in the style of action-adventure symphonic scores, but which are clearly not from movies you've ever seen."
"When I love a track or feel my mind creating visuals for some epic movie trailer or thrilling fight scene. It's like I mentally become a movie director and start visualizing scenes that excite my imagination to no end. But the auto tuned lyrical songs are terrible and certainly not a strong point for the Two Steps team."
"Imagine trying to find inspiration to tackle on dull chores, or even finding the drive to make yourself finish that half-block of a morning jog."
"Which is nice to have - the album flows rather well, and the tracks do lend themselves quite well to the title of Skyworld.."
"I've been a fan of TSFH for a bit now so as amazing as this album sounds to me there is some bias in my opinion."
"Since first coming to this genre after listening to their first album and finding many other offerings, I've found TSFH to not be capable of delivering consistently album to album. Their albums have two versions of each track, one with vocals and one without."