Giacomo Puccini: La Rondine
Dinara Alieva, Charles Castronovo, Rolando Villazón, Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, Orchestra and Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin
Pre-Order on ArkivMusic.com:
DVD Blu-Ray
This riveting and beautifully portrayed video account of La Rondine stars the rapidly emerging soprano (and Delos artist) Dinara Alieva and widely acclaimed tenor Charles Castronovo in the lead roles. Filmed live at the top-ranked Deutsche Oper Berlin, the action unfolds in a dazzling and profound production under the direction of legendary tenor and stage director Rolando Villazón and conducted by the renownedMaestro Roberto Rizzi Brignoli.
Facing West: Choral Music of Conrad Susa and David Conte
Cappella SF and conductor Ragnar Bohlin
Grammy Award-winning choirmaster Ragnar Bohlin leads his professional chamber choir, Cappella SF, in a stunning program of choral music by two of America’s leading contemporary composers.
In this – Maestro Bohlin’s second recording with Cappella SF on Delos – his select 24-voice ensemble delivers these two modern masters’ lovely and accessible music to perfection. We get two choice choral song cycles from Conrad Susa: Six Joyce Songs, Vol. II, as well as Landscapes and Silly Songs (with texts by Federico García Lorca). David Conte contributes another winning cycle, A Whitman Triptych – plus a pair of appealing pieces: The Composer and Invocation and Dance.
Symphonic Masterworks of Grieg and Franck
Thomas Murray, organ
It’s not often that one hears recorded organ transcriptions of major works originally composed for symphony orchestra. But that’s what we get here, in a transcendental program of orchestral favorites played to breathtaking perfection by Thomas Murray, an internationally renowned organist and Yale professor.
Fans of great orchestral classics will immediately recognize both of the works featured here: Edvard Grieg’s ever-popular Holberg Suite and César Franck’s monumental Symphony in D Minor – in stunning transcriptions for organ: the instrument best suited to recreate an orchestra’s power, nuance, and variety of sonorities. Murray plays the magnificent Schoenstein Gloria Dei Organ, St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, Houston, Texas.
