Best of the Millennium - Top 40 Classical Hits

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Composer: Tomaso Albinoni, Johann Sebastian Bach, et al.
Conductor: Rudolf Baumgartner, Herbert von Karajan, et al.
Performer: Eduard Kaufmann, Emil Gilels, et al.
Ensemble: Lucerne Festival Strings, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, et al.		 Uni/Deutsche Grammophon - #463240 / February 8, 2000
Audio CD / --D / Number of Discs: 2

For those who want the most remembered passages of classical music's best-loved works, here's a package for you. On this bargain priced double-CD, you'll find music from 40 different classical composers; for the most part, the recordings excerpted here are some of the very best. Of course, you only get one Bach sampling (Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, played by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra) and one Mozart (A Little Night Music conducted by Herbert von Karajan), but this is still a nice collection--perhaps the starting point for a budding collection of classical music. This set's downfall? Unfortunately, though the liner notes discuss the evolution of classical music chronologically, the tracks are programmed in alphabetical order by composer's last name. This makes for some startling transitions! Emil Gilels's reflective performance of the Adagio from Beethoven's "Moonlight" sonata is followed by the crashing cymbals and bombast of Carmen's "March of the Toreadors," a recipe for a heart attack if there ever was one. Still, there's something here for everyone and the liner notes even explain what movies this music can be found in. A nice touch. --Jason Verlinde

 

On this CD:


1. Adagio for Organ and Strings in G minor
Composed by Tomaso Albinoni
Performed by Lucerne Festival Strings with Eduard Kaufmann
Conducted by Rudolf Baumgartner

2. Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147: Jesu bleibet meine Freude "Jesu, joy of man's desiring"
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performed by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

3. Sonata for Piano no 14 in C sharp minor, Opus 27 no 2 "Moonlight": 1st movement, Adagio sostenuto
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with Emil Gilels

4. Carmen: March of the Toreadors
Composed by Georges Bizet
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

5. Quintet for 2 Violins, Viola and 2 Cellos in E major, Opus 11 no 5/G 275: 3rd movement, Minuet
Composed by Luigi Boccherini
Performed by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

6. Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dance no 1
Composed by Alexander Borodin
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

7. Songs (5), Opus 49: no 4, Wiegenlied
Composed by Johannes Brahms
with Bengt Forsberg, Anne Sofie von Otter

8. Waltzes (3) for Piano, B 164/Opus 64: no 1 in D flat major "Minute Waltz"
Composed by Frédéric Chopin
with Tamás Vásáry

9. Suite bergamasque: 3rd movement, Clair de Lune
Composed by Claude Debussy
with Alexis Weissenberg