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Epicurus.com - Mendelssohn - Elijah / Terfel, Fleming, Bardon, Ainsley, Fulgoni, Paul Daniel
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List Price: $33.98
Our Price: $33.98
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Decca
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028945568829
Label: Decca
Manufacturer: Decca
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Decca
Release Date: 1997-10-14
Studio: Decca
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Editorial Reviews:
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Mendelssohn (1809-1847) is a perennially underrated composer who finally may be coming to greater appreciation. Certainly this fine recording (in English) of a masterpiece that he believed joined the Jewish faith of his fathers with his own Protestant Christianity should not hurt his reputation. The superb Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel gives a dramatically charged performance in the title role, while soprano Renee Fleming sings with beauty and limpid understanding; the cast is almost uniformly strong. The Edinburgh Festival Chorus, directed by David Jones, sings with care and conviction, and Paul Daniel conducts his forces firmly. --Sarah Bryan Miller
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Recording!!!
Comment: As other reviewers have noted, it might not be the best *total* performance of Elijah (although it's still VERY good)....but Terfel gives the best Elijah performance that I've ever heard. If you haven't heard this recording, you are definitely missing out.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Comment: I listened to several recordings of Elijah and like this one the best. Given that the technical challenges to record this production would be huge, I think this recording is good. The chorus' diction is superb, and the soloists are exceptional.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Performance Deserving a Better Overall Rating!
Comment: My intent is not to repeat the comments from the 'excellent' reviews already present, but to warn others who may be contemplating the purchase of this Elijah set to ignore the two 1-star ratings; first, the sound recording and dynamics on these CDs are outstanding - I'm assuming that the one reviewer has either bad audio equipment or was unlucky to obtain bad discs (exchange them!); second, 'wrong key' downgrades the rating to one star! As already pointed out, this is a HIP adventure, and the tuning of the key used is just different - ignorance of this fact does not deserve an ignorant rating.
This is a worthy performance - did not receive a top rating in the Penguin guide (not sure why not after reading the comments?); in the 'Third Ear', the set did get a glorious review (unusual for that book); and finally, in the 'Rough Guide to Classical Music', this version is the one recommended. If you want to own an Elijah set, do not ignore this one as a possibility - Terfel & Fleming are superb and the period instrument orchestra outstanding.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mendelssohn-Elija/Terfel
Comment: This is one of the worst recordings I have ever purchased from Amazon. Many tracks of this sublime music are inaudible. Fortunately the music is "there". With about 8 hours of work, one can remaster the disks to produce a fine recording, but I would not recommend this for most people.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A prophetable experience
Comment: I've heard a lot of performances of Elijah, a well-crafted work that used to be more popular than it is these days, and this is an extremely good one. The musical direction is to the point, Fleming and Terfel are at their best, and the other soloists are extremely good. (Although I wonder if they originally tried to get an alto better-known than Patricia Bardon.) I'm also glad that there are enough soloists on hand: Mendelssohn asked for at least 8, and older recordings that make do with 4 (turning all octets into choruses, for instance) seriously distort his plan.The pitch of the performance is a result of the use of period instruments and the tuning standard selected. There was no single pitch standard at this period, but the one selected is plausible and may be one heard by the composer. It is not a "transposition" or a distortion.
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