Beethoven called Mozart's Requiem "wild and terrible," and that's what we get in Harnoncourt's new recording. Ominous dread hangs from every note of the dark opening measures, the Rex tremendae and Confutatis are driven with terrifying strength, and the supplications of the Lacrimosa, with their weeping stabbings of the orchestra, are freighted with emotional power. The Tuba mirum duet of bass soloist and trombone has a beauty almost never achieved in other readings. Nor does Harnoncourt overstep the stylistic boundaries of this classical-era work; rather, the intensity is heightened for being in the idiom of its time. Call it a Romantic reading of a Classical piece that looks forward to a more unbuttoned era. The soloists couldn't be better; the orchestra is first-rate, the chorus, sensational, singing with a sense of color, line, and emotion,. Harnoncourt uses the Beyer edition of Süssmayr's completion of the work, and Mozart's unfinished original manuscript can be accessed via a CD-ROM track, which scrolls as the music plays. This release gets my vote as the best Mozart Requiem on disc, all the more impressive for being a live concert performance in excellent sound. --Dan Davis

查尔斯·斯坦福，1852年生于都柏林，1924年卒于伦敦，爱尔兰作曲家、指挥家、风琴家、教育家。1870年就学于剑桥大学，1873-92年任剑桥大学圣三一学院管风琴师，1874-76年在莱比锡师从赖内克，后又在柏林从基尔学习。1873年起任剑桥大学音乐学会指挥，为该会赢得很高的声誉，并最先在英国指挥演出布拉姆斯的作品。1876年，应坦尼森之请，为其戏剧《玛丽女王》(queen Mary)写了配乐，1883-1924年任皇家音乐学院作曲教授，他的学生有沃恩·威廉斯、布利斯、豪厄尔斯、艾尔兰、霍尔斯特、格尼等。 1887-1924年任剑桥大学音乐教授，1885-1902年任巴赫合唱团指挥，并在皇家音乐学院组织的音乐会及歌剧演出中任指挥。1901年以后在数届利兹音乐节上任指挥，同年被封为爵士。其创作产量甚多，最优秀的作品在歌剧、合唱与歌曲。他对勃拉姆斯钦佩之至，成为他在器乐领域至高的向往。他是19 世纪后期英国音乐“文艺复兴”时期的主要人物。曾为收集爱尔兰传统曲调做了不少编辑和改编的工作。
在斯坦福的创作辉煌期里，其合唱作品尤其著称，这些作品主要是斯坦福受委托为当时英国的一些地方节日中的表演而创作的，包括两部宗教剧、一首《安魂曲》(1897)及一首《圣母悼歌》(1907)。此外，还创作了大量的通常以航海为主题的世俗作品，包括《麦尔度的航行》(The Voyage of Maeldune, 1889)以及本盘所收录的《复仇号：舰队叙事诗》(Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet, Op. 24, 1886)、《海之歌》(Songs of the Sea, Op.91, 1904)、《舰队之歌》(Songs of the Fleet, Op. 117, 1910)等。《海之歌》与《舰队之歌》为姊妹篇，是斯坦福晚期的作品，两者均采用了英国诗人亨利·纽伯特(Henry John Newbolt, 1862-1938)的诗词写成。
斯坦福的大半生都是在维多利亚时期渡过的，其间英国的殖民扩张达到了登峰造极的地步，“日不落帝国”的神话也像泡沫般越吹越大。在这样的背景下，不少文学创作也应运而生，将一些看似平常的战斗故事升华到了英雄主义的崇高境界，而斯坦福极其喜爱这些史诗和故事。《复仇号：舰队叙事诗》选材自维多利亚时期代表诗人丁尼生(Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892)的《叙事诗及其它诗集》，讲述了英国大型帆船“复仇号”1591年遭遇西班牙战舰的攻击，因寡不敌众被西班牙人夺走，故事以舰长格伦维尔爵士倒在甲板上阵亡、“复仇号”随后也因受重创而沉没为结局。斯坦福试图以这部作品向人们表达出这样的一个理念：不管身边的景况如何，一个人在思想和行为上要活得高尚。这部作品编曲手法十分灵巧，声音效果激烈，结构上几乎已接近歌剧，在当时颇受欢迎。
本盘由希科克斯指挥指挥威尔士国立 BBC管弦乐团及合唱团，杰拉尔德·芬利任男中音演唱，获留声机奖，《企鹅》评介四星带花。与第8张一样，该盘在此合集里没有做成首版时的SACD。

When the curtain fell at the Paris Opera premiere of Capriccio on 16 June 2004, the audiences rose to long and frenetic ovations. They unanimously applauded each singer in a cast of stars, but Renée Fleming was undoubtedly the leading light of this remarkable production. Every one of the performers in this production is outstanding and can be regarded as the best possible singer for the role. Opera fans from all over Europe came to Paris to see the production, a highlight of the international opera season in 2004.
It was the very last opera staging before Hugues R. Gall, who had led the Opera de Paris with eminent success for nearly a decade, went into retirement. Thus, Strauss’ Capriccio – a topical opera on the construction and staging of an opera – can be seen as his legacy to Gerard Mortier who followed him as the director of one of the most prolific and interesting European houses.
This Capriccio also served as a role debut for American star soprano Renée Fleming who took on the role of the Gräfin. The critics celebrated her performance as “ideal” in all aspects: musically, dramatically and above all vocally and she was cheered frenetically by the audience at the Palais Garnier of the Opéra National de Paris.
Dietrich Henschel had critics raving about his sensitively sung Graf, Anne-Sofie von Otter won audiences over with her highly ironic interpretation of the singer Clairon. Rainer Trost presented himself both as a true actor and as a versatile tenor in the role of the composer Flamand, Gerald Finley gave a very convincing poet Olivier and Franz Hawlata was described by a critic as “a glowing” La Roche. Altogether a true ensemble of stars!
The action starts with Renée Fleming sitting among the real audience, from whence she enters the stage, which frames another stage, which in turn looks like the interior of the Opéra Paris – thus setting the scene for a “stage on stage” play that directly reconnects to the real world of opera, opera staging and opera goers.
Robert Carsen, a marvellous director and famous for his mind-opening opera stagings all over the world, interpreted the “stage on stage” action of Capriccio as a brilliant farewell manifesto for Hugues R. Gall. The play on the – seemingly fanciful – question of whether words or music are the most important for an opera reflects one of the most inspiring questions of opera staging today, As Robert Carsen once put it in an interview with the international radio Deutsche Welle: "I start with the words, but it is the music that lends me any particular ideas I have for a scenic solution." "Opera itself is a mixture of head and heart,” he went on. "You have the words which are maybe more intellectually based - they have a more concrete quality - and you have the music that is more emotional. The two together create a tension that allows opera, when it works, to be unbelievably satisfying because you're challenged mentally while, at the same time, being fulfilled emotionally."

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is a landmark in the history of music, changing the concept of what a symphony could be. The use of solo singers and a chorus in the final movement was revolutionary, and the emotional journey to a glorious vision of a world of love and tolerance paved the way for idealistic symphonies to come.

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Originally released in November 2007 as a limited edition specially-packaged pressing, Sony BMG is now making this definitive recording of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio available in standard packaging format