Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Composed music against the odds - communism and war., 28 Jul 2007
Witold Lutoslawski, 1913-1994, Polish.
"People whose sensibility is destroyed by music in trains, airports, lifts, cannot concentrate on a Beethoven Quartet". (Witold Lutoslawski).
This Naxos CD is aimed at the beginner or occasional classical music listener and aims to provide a cross section of the entire works of Lutoslawski on a single CD of around one hour duration. It's difficult of course to achieve a satisfactory representation of a composer's lifetime achievements in such short time, but this CD does achieve its aim in that it offers an affordable introduction to Lutoslawski which may enable the listener to either pursue these works further, or simply to collect the entire Naxos `Best Of' range.
If the intention is to collect the series it will provide a good, although slightly abbreviated, library of classical music. Those requiring further listening are helped by the sleeve notes which give recommended further listening (all Naxos label CD's of course!).
It should be noted that the Naxos 2CD `Very Best Of' releases offer slightly better value than the single CD versions in this `Best Of' series.
That said, this is a good introduction to classical music for those on a careful budget.
The complete Naxos `Best Of' series (those indicated* also have `Very Best Of' releases):
Bach*, Bartok, Beethoven*, Berlioz, Bizet, Brahms, Chopin*, Debussy*, Dvorak*, Elgar*, Faure, Gershwin, Glazunov, Grieg*, Handel*, Haydn, Liszt, Lutoslawski, Mendelsshon, Mozart*, Paganini, Prokofiev, Puccini*, Rachmaninov*, Ravel*, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rossini, Saint-Saens, Schubert, Schumann, Satie*, Shostakovich*, Sibelius*, Strauss (Johann) II*, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky*, Verdi*, Vivaldi*, Wagner, Weber.
|
|
|
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very poor indeed, 9 Aug 2007
Buyers Beware! The listing on this page implies the works appear complete, but they don't. For example only the first two movements of the Concerto for Orchestra are actually included on the CD, same goes for all the other works that are not single movement compositions.
|
|
|
4.0 out of 5 stars
fine overview of this master 20thC composer, 14 Jun 2009
this fine cd first introduced me and converted me to the soundworld of Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994). although yes all selections are usually single selected movements of the complete works (although Concerto for Orchestra gets 2 movements on this compliation ) the performances by the Polish Natl Radio Symphony Orchestra primarily under conductor Antoni Wit, are excellent with very clear and dynamic digital recordings across the selcetion presented.
key works included are the popular Concerto for Orchestra (for me -actually superior to Bartok's), Jeux Venitiens, Symphonic Variations and Piano Concerto amongst others. this is an ideal introduction for curious and open minded modern compostion/classical fans to Lutoslawski's rich world of dramatic,varies,post-serial music. Fans of other 20th C composers - Carter, Ligeti, Boulez or Dutilleax will not be disappointed . oh and the Penguin classical guide rates this Naxos series highly also.
|
|
|
|
![Works of Igor Stravinsky [Box Set]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ffzhvDpuL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
~ Donald Gramm
~ Johann II Strauss
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Make sure you always get what you want with an Amazon.co.uk 
Amazon Home