M. J. Nelson

A Tenor Con Amore, 27 April 2013

Of all the great opera singers Luciano Pavarotti became very much The People's Tenor, able to reach listeners of all ages and persuasions, many of whom would not normally be found in any of the world's opera houses. This miscellaneous recital disc, drawn from recordings issued between 1983 and 2003, features mainly Italian love songs by composers who, in many cases, are hardly household names. Not surprisingly, perhaps, a lot of the numbers are very much of a muchness, pleasant rather than memorable but all benefiting from the heartfelt generosity of the great tenor's voice. Only four of the songs stand out : Non Ti Scordar Di Me; Al Giochi Addio (a version of the Love Theme from Nino… Read more

A Master of Television Drama, 30 Mar 2013

A television film drama written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff is an event to treasure for he is one of the very few truly original and accomplished writers working in the medium. Indeed, he may be the only true auteur. This box set brings together six of his classic films. The very early Caught On A Train is the most straightforward : set on a train travelling through Western Europe it is essentially about the developing relationship between two very different passengers : a young English businessman on his way to a book fair and an autocratic and elderly Austrian woman living somewhat in the past. Poliakoff brilliantly shows how the two of them persistently rub up each other the… Read more

An Evening In Vienna, 27 Feb 2013

This DVD, filmed in June 2012, will be heaven for those classical music lovers who like a programme to be presented in the style of a Hollywood spectacular. And the evening setting could hardly be more spectacular or sumptuous - the fabulously beautiful park of the ornate Schonbrunn Palace situated in the outskirts of Vienna. The dynamic young Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel directs the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme with the title of 'Dances and Waves' - the waves represented, a little incongruously, by Debussy's great set of sea pictures La Mer, as a tribute to the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth. The rest of the programme consists of mostly familiar dance… Read more