Title : Best of the Millennium: Top 40 Classical Hits
Author : Albinoni, Tomaso Giovanni
Release Date : 20000208
Binding : Audio CD
Regular Price : $18.98
Amazon.com Price : $13.99
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Editorial Reviews : 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.
Buyer Reviews : I've always been a lover of classical music, but at the age of 16, I didn't have quite the experience with it I wanted. I could sing along with any famous classical piece, but get me to name the title or the composer, and I'd be at a complete loss.
Then this CD came into my life.
I recognized about half of the songs, and they all appealed to me. What to do? Of course I bought it straightaway. ^_^ Let me tell you, I was not disappointed. I'd encountered the vast majority of these pieces before, and I liked amost every one. Though some of the songs are not the composers' best in my opinion, and though many of the pieces are not in their complete form, it is a great boost for the beginning classical collector's shelf. =)
