Reviews Written By: A2C3924RYU7R1Lprovided by Amazon.com |
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 | Richard Hayman - Majestic Marches | |
 | "Well played Marches" | 2007-11-17 |
| I am a big fan of Naxos collections and have almost never been dissappointed. These marches from various sources including opeas and ballets are very well played by the Slovak Philharminic. A few of the marches were so impressive that I plan to look for more works by the composers especially the Caucasian sketces by Ippolitanov and Hansen's Valdres march and Newman's film music. This is not taxing music but well worth the price.
Please excusee typos I have a neurologic disease. | ||
 | Johann Sebastian Bach ,Helmuth Rilling - Bach: Cantatas, BWV 1-3 | |
| "Excellent performances on modern instruments" | 2005-12-31 |
| The Rilling cycle of cantatas is currently the only complete cycle available on Amazon. For purists for period instrument performances, you will not want to buy this CD. Rilling on all of his Bach recordings does try to bring a baroque style of exression. This CD contains on of my favorite cantatas how beauteous beams the morning star celebrating tne Annunciation. All of the Hanssler bach edition contain ample notes expaining the cantatas original performance and what special things to look out for. Each of these cantatas are special and unique well sung and conducted. Bachs's cantats seem to be some of the most underappreciated of his works. As someone with no knowledge of music I find I must be subjective. These cantatas are movingly sad and elevating. | ||
 | Johann Sebastian Bach ,Jeremy Summerly ,Nicholas Ward - Bach: Magnificat, BWV 243; Cantata, BWV 82 | |
| "Well-performed Bach Masterpieces" | 2005-12-21 |
| I do not usually have multiple interpretations of classical works simply because i cannot afford them.But I do have an affinity for Bach's Magnificat and own one by Gardiner and Rilling. This recording can stand in the ranks of those others. The cantata 84 is also included and is as well done. Purists for period instruments would be the people who would not enjoy these moving and uplifing performances. | ||
 | Singer Collected Stories: A Friend of Kafka to Passions (Library of America) | |
| "Singer is in the highest rank of short story authors" | 2005-02-12 |
| I had read the collected stories of Singer many years ago and many of the images remained embedded in my mind and it was with great joy that I am able to relive them. Even though he wrote novels, I do not believe that Singer would have won the Nobel Prize without his short story output. It is interesting to witness the growth of Singer as a human and an artist. This middle volume of the LOA series contains stories written after he moved to the US. It is hard to believe that these stories are translated from Yiddish because they read as if they were written in English. If you can afford all three volumes buy them. The collected stories are still available but Singer's stories are consistenly wonderful. Very view of these stories are not among the very best stories in world literature. Bravo to the Libray of America for reintroducng the reading public to these gems. | ||
 | Can-Can and Other Dances from the Opera | |
| "Nice collection of operatic dances" | 2004-12-12 |
| This is another wonderful issue from the naxos opera collection. The dances are the standards that appear on many other collections, but not a such a low price. These dances are all enchantingly played. | ||
 | New and Collected Poems : 1931-2001 | |
| "Milosz and Shakespeare: Best Poets of all Time" | 2004-10-30 |
| Milosz's poetry has a kind of energy that makes you want to shout on a rooftop: read this book. Any poet of any stature writes poems that fail to rise to the level of masterpieces, but in this book of 750 pages they are few and far between. The translator deserves much credit for these poem read as if they were originally written in English. I used to think that Paul Celan captured the horror of war torn Europe the best, but Milosz now wins the title. The first books of this collection are harrowing and wistful. The books written from California and France take a more metaphysical tone but never fail to be touching and humane. The most recent poems detailing growing old are often funny but always reminiscent of just how much he has paid for growing up during wartime. Shakespeare and Milosz had their fingers on the pulse of the human condition and have created poems that will truly last forever. I recommend this book even to people who do not normally read poetry. It has changed me--- for the better. | ||
 | Salammbo | |
| "Worthy of a wider audience" | 2004-08-08 |
| Even though I agree with the reviewers who stated that this novel is nothing like Madame Bovary, I tend to see this as a strength of a talented world writer. In this novel Carthage is in its death throes as an imperial nation---eternally at war and unable to meet the daily needs of its citizens. They are forced to believe in an ecstatic religious cult that demands the sacrifice of humans. Flaubert's language in this novel even mirrors the internal frenzy of the citizens who always have to be prepared for yet another war. (I finished this novel in one day, I could not put it down.) Salammbo needs to be read as a novel; not as a work of history in order to truly understand what Flaubert intentions were. | ||
 | TAMING OF THE SHREW | |
| "Oxford World's Classics is the best choice for Shakespeare" | 2004-02-17 |
| There are many reviews of the play below,, so I am reviewing this particular edition of tthe play. As someone reading all of Shakespeare for the second time, I am always alble to learn something from the World's Classics introduction. They are scolarly and complete and the text always has footnotes on the same page. I have tried other editions but these are the best. The Taming of the Shrew although it does contain episodes that are misogynistic to modern ears does portray a couple truly in love. As an early play Shakespeare is beginning to find his own voice. | ||
 | The Taming of the Shrew | |
| "Oxford World's Classics is the best choice for Shakespeare" | 2004-02-17 |
| There are many reviews of the play below,, so I am reviewing this particular edition of tthe play. As someone reading all of Shakespeare for the second time, I am always alble to learn something from the World's Classics introduction. They are scolarly and complete and the text always has footnotes on the same page. I have tried other editions but these are the best. The Taming of the Shrew although it does contain episodes that are misogynistic to modern ears does portray a couple truly in love. As an early play Shakespeare is beginning to find his own voice. | ||
 | The Taming of the Shrew | |
| "Oxford World's Classics is the best choice for Shakespeare" | 2004-02-17 |
| There are many reviews of the play below,, so I am reviewing this particular edition of tthe play. As someone reading all of Shakespeare for the second time, I am always alble to learn something from the World's Classics introduction. They are scolarly and complete and the text always has footnotes on the same page. I have tried other editions but these are the best. The Taming of the Shrew although it does contain episodes that are misogynistic to modern ears does portray a couple truly in love. As an early play Shakespeare is beginning to find his own voice. | ||
 | The Comedy of Errors (Oxford Shakespeare (Paperback)) | |
| "Oxford World's Classics is the best choice for Shakespeare" | 2004-01-10 |
| As someone who is reading Shakespeare for the second time at the age of 40 and who considers himself a careful reader, I am always surprised to find the Oxford editors bring new ways of looking at the plays. In this introduction, Whitworth does a commendable job of explaining the importance of The Comedy of Errors which is usually dismissed as light weight farce, by explaining the history of critiism of the play and it social relevance. Presented as a Christmas entertainment for the queen, The Comedy cleverly combines plots from two Plautus plays as well as introducing plot elements of his own. I-- a mere mortal-- have no ability to criticize Shakespeares truly immortal genious. As the best writer ever, all I can do is enjoy the work. The scholarly intro allows you to heighten the pleasure seeing thing that might not be seen at surface level. An additional benefit of the Oxford Shakespeare is that it is annotated with just enough notes-- on the same page as the text. If you read Shakespeare for enjoyment or for a class, Oxford is the best. | ||
 | Petrarch: The Canzoniere, or Rerum vulgarium fragmenta | |
| "Should be read as a novel from start to finish" | 2003-08-09 |
| While there are other good translations of selections from the Canzoniere, Petrarcch's masterpiece needs to be read as a whole from start to finish in order to be fully appreciated. Petrarch planned and rewrote these poems in order to fit into an overall plan. Usually I skip introductions to works that I read but I read the first paragraph of the extensive introduction and was quickly drawn in. This introduction was actualy a helpful prologue to the poetry which descibed Petrach's styles and intentions. A blurb on the book cover says that Musa's treanslations read so well that you are unaware that they are translations. I certainly agree. I do not read Italian but this edition does conain the originals on the adjacent side. I was surprised at the modernity and musicality of the poems. Petrarch was not just inflouential in his versification but also in his language. Much of his humanistic language has become second nature to us but he invented it. I rank this book as not only some of the graetest poetry but as one ofthe great works of Western llterature. These "little songs" are highly readble and like a said before form a sort of novelistic story that I would highly recommend to not just poetry readers but all readers. | ||
 | The Shorter Poems (Penguin Classics) | |
| "Don't just read his epic Faerie Queene" | 2003-05-10 |
| This book contains all of Spenser's important poems with the exception of the Faeie Quuene which Penguin also sells. This book is hefty at almost 900 pages, 500 of which are poems including his Shepherd Calendar. I rarely read introductions and notes but found them helpful in the case of Spenser who uses some words that are archaic, but his verse is actually very easy to get the gist of almost immediately. I found reading it aloud (much to the annoyance of my sleepy cat) helped. AS my first introduction to Spenser I was concerned about just how difficult the poems would be to understand, but as I said his language is actually understandable and even add to the enjoyment. I was surprised how emotionally affecting the poems still are, how modern in their concerns about politics, love, life and death. I have underlined sections that I plan to revisit. I agree with the other reviwer that Spenser is a major poet who should be read by all. | ||
 | Aime Cesaire: The Collected Poetry | |
| "Shining star of surrealism and negritude" | 2003-04-25 |
| First of all this book itself is beautifully designed and oversized, containing selections from five of Cesaire's published books of poety, separated by prints by Wilfredo Lam. This poetry of Cesaire requires an extensive introduction since it is filled with both politicsl and surrealistic elements. The editor provide a 30 page introduction which was very helpful. I found that I needed to read these poems outloud in order to fully understand them. I wish that I could also read the French originals that we provided. Of course every great poet writes many poems that do no quite reach his general level of excellence and Cesaire is no exception, but I found many poems to treasure which will remain with me a long while. They make heavy use of Martiniquan flora and fauna, but every poem is about meaninful ways of acheiving power for the Black diaspora which was the heart of Cesaire's negritude These poems belong in the collection of all who care about poetry. I | ||
 | Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories | |
| "Tiny masterpieces that will remin with you forever" | 2003-02-20 |
| Having enjoyed the novels of Angela Carter, I decided to give her short stories a try. Written in the same poetic style, these stories require reading very slowly in order to enoy the language. The dense sybolism requires that you think about each story for a while before proceeding to the next. In fact I would recommend reading only a few at sitting. Like any author of short stories, Carter wrote a few that failed to draw me in. But these failures only point to the stengths of those that did. | ||
 | Burning Your Boats: Collected Stories | |
| "Tiny masterpieces that will remin with you forever" | 2003-02-20 |
| Having enjoyed the novels of Angela Carter, I decided to give her short stories a try. Written in the same poetic style, these stories require reading very slowly in order to enoy the language. The dense sybolism requires that you think about each story for a while before proceeding to the next. In fact I would recommend reading only a few at sitting. Like any author of short stories, Carter wrote a few that failed to draw me in. But these failures only point to the stengths of those that did. | ||
 | All of Us : The Collected Poems | |
| "conversational masterpieces" | 2002-12-02 |
| Although he will always be remembered for his unsurpassed short stories, Raymond Carver is an equally great poet. Many themes appear and reappear in the course of his autobiographic poetry: fishing, his wife and his love for everything in the world, his conquering of his aloholism. Carver's poetry is easy to understand, as in his srories Carver has the knack of chosing the most precise words and of creating totally full characters in just a few words.Carver's main power as a poet is to make even the simplest things in life into epic journeys of a soul who has made his peace with the world. Just like the poetry, the introduction by Tess Harper broght tears to my eyes. If there is a heaven, I am sure Raymond Carver is there, fishing. He is the most human and for me one of the most remarkable of modern writers. Thanks for enriching my life! | ||
 | All the Names | |
| "Thanks Nobel Prize Committee!" | 2001-01-16 |
| If he had never won the Nobel Prize, I would never have heard of Jose Saramago. I have read all of his novels and am captivated by his elegant and beautiful writing. It was with a mixture of hopeful anticipation and dread that I read this book: could it possibly measure up to my favorites Blindness and Baltisar and Blimunda. Well I need not have worried, Saramago drew me into his labyrinth from the first sentence. I was reminded of Kafka and Dante's Inferno when reading this story of a lonely public official Senhor Jose who is isolated by istitutions and his work. He represents all of modern humanity in it's struggle to survive emotionally. The book tells of Senhor Jose's attempt to find connections to other human beings, of having to fight all of the barriers erected by modern life. He is the "everyman" of the Twentieth Century. The glimpses of love that he finds during his obsessive quest is enough to transform him into another person. Read the book very slowly to savor the taste of Saramago's prose. He will be remembered as a great writer in distant times. | ||
 | Classic Indian Veget Ck | |
| "Excellent for more experieced cooks" | 2000-12-20 |
| I must agree with the raves about the various dishes that the other reviewers have mentioned. I own several other Indian vegetarian cookbooks and I have found that this one is the best in its description of the spices and other ingredients that may be new to some people. I have no problem with the excellent quality of the recipes but beginners in Indian cuisine should not mistake this book as easy to master. Most of the recipes in this book are complex and mastering Indian cuisine requires a lot of experimentation with amounts of spices. There are few illustrations and no pictures of prepared food to help newer cooks. So the only downside to this great book is its lack of more complete instructions for beginners | ||
 | A Severed Head | |
| "Will become a classic!" | 2000-11-10 |
| Honor Klein is one of the most fascinating of all of Murdoch's memorable characters. Murdoch uses humor deftly in this novel weaving a web of enchantment that underlies the more serious discussions of sex, human responsibility and morality. I will never forget the the scene in the cellar between Honor and Martin, the ride from the train station and the hilarious and touching final scene are etched in my memory forever. I have read hundreds of "serious" novels in my life and The Severed Head has become my favorite. With her recent death we lost one of the worlds best writers. | ||
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