★★★★★
Self-assured and self-determining ... Magdalena Kožená (right) in Bizet's Carmen Simon Rattle's recording of Carmen was taped in Berlin in April, following a much-discussed series of performances at the Salzburg Easter festival. On disc as on stage, Rattle's wife, Magdalena Kožená, plays the title role, and much has been made of the marital dynamics of working together on an opera about independent female sexuality and obsessive male attitudes towards it...
- www.guardian.co.uk
2012-09-13
★★★★★
Bizet was always ambivalent about the piano. He was, by all accounts, a superb player, yet he fretted that the public would primarily view him as a pianist rather than a composer, and therefore limited his appearances as a performer. He wrote for the instrument sporadically from 1851 to 1857, returning to it between 1865 and 1868. The earlier pieces are strongly influenced by Chopin, while the later works are more eclectic...
- www.guardian.co.uk
2011-03-14