Allegro Classical Fall 2011 Sampler

Various artists | Format: MP3 Music

Product Details

• Original Release Date: September 13, 2011
• Label: Allegro
• Copyright: 2011 Allegro
• Total Length: 52:22
• Genres:
  • Classical
  • Opera & Vocal
• ASIN: B005NVXQXE
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21 Free in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Free in MP3 Albums)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good sampler September 29, 2011

By Mark Merengue

Format:MP3 Music|Amazon Verified Purchase

Track by track:

1. This seems to be a pretty good performance of the two-piano version of the Hungarian Dance #5. The artist is listed as a Trio, but I doubt that there are 3 people playing.

2. What is this? Is it from a Disney movie?

3. Good performance for a sampler.

4. I had not heard this piece before. It's pretty good, but just when it starts getting exciting, the track ends and we are abruptly thrown into the [5.] garden where Tchaikovsky is absentmindedly pruning the rose-bushes.

6. Apparently Christmas falls in the Fall this year. That's okay though. I'm just going to delete this track and pretend it wasn't there. It's not that I don't like Christmas music, but I can't listen to this when I have John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers performing the same carol.

7. If you've heard Yo-Yo Ma play the Bach Suites, then you will immediately realize that the reverb in this recording is just not up to par. (Probably due to recording techniques more than the hall.) They get Kudos for trying though, and the performance is not bad at all.

8. When I saw a Shostakovich Symphony movement on the track list, I was excited. But alack, alas, this is a (2?) piano transcription. It's still okay though.

9. This is a decent performance.

10. There is a mistake, and this is a duplicate of track 5, not the Shostakovich Trio like it says. Hopefully they will fix that.

11. Call me uncultured, but I'm not much of an opera fan, and these antique recordings aren't winning me over either. That said, this is the best opera track from the Allegro Classical samplers so far, in my opinion.

I only ended up keeping 1 or 2 tracks from the Summer Sampler, but this one is much better. I think all of these performances are very listenable, so if there are pieces on this album that you don't already own recordings of, you might want to give it a listen.

My 4-star rating takes into consideration the price. An example of a 5-star sampler would be the Linn Records one, which is also on Amazon.

You may also want to look at the new sampler: Allegro Classical Winter 2012 Sampler

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than the Summer Sampler, but the Linn Records Sampler remains the standard in free Classical albums October 6, 2011

By Andrew R. Barnard

Format:MP3 Music|Amazon Verified Purchase

I always like to check out Amazon's free Classical MP3 albums, just to see if we're actually getting a real deal. In other words, after we've downloaded the album, will it be worth something to us, or will we quickly forget about it? There's no predicting what the albums will be like; sometimes I dump the tracks in my recycle bin, while other times I hang onto the music, and continue listening to it. Allegro Classical's Summer Sampler had nothing on it I wanted to listen to more than once. This sampler is better; most of the tracks I don't care to listen to more than once, but there's one track that I'm going to want to save. That one is Elgar's "In the Upper Room: Men and Bretheren", performed by the famed Mark Elder. Here we have wonderful music, and it is given a wonderful performance with good sound quality. For me, that makes a download of the album worthwhile. And while Yuri Simonov's version of Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker won't compete with my favorites, it's certainly worth having. I should add that I'm a self-appointed music critic, which means I'm probably pickier than most listeners who will download the album. Perhaps some will find more merits in the album than I have.

But while you're here, let me recommend the gold standard in all of Amazon's free Classical albums: the Linn Records Classical Sampler. It's by far the best free sampler I've ever seen on Amazon, as almost all the tracks are ones worth saving. You've absolutely got to check it out, especially since it probably won't last forever.

As to the album being reviewed here: it's not the best free sampler I've seen, but it does have some good music. And, hey, what harm can be done by downloading it just to see what you think?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for "beginners" December 14, 2011

By Fyregal

Format:MP3 Music|Amazon Verified Purchase

I got this as a free download from Amazon. Can't complain. I really like classical music and this sampler is a great place to introduce new listeners.