The 99 Most Essential Baroque Masterpieces

Various artists

September 15, 2009

11 ratings

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Product details

Date First Available : April 25, 2012
Manufacturer : X5 Music Group
ASIN : B002OCNY14

Customer Reviews:
11 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		43%
4 star		43%
3 star		14%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

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Bill F.

Great Selection - Great Bargain

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2009

Verified Purchase

This is an incredible buy. I enjoy classical music a good deal, and find that a selection like this (that can play literally all day behind me while I work) is a wonderful investment. I get more done, I am happier, and all because of a great selection of classical music that Amazon picked out for me. Unlike one reviewer below, I'd say that most of these selections are quite listenable. They are not all gems, but some of them are, and that's why it is just amazing to find them all together for this price. Yes, the artists are primarily not well known, or Eastern European names that you wouldn't easily recognize, but they are talented, and the music is generally well recorded. Quite an excellent buy.

12 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Enjoyable bargain.

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2012

Verified Purchase

This is not an album of full-length masterpieces, but shorter pieces that are more bite-sized. (The first entry, for example, is 3 minutes, 31 seconds of Vivaldi's "Spring" from the larger "The Four Seasons" work.)

That aside, these truncated versions are very entertaining, and serve as a gateway to those longer works. If you are someone exploring different musical tastes, this album (don't know a more modern term than that) is a great entre'e to the baroque world. Get this collection, and you may find yourself returning, for example, for the full-length version of Handel's "The Messiah" just in time for the Christmas holidays.

And if you are new to baroque, you will be pleasantly surprised to hear music that has seeped into the modern world, whether it be in movie scores, commercials, or as the underpinnings of 20th/21st century music.

Finally, some reviewers have expressed unhappiness about the execution of the music. Personally, my ears can't distinguish musical nuances -- it has to be pretty discordant for me to turn it off -- so these versions are just fine for me.

All that said, I am going to contradict myself to the extent that I gave this album four of five stars. Some offerings are truncated at an awkward point in the music, some are a little discordant. Overall, a very good album at a very good price!

Enjoy!

2 people found this helpful

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Rory1959

Just outstanding value

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2010

Verified Purchase

I seldom review, but I have downloaded seven of these collections and I think they're terrific. I'm no expert, but both the playing and sound quality are generally excellent in comparison to other versions of the same pieces that I have in my collection -- at a tiny fraction of the cost. My only quibble would be that, in this baroque collection, about 53 of the pieces were written by Vivaldi or Bach, so there is probably some overlap with the separate "99 Essentials" for those composers. Still, that leaves at least 46 discrete pieces for $5.00, which is pretty good!

One person found this helpful

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Charles Miske

Hours of pleasant background music

Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2012

Verified Purchase

While none of these performances are particularly outstanding or memorable, this is a lot of music for not a lot of money. If outstanding and memorable were important to you though, you probably wouldn't even click on a link for "99 most essential" anything. That being said, they're all classic, and great to put on in the background while I write or do other work on the computer. Hours of decent music with Baroque flavor.

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John McD777

Remember It's Baroque, Folks!

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2009

Verified Purchase

In reading other critiques of this extraordinary item, I'm struck by the fact that somebody's obviously not paying attention. These beautiful and plentiful selections are the baroque interpretations of these musical masterpieces....hence the use of harpsichords and other instruments more authentic to the period many of them were actually written. That said, the music, the performances and the quality of the recordings, coupled with the ridiculously low price make this an offering more than worth the price! It may not be for the classical music purists and scholars, who may already have much of this material in their collections, or may find the disconnected placement of the individual pieces off-putting, but for the more casual classical music fan, it's simply divine! ENJOY!

46 people found this helpful

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R. Stone

Love it but..

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2012

Verified Purchase

I can't give it 5 stars because the play list only contains the current artist, who performed the pieces. For those of us less acquainted with some of the pieces they should list the original composer as well!

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M. Rabideau

Can't-Miss for Casual Listeners

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2009

Verified Purchase

This is an amazing deal for casual listeners looking to expand their classical music horizons. Sure, a few classical music elitists might gripe about a few sub-par renditions here, but if your simply looking for great classical music at a great price, you've found it.

22 people found this helpful

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Siriuset

Great Value, but....

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2009

Verified Purchase

The "99 Most Essential" albums are obviously a great value. My one complaint is that the composers are not listed on the tracks. I would like to know that it's Pachelbel's Canon not just that it was recorded by Musica Antiqua New York. Other than that, a nice recession concession from Amazon.

4 people found this helpful

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