Fata Morgana [Import]

Fata Morgana [Import]

Track Listings

1. Secura Prologue

2. Children Of The Night

3. Eloise

4. World Of Make Believe

5. The Game And The Rules

6. Wasted Time

7. Wings Of An Angel

8. Dreammaker

9. Mirage

10. The Fugitive

11. Secura Reprise

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
2001 release for melodic power rockers with metal & progressive influences. Guests include Lana Lane & Robby Valentine. Gatefold digipak.

Tracks:

The Sound I
The Hanging Gardens Of Semiramis
Your Voice
I Will Be Seven
Fata Morgana
All Saint's Night
The Sound II
You Forgot To Answer

Customer Reviews:

A Beautiful Final Go..........2001-04-14

This recording of Nico's "Fata Morgana" is quite amazing for several reasons. Every song on here is excellent and throws so much power out from the sound tears frequently came to my eyes. Its opening track "The Sound I" starts off Fata Morgana with its ghostly drum beats and Nico's trade mark harmonium. The lyrics on this album are as simple as Nico's writing has ever been; "I Will Be Seven" is the most powerful song on here but its only lyrics are "I will be seven/when we meet in heaven/la la la...". The title track itself is lovely, with Nico playing her harmonium in the major keys; quite a pleasant song. Then we get to "All Saints Night": absolutely frightening. This is the Nico we have come to love, and when she goes into her agonizing howl, I had to sit down. "You Forget To Answer" from her 4th album, is good, but I think I would have rathered the last song she ever perform be "My Heart Is Empty" (that's just me though). All in all, everyone who loves Nico should own this album. There is so much beauty in here, and since it is her last album, fans should already have this.

Average customer rating:

Yet Another Excellent New Year's Day VPO Concert
Another Beautiful Concert

New Year's Concert 2005

Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Polkas | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Waltzes | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Compilations | Classical | Styles | Music

Deutsche Grammophon: Music | Specialty Stores | Music
Similar Items:

2006 Neujahrskonzert - New Year's Concert
New Year's Concert 2004
2007 New Year's Concert
New Year's Concert 2003
Best of New Year's Concert

ASIN: B0006L7M7C
Release Date: 2005-01-25

Tracks:

Indigo March, Op.349
Haute-Volee-Polka, Op.155
Pleasure Seekers, Op.91
Winter Pleasure, Op.121
The Emancipated Woman, Op.282
A Thousand And One Nights, Op.346
The Bayadere, Op.351

Tracks:

Beautiful Galatea
Speech Dr. Clemens Hellsberg
Klipp-Klapp, Galopp, Op.466
Pictures Of The North Sea
Peasants' Polka, Op.276
Fata Morgana, Op.330
Pleasure Train, Op.281
In The Viennese Manner
Russian March Fantasy, Op.353
One Heart, One Mind, Op.323
Pizzicato-Polka
Tales From The Vienna, Op.325
Electrisch, Polka Schnell
At The Hunt, Op.373
New Year's Address
The Blue Danube, Op.314

Customer Reviews:

Yet Another Excellent New Year's Day VPO Concert.......2005-04-27

This year's concert was devoted almost exclusively to music by Johann Strauss II. Without question, it is among the Vienna Philharmonic's best New Year's Concerts, led by a long-time collaborator at the podium, American conductor Lorin Maazel, who has conducted the orchestra since the early 1960s. The orchestra responded enthusiastically to him, following his tempi even when he wasn't conducting (In two works he plays violin solos, most notably the "Tales from the Vienna Woods" waltz.). On a somber note, the traditional final piece of the concert, Johann Strauss' Radetzky March was not played, a silent tribute offered to the victims of the December 26th earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean (However, the other traditional encore, the "Blue Danube" waltz was played.). Fans of both the Vienna Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel will be interested in acquiring this CD.

Another Beautiful Concert.......2005-02-24

Tremendous in the Dobly 5.1 surround sound. Great ballet to the Blue Danube waltz. Maazel does some violin solos on the Tales from the Vienna Woods

Schumann: The Complete Piano Works (Box Set)

Average customer rating:

Good for the rare pieces.....but...
Mystery Solved
Mystery meat

Schumann: The Complete Piano Works (Box Set)

Manufacturer: Nuova Era
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Canons | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Etudes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Fantasies | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Fugues | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Toccatas | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical | Box Sets | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Haydn: Complete Symphonies (Box Set)
Liszt: Piano Works
The Complete Piano Music of Sergei Rachmaninov
Mendelssohn: Complete Piano Music
Schumann: Complete Chamber Music [Box Set]

ASIN: B000058THK
Release Date: 2001-03-06

Customer Reviews:

Good for the rare pieces.....but..........2006-11-08

Overall, you will be hard up to find a more thoroughly complete two hand piano survey of Schumann's piano opus. However, for the more "popular" pieces such as the op 17, or the kinderszenen, these are decent to mediocre versions are best. They arent bad, Jorg Demus is a skilled pianist, though has always in my view been more successful in a supporting role, as evidenced by his masterful accompaniment in Dichterliebe and assorted Schubert lieder. If you are familiar with Richter's masterful Schumann interpretations-or Horowitz for many of the works, or Lupu, Argerich, these pale in comparison. If you are out for quantity-I would recommend the Ashkenazy set-though it is incomplete. Again, many of the works by schumann that you can only find here will only be of interest to the absolute Schumannaholic, which I am, but it is kind of a two way street because if you are a schumann madman, then you will know how third tier these performances truly are.

Mystery Solved.......2006-10-07

First off, thanks to WTA for his extremely thoughtful and comprehensive review, which helped me decide to purchase this Nuova Era set (his reasoning about the unlikelihood that Demus would record this huge corpus again was especially insightful).

I own the original 20-LP/6-volume Musical Heritage Society set issued between 1971 and 1973. Having seen the CD set in a store last year, I was puzzled about whether it was a transfer of these invaluable discs, which contain vast tracts of Schumann that you will be hard pressed to find elsewhere (included, for instance, are several posthumously issued works and even a few pieces played from unpublished manuscripts). WTA's review gave me enough clues to suspect that these discs were exactly what I'd been waiting for.

Having just received them, I'm happy to confirm that they are indeed the MHS performances (minus most of the four-hand works, however; see below). I instantly recognized the character of the piano sound and the recording acoustic (both much improved on CD), and a quick check of rhetorical gestures in a sonata movement that I especially value in Demus's hands showed the CD and LP versions to be identical. MHS did not always provide track timings for individual sections of the big piano suites. But where such detail exists, respective CD and LP timings are consistently mere seconds apart -- easily the result of different engineering choices for silent lead-ins and lead-outs to each track.

A further clue comes from a small note on the jewel-box tray inserts, indicating a 1989 digital remastering. I can think of no fully digital (DDD) recording that would be getting remastered so early in CD history. Anything from the '80s would almost certainly be making its first appearance in the new storage medium. Moreover, the sound has none of the hallmarks of DDD recordings (as WTA notes, for instance, Demus's recordings have detectable [but nonintrusive] background hiss).

So for all these reasons, I feel confident in declaring that this set is basically the old MHS offering. There are two sad omissions, however:

(1) The CD set includes all the solo pieces in the LP set, as well as a short, posthumously published F-minor Scherzo on CD 12 that MHS seems to have left out. Nuova Era, alas, omits the vast majority of the often-delightful four-hand works, for which Norman Shetler joined Demus (most of these items appeared in MHS's five-disc finale). The Sketches for Pedal Piano, Opp. 56 & 58, are here (perhaps because they were originally conceived for a now-forgotten solo instrument that had a pedalboard [Alkan was said to have been its greatest master]; on a modern instrument, Schumann's pedal-piano music thus takes two pianists), but -- shame on Nuova Era! -- Shetler gets no credit as the second pianist. If you'd like a fine but inexpensive tour of the four-hand output, try the three-disc VoxBox ("Schumann Complete Works For Piano 4-Hands") featuring Peter Frankl, Andras Schiff, et al.

(2) The CD set lacks the superb MHS album notes by Douglas Townsend. Also missing is Demus's own illuminating statement about recording these works across a span of about three years. These are thoroughly digested interpretations: Demus not only memorized every note but also played every last work in concert. Complete recordings like this one are not necessarily commercial gimmicks, as some so carelessly assert. A serious and sensitive musician who takes on such a task will uncover secrets and interconnections that only exposure to a composer's full output in a given area can progressively disclose. As Demus explains (in Herman Adler's translation from the German), "Only by knowing Schumann's creative output in its totality has it been possible to uncover fresh facets in overfamiliar standard works. [. . .] In the music of no other composer do we find as many cross-relations and associations throughout his work. Schumann likes to quote himself as well as other composers, as did, later, his French brother-in-spirit, Claude Debussy. [. . .] Only knowledge of this entire universe will result in something I would call *Stilsicherheit* (stylistic assurance)."

But let's not dwell on what's *not* here. As WTA observes, this is a deeply rewarding collection that every serious Schumann-lover will want to explore. Are these performances the last word on Schumann's poetic realm? Of course not: no such "last word" exists. The essential thing is that throughout this enormous journey, Demus never falsifies the music, and he plays with an honesty that can be far more illuminating than flashier approaches.

So, Schumann-lovers, get this set as cheaply as you can -- but one way or another, get it while you can!

Mystery meat.......2006-04-10

I don't think I've ever before experienced such frustration in trying to assess a product. Here a well-regarded and fairly well-known pianist sits down and records all (even that's up for grabs) the piano music of a pretty well-known and well-regarded composer and barely a peep out there in Internet land.

What I did encounter after a lot of searching, and according to different reviewers who deigned to barely mention this bulky and hard-to-ignore boxed set, was this dopey basketful of professional opinions:

1) The recording quality was poor according to one guy
2) The piano was out of tune according to some editor who happened to also be a piano tuner
3) The music was criminally recorded using a piano with beat hammers and strings
4) Demus may or may not have recorded the set with a period instrument that also may have had beat hammers and strings
5) Nobody should record Schumann on a period instrument according to another expert (without really letting us know if this was the case here)
6) The interpretations were wooden
7) The interpretations were fabulous despite the crappy sound and beat up old out-of-tune piano
8) Nobody was sure if this was his complete Schumann recorded in the 1970s and released on Musical Heritage or these were new DDD recordings as listed

OK--as the notes with this set absolutely stink and no one out in Internet land seems to have any consistent and coherent thing to say about it, this then is my judgement, based on careful listening and a few intelligent guesses.

1) The interpretations are great, wonderful, really enjoyable, idiomatic--some might consider them slightly wooden because there's next-to-no pedal which leads me to believe it is a period instrument he's recorded on. This isn't Argerich slamming away at these so don't expect that. Yamaha fans will be disappointed. Demus clearly knows his Schumann and plays crisply and accurately.
2) The sound quality, while hardly SACD, is just fine and, again if this is a period instrument and I sure tend to think so, what I'm hearing would be about right. I rather like the engineering as the result is intimate and warm
3) Honestly, did Demus record all these in the 1970s without them getting any attention and then do it all over again in the 1980s just to get ignored again? I hear distinct tape hiss if I listen closely, this doesn't sound like a 1989 DDD recording (which the box claims it to be) which is probably why the recording has some warmth and (audible tape hiss)
4) Who am I to argue with an editor/piano tuner but if this piano is out of tune I'm not noticing it one zot. Also, didn't they tune pianos a little differently way back in 1850 or so?

SO--I'll guess this is the complete piano music of Robert Schumann (perhaps minus one small piece according to yet another miffed commentator, although he keeps talking about a 12 CD set and this has 13 discs!)recorded in the 1970s with Jorg Demus playing a piano built around 1850 or so with everything that implies. I'll also guess that a lot of reviewers out there, left to fend for themselves without some promotional sheet from the label, maybe without even free promo copies, were really reaching a bit. Even if I'm wrong I seem to be doing better than the second-guessing I found elsewhere and anyway the result is really enjoyable. I simply like this set a lot even if someday I may discover it is, in fact, Ernest Borgnine playing a badly tuned pool hall upright in 1953. Less than no stars to Nuovo Era for never seeming to get the presentation of this delightful set right--license it to Brilliant and they'll do it up properly for Pete's sake and maybe you'll actually sell a few. They might even be able to kick down that DDD tape hiss a bit. It's also too danged expensive given even the putative late recording date--it shouldn't be more than $120 under any circumstances. I got mine for less than $40 at a classical cut-outs and deletions place.

Conclusion: This whole situation is sad. Jorg Demus is a great pianist and he obviously loves Schumann. Schumann's piano music is worth the effort. This should be a well-known and highly-regarded set and I'm happier with this than with any other big box of piano I may own, short of a Brahms set.

Average customer rating:

J. Strauss, Jr. Edition, Vol. 20

Manufacturer: Marco Polo
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Polkas | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Waltzes | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

J. Strauss, Jr. Edition, Vol. 40
J. Strauss, Jr. Edition, Vol. 17
J. Strauss, Jr. Edition, Vol. 11
J. Strauss, Jr. Edition, Vol. 15
J. Strauss, Jr. Edition, Vol. 32

ASIN: B000026PLC
Release Date: 1992-10-01

Tracks:

Aurora-Ball-Tanze, Walzer, Op.87
Herzel-Polka, Op.188
Dinorah-Quadrille Nach Motiven Der Oper: Die Wallfahrt Nach Ploermel Von Meyerbeer, Op.224
Erhohte Pulse, Walzer, Op.175
Ein Herz, Ein Sinn, Polka-Mazurka, Op.323
Slovianka-Quadrille, Nach Russischen Melodien, Op.338
Schwarmereien, Conc-Walzer, Op.253
Auf Zum Tanze! Schnell-Polka, Op.436
Flugschriften, Walzer, Op.300
Fata Morgana, Polka-Mazurka, Op.330
Marchen Aus Dem Orient, Walzer, Op.444
Kaiser-Jager-Marsch, Op.93

Average customer rating:

Not Omar Faruk Tekbilek's best work
intense, wild and spacey

Fata Morgana
Michael Askill With Omar Faruk Tekbilek
Manufacturer: Celestial Harmonies
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Australia & New Zealand | International | Styles | Music

General | International | Styles | Music

Turkey | Middle East | International | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | New Age | Styles | Music

Meditation | New Age | Styles | Music

Relaxation | New Age | Styles | Music

World Dance | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | International | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Australia & New Zealand | International | Indie Music | Stores | Music

General | New Age | Indie Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Crescent Moon
Fire Dance
Salome
Alif: Love Supreme
Beyond the Sky

ASIN: B0000007YB
Release Date: 1995-05-26

Tracks:

Desert Wind
Aman
Distant Call And March Of The Janissaries
Cool Water
The Goldsmiths
Ocean Dream 1
Sufi House
Boiling Water
Fata Morgana
Ba-La-Ma
Little Janissary March
Ocean Dream 2
Under Desert Stars
From Emptiness
Desert Wind

Customer Reviews:

Not Omar Faruk Tekbilek's best work.......2000-12-30

Unlike the brilliant "Beyond the Sky", "Firedance", or "Mystical Garden" which are undeniably great works of art with great compositions, playing, and a great production sound, this CD meanders around with occasionally inspired improvisation, but no real focus or finesse. If you already own all of Tekbilek's good CD's ( including "Whirling" and "Crescent Moon" ),and want to collect everything he has done, then check this out, otherwise, save your money and buy one of the other CDs I've just mentioned. You won't be sorry.

intense, wild and spacey.......2000-04-04

more great Omar. Some very spacey (don't drive with this tape) pieces, and some very wild ones! BOILING WATER is totally awesome, I did a belly dance improv to it the other night, very high energy, humorous, lots of fun. Look at Rumi's poem CHICKPEA TO COOK, page 132 of THE ESSENTIAL RUMI, and you will see the same intensity as the song. They go very well together. It really does sound like boiling water, as if you are inside the pot! too much! Omar's music gave me the nerve to dance in public in the first place because it just inspires me to move, won't let me stay still!

Average customer rating:

Fata Morgana
Morgana Lefay
Manufacturer: Maste
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Progressive Metal | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00002505W
Release Date: 1999-11-16

Tracks:

Master Of The Masquerade
Time Is God
Nowhere Island
Maleficium
Red Moon
To Isengard
Lord Of The Rings
Madness
What Am I
Excalibur
Mad Messiah
Paradise Lost
Wonderland
The Source Of Pain

Album Description

Dark metal from Sweden. 14 tracks of pre-apocalyptic terror,including 'Time Is God' and 'Mad Messiah'. 1998 Black Mark Production release.

Lehár: Fata Morgana (Suites, Dances and Intermezzi)

Average customer rating:

Lehár: Fata Morgana (Suites, Dances and Intermezzi)

Manufacturer: Cpo Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Polkas | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Operettas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Lehár: Der Sterngucker [Hybrid SACD]

ASIN: B00005NYDX
Release Date: 2001-10-16

Tracks:

Gypsy Feast: Ballet Scene
Where The Lark Sings: Marsch Und Palotas
Rodrigo: Prld Religioso
Fairy Tale From 1001 Nights: Scene Phantastique
Peter And Paul In Cockaigne: Ballet Music: Marsch Der Garde
Peter And Paul In Cockaigne: Ballet Music: Mohnblumen-Walzer
Peter And Paul In Cockaigne: Ballet Music: Lebkuchen-Polka
Peter And Paul In Cockaigne: Ballet Music: Akrobaten-Galopp
Peter And Paul In Cockaigne: Ballet Music: Gemuse-Hochzeit
Peter And Paul In Cockaigne: Ballet Music: Ferkel-Tanz
Peter And Paul In Cockaigne: Ballet Music: Gluckspilze-Gavotte
Peter And Paul In Cockaigne: Ballet Music: Hahnen-Rennen
Peter And Paul In Cockaigne: Ballet Music: Honignymphen-Walzer
Peter And Paul In Cockaigne: Ballet Music: Finale Apotheose
Fata Morgana: Konzert-Gavotte
Coral Lips: Polka Mazurka
Furstenkind: Resignation
Ste De Danse
Chinese Ballet Ste: Allegro Non Troppo
Chinese Ballet Ste: Allegretto Moderato
Chinese Ballet Ste: Tempo Di Marcia

Average customer rating:

So who is this band and what do they sound like?

Fata Morgana
Helloise
Manufacturer: Avalon Japan
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00005MMM9
Release Date: 2001-08-22

Tracks:

Dreammaker
Water
Children of the Night
Mirage
Wasted Time
Eloise
Game & The Rules
World of Make Believe
Fugitive
Wings of an Angel

Album Details

Japanese Version featuring a Bonus Track

Customer Reviews:

So who is this band and what do they sound like?.......2004-02-19

This is honestly very well written and very well played music. Not much isn't done on this album. The bass reminds me of Gamma Ray. The lyrics are wonderful. The artwork in the sleeve is FANTASTIC and will blow you away. The speed of the album is perfect - no piano ballads OR hyper speed songs - just mid-range stuff. Track 6, "Eloise", is a cover of a song written in 1968. I can't remember who its by. The keyboards are of very high quality. For a finishing touch, Lana Lane sings in the last song.

I don't think any song is under 5 minutes. There isn't even an intro or anything. The last song is almost 8 minutes and is the longest.

Now about the songs themselves. Tracks 1-3 are typical melodic/progressive/symphonic metal that fans of Sonata Arctica, Symphony X, Stratovarius, or any of the Italian power metal bands should enjoy. 4 is instrumental with awesome riffs from both the guitarist and keyboardist. Track 5, Wasted Time, is probably my favorite on the album. It is a soft ballad with some keys and lyrics that will surely grab your attention. The guitars are nearly perfect. With a darker cover art, this would be a very atmospheric song. Fans of just about any kind of euro metal should love this song. Then of course is the cover song. The first time I listened to the album, I didn't even notice that it is a cover. It sounds so much like the rest of the songs on the album! 7-9 are 3 more melodic songs like 1-3 and the closer is really good as well.

This band has been around quite a while, only they've changed over the years. Even in the lyric book, people don't know how to classify the band. I think it says... neoclassical + power prog, or something like that. 3 of the bands they thank are Angra, Rhapsody, and Heaven's Gate.

I would compare this band to bands like Skylark or Negura Bunget in terms of how good they are for how rare they are. For bands nobody knows about, they surely know how to write great music. I strongly recommend this album. This band should be about as popular as Sonata Arctica. Give them a shot!