Tango Notturno |
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Tango Notturno |
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Nuages du Monde |
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Delerium |
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Mozart |
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CBC Records presents three of Canada’s most outstanding Mozart singers. This accomplished trio includes Canadian-Armenian soprano ISABEL BAYRAKDARIAN, tenor MICHAEL SCHADE and baritone RUSSELL BRAUN. All of these artists have enjoyed considerable success nationally and internationally, recognized for their many Mozart roles and interpretations - Bayrakdarian as Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro. *WINNER of 2007 Juno Awards for Best Classical Album (vocal or choral performance)* |
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Pauline Viardot-Garcia |
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This marvelous recording performed by Isabel Bayrakdarian with pianist Serouj Kradjian is devoted entirely to the songs of Pauline Viardot, nee Garcia, an extraordinary woman who was not only one of the great singers of the 19th century but also quite clearly a gifted composer. As evidenced by this recording, her oeuvre includes Italian, German, Spanish, and French songs. Released by Analekta. *WINNER of 2006 Juno Awards for Best Classical Album (vocal or choral performance)* |
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Lord of the Rings |
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Howard Shore's music for the massively successful first film chapter of Tolkien's Ring saga won him the Oscar® for Best Original Score, something of a surprise given the music's ambitious scale and determinedly dark overtones, factors that handily blurred the line between typical film fantasy music and accomplished concert work. Its sequel takes the same, often Wagnerian-scaled dramatic tack, following the film's story line into even more brooding and ominous dark corners. The previous film's Hobbit-inspired pastoralism is supplanted here by rich ethnic textures that expand the musical scope of Middle-earth and the World of Men; the Hardanger, a Norwegian fiddle, represents the Rohan and the North African rhaita colors the Mordor theme, while log drums, dilruba, wood xylophone, and cimbalon add intriguing textures elsewhere. The score's looming orchestral clouds are brightened by Shore's masterful choral writing, which infuses ancient liturgical influences with various solo turns by Isabel Bayrakdarian, indie-pop star Sheila Chandra, Ben Del Maestro, and Elizabeth Fraser. "Gollum's Song," the composer's concluding collaboration with lyricist Fran Walsh, is delivered with Björkish, postmodern angst by Emiliana Torrini, and helps punctuate the story's modern sense of allegory. --Jerry McCulley (Amazon.com) |
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Ararat |
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The ongoing collaboration between composer Mychael Danna and film director Atom Egoyan has yielded numerous soundtrack gems, but Ararat ranks among their very best. Egoyan's complex film-within-a-film revolves around the Armenian genocide of 1915. Not surprisingly, regional folk instruments and choral singing play a dramatic role on this effort. Danna and Egoyan recorded much of the Armenian music on location, in a sixth-century stone church with no electricity, but it blends in perfectly with the composer's more sophisticated orchestral arrangements. This is dark, moody, and minor-keyed (not to mention gorgeous) music. By focusing on the plaintive sounds of a solo trumpet or duduk (Armenian flute) and the occasional choral track, Danna has created a truly haunting and mysterious score. A wonderful soundtrack. --Jason Verlinde (Amazon.com) |
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Mahler: Symphony No. 2 |
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Lorraine Hunt Lieberson SFO Records |
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Cleopatra |
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Isabel Bayrakdarian, scored a major success when she appeared as Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, in Handel’s opera Giulio Cesare for the Canadian Opera Company. As one critic observed, “Cleopatra is one of Handel's most superb, and psychologically intricate, creations. The luminous Bayrakdarian has made a wonderful beginning in a role she will surely take to the great stages of the world – at first childishly seductive, then calculating, and ultimately revealing a profound nobility and vulnerability." *WINNER of 2005 Juno Awards for Best Classical Album (vocal or choral performance)* |
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AzulÃo |
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Following on the enormous success of her first recording for CBC RECORDS - Joyous Light – the stunning young Canadian lyric soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian turns her attention to the seductive colours and rhythms of Spain and Latin America. *WINNER of 2004 Juno Awards for Best Classical Album (vocal)* |
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Joyous Light |
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Released on the CBC Records label, Joyous Light is a collection of Armenian liturgical music performed by Isabel Bayrakdarian and conducted by Raffi Armenian with appearances by Elmer Iseler Singers. |
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Millennium |
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Isabel Bayrakdarian sings "Bel raggio lusinghier" from Rossini's Semiramide, with members of the Toronto Symphony orchestra, Richard Bradshaw, conductor. This is the same showpiece she sang when winning Plácido Domingo's Operalia 2000 Competition in September 2000. |
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