Ludovico Einaudi returns with 'The Summer Portraits: Live.' Recorded live in London at the Royal Albert Hall in 2025, this new collection includes favorites from The Summer Portraits as well as much-loved classics such as "I Giorni," "Nuvole Bianche" and "Experience." Pressed on transparent blue & transparent pink color vinyl, 2LP.
Sir Stephen Hough's new solo piano album, Stephen Hough's Piano Postcards, explores the world from the perspective of the itinerant pianist sending home musical messages from his voyages. Music from Asia includes "Spring breeze prelude" by Taiwanese composer Deng Yu-Hsien and a piano version of "Aka tombo," a children's song so beloved in Japan that it features in citywide "5-o'clock chimes" across the country. Folk and popular traditions appear in "Cielito lindo" and "Nature boy," while the final group of pieces turns to nature, with works by MacDowell, Schumann and Sinding. Alongside these musical travel diaries, he intersperses new transcriptions of songs from popular films, including arrangements he created for Lang Lang's 'Disney Book' album. This is the first chance Sir Stephen has had to include piano arrangements of songs from Frozen, Coco and Mary Poppins.
Exotica showcases the boundary-pushing creativity of composer Mauricio Kagel, one of the most influential figures in avant-garde and experimental music. Challenging traditional musical conventions, the work explores unconventional instrumentation, theatrical elements, and innovative sonic textures, highlighting Kagel's unique vision and enduring impact on contemporary classical music.
VERVE RECORDS: THE SOUND OF AMERICA / VARIOUS As an independent record producer going back to the early 1940s, Norman Granz started building a personal network of record companies - disc by disc, artist by artist, innovation by innovation - that grew into a tsunami by the time he sold Verve Records at the end of 1960. It remains a feat unmatched to this day. This 4-LP box set celebrates the fascinating spectrum of recordings made during the Norman Granz era of Verve Records. It includes vocal tracks by Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday; Charlie Parker with strings; a raucous live jam session; Beatnik poetry by Jack Kerouac and stand-up comedy.
Luigi Nono was a leading figure in post-war serialism, emerging in the 1950s alongside Karlheinz Stockhausen & Pierre Boulez as one of the era's defining avant-garde composers. Composed for 2-channel magnetic tape in 1968, Contrappunto reflects Nono's engagement with international student movements and opposition to the Vietnam War. Drawing on Adriano Banchieri's early 17th-century madrigal-comedy, Nono reimagined it's vocal focus, period materials, and parodic spirit through a contemporary lens. Roland Kayn's Cybernetics III foresaw major developments in synthesis, computing, sampling & sequencing, anticipating profound changes in electronic music. The Avantgarde Series is mastered & cut from the original analog 1/4 inch, 2-track master tapes by Rainer Maillard & Sidney Claire Meyer at Emil Berliner Studios. Limited and numbered, featuring original artwork and a newly designed, beautifully crafted collector's sleeve with new liner notes by Bradford Bailey, and pressed on 180g vinyl.
Giblet Gravy, released in 1968 on Verve Records, documents guitarist George Benson during his early period with the label. Produced by Esmond Edwards and featuring arrangements by Tom McIntosh, the sessions draw on a range of jazz and studio musicians, including pianist Herbie Hancock, bassists Ron Carter and Bob Cranshaw, drummer Billy Cobham, percussionist Johnny Pacheco, and baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams, alongside a brass and rhythm section assembled for selected tracks. Across these varied settings, Benson's fluid articulation, blues-inflected phrasing, and rhythmic dexterity remain the music's central focus. The repertoire blends contemporary popular material, standards, and original compositions, illustrating the stylistic breadth that would inform his later crossover success while remaining grounded in the late-1960s jazz ensemble format. The Verve Vault series is always mastered from analog tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.
Meditations, released in 1966 on Impulse! Records, captures John Coltrane's late-period quartet in transition, expanding into new sonic territory while retaining the core intensity of his classic lineup. Recorded in 1965 at Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs studio with producer Bob Thiele, the session features pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, drummer Elvin Jones, tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, and drummer Rashied Ali. Across the suite-like program, the music flows as a continuous meditation on transcendence and collective expression, pushing Coltrane's spiritual jazz into heightened realms of energy and abstraction. It marks one of the final appearances of his "classic quartet" members Tyner and Jones before they departed, leaving Coltrane to pursue new directions with Sanders and Ali. The Verve Vault series is always mastered from analog tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.
SYMPHONY NO.3, METAPHYSICA; HARP CONCERTO Internationally acclaimed Japanese composer and conductor Joe Hisaishi leads the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with celebrated harpist Emmanuel Ceysson, in a major world premiere recording that pairs his Symphony No. 3 'Metaphysica' with his new harp concerto - a virtuosic, genre-defying work. 2-LP set.
Double gold colored vinyl LP pressing John Williams Legacy is a landmark collection featuring the maestro conducting his most iconic film scores, including beloved classics from Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, E.T., and more. Performed by world-renowned orchestras, including Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, and the Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles, these definitive high-fidelity recordings capture the composer's vision with unparalleled authenticity. Featuring liner notes by acclaimed journalist and author John Burlingame, this collection is a powerful celebration of one of film music's greatest careers and an essential addition for fans old and new.
With LUNARIS, Bruce Liu delivers his most distinctive album to date: A concept-driven journey through night, imagination and transcendence, built around some of the most iconic piano repertoire ever written. Bruce Liu invites listeners into a nocturnal sound world where sound, silence and imagination converge. The album follows a clear narrative arc - from Chopin's Nocturne to Cage's Dream - guiding the listener through a sequence of inner landscapes, from intimacy to illumination. Anchored by cornerstone works such as Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Waldstein Sonata, the program expands into a carefully curated constellation including Debussy, Bach/Siloti, Mompou, Ligeti and Agnes Obel.
Jon Batiste - "Monk Movements" [LP] On the fourth volume of the Batiste Piano Series, multi-Grammy® and Oscar® winner Jon Batiste returns to some of the music that first shaped his voice at the piano, expanding upon the majestic, contemplative beauty at the heart of some of Thelonious Monk's most iconic works. Verve; Jazz
Limited five 180gm vinyl LP set. Herbert von Karajan's recording of Wagner's 'Die Walkure' features an outstanding cast, including Austrian star soprano Gundula Janowitz (Sieglinde), legendary bass-baritone Thomas Stewart (Wotan), Jon Vickers (Siegmund), and the dazzling Regine Crespin (Brunnhilde). It captivates with it's expressive range and lyrical accents. Karajan skillfully allows his orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker, to take a back seat to showcase the great singers. As classical music magazine Gramophone aptly puts it, even half a century after it's release, his recording, "still has surprises in store." For the first time, the ORIGINAL SOURCE SERIES uses the original stereo master tape, a two-track audio tape, as it's source. Remastered by the Emil Berliner Studios on 180g virgin vinyl by Optimal and housed in a 5-LP lift-lid box set. Limited and numbered.
