Chandos Records has signed an exclusive contract with the Brodsky Quartet in time for the celebrations of its fortieth anniversary in 2012. Formed in 1972, the Brodsky Quartet quickly emerged at the forefront of the international chamber music scene. It has performed more than 2000 concerts and made more than fifty highly acclaimed recordings. This is the Quartet’s first release on Chandos, and includes many of the encores it has performed over the years, notable for their novelty and diverse range of styles and emotions. All the pieces have been arranged by past or current members of the Quartet, and together form an entertaining and original collection.
The Mediterranean Sea, the cradle of many great cultures and travel route between Orient and Occident, is the point of departure of this enthralling album by the Pera Ensemble. On this release, the Pera Ensemble has dedicated itself to the Early Baroque - the period of transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque period itself. The program consists entirely of Italian music adapted together with Ottoman music. This album contains numerous world premiere recordings.
Dutilleux: Symphony No. 2 "Le double" / Ang, Orchestre National de Lille
Naxos
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Mar 10, 2017
Henri Dutilleaux's perfectionism resulted in a distinctive and individual musical language of rare poetry and invention. The interplay of stereophonic and polyrhythmic effects and jazzy brass writing in Symphony No. 2 "Le Double" forms, in the composer's own words, 'a musical play of mirrors and of contrasting colours', while Timbres, espaces, mouvement is Dutilleux's response to Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night, a 'longing for the infinity of nature'. The series of snapshots in Mystère de l'instant evokes fleeting and almost magical moments in time, its cumulative power indicative of a consummate composer at the height of his powers.
The LaSalle Quartet was active from 1946-88; however, it's influence goes far beyond that. Violinist Walter Levine is still a vital, much sought out authority for string players. From their founding, the Quartet was devoted to the late 19th and 20th c repertoire. The works of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern were a significant part, as were the quartets of Schoenberg's teacher, Alexander Zemlinsky. This CD of studio recordings from 1965, 1968 and 1977 draws Zemlinsky together with Haydn and Brahms - a bold program for an ensemble specializing in modern to include some "early music".
"From 1970 to 2008, the Viennese Alban Berg Quartet was one of the most successful string quartets in the world. Their playing influenced an entire generation of subsequent quartets. The reason for their worldwide success lay both in their outstanding virtuosity and their unerring ability to perform live with the same precision and exactitude of a studio recording.
A further highlight from the Schwetzingen SWR Festival concert series
Unique interpretations of two extraordinary works"
• Peter Ruzicka is a renowned contemporary German composer and conductor
• The young and upcoming cellist Valentiu Radutiu won the opportunity to premiere “Rezitativ”, one of the works heard on this disc
• Booklet notes in German and English include writings on the works and performer biographies
Can you imagine Christmas without music? No singing, no jingling. Only Scrooge would be happy with that! It is a time for music to fill the air. Part of the fun is hearing things that are only played at Christmas and at no other time of year - carols that make you think of the end of term, or the holidays or bobble hats - songs that make you think of food, or snow, or stockings. Here are some of the most popular carols, as well as some other surprises...Merry Christmas!
REVIEWS:
I have always been a great believer in the importance of presenting music of the highest possible quality regardless of the potential audience. This is done here — for the adult listener there is real interest and fascination in hearing such a wide range of choral styles.
I loved the predictably fine Lutoslawski/ Antoni Wit Polish National RSO & Choir Hurrying to Bethlehem. Again quite a different choral tone. Otto Kotilainen’s Finnish Kun Joulu on is something of a discovery beautifully performed—a lighter tone than the Polish choir but very expressive by the Finnish choir Chorus Resonus. Another virtuoso vocal group prove to be La Petite Bande de Montreal who contribute a brief but virtuosic Carol of the Bells. Jeremy Summerly’s Oxford Camerata are suitably vigorous in the Medieval Gaudete Christus est natus. As indeed is For Unto us from the Messiah from Edward Higginbottom, the Academy of Ancient Music and Oxford New College Choir. This is a delightfully sprung and sprightly version of an old favourite. Most of the carols are sung with little or no accompaniment other than the expected organ or keyboard. This makes the full orchestral version of Vaughan Williams’ Wassail Song particularly enjoyable.
So all in all a disc of palpable hits in terms of music and performance, and certainly something for the stocking of a young relative. No texts or translations are included. Well done to Naxos for producing a disc of great entertainment value but without compromising the artistic merit of it either.
-- MusicWeb International
If you’re looking for a Christmas album that the kids will like but won’t drive you up the wall, try this. It’s one of a series of Naxos CDs that try and introduce children to classical music...
Most of your favorite Christmas carols are on here, along with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Sugar Plum Fairy. For a Christmas album, it gets high praise: it’s not annoying, and only Scrooge could really find fault. It also introduces the small ones to classical playing.
"The merriest ninety minutes in the town's night life." -- The New Yorker
"There isn't a gayer, wittier or subtler cabaret show in town than 'Seven Come Eleven'... The enterprising Julius Monk has again assembled a group of six versatile performers, furnished them with material from about a dozen bright song-and-sketch writers and mounted the whole thing with fluency and verve." -- Arthur Gelb, The New York Times [10/9/1961]
Seven Come Eleven - A Gaming Gambol
With Philip Bruns, Ceil Cabot, Rex Robbins, Steve Roland, Donna Sanders, Mary Louise Wilson.
William Roy and Carl Norman at the plural pianos.
Musical and vocal arrangements by William Roy.
It all began (way back in 1956) in a dark, dank cellar, located beneath an ancient brownstone on New York City’s Sixth Avenue. It was here that Julius Monk, with a few yards of velvet and a handful of performers, presented his first subterranean sensation, Four Below. Notwithstanding some mild competition from a musical called My Fair Lady and an occasional attack of bends, Four Below romped happily through a six-month run. It was followed, quite naturally, by The Son of Four Below (1956) and, in time, Take Five (1957), the latter fondly recalled as a classic nightclub entertainment.
By 1958, The Downstairs Room was firmly established as a favorite late-night spot for New Yorkers on the town. But the tranquility at 51st Street and Sixth Avenue was disturbed by the ominous approach of demolition squads, which looked jealously at a street corner that they hadn’t yet battered down. It was not long before Julius and his companions were homeless, as The Downstairs Room was politely removed in the name of architectural progress. Vagrants for but a trice, they moved to West 56th Street, where they took up permanent residence in a congenial mansion formerly owned by John Wanamaker. There, Take Five took its second wind and was later followed by Demi-Dozen (1958), Pieces of Eight (1959), Dressed to the Nines (1960) and now Seven Come Eleven, which opened to rave notices on October 5, 1961. Dorothy Kilgallen expressed the attitude of the critics by referring to Seven Come Eleven as “the wittiest cafe show in town.”
Aware that there still may be one or two people who have not yet seen a Julius Monk opus, we offer the following description. It is New York at night. Taxicabs wind perilously in and out of traffic, along glittering, noisy avenues. Soon they drive up an attractive, quiet side street, lined with shops in remodeled town houses and stop in front of a canopied entrance that announces “Upstairs at the Downstairs.” A uniformed doorman greets the couples arriving from Broadway shows or late dinners and ushers them inside to join a crowd waiting to ascend the circular marble staircase leading to the Upstairs Room, where the show is about to go on.
The Upstairs Room, formerly the sitting room of the mansion, is lined with rich, red fabric and softly lighted by glowing globes from the last century. Visitors are seated at little tables, and soon the lights dim. Suddenly, a half dozen bright, young Thespians leap onto the tiny stage at one end of the room. Accompanied by twin pianos, they spend the next hour and a half singing songs and performing sketches which touch upon just about every event in the newspapers, every phobia in the textbooks, and every celebrity in the history of the world. Seven Come Eleven, for example, contains hilarious spoofs on the John Birch Society, the Peace Corps, sick comedians, Cuban highjacking of airplanes and other topics close to the hearts of New Yorkers: school scandals and the construction of a new hotel designed in typical Miami Beach fashion. If all this sounds terribly, terribly sophisticated, it should be pointed out at once that the performers in this show come from such remote spots as Pipestone, Minnesota; Pierre, South Dakota; Eldred, Pennsylvania, and Greenville, Texas.
Giuseppe Verdi: La traviata: E strano! … Ah, fors e lui … Sempre libera / De’ miei bollenti spiriti / Di Provenza il mar, il suol Rigoletto: Questa o quella / Caro nome che il mio cor / La donna e mobile Don Carlo: Io la vidi e al suo sorriso / O don fatale Aida: Celeste Aida / Numi, pietà del mio soffrir! Il trovatore: Stride la vampa! / Ah! sì, ben mio … Di quella pira I vespri siciliani: Mercé, dilette amiche Un ballo in maschera: Ma se m’è forza perderti La forza del destino: Pace, pace mio Dio! / O tu che in seno agli angeli Otello: Piangea cantando nell’erma landa / Ave Maria, piena di grazia / Niun mi tema
featuring Nino Machaidze, soprano Daniela Dessì, soprano Dimitra Theodossiou, soprano Marcelo Álvarez, tenor Francesco Meli, tenor Leo Nucci, baritone
Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1 Region code: 0 (worldwide) Subtitles: Italian, English Running time: 110 mins No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)
Giuseppe Verdi: La traviata: E strano! … Ah, fors e lui … Sempre libera / De’ miei bollenti spiriti / Di Provenza il mar, il suol Rigoletto: Questa o quella / Caro nome che il mio cor / La donna e mobile Don Carlo: Io la vidi e al suo sorriso / O don fatale Aida: Celeste Aida / Numi, pietà del mio soffrir! Il trovatore: Stride la vampa! / Ah! sì, ben mio … Di quella pira I vespri siciliani: Mercé, dilette amiche Un ballo in maschera: Ma se m’è forza perderti La forza del destino: Pace, pace mio Dio! / O tu che in seno agli angeli Otello: Piangea cantando nell’erma landa / Ave Maria, piena di grazia / Niun mi tema
featuring Nino Machaidze, soprano Daniela Dessì, soprano Dimitra Theodossiou, soprano Marcelo Álvarez, tenor Francesco Meli, tenor Leo Nucci, baritone
Picture format: 1080i High Definition Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Region code: 0 (worldwide) Subtitles: Italian, English Running time: 110 mins No. of Discs: 1
Fantasia / Anne Akiko Meyers, Jarvi, Philharmonia Orchestra
Avie Records
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Oct 06, 2017
"A simply outstanding CD." - The Whole Note
Superstar violinist Anne Akiko Meyers is one of today’s most in-demand classical performers. Beloved by audiences around the world, with a reputation for groundbreaking recital programs and important commissions, Fantasia marks her 35th studio album and is one of her most important projects to date. Meyers has been Billboard’s Top Selling Classical Instrumentalist of the year and has had numerous albums reach the Number 1 spot on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Chart. Her latest album captures the rare combination of incredible virtuosity and poetic color with iconic works by Ravel, Einojuhani Rautavaara’s last major work, written for Meyers, and Karol Szymanowski’s sensuous Violin Concerto No. 1. The title track, Fantasia is legendary Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara’s premiere posthumous recording and last major work for violin and orchestra. Ms. Meyers traveled to Finland and worked with the composer on it shortly before he died. Karol Szymanowski’s sensuous Violin Concerto No. 1, dedicated to Polish virtuoso violinist, Paul Kochanski, is a dazzling display of exotic melodies, and Ravel’s iconic Tzigane is a virtuoso showpiece that conjures Hungarian gypsy music, and premiered almost a century ago.
REVIEW:
Meyers also seduces the senses in Ravel’s Tzigane, emphasising the magical essence of its blazing inspiration without the slightest whiff of empty, showpiece bravado. Yet the star item here is Rautavaara’s Fantasia (2015), one of his last works and composed especially for Meyers, who soars aloft with its tender cantabile, shaping its shimmering melodic lines with a profound sensitivity that exerts irresistible pressure on the tear ducts.
The flourishing culture of the classical guitar in Japan is further revealed in the third volume of this admired series. The expressive nature of music for guitar and for the harmonica often represents the principles of Ma – the idea of space and time. Takemitsu’s contemporary arrangements of popular songs, where virtuosity fuses with flexible spirituality, are of extraordinary originality whilst melodic inventiveness is the hallmark of Hikaru Hayashi’s varied pieces. There are also examples from film scores and explorations of sound qualities, such as Yoshimatsu’s intensely evocative and masterful Forgetful Angel II.
![Best Of Verdi - Arias [blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/2794978.jpg?v=1786841689&width=800)
![Best Of Verdi - Arias [blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/2794978.jpg?v=1786841689&width=400)
