Canadian Brass playing songs from Canada... Is there anything more Canadian? To be covered by Canadian Brass means a song has to be able to transcend their lyrics and be easily recognised and enjoyable to the ear as instrumental covers. Aptly named Canadiana, the collection features songs by Shawn Mendes, k.d. lang, Joni Mitchell, Drake, Deadmau5 and of course Rush, done in true Canadian Brass style. As the most celebrated and enduring brass quintet in history, known for their skill and precision in performing both classical music and their own arrangements of modern songs, they have sold well over 2-million albums and have held Billboard chart positions in every decade of the group's existence.

Our Savings, the first LP from Chicago trio ZRL, brings together classical frameworks and sonic explorations, sliding from acoustic ambience to cacophonous clatter to quietly virtuosic displays of musical invention. ZRL recorded the album during a residency at Edgar Miller's Glasner Studio in Chicago. Like Miller, ZRL works without sketches, synthesizing a broad array of creative lineages and approaches. Together, the trio's instruments wash, crash, sprint, glide and divide, darting around and between each other, like they're playing hide-and-seek. Between "Daylight Savings" and "Remarkable Savings," Good moves between soft drones and piercing, frenetic octaval hurdles, recalling ice cream trucks and baseball cards in bicycle spokes. Meanwhile, "Our Savings" conjures Arthur Russell's Tower of Meaning presented by an outer space ensemble; as Packard's electronics collide with his bandmates' chordal drones, Kohl's bowing quickens and disintegrates, like a rocket on reentry." "1. Daylight Savings 2. Remarkable Savings 3. Our Savings 4. Hardly Slept 5. ATM 6. Butterish 7. Recent Ornithology 8. Telling The Difference Between Us

The funeral of Louis XIV mirrored his reign: grandiose and filled with pathos. For this video, Raphaël Pichon has chosen the setting of the Chapelle Royale in Versailles, built for the Sun King, to present a musical reconstruction of the event, with chiaroscuro lighting designs by Bertrand Couderc. Solemn motets like the De profundis and Dies irae of Michel-Richard de Lalande and the poignant Marche funèbre pour le Convoy d Roy by André Danican Philidor are juxtaposed with rarely heard music by Jean Colin, Louis Chein and Charles d'Helfer. This outstanding performance by Pygmalion was filmed on the occasion of the tercentenary of the event in November 2015.

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REVIEW:

The tercentenary of the Sun King's exequies was a perfect opportunity for a commemorative concert filmed at Chapelle Royale in Versailles. In numerous ways, this is not a reconstruction but instead a quasi-liturgical presentation that places two magnificent grands motets by Lalande among plenty of plainchant.

This conjectural fantasy affords creative license for Pygmalion and Raphael Pichon to create a beguilingly musical experience. The elegantly sensual orchestral playing and choral singing are sensational from start to finish. Five soloists sing with impeccable gracefulness and fluency.

– Gramophone

Chopin: Preludes; Impromptus by Composer: Frdric Chopin (1810 1849) Artist: Arrau, Claudio [Piano] When this reissue of Claudio Arrau's 1973 recording of Chopin's preludes was released by Philips, it was the third reissue of that particular recording released that year. PentaTone, the astoundingly clean Dutch label, had released a disc coupling Arrau's 1973 recording of Chopin's preludes with his 1974 recording of Schumann's Papillons, and Philips, the great Dutch label itself, had released an eight-disc set of all Arrau's postwar Chopin recording for them. Of course, Arrau's preludes are uniformly ineffably beautiful, perhaps a little slow sometimes, but with such effortless technique, such tonal opulence, and such poetic soulfulness that it only serves to grant the listener more time to contemplate the heights and depths. The sound from all three issues presents different aspects of recorded perfection: the PentaTone may be somewhat clearer, but all three incarnate in their zillions of zeros and ones in breathtakingly real representations of a real piano in a real room in real time.

THE Eye of Time is the Solo-Project of the French musician Marc Euvrie. Euvrie's musical development is deeply connected with the French diy scene though he has been classically trained as well. Acoustic II is Marc's sixth album and the second one only based on Piano & Cello works. Marc about the development of the album: "Playing Piano and Cello has become more important to me in the last years. After Acoustic (2014) I felt a need to do more acoustic songs. In the mean time, a dream came true. In summer 2018 I travelled across Europe with an acoustic upright piano and a cello to play outdoor shows in natural areas. The audience and feedbacks were so wonderful and gave me the energy to compose more songs. The recording finally happened at the Library of Cherbourg, where I grew up, with a very high quality grand piano." A 1. Not from this world 2:34 2. To heal a shape-shifted mind 3:29 3. Itself 4:38 4. A lost song 4:55 B 5. On perd sa vie a chercher sa place 6:13 6. Un volcan qui pousse les os 6:43 7. de l'incapacite de dire au revoir aux belles choses 5:42 C 8. Behind the unknown is where magic is 4:47 9. Eternal conflicts 4:32 10. La resilience se trouve a l'Est 5:30 11. Hope is by nature 4:35 D 12. L'eternite se cache dans un jardin au fond du mois d'aout 4:54 13. Today is the journey 8:26 14. Toucher le temps du bout des doigts 5:00

Featuring some of the most beautiful melodies of all time, played on one of the most popular instruments of all time by masters including Julian Bream, Andres Segovia and John Williams, this is a no-risk collection. The latest volume in the Billboard best-selling "Essential" series is full of gorgeous, romantic music.

Palestrina: Lamentations - Cinquecento - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was perhaps the preeminent composer of the sixteenth century. His settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah would have been integral to the liturgical rites of Holy Week. On this release, Cinquecento offer performances that bring out every nuance of this emotionally powerful music.

Two substantial Mass settings from Jacob Regnart, sound as though might have written them specifically for the glorious voices of Cinquecento. This is a welcome contribution to the restoration of an important, but still under-appreciated, figure.

More than 2 *1/2* hours of piano masterpieces in one low-priced, 2-CD set: nocturnes, mazurkas, polonaises and waltzes by Chopin; Liszt's Liebestraum No. 3 and Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 ; Beethoven's Fur Elise and Adagio from Moonlight Sonata ; preludes by Rachmaninoff, plus Brahms, Debussy, Gershwin and more, played by Barenboim, Arrau, Brendel and many other masters!

2018 release. Warner Classics and Askonas Holt are proud to announce the signing of 20-year old Americanpianist, Eric Lu, winner and Dame Fanny Waterman Gold Medallist at the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition 2018. As part of this year's coveted prize the winner receives worldwide management with Askonas Holt - one of the world's leading arts management agencies, and an international album release on Warner Classics - one of the foremost global classical music recording companies. This is the first time a record label and a management agency partner with 'The Leeds' to createa ground-breaking portfolio prize designed with long-term career development in mind. The recording deal is a corner-stone of it's new prize package, designed to redefine what a music competition can offer young performers. Both, Warner Classics and Askonas Holt, aim to ensure that the winner has the opportunities, support and advice to develop a significant long-term international career.

Anna Netrebko -"Amata dalle tenebre" - Anna Netrebko's visual album is based on four arias from her latest recordings. Filmed mainly at Teatro alla Scala in Milan right after the album recording, it explores Anna's performative practices to embody different heroines and their stories. Framed by a genuine interview where Anna shares rare insights about herself and the music, the work follows the four arias as they are translated to screen, each with a unique visual language and style. Verve Label Group; Deutsche Grammophon; Classical CD/BR.

Bach’s six violin sonatas are remarkable not only because of their musical richness, but also due to their innovative scoring. Based on the Baroque trio sonata form, they transcend its conventions, representing a prototype for the violin-piano sonata form of the Classical and Romantic periods. These sonatas collectively explore the many possibilities of what was then a unique instrumental combination. They present a nuanced and vibrant dialog between the performers – attributes that are conveyed perfectly by the stellar combination of violinist Isabelle Faust and harpsichordist Kristian Bezuidenhout.

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REVIEW:

Faust and Bezuidenhout played these sonatas a lot in concert before taking them into the studio and it shows – both in the detail and the trust that allows for real risk-taking. Can I find fault with this set? No, I cannot. It’s an eloquent and beautifully recorded homage to the composer and demands to be in the collection of all Bach lovers post-haste.

– Gramophone