After a successful trilogy devoted to the concertos and trios of Schumann, Freiburger Barockorchester and Pablo Heras-Casado could not ignore one of Beethoven's most unusual works: the Triple Concerto. Alongside Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Alexander Melnikov, they bring this score to life as only true chamber musicians can, revealing it's subtlest colors and balances. The trio transcription of the Second Symphony, which was supervised by the composer himself, judiciously completes this exploration of lesser-known Beethoven, in which intimacy mingles with grandeur.
Bach: Complete Cello Suites (The 2023 Sessions) / Queyras
HARMONIA MUNDI
CD
$25.61Oct 18, 2024
The fruit of a long-standing collaboration between Jean-Guihen Queyras and choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker (whose acclaimed production Mitten wir i'm Leben sind has had over 100 performances worldwide and was filmed in 4K for the enclosed Blu-ray disc), this new recording of Bach's Cello Suites arrives 17 years after his first reading that quickly set the standard. Profoundly influenced by his close connection to dance, the cellist has drawn fresh inspiration from the source. Today, he is ready to offer his latest look at the iconic cycle.
One must get past the cliche ('Vivaldi composed the same concerto 500 times') to understand the extent to which composer, instrument and genre form an indissoluble whole; and that is what Theotime Langlois de Swarte and the musicians of Le Consort have set out to do. From his early youth in Venice to his last days in Vienna, the 'red-haired priest' pushed back technical and academic boundaries, constantly creating new narrative forms: the journey of a lifetime.
From Berlin to Hamburg - C.P.E. Bach: Symphonies / Hirasaki, Kallweit, AAM Berlin
HARMONIA MUNDI
CD
$22.00$22.01Save 0%Mar 22, 2024
This new album rounds off the complete recording of the symphonies of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach that the musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin began over two decades ago. The final batch offers the quintessence of his art, revealing the full originality of Johann Sebastian's inspired son, whose freedom and inventiveness paved the way for Haydn and Mozart.
The sublime reflection of a human being faced with his own finitude and what comes afterwards, Mozart's Requiem reaches beyond the realm of music to attain universal resonance. Raphaël Pichon's interpretation of this testamentary work, nurtured by a seminal experience with stage director Romeo Castellucci and punctuated by earlier sacred pieces of Mozart, is overwhelmingly moving
Graham Ross and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge celebrate the 500th anniversary of Palestrina's birth in style, recording for the very first time an album of outstanding works by the Roman master that are still little-known. To add resonance to their program, they pair settings of the same texts by three of Palestrina's English contemporaries: William Byrd, Robert White, and William Mundy.
The sublime reflection of a human being faced with his own finitude and what comes afterwards, Mozart's Requiem reaches beyond the realm of music to attain universal resonance. Raphael Pichon's interpretation of this testamentary work, nurtured by a seminal experience with stage director Romeo Castellucci and punctuated by earlier sacred pieces of Mozart, is overwhelmingly moving.
Unanimously hailed by the critics ever since their release in 2000, these recordings offer a chance to follow Schubert's development in the field of the piano trio, from the youthful Sonatensatz (1812) to the immense masterpieces of his maturity. The Sunday Times wrote, "The Wanderers take us on an exhilarating emotional rollercoaster ride, with a wonderful sense of conversational repartee in the fast outer movements and rapt expressions of wonderment in Schubert's sublime, songful slow movements."
A precursor in this field as in so many others, Telemann gave the viola it's very first masterpieces, immediately establishing it as a solo instrument in it's own right. Alongside Sabine Fehlandt and the musicians of the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, Antoine Tamestit pays splendid tribute to this pioneering music, which blends melodic charm and contrapuntal rigor into an organic whole.
A composition as brilliant as it is protean, the Mass in B minor occupied Bach until the end of his life. The earliest sections date back to 1724, others were written in 1733 in the hope of obtaining a post in Dresden. The work, which is more ecumenical than strictly Catholic, offers a digest of his art at it's expressive peak as a world in itself. Rene Jacobs, Akademie fur Alte Musik and RIAS Kammerchor were eager to revisit it, following their acclaimed interpretations of the two Passions and the Christmas Oratorio.
Each of the eleven albums in this set of recordings was designed as an individual program, a poetic voyage through the vast corpus of Schubert's lieder. Matthias Goerne made his personal selection from the songs, in which the three great cycles sit alongside many masterpieces like Des Fischers Liebesglück, an interpretation which in itself would be enough to justify this magnificent undertaking." At his finest, here and elsewhere, Goerne touches greatness as a Schubertian." (Gramophone)
In his Piano Quartet and Quintet, Schumann revisited the frameworks inherited from Schubert and Beethoven to create astonishingly innovative structures. Their grandiose musical and emotional gestures place these works among his supreme achievements. The prestigious artists assembled here, with their extensive experience of performing Schumann's chamber music and concertos, do full justice to his imaginative world.
SCHUMANN TRILOGY. COMPLETE CONCERTOS & PIANO TRIOS
HARMONIA MUNDI
CD
$31.99Jan 26, 2024
These albums left their mark on the Schumann discography: performing the works on period instruments, the artists suddenly revealed unexpected textures and sonorities. This boxed set assembles the three discs for the first time, with a bonus Blu-ray of the three concertos and the Overture, Scherzo and Finale in concert at the Berlin Philharmonie.
Monteverdi: Vespro Della Beata Vergine / Pichon, Pygmalion
HARMONIA MUNDI
CD
$23.84Feb 16, 2024
After Stravaganza d'amore, their superb album of late sixteenth-century Florentine music, Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion returned to Italy, this time to Mantua. Here they offer us their reading of one of the peaks of sacred music from this period: Monteverdi's Vespers. Revealing like no other interpreters the poignant interiority of these pieces, they bring out to the full their inherent sense of theatre for an overwhelming experience.
2020 holiday release. It's Christmas. Graham Ross invites you to explore the highly individual conception of traditional carols offered by Twentieth Century British composers and, notably, the most eminent among them, Benjamin Britten. Arranged around his famous Ceremony of Carols is a selection of wonderful choral pieces with or without organ, each of which testifies in it's own way to the meticulous care Britten brought to these musical gems, most of them deriving from English folk tradition.
Wagner's genius is often associated with his unique feeling for orchestration. Yet the transcriptions and paraphrases for piano solo recorded here lay bare the beauty and boldness of his harmonic language, with an evocative power unrivalled at the time. Nikolai Lugansky, at once narrator and virtuoso, immerses us in a world where the heroes of legend tell us - and with what loftiness of spirit! - of the torments and aspirations of humanity.
At once poet and virtuoso, Paul Lewis has rapidly established himself as one of the leading Schubertians of his generation. This boxed set assembling the Viennese composer's major mature works for solo piano - Piano Sonatas, Wanderer Fantasie, Moments Musicaux, Impromptus and Drei Klavierstucke - is sure to become one of the milestones of the modern discography.
Haydn's relationship with the keyboard was so intimate and inspirational that it enabled him to develop ideas of the most varied character. From the whimsical to the dramatic, this highly attractive music combines mischievousness, ingenuousness, eloquence and lyricism. Haydn's wealth of contrasts is interpreted with unique grace by Paul Lewis.
