JB Dunckel is a new signing for Warner Classics, his debut project for us will be his first solo piano music album. JB Dunckel is a French musician best known for being an ex-member of the popular music duo Air, a group which sold more than 4 million albums worldwide. AIR was nominated twice at the Brit Awards, once as Best international Band and once for Best soundtrack for The Virgin Suicides. AIR had worldwide success with albums such as Moon Safari as well as the original soundtrack to the 1999 Sofia Coppola film The Virgin Suicides; several tracks on these albums have accumulated millions of streams. The very chill track: "Playground Love" from Virgin Suicides is at 70 693 904 streams on Spotify alone
Ian Bostridge and Leif Ove Andsnes have recorded many acclaimed Schubert albums together, among which was this recording of the pinnacle of the Lieder repertoire, Schubert's Winterreise. .This partnership is one of the most inspired of record-company matchmakings: the two musicians really do test and try each other at every turn, as well as being mutually supportive" The Times .[...] acuteness of colour and detail is characteristic of the performance of both artists who, more than most, highlight the mordant, ironic self-awareness that undercuts the wanderer's despair." BBC Music Magazine .It is a highly involving performance and is continually lifted by Leif Ove Andsnes's imaginative and atmospheric accompaniments. The recording is beautifully balanced, and this remains an unforgettable performance." The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music
In 1953, Nikolaus Harnoncourt founded the Concentus Musicus with colleagues from Karajan's Vienna Symphony Orchestra. His "ancient music" ensemble never pursued a revolution: "Musicology and historical instruments are not an end in themselves", says Harnoncourt, "I prefer an interpretation that is historically uninformed but musically alive." After decades playing and recording Baroque works on historical instruments, he extended his repertoire to Classic, Romantic and 20th-Century music, conducting Europe's top "modern" orchestras. "Mozart was no innovator, but his personal style has an unfathomable grandeur. Whoever plays his music with a modern orchestra must absolutely explore the original sound characteristics." This box set highlights both Harnoncourt's recordings with the Concentus' ancient instrumentarium, and his new approach with Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, always historically informed, groundbreaking, brimming with emotion.
Towards the end of Callas's career, there were many rumours that she was planning to perform Carmen on stage. This was never to be, but Carmen became her penultimate complete recording of an opera - and her only complete recording of a French opera. With Georges Pretre, one of her favoured conductors, and the ever-stylish Nicolai Gedda as her Don Jose, she captured every facet of the role. As Gramophone said when the set was first released: 'Hers is a Carmen to haunt you.'
Bruckner is one of those rare geniuses, seldom to be found in the whole of European history, whose natural destiny it is to make the supernatural real, to force the divine into the strait-jacket of our human world. Wilhelm Furtwangler "Furtwangler's Bruckner interpretations were always marked above all by the intensity of his thoroughly romantic feeling and his temperament for improvisation, and his Bruckner recordings, perhaps more than any other, provide us with an especially impressive example of his own unmistakable approach to music, which itself was inclined to be basically 'ecstatic', and the main characteristic of which was the aesthetic, voluptuous flow of feeling." Walter Abendroth - The most accomplished version of Bruckner 7th performed live in Berlin in 1949, remastered in HD from the best source available by Art et Son Studio in 2023 - Bonus: Telefunken recording from 1942 remastered in 2021 at the occasion of The Complete Wilhelm Furtwangler on Record boxed set.
Busra Kayikci on Places: Places is a continuation of my solo piano album Eskizler (Sketches), which was the result of my first compositional endeavours, studies written in early 2019. Those experiments in music reminded me of the sketches I would make in my work as an interior architect, at the start of a new project. I was profoundly influenced by the way these two disciplines - architecture and music - work with the same principles, one addressing the ear and the other the eye. It was inevitable, therefore, that I would follow an architect's process when writing music. I devised my musical templates using methods I derived from architecture. And with this new album, Places, I feel I have taken those sketches a step further. I can hear them evolving, in a way. Sometimes I'll try to construct a specific place I have in mind, one that I miss, but sometimes it's just about an emotion. There are moments in life that make me believe places are also spaces in which we take refuge, and that we find shelter in our emotions, too. Those emotions become a shield, a roof over our heads protecting our inner peace.
This 1960 Norma represents Maria Callas's final complete documented version of her signature role. Seven recordings of the opera exist with Callas (1950-60), plus numerous snippets and scenes captured between 1949 and 1965. With 89 performances, Norma is Callas's most performed part; certainly no other 20th-century diva is more closely associated with the role, and no one since has even remotely eclipsed Callas in the perception of opera lovers. Countless moments, too numerous to catalogue here, raise this Callas Norma to the level of genius. From a haunting 'Casta Diva' to a final scene of incomparable grandeur and sweep, in every startlingly brilliant detail, Callas is Norma.
Following his critically acclaimed Beethoven album, Nemanja Radulovic returns this fall with a terrific J.S. Bach album. Featuring the well-known Baderie as you have never heard it before, a brilliant transcription of la Sicilienne, Erbarme Dich, from Matthaus Passion, with Philippe Jaroussky, the Double concerto for oboe & violin BWV 1060, Concerto for violin in E Major BWV 1042,. Infused by a very personal and chamber music style approach, Nemanja's Bach sparkles. Gramophone about Beethoven: "For me, though, it's the Violin Concerto that's the prize on this disc. It's a dazzling, profoundly personal interpretation, and I'm already completely obsessed with it."
Oiseaux Tristes is the title of Fazil Say's new recital album, it follows the ongoing project Morning and Evening. Repertoire is French: Francois Couperin Pieces de clavecin, Livre 4 - Vingt-(et)-unieme Ordre (XXI) in E minor, Claude Debussy Suite bergamasque, CD, L. 75, Maurice Ravel, Miroirs, M. 43. He considers Ravel's Miroirs one of the most interesting and comprehensive works in the piano repertoire. He spent months with the piece, finding it difficult to play, but at the same time appreciates it's powerful and unusual side. Francois Couperin's Suite No. 21 in E minor was recommended to him by a friend in Istanbul who is a violinist, and Fazil subsequently adapted it for the piano.
French star trumpet player Lucienne Renaudin Vary releases Jardins d'Hiver, a relaxed and laid back winter album. Lucienne's idea for Winter Gardens was to recreate a cozy atmosphere, as if she invites her fans to a hygge home concert. Repertoire includes: Blane Ralph, Martin Hugh, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, perfect for Christmas playlisting, Antonin Dvorak: Slavonic Dance Op. 72, Johann Sebastian Bach: Badinerie. All tracks arranged for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra. Album was recorded with Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, conducted by Sascha Goetzel.
Itzhak Perlman, born in 1945, is the supreme violinist of his time. In works composed by Nicolo Paganini and Pablo de Sarasate - two virtuosi who in their own eras defined the art of the violin - Itzhak Perlman, in the recording that launched his Warner Classics catalogue, offers both dazzling brilliance and enticing lyricism.
This Tosca, made in 1953 with the forces of La Scala, is a landmark in recording history. Conducted with searing intensity by Victor de Sabata, it teams Callas with two of her closest colleagues, the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano and the baritone Tito Gobbi - a performer who could rival Callas in dramatic finesse and power. Tosca's aria 'Vissi d'arte' (I lived for art) has come to be seen as Callas's personal manifesto. / Abbey Road Studios engineers have returned to the original studio master tapes in 2014, bringing new clarity and brilliance to a classic interpretation: 'One of the great classics of the gramophone. Wonderful as Gobbi's and Di Stefano's performances are, and superbly dramatic as de Sabata's conducting is, it is the unique Callas in the title role who provides the greatest marvel. Callas is incomparable as Tosca'. (Gramophone) Triple vinyl LP pressing.
Deeply soothing choral music and plainsong, selected from throughout the Warner Classics and Erato catalogues. Carefully chosen to bring peace and warmth to even the deepest mid-winter night, this is the Christmas compilation that leaves the obvious behind, and instead explores a world of festive stillness and serenity.
Roberto Alagna is the kind of 'opera singer' who can sing for all with pleasure Such infectious That All we can do is sit back and enjoy. And are we so happy to listen to _him_ That There's only one thing we feel we shoulds say to him... thank you. Composer Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Donizetti, Gounod, Massenet, Bizet, Berlioz, Jacques Offenbach, Leonard Bernstein
David Oistrakh (1908-1974), renowned for the fullness of his tone, his unparalleled sense of legato, his warm, powerful, and deep sound, his incredible mastery of the bow, and a sonority that is immediately recognizable, is undoubtedly one of the greatest violinists of all time. His recordings have been celebrated worldwide and continue to be milestones in the discography of classical music. This double vinyl album features some of his finest recordings, including a magnificent rendition of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Andre Cluytens, a moment of pure poetry. It also includes the Kreutzer Sonata with his legendary partner Lev Oborin, and a selection of encores with Vladimir Yampolsky. The entire program benefits from a new high-definition remastering from the original tapes, ensuring that the brilliance of Oistrakh's artistry is preserved and enhanced for contemporary listeners.
Three CD set. The first things that come to mind when you think of Cuba? Cigars, colorful vintage cars... and sultry, sensual music. The three-album compilation The Sound of Cuba captures the spirit of authentic music from the island nation. The collection also features the iconic album Casa de la Trova - Santiago de Cuba's answer to Havana's Buena Vista Social Club! In 1999, Havana-born guitarist Manuel Barrueco made a tribute to his homeland with the album Cuba! Featuring such greats as Ernesto Lecuona, Hector Angulo, and Leo Brouwer, the release enjoys legendary status as a Cuban music classic. The child prodigy, pianist and bandleader Ernesto Lecuona, known as the 'South American Gershwin', created an oeuvre of more than 600 melodies, all infused with that irresistible Cuban flavor and rhythm. He takes center stage on the 1999 piano album Habanera, with Kathryn Stott interpreting his music. On this album the English pianist brings Lecuona, who died in 1963 and who had been long forgotten in the West, to a new public falling under the spell of his lively music. With music from the renowned Casa de la Trova, The Sound of Cuba box set brings the listener right to the heart of Cuban music. It was here in Santiago de Cuba with the Trova singers and guitarists that the country's vibrant music-making culture emerged. This became the root of many other Latin-American styles that spread all over the world.
