2009 2X CD remaster. Enchanting, full of pathos and with it's serpentine waltzes & nightmarishly urgent clock sometimes unnerving, Prokofiev's Cinderella conjures up the enticing, ambiguous world of fairy tales. First performed in Moscow in 19745, the ballet was an immediate triumph. The debut of Raymonda, set at the time of the Crusades, took place nearly 50 years earlier in St. Petersburg. Glazunov's colorful score incorporates elements from Hungary, Spain and the Middle East.
EMI Classics is proud to release a 2-CD album chronicling the best so far from acclaimed crossover boy choir Libera, including all the hits from their previous albums, as well as three brand new tracks and two tracks previously unavailable on CD! The band has established a dedicated U.S. fan base following appearances at the 2007 Kennedy Center Awards and the 2008 Papal Mass in New York, as well as their first U.S. tour in the Spring of 08. This album is the perfect introduction for people looking to learn what the buzz on this exciting group is all about!
'Mozart - it's always been Mozart. There are endless composers whom I admire, but I couldn't get along without Mozart.' If Andre Previn's name is often identified with large-scale works of the 19th and 20th centuries, Mozart remained close to his heart. Partnered by the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he was principal conductor from 1968-1979, he is soloist in the moody 'Piano Concerto 20, K466', a work much admired by the young Beethoven. In the more consistently sunny 'Concerto for Two Pianos, K365', Previn and the LSO are joined by Radu Lupu - an interpreter of proverbial refinement.
Deluxe 70 CD box set including each individual release (complete opera or recital CD) presented in it's original artwork, 136 pages hardback book containing essays, a biography and chronology, rarely-seen photos and also reproductions of revealing correspondence between Maria Callas, Walter Legge and other EMI executives. Librettos and texts are included on a CD-ROM, and individual albums carry new notes on the specific recording.
The exploration of Beethoven's piano works still continues to astonish me," wrote the Viennese pianist Rudolf Buchbinder in 2014, introducing his book Mein Beethoven: Leben mit dem Meister. "Even pieces that I have performed hundreds of times never lose their freshness to me." Buchbinder recorded this collection of Beethoven's complete works for solo piano - which includes a number of rarities - between 1973 and 1981. At it's heart, of course, are the sonatas. As Buchbinder has said: "There are, I believe, no more personal statements of a human being than those we find in these 32 piano sonatas, which are also the crowning glory of Beethoven's oeuvre.
Mr Hadelich increasingly seems to be one of the outstanding violinists of his generation, wrote the New York Times after Augustin Hadelich played Dvorak's Violin Concerto under Czech-born Jakub Hrusa's baton in 2017. Hadelich and Hrusa have now recorded the concerto with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Bohemian Tales pairs the concerto with works for violin and piano by Dvorak and two other major Czech composers of the late 19th/early 20th centuries, Leos Janacek and Josef Suk. The pianist is Charles Owen.
2014 Maria Callas re-mastered series reissue. With this Abbey Road 24-bit 96kHz re-master, engineers returned to the original master tapes, bringing new clarity & brilliance to her legendary studio recordings. As she demonstrated in both Il barbiere di Siviglia and Il turco in Italia, Callas, the great tragedienne, could also turn her skills to comedy. As it happened, the 1956 La Scala production of Rossini's most popular opera did not prove a great success with audiences, but it's stars - Callas, Tito Gobbi and Luigi Alva - reassembled in London the following year for this recording. Callas sang the role of Rosina at it's original mezzo-soprano pitch and her version of 'Una voce poco fa' - punctuated by an unforgettable 'ma' ('but') in the cabaletta - is a miracle of both elegance and wit.
Rudolf Kempe's recordings of Richard Strauss have long been prized for their unparalleled clarity and subtlety in music that has come to define the late-romantic temperament and it's expression of highly strung emotions. Strauss loves the complex textures that Kempe and the Staatskapelle Dresden clarify with the utmost skill and symphony.
50 Best Relaxing Piano [3 CDs] The great advantage of all Warner Classics compilations is that the collections are carefully compiled from original recordings of truly top performers in great technical quality. This clearly distinguishes them from the various anonymous "selections" of classical music that are available on the market and which, at a low price, also offer the corresponding low quality of the artists and technical processing. Whoever listens to piano music more often or regularly, certainly knows names like Helene Grimaud, Maria-Joe Pires, Jean-Philippe Collard or Mikhail Pletnev, and knows that they are the guarantee of the highest interpretation quality. The "50 Best Relaxing Piano" collection brings a cross-section of the most famous pieces from Baroque to Classicism, Romanticism to the 20th Century, but the main focus of the recording is mainly in the slow piano compositions of 19th century romantic composers, as well as the overall relaxing tuning of the compilation.
