Playing piano four-hands was both vital in the dissemination of music in the nineteenth century and also a popular domestic activity. The original 1853 Parisian Erard piano on which this recording was made demonstrates the clarity, warmth and differentiated timbres characteristic of the ‘straight stringing’ that was later replaced by the ‘cross-stringing’ of the modern concert grand. The repertoire from the period covers the many genres of four-hand piano works in their varied roles as domestic ‘info-entertainment’: orchestral works large and small, serious sonatas and variations, showpieces for emerging virtuosi and even a string quartet are all equally engaging in this once-familiar medium.

4 Piano Sonatas

Frederic Rzewski is most celebrated for his virtuosic variations for piano, The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (8.559360). The Four Pieces began as a sequel to that breath-taking work, but whilst sharing certain similarities – Andean dance rhythms and tremendous drama – it occupies its own very distinct sound world, offering a compound of intense lyricism, shattering darkness, and hints of revolutionary fervor. The Housewife’s Lament is a set of variations on an anon. 19th c. tune with strong influences of Beethoven. The punning title Hard Cuts refers to cuts both budgetary and musical, and Rzewski’s signature elements appear throughout: folk rhythms, pointillist clarity, minimalism, and unique craftsmanship.

Classical Music

4 RHAPSODIES from critically-acclaimed pianist Kristina Marinova and Navona Records is a collection of vibrant, dynamic, and technically demanding works for solo piano. The album’s titular piece, Four Rhapsodies op. 11 by early 20th-Century composer Ernst von Dohnanyi is rarely performed in concert given the level of musicianship it requires of pianists. Now, its combination of stark drama and dazzling virtuosic passages may be enjoyed by listeners everywhere. This impressive piece, along with works by the likes of Astor Piazzolla, Franz Liszt, and George Gershwin, makes for a varied collection of masterworks performed by the gifted hands of Kristina Marinova.

4 SCHERZOS AND OTHER WORKS FOR

Last year Kenneth Woods and the Stratford-upon-Avon based Orchestra of the Swan made musical history when they completed the first-ever recorded cycle of the Symphonies by Hans G�l. By dusting off the Austrian �migr� composer's gorgeously melodic and finely crafted scores, which remained relatively dormant throughout the 20th century, Woods has introduced a new generation to G�l's wide-ranging and extensive oeuvre. On this set, the four symphonies (each originally released alongside those of Robert Schumann), are re-mastered and presented all together for the first time, opening the door to further exploration and discovery.

4 SYMPHONIES • Thomas Dausgaard, cond; Danish Natl SO • C MAJOR 710508 (DVD: 168:00) Live: Copenhagen 2009

BRAHMS Symphony No. 1. DVO?ÁK Symphony No. 9. SIBELIUS Symphony No. 5. NIELSEN Symphony No. 3

If, as I did, you were to begin your examination of this release with disc 1, track 1 (the Brahms symphony), you might well conclude that there was little need to continue. There is something rather too cool and casual about Dausgaard’s interpretation of this powerful music. It lacks inner tension. There is not enough contrast between ideas. Accents are in the wrong places. Short notes are cheated of their value. And that’s not all. The second movement just plods on, the third is charmless, the fourth frantic and lurches from one tempo change to the next. Listening to the complete symphony several times could not induce me to alter my initial unfavorable observations. Adding visual insult to aural injury, sight and sound are not synchronized, and the difference between the two is disturbing, to put it mildly.

But then came the Nielsen symphony. What a difference! Right from the opening moments it had all the vigor and élan and determination lacking in the Brahms. Rhythms were tight and crisp. The music bristled with enthusiasm and commitment. The finale positively beamed with Elgarian nobility and breadth, rising to an absolutely thrilling climax. What a joy! Nielsen’s Third had hitherto never been one of my favorite symphonies, but Dausgaard nearly made it so in this performance.

Does Dausgaard work his magic on the two remaining works as well? The answer, I’m glad to say, is yes. Furthermore, the synchronization problem that affected the Brahms symphony is only minimal in the Nielsen and nonexistent in Dvo?ák and Sibelius. The “New World” Symphony receives one of the finest performances I have heard. Dausgaard’s approach is no romantic wallow but rather a clean, purposeful traversal filled with taut rhythms, precise attacks and releases, glowing sound, and architectural strength. Dausgaard likewise makes a strong case for the Sibelius Fifth, never allowing momentum to sag, carefully propelling the music forward with masterly control. I am particularly impressed with the ease in which he handles the tempo change for the second part of the first movement. By the time the grand climax of the finale arrives, one feels a great journey has been completed.

All four performances were recorded live in Copenhagen’s Koncerthuset in 2009. The personnel changes from symphony to symphony, but both principal horns, both principal trumpets, and both timpanists are star players. Generally the woodwinds are excellent, but violins seem a bit thin for an orchestra that is otherwise so assured and well balanced. However, the basses make up for this deficiency with their huge, rich sound, heard at its best at the quiet endings of three of the Brahms movements and in some of the more powerful moments of the Dvo?ák symphony. Aside from the basses, the orchestra plays with a bright sound, textures are clear and clean, balances are well controlled.

The camerawork is devoted about 20 percent of the time to Dausgaard and his facial contortions, 10 percent to views of the full orchestra from afar, and 70 percent to the business of jerking the viewer’s eyes from one instrumental close-up to another—two seconds of a horn player’s embouchure, a second of flute keys, two notes from the timpani, etc. Who determined that this is what we want to see? I find it annoying to the point where I simply can’t bear to watch.

On ArkivMusic the price for these four symphonies is $27 ($40 for the Blu-ray version)—just under $7 a symphony, a good buy even without the inferior Brahms symphony, especially for performances as fine as the other three.

FANFARE: Robert Markow

4 Toccatas, Aria Variata, Chro

4 WHEEL DRIVE II

With its unique combination of instruments, the Vienna Reed Quintet creates a new and refreshing sound that differs significantly from that of the conventional wind quintet. This programme opens up three very special keyboard works to these exhilarating sonorities, starting with the virtuoso dances of Rameau’s descriptively titled suite La Triomphante. Mozart’s Fantasia has all the stately grandeur of a Bach fantasia, while Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin is a tribute both to his great musical ancestor and to friends who fell during the First World War. The Vienna Reed Quintet is a first on the Austrian chamber music scene with its combination of single and double reed instruments in a chamber ensemble. With Heri Choi on oboe, Heinz-Peter Linshalm on clarinet, Alfred Reiter on saxophone, Petra Stump-Linshalm on bass clarinet and Sophie Dartigalongue on bassoon, five strong musical personalities present a fresh and unusual wind ensemble.

Born in a provincial Swedish town in 1947, Anders Eliasson started playing the trumpet at the age of 9 and soon after formed his own jazz band. In his teens he began to study classical music, however, and aged 19 he was accepted into the composition class at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. Here modernism reigned supreme, and Eliasson felt out of touch with a style that he later described as petrified and intellectualized. His own idea of music was completely different, and he went so far as to say that he did not, in point of fact, compose music but merely assisted in its birth. Eliasson first came to wider notice during the second half of the 1970s, with his Disegno per quartetto d’archi and Canto del vagabondo for boy soprano, choir and orchestra. But as he himself acknowledged, it was in the early 80s that he truly began to find his own voice, for instance with chamber works such as Notturno and Senza risposte. During the rest of Eliasson’s career, it would be compositions for large forces that attracted the greatest attention, in Sweden and abroad: from Symphony No. 1 (1986), which received the Nordic Council Music Prize, to the great oratorio Dante Anarca and Symphony No. 4, premièred by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2007. He continued writing chamber music throughout his life, however, and the Trio from 2010 was to become one of his last works. Specializing in contemporary music, the seven members of Norrbotten NEO have devised a programme that includes the first recordings of Notturno and the Trio for violin, vibraphone and piano, and at the same time offers the possibility of following a unique voice in contemporary music over the course of four decades.

Welcome to The Sixteen's 40th anniversary album. Can it really be 40 years since a fledgling group of singers gave their first concert in May 1979? To celebrate this milestone, we have chosen 40 tracks which have defined this acclaimed ensemble over the last four decades and which display it's incredible versatility, as well as the sheer range of music and styles it has covered. Featuring music from the last 600 years and with personal recommendations from The Sixteen's members both past and present, as well as the longest-serving members of the administrative team, this beautifully packaged album promises to be the must-have collection for all fans of choral music. "Forty years on, The Sixteen's supple, fastidiously nuanced soundworld continues to serve 'ancient' and 'modern' with aplomb." (BBC Music Magazine)

Two CD collection featuring the finest voices in Opera performing the most beautiful arias by the classic composers. An aria is a self-contained piece for vocals with orchestral accompaniment and this collection gathers together arias that will touch your heart and relax your soul as you are lifted by their beautiful melodies. 40 tracks including solos from Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Jennifer Lamore, William Christie, Marcello Viotti and many others. WEA. 2008.

Delos’ “strong personality” is due, above all, to the pioneering goals and philosophy of late founder Amelia S. Haygood, whose unshakable faith in the power of classical music, determination to record deserving American artists, championing of unusual repertoire, and cutting-edge recording technology forged an independent label that quickly gained a worldwide reputation for extraordinary artistry and the audiophile quality of its recordings. This 3-disc collection celebrates 40 choice tracks drawn from Delos’ catalog of over 500 orchestral, vocal and chamber/instrumental recordings.

Since composer, conductor and musicologist Alicia Terzian founded Grupos Encuentros in 1978, the six-person group has garnered international acclaim for it's success at bringing the music of avant-garde Argentinian and Latin American composers to the world. On 40 Years of Contemporary Music, the group combines compositions from such well-known Latin American composers as Heitor Villa-Lobos, Alberto Ginaslera, and Terzian herself with works by an international array of composers that ranges from Anton Weber to Luciano Berio to Franz Schreker to Pierre Boulez. Grupo Encuentros consists of mezzo soprano Marta Blanco, pianist Claudio Espetor, flutist Fabio Mazzetelli, clarinetist Matias Tchicourel, violinist Sergio Polizzi and violoncellist Carlos Nozzi. The program presented on 40 Years of Contemporary Music originally premiered at the annual Encuentros International Festival in Buenos Aires and truly highlights the brilliance of these award-winning musicians, who have earned high praise from such media outlets as the Los Angeles Times, where they were lauded as "deeply serious and challenging." Over their 40 year-long career, the group has performed at dozens of prestigious venues, including London's Royal Albert Hall and New York City's Merkin Auditorium. 40 Years of Contemporary Music transcends cultural boundaries with such selections as Villa-Lobos' Choro No. 7, which unites the sounds of Amerindian primitivism with the polkas and waltzes of suburban dance halls in Brazil. Emphasizing her status as a renowned ethnomusicologist, Terzian dedicates her composition Yagua de Uca to the Chinguano and Chanel peoples, who belong to a lost indigenous northwestern Argentinian culture. O King was composed the same year as the assassination of Martin Luther King, a tragedy which deeply affected it's Italian composer Luciano Berio. Grupo Encuentros founder Alicia Terzian has composed over 80 compositions for orchestras, orchestras with soloists, and chamber orchestras with and without soloists, musical theater, and multimedia. She travels the world giving seminars on composition and contemporary chamber music at universities and is often invited to participate on juries at international compositions.

When Capriccio started out in 1982, still producing LPs and tapes, it was the first digital Beethoven Symphony cycle with the Dresden Philharmonic and Herbert Kegel that first turned heads. Several other key projects were pivotal to the label quickly establishing a reputation as a source of quality music and performances. Foremost among them, never out of the catalogue and still loved today, are the recordings with Sandor Végh. Then, in the mid-nineties those of Sir Neville Marriner’s, who, after long being synonymous with the Philips label, recorded widely for Capriccio, both with his Academy Of St Martin in the Fields and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. Contemporaries of Mozart’s that have emerged on Capriccio include Joseph Martin Kraus, François-Joseph Gossec, and Jan Ladislav Dussek. They are performed by early music and classical period Capriccio-favorites such as Concerto Köln or the CPE Bach Chamber Orchestra. This box set features the label’s most important ensembles, orchestras, and conductors, from the classical period to the 20th century, when, in 2005, Capriccio released the first complete Shostakovich Cycle with the Gürzenich Orchestra and Dmitrji Kitajenko.

After the success of 49 Hidden Treasures and 46 More Hidden Treasures, we've switched our focus and have recorded 42 of the most beloved hymns of the church. With this recording, GIA hopes to preserve the tried-and-true treasures of the African American religious experience. Favorites like “Guide My Feet,” “How Great Thou Art,” “It Is Well with My Soul,” and “Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling” are just a few of the songs at the heart of this recording. These hymns play a deeply formative role in the shared faith and theology of the assembly. It is our hope that 42 Treasured Favorites will inspire, edify, and uplift the lives and souls of every listener.

Once again, Dr. James Abbington has combed the extensive resource that is the African American Heritage Hymnal and uncovered yet another 46 hidden treasures. Again, using the talented voices of the Morgan State University, he has produced this stirringly inspirational and joyous recording for your listening pleasure. The first recording, 49 Hidden Treasures, was extremely successful and heartily welcomed. With the success of that first recording it became apparent that a second volume would need to be produced. It is our hope that 46 More Hidden Treasures becomes as valued a resource as its predecessor!

The preserved “miraculous harp:” 475 years of orchestra history – and a whole century is there to be listened to. This CD box is an invitation to a musical journey through time with one of the world’s best orchestras! Not only that, it is one of the world’s oldest, founded in 1548 and active without a break ever since. The former Hofkapelle, the court orchestra of Saxony, now proudly bears the name Sachsische Staatskapelle Dresden. “Kapellkonzerte“ since the beginning of sound recordings under conductors like: Fritz Busch, Richard Strauss, Karl Böhm, Joseph Keilberth, Kurt Sanderling, Otmar Suitner, Herbert Blomstedt, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Bernard Haitink, Fabio Luisi, Christian Thielemann and many more

This 1997 release features Billy Harper, Carter Jefferson, Joe Ford, Dee Alexader, Ron Bridgewater and others. A lyrical bop player and cutting-edge free jazz musician, Malachi liked to call his music Freebop; a sound that simultaneously includes blues, straight ahead jazz, the funky grit of soul jazz, African roots and the dazzling extroverted technique of the modern era. 47th Street (the album) is Thompson's musical tribute to a vibrant period of black Chicago history, a period of economic vitality and cultural fluidity that made 47th Street (the actual street) the mainstream of black Chicago. (Previously deleted:4/1/11. Original release date:2/10/98)

48 Chefs-d'oeuvre D'amerique Latine 1930-1962 - "These 48 masterpieces from Latin America provide an immersion in the musical diversity of the continent that is South America. Habanera, danzn, choro, samba, tango, rumba, mambo and cha-cha-cha illustrate Latin Americas creativity in it's music, notably thanks to the richness of popular Creole music forms, and together they represent a true national identity through music.

In an effort to reveal the hidden gems contained in the African American Heritage Hymnal, James Abbington has unearthed a wealth of under-discovered hymns intended to lift the spirit and soothe the soul. This recording includes selections of gospel songs and spirituals along with modern hymns and even songs from Africa. Some of the jewels in this collection include "The Angels Keep A-Watchin'," "Hallelujah, We Sing Your Praises," "The Storm Is Passing Over," and "If You Live Right." Expertly sung by a choir of students and graduates from Morgan State University, these 49 Hidden Treasures are sure to become familiar favorites.

The title "Bach Organ Landscapes" heralds a new complete recording of Bach's organ works, to be released over the next few years. The project is planned round ten historic organ builders who played a part in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach. No other instrument merges space with sound so strongly as the organ. The more closely we study the history of music, moreover, the more we appreciate the key role of regional developments: certain organ builders and composers created instruments and composed organ works that in their totality form "organ landscapes". And so we had to travel to the world of those organists. Bach's musical contribution to organ literature cannot be overestimated. It is a resounding testimony to his roots in an equally resounding landscape, which he himself shaped through his work as an organ expert and with organ builders. With two double albums from Ansbach and Waltershausen, J�rg Halubek invites you to join him on this journey. In Waltershausen, Bach's visionary composition "Dritter Theil der Clavier �bung" is combined with Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost's Providence in organ building. Johann Christoph Wiegleb went one step further in Ansbach, whose organ from 1738 is made to sound in countless different colors by the Leipzig choral arrangements. J�rg Halubek studied church music, organ and harpsichord in Stuttgart and Freiburg with Jon Laukvik and Robert Hill. At the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, he specialized in period performance practice with Jesper Christensen and Andrea Marcon. He won first prize in the 2014 International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig in the Organ category.

On this 2010 release, four powerful American voices come together for one important cause: To support active military members and American veterans and honor their sacrifices through song. 4Troops are not only seasoned vocalists but also United States combat veterans that served on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan. The CD includes a collection of patriotic and uplifting songs designed to entertain and spread their positive message to all serving troops, veterans and American citizens who are inspired by them every day. A portion of the proceeds from the sales of 4Troops products will benefit charities that support American veterans and active military members and their families.

Giordani's activity was indeed fashionable, having success both with operas and with instrumental music. The composition of these flute concertos dates back to an unspecified period of the 18th century, but their structure is unquestionably within the golden classical principles of the sonata form, allowing us to place them temporally between 1765 and 1775. The concertos offer the listener a realistic glimpse of the flute technique of the time that would soon see the Romantic Era blossom. In this recording, the instrument used is a copy of a mid-eighteenth-century C. Palanca, with a diapason of about 420 hz.

5 CONCERTS FOR ORGAN & ORCHEST

It is quite impossible to imagine today's violin heritage without the absolute musical genius of Perlman. Daniel Barenboim. Over the past 60 years Itzhak Perlman has become established as one of the great violinists of history - a player on a level with such legendary figures as Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz and David Oistrakh. Providing a treasurable memento of his art, this is a newly assembled 5LP collection of masterworks for violin and orchestra in what have become legendary recordings. They bear witness to his collaborations with the world's greatest orchestras, and feature an array of superlative fellow soloists and conductors: Carlo Maria Giulini, Daniel Barenboim, Yo-Yo Ma and Eugene Ormandy.

Five years younger than Johann Sebastian Bach, who survived him by all of eight months, Gottfried Heinrich St�lzel was among those Central German musicians who made a name for themselves beyond their regional sphere of influence. It is no coincidence that the sacred works of Gotha's long-serving court conductor in particular have now found a suitable home in our catalogue. The passions, oratorios, and cantatas that have already been released are now joined by five pieces of Protestant sacred music in which the extensive Catholic liturgy is reduced to Kyrie and Gloria. The missae breves selected here confirm once again that their author was 'one of the most reasonable, learned and great composers' to whom Johann Mattheson rightly accorded a place of honour in his Ehrenpforte of 1740. All should know.

Vinyl LP pressing. The Guy Hamper Trio was formed by Billy Childish, after a chat with his friend James Taylor. Billy and James had played respectively in The Milkshakes and The Prisoners, often sharing the same bill in the early 80's, leading to Billy's blues ensemble The Natural Born Lovers being the support act for the early shows of The James Taylor Quartet. The Guy Hamper Trio is: Billy Childish on guitar, his wife Julie on bass and Wolf on drums - who as it happens was the drummer in the original incarnation of JTQ - and of course features James Taylor on Hammond organ. The Guy Hamper Trio provide a bottom end, Blues-influenced instrumental mayhem for those unafraid of dirt, germs and true grime. With no particular wish other than to be recognised as the best at playing badly, they refuse to obey the usual rules of combat and music. Here we have twelve fine songs of bottom end, Blues-influenced instrumental mayhem, with something bold, something new, something borrowed, something blues!