"Letters to Bach" is a clever, original and beautiful musical project created by Noa and Gil Dor. In "Letters to Bach", Noa and Gil Dor perform 12 short instrumental pieces by Bach that Noa has written lyrics to and performs with incredible agility and brilliance, supported only by Gil's guitar. Noa and Gil have already "wowed" audiences around the world with these "McGuiver" performances of complicated Bach pieces that were not written for voice and rarely ever performed vocally. The synergy between Noa and Gil is mesmerizing, the lyrics full of humor, depth, romance, technology, political and social statements and plain fun.

A Beethoven cycle that is fun from the first to the last note! Wojciech Rajski guides us through the sheer inexhaustible wealth of ideas energetically and sensitively, humorously and dance-like, with radiant elegance. And he brings to light details that have never been heard before. Pleasure without pathos. The highly acclaimed series was created between 2005 and 2015 in Sopot (Poland) and in St. John's Church in Gdansk. It has so far been released on CD, SACD, Bluray and also LP in individual editions. But Rajski's Beethoven not only has musical qualities that go far beyond the "normal", it also sets recording standards.

TACET's Inspiring Tube Sound, for example, continues to find new enthusiastic fans. That's why the series is now being released once again, as a limited LP box set for exclusive collectors. "Half-speed" mastered, the suitable sides in the legendary "play backwards" mode (also a TACET development), 180g pressings, in a particularly high-quality presentation with gold edging, in a linen-covered box and with serial numbers (total edition of 1000) as well as signed by the producer.

Now on vinyl! The accordion is an instrument that is deeply rooted in Lithuanian folk music. Today, the accordion is also recognized as a versatile instrument of classical music, a change in perception that has largely been promoted by Martynas Levickis, one of the most internationally sought-after musicians in his field. With its lightness and melancholy, Astor Piazzolla’s music has fascinated the young accordionist from an early age, and so it goes without saying that he is dedicating himself to this exceptional composer in his anniversary year. Together with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra he recorded "Aconcagua" live in concert. For conductor Modestas Pitrenas, Piazzolla's concerto - named posthumously after the highest mountain in the Americas - "conveys the climb to the roof of the earth in all its facets and symbolism: freedom, longing, loneliness, pain, transfiguration, peace." Levickis has a long and close collaboration with the chamber orchestra "Mikroórkestra". Together they present their interpretation of "Las Cuatro Estaciones Portenas," Piazzolla's timeless masterpieces of many styles that capture in music the four seasons in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires.

There is hardly a better way to approach Ludwig van Beethoven than through his piano concertos. Beethoven’s own instrument was the piano, and in his improvisations – which made him the darling of the Viennese salons – he merged virtuosity and unbridled expression. The piano concertos give a clear idea of these performances. At the same time, they are prime examples of Beethoven’s ability to create large orchestral works with seemingly endless arcs of tension. One of the most revered artists of our time, Mitsuko Uchida is known as a peerless interpreter of the works of Mozart, Schubert, R. Schumann and Beethoven, as well for being a devotee of the piano music of Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and György Kurtág.

‘From Darkness’ sees Avishai Cohen with this dynamic trio performing original pieces of melancholy and rock. This trio toured extensively around the globe for several years, featuring pianist Nitai Hershkovits and drummer Daniel Dor. Avishai Cohen is an Israeli jazz double bassist, composer, singer, and arranger. He began playing the piano at 9 years old but changed to the bass guitar at the age of 14, inspired by bassist Jaco Pastorius. In 2002, Cohen founded his record label, Razdaz Recordz. "I've always been interested in several genres of music, including jazz, rock, pop, Latin and funk," says Cohen. "I'm always packed with ideas. I decided to start my own label because I'm involved in so many different projects." Cohen's signature sound is a blend of Middle Eastern, eastern European, and African-American musical idioms.

In 1925 France's most famous musical rebel and pioneer died in the Saint-Joseph hospital in Paris from an excess of drinking. His name: Eric Satie, a French composer and pianist, born on May 17, 1866, in Honfleur, France. The most important image that posterity has retained of Satie is that of a humorist, a whimsical composer devoted to provocation, extravagance and the absurd. He is best known for his unique and often eccentric musical style, his unconventional approach to music, incorporating elements of humor and absurdity into his compositions. He often rejected the traditional norms of classical music, leading to a more avant-garde style, which laid the groundwork for modern music and influenced many composers, including John Cage. Satie's most famous works include "Gymnopedies" and "Gnossiennes, " characterized by their simplicity, innovative harmonies, and atmospheric quality. Satie passed away in 1925. - Hakon Austbo plays Satie's Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes, bringing his unique interpretation to the composer's timeless pieces. - Recorded in May-July 1999, Remonstrantse Gemeente, Deventer, The Netherlands.

NUTCRACKER SUITE (VINYL)

An audiophile-grade LP transfer of a 2006 hit from the Brilliant Classics catalogue: stylish and exuberant accounts of some of Shostakovich's most popular orchestral music. Shostakovich's fluency in light music, and the sharp profile of his personality in an unexpected context, can still come as a shock. Yet he always sounded like himself, no less than Prokofiev or Stravinsky did, whether writing for string quartet or jazz band. And even in these suites of sly foxtrots and waltzes, a double-edged quality emerges, at once smoochy and sinister, depending as much on the mood of the listener as the intrinsic nature of the music. From 1934, the First Jazz Suite vividly brings a smoky Soviet jazz club to the mind's eye, with it's wailing solo trumpet and parody mandolin. At the same time, the distilled invention of the three brief movements sheds light on Shostakovich's early experience as a pianist accompanying silent films - capturing a scene or at atmosphere in sound almost at will. The Second Jazz Suite - also confusingly known as the First Suite for Variety Orchestra - is a later concoction by Gerard McBurney after the score of the original, composed in 1938, was lost during the war. While the Festive Overture is well known as a riotous concert-opener, it's later companion is still a rarity, at least in concert. Shostakovich wrote the Overture on Russian and Kirghiz Folk Songs in 1963, in honour of the centenary of Kirghizia's voluntary incorporation into the Russian State. As an occasional work, solemn and ceremonial, it has been overlooked alongside the Twelfth Symphony from two years earlier, but this Ukrainian recording colours it with an authentically sharp edge and steel gleam. Reviewing the Jazz Suites on their original release, Classics Today remarked that 'The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine achieves an authentic sound - lithe rather than lush - for this music and plays with excellent ensemble. Conductor Theodore Kuchar deserves credit for making the suite consistently entertaining. The listener at least gets to hear these chips from the master's workbench in friendly performances.'

This 3LP set is the reissue of the 1954 box initiated by Walter Legge, EMI's famous producer, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Diaghilev's death. The cover reproduces the original illustration purposely designed at the time by Natalia Goncharova, one of the famous set painters of the Ballets russes. The 32-page booklet, richly illustrated with historical photos, sketches of costumes, and sketches of sets, includes the notes from the 1954 edition by Igor Marketvitch. It is in English and French, and features a short excerpt of 'Le Ballet' by Boris Kochno along with work presentations by the British dance specialist Cyril W. Beaumont.

'This is a quite extraordinary achievement. Not the least of it's merits is that it leaves you loving the music as never before. The orchestra gives splendid support and the sound is warm and ingratiating.' - GRAMOPHONE

Rising star violinist Chloe Chua presents a vinyl edition of her acclaimed recording combining Chen Gang and He Zhanhao's Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto with Niccolo Paganini's First Violin Concerto, performed together with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Rodolfo Barraez and Mario Venzago. The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto was written in 1959, and inspired by a tale often called the Romeo & Juliet of ancient China. Chen and He deftly combine a Western classical idiom with elements from Chinese opera, such as grace notes and portamento effects, and the work has become one of the most famous and acclaimed pieces of Chinese classical music. This album also features an interpretation of Chen Gang's Sunshine over Tashkurgan, which adds Central-Asian maqam to the stylistic palette. The programme concludes with Paganini's First Violin Concerto, musically inspired by Rossinian bel canto. The three works share a richness of melodic invention and orchestral colours, as well as breathtaking virtuosic demands for the soloist. The solo parts are in excellent hands with Chloe Chua, who admires the steadfast love and perseverance of the Butterfly Lovers and feels fully at home in these evocative and exhilarating masterpieces. Chloe Chua and the Singapore Symphony return to Pentatone after their acclaimed recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Locatelli's Labirinto armonico (2023).

Vinyl LP pressing. Mysterious, dramatic and alluring, Luminessence comes from a peak period in the creative association between Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek, recorded in 1974, immediately after their vibrant Belonging album. Here, Jarrett creates shimmering orchestral frameworks to spur Garbarek to some of his most concentrated, impassioned and expressive playing. "The melodies that Jarrett writes sound like Garbarek improvisations, so great is the rapport between the two men," wrote Ian Carr in his Keith Jarrett biography, while DownBeat, in a 5-star review, observed that "probing deep into his own personal musical cosmos, Jarrett has brought back a chilling and singular achievement that promises to stand as a landmark in the musical landscape of the 70s". Produced by Manfred Eicher, the album that gives the Luminessence audiophile edition it's name is augmented with new liner notes providing historical context.

Double vinyl LP pressing. In 1999, the same year that Jason Moran released his debut recording Soundtrack To Human Motion, the pianist and composer also joined New Directions, a band made up of young stars from the Blue Note roster. At the core of New Directions was the genesis of a rhythm section-with Moran, bassist Tarus Mateen, and drummer Nasheet Waits-that would go on to become one of the most enduringly creative and acclaimed piano trios in jazz. The Bandwagon made their first recording as a trio with Facing Left in 2000 and has been the foundation of the majority of Moran's artistic statements since. On his 2010 album Ten, Moran celebrated the 10th anniversary of The Bandwagon with an assured album that was a snapshot of a mature band with a decade of shared musical experience from which to draw. In addition to provocative originals the album presented singular interpretations of pieces by Thelonious Monk, Jaki Byard, Leonard Bernstein, and Conlon Nancarrow. This first-time vinyl release includes the bonus track "Thelonious" previously only available in Japan.

An LP transfer for one of the best-selling items in the Brilliant Classics catalogue, pressed on audio-phile grade 140-gram 'biovinyl'. The Choir of King's College, Cambridge, is synonymous worldwide with Christmas, thanks to the annual broadcasts of it's Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. The service took form in Truro Cathedral in 1880, and spread across the Anglican communion before the Dean of King's introduced it to the College in 1918, and the BBC began to broadcast it from there in 1929. On this compilation, as at the familiar liturgy, the sequence of carols opens with a boy treble singing the first verse of Once in Royal David's City. This particular recording has a further historical significance, in that the solo was sung (in 1994) by Guy Johnston, who has since become a renowned cellist. This generous 66-minute sequence features carols old and new, familiar and less-well known, from The First Nowell and O Little Town of Bethlehem to modern classics such as John Tavener's The Lamb and Judith Weir's Illuminare Jerusalem, both of which were commissioned by King's for the annual service, but are now sung worldwide at Christmas time. The sequence is rounded off, like the service, with O Come, all ye faithful, featuring the celebrated descant and last-verse harmonisation by Stephen Cleobury's predecessor as Music Director at King's, Sir David Willcocks. The LP is manufactured at the Optimal Media plant in Hamburg, Europe's leading pressing plant for high-grade records, and pressed on 140-gram 'biovinyl'. This new substitute for the standard petroleum-derived raw material for LPs is made from recycled cooking oil and waste gases, making this record an ideal present for the environmentally conscious music-lover in your life. Other information: - Recorded in 1994: Carols from King's - An all-time Christmas favourite. - The disc features standards alongside more contemporary carol repertoire. - Superb by one of the world's leading choral groups conducted by Sir Stephen Cleobury, including some moving treble solos. The Choir of King's College in Cambridge (England) is one of the most famous choirs in the world. It was founded in the 15th century and is one of the oldest of it's kind. It was originally founded for the daily services in the college chapel, but today it can also be heard on international concert tours throughout Europe and beyond. - Also available on CD: Cat. No.: 9186 PPD: 7,50 EAN code: 5029365928626 - A beautiful re-release of one of Brilliant Classics' best-selling albums, now on Vinyl. - The Choir of King's College, Cambridge, is one of the world's best-known choral groups. Founded in the 15th century, it ranks among the oldest of it's kind, and, while originally created for singing the daily services in the college chapel, now enjoys an international tour schedule that has seen it perform all over Europe and beyond. Every Christmas Eve, millions of people tune in to watch the choir's A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's - a service which has been continuously broadcast since 1928. - Recorded in 1994, this reissue joins the group's already extensive discography of Christmas music - recordings that have enhanced it's worldwide fame and reputation. The compilation mixes some of the best-loved traditionals, including Once in royal David's city and O Come all ye faithful, with more recent repertoire - such as Rutter's rousing What Sweeter Music and Judith Weir's striking Illuminare, Jerusalem (specially commissioned by the choir for it's 1985 annual service). Also featured are traditional German, French, Dutch and Polish carols (including two settings of Dulce Jubilo)

Music friends, that’s how trumpet player Jan van Duikeren puts his relationship to drummer John Engels. Inspired by their friendship, Jan started writing tunes for John and asked him for his favorite compositions to record. Their chemistry lead to the establishment of the quartet JvD4 in 2015 and to the recording of Dear John. Even before the recording of Dear john started in June 2015, the quartet was invited to play at Tokyo Jazz festival and some other Japanese venues. Both Jan and John love Jan. Jan performs in Japan almost every year, with Candy Dulfer, Trijntje Oosterhuis or Jazzinvaders. John, who turned 80 this year, experienced one of this career highlights in Japan in 1987, when he recorded a live record with Chet Baker.