Classical Music

Vikingur Olafsson / FROM AFAR - From Afar is a new album full of beautiful arrangements recorded on two pianos with the repertoire mirrored on both grand piano & upright piano. Inspired by a meeting with the iconic Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurt g, this album is a musical response with music from: Kurt g, J. S. Bach, Brahms, W. A. Mozart, AdSs*, Schumann, Birgisson, Kaldal¢ns. With beautifully evocative titles & forgotten melodies, V¡kingur creates a thread of stories within a bigger structure: nature, home, childhood, family.

2022 release. The most unforgettable songs from Disney's iconic films reimagined by the greatest living pianist, Lang Lang's The Disney Book tells the story of a century of magical, joyous entertainment for all. Join him on an uplifting, virtuosic journey to experience beloved songs from Disney films with collaborators from across the globe, including Andrea Bocelli, Sebastian Yatra, and Jon Batiste, performing hits from Snow White, Encanto, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio and many more.

Classical Music

Classical Music

movement-by-movement comparison makes it clear that... The Borodins win hands down... their internal balance at every point is irreproachable (Gramophone)

Quatuor Ebene welcomes a favourite colleague, viola player Antoine Tamestit, for two of Mozart's six string quintets - No 3 in C major, K 515 and No 4 in G minor, K 516. Their last joint album, 'Round Midnight, won a 2022 Gramophone Award for it's thrilling exploration of diverse strands of 20th century music. .When a fifth member joins the ensemble it is always cause for celebration," explains Pierre Colombet, first violinist of Quatuor Ebene,.especially if it's an additional viola to bring further roundness and warmth to the middle voices: the sound grows in substance and vibrancy - the quartet gains a marvellous complement. And a musician like Antoine always brings new ideas and wisdom to refresh or expand our vision of a work." Colombet describes K 515 as.radiant and energetic, exuding elegance and grace," a work in the life-affirming vein of Die Zauberflote, while K 516 offers.perfection in it's counterpoint and the dialogue between the five instruments... already Romantic in spirit, tragic and sometimes sceptical. We all see it as a peak of achievement in chamber music."

.. this young musketeer of the bow has been captivating all of his audiences. He is the rising star of the French cello. -LE FIGARO Recorded with Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester and conducted by Michael Sanderling, Edgar's new album features a key piece in the cello repertoire: Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations. The short pieces with piano, here played with the brilliant David Kadouch, give opportunities to release multiple tracks on DSP's and multiply chances to get playlisted. Telerama wrote about the artists: "Both known as outstanding soloists, David Kadouch and Edgar Moreau also form a close-knit, well-balanced chamber duo, playing with passion and commitment.". Moreau was awarded at the Victoires de la Musique Classique in 2013 and 2015, and was named an ECHO Rising Star in 2017. He has been a Cello Professor at the Paris Conservatoire National Superieur since fall 2023. He plays on a David Tecchler cello from 1711.

This set assembles for the first time the Beethoven legacy of the Trio Wanderer. The group's superb interpretation of the Triple Concerto is now presented alongside it's masterly recording of the composer's complete original works for piano trio, a genre inherited from Haydn and Mozart in which Beethoven opened out new horizon.

Akademie Fur Alte Musik Berlin - Mozart: Gran Partita - The great art of musical entertainment When Mozart takes over the popular genre of serenade, it is to transcend it and give it it's nobility. A festive masterpiece of simplicity and emotion, his Gran Partita quickly became a hit! Thanks to the sliced and captivating colours of their period instruments, the members of the Akademie f-r Alte Musik Berlin give full flavour to these two extraordinary serenades, where a tremendous wind of freedom blows. 2021 release.

RIHM / DUSAPIN / MANTOVANI: THREE MODERN CONCERTOS

Angela Hewitt's new album is clearly destined to become a favorite. It features some of the best-known musical declarations of love across the centuries, heard in transcriptions by some of the great pianists (including Angela herself).

Goldberg Variations

Classical Music

Die Kunst der Fuge

Orgelb…hlein

San Francisco Chronicle: Parisot, the brilliant Brazilian cellist, knew Villa-Lobos, and premiered several of his works. (Villa-Lobos' Second Cello Concerto is dedicated to Parisot.) Parisot has the advantage of a mass of cellos - 20 or so - all from the Yale Music department, and hence, his students. (The jacket lists 34 names.) And what a sound they make - organ-like in resonance and sensational in intonation. Add to this the fact that he has the dulcet voice of soprano Auger for the famous fifth Bachianas, plus Delos' brilliantly lively sonics, and you have a very major release. Highly recommended. Opus: This is a most unusual and enjoyable release. First of all, at long last, recordings of Villa-Lobos' Bachiana brasileiras Nos. 1 and 5 that really do justice to these irresistible scores. Here the works are played by the sort of ensemble Villa-Lobos had in mind: not the usual eight cellos, but an 'orchestra of violoncellos' - the Yale Cellos, twenty in member, conducted by their mentor Aldo Parisot. The gain in tonal richness is immeasurable. And what tremendous vigor and elan they display! I don't mean to imply any degree of roughness or vehemence, however, for this is some of the suavest playing imaginable by such an ensemble. Rather, the rhythms, inflections, and articulations are executed in such an inimitably idiomatic manner as to simply sweep the listener along. In the haunting Aria ('Cantilena') of No. 5, Arleen Auger enters as if another instrument, a soprano cello perhaps. As much as I enjoyed Hendricks' performance, Auger gives the most exquisite rendition I've heard since Bidu Sayao (who recorded only this movement). The aria's central section is treated more expansively than usual, but with a wonderfully apt sensitivity. Auger and the cellists deliver the concluding Dansa ('Martelo') brilliantly, not so fast as to turn it into a meaningless display piece, but at a tempo that allows the infectious dance rhythms to tell. WG, High Performance Review: This recording is an interesting novelty: an orchestra made up entirely of violoncelli! The Villa-Lobos works are placed first and last, in between are arrangements of various compositions by J.S. Bach, including the much arranged 'Chaconne in D-Minor' for solo violin. Aldo Parisot and his student cellists give wonderfully rich, vital and colorful performances. In the famous 'Bachiana Brasileiras No. 5,' we're fortunate to have Arleen Auger. Everything this splendid American soprano does is touched with her intelligence and the beauty of her voice. The Bach pieces are all well-played, and the sound of massed 'celli, at least under Parisot's direction, is not at all as dark, opaque or lush as one might expect. There's light, almost transparent, yet rich, sound, and throughout the compact disc, it is music that's given to us, not a slick demonstration of novel sound.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Bach: Motets, BWV 225-230

Bach: Clavierübung III, Vol. 2

Classical Music

My enthusiasm for Volume 1 in the Bach Collegium Japan's cycle of Bach's cantatas continues here in a program that includes a work (BWV 131) based on conductor Masaaki Suzuki's favorite psalm, number 130. (In the notes to the first volume Suzuki candidly declares how important his Christian convictions are to his interpretations, and describes his relationship to Bach as "fellows in faith"). Though thematically based on the depths and multitudes of sin, Bach's settings here are not entirely solemn--nor are Suzuki's spirited renderings. The opening selection, Gott ist mein König, begins with a striking choral "Gott!" followed by enough resounding brass and percussion to simultaneously excite the layman and instill joyous consolation among the faithful. Bass Peter Kooy's more somber though equally compelling fourth-movement aria "Tag und Nacht ist dein" couldn't be more lovely; as the singer muses over God's omniscient reach, he's partnered by a lingering melody that anticipates the composer's famous Sinfonia in C. Likewise countertenor Yoshikazu Mera shines in his brief aria "Durch mächtige Kraft", accompanied only by a trio of trumpet, organ, and timpani.


Arguably one of Bach's most angst-ridden cantatas, Aus der Tiefe rufe ich Herr, zu dir gets a reading that equals if not surpasses Günther Ramin's legendary 1952 account (a statement heretofore unimaginable). Though nearly as dramatically slow in tempo as Ramin, Suzuki often subtly mutes the choir, which heightens the overall impression of humility, misery, despair, and lifelong repentance. Also unlike Ramin, who unfortunately had only less-than-accurate editions at his disposal, Suzuki includes an additional soprano (Midori Suzuki) whose sublime laments beautifully complement Kooy's second-movement aria.


From Bach's so-called "Mühlhausen period" (where he held the post of organist at Mühlhausen's Church of St. Blasius) his Actus Tragicus funeral cantata (Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit) remains his most popular and oft-recorded work. While long-standing favorite recordings include such diverse readings as Karl Richter's grand Munich Bach Orchestra modern-instrument performance and the Collegium Aureum's much more intimate original-instrument account, Suzuki again successfully combines the best of both approaches. The famed opening instrumental sonatina couldn't be more graceful and appropriately suggestive of another world. As well, tenor Gerd Türk and countertenor Yoshikazu Mera deliver exceptionally lovely performances, particularly in the third-movement choral. This Actus Tragicus surely is one of the best, if not the best currently available (both of the recordings mentioned above are scarce imports). BIS again complements Suzuki's achievement with state-of-the-art sonics and engaging and informative booklet notes by Suzuki and Tadashi Isoyama. Highly recommended. [3/5/2003]
--John Greene, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by Anton von Webern. Ensemble: Leipzig String Quartet.

BACH, J.C.: Sinfonias, Vol. 1

Classical Music