FAVOURITE HYMNS

GREGORIAN CHANT: EARLY INTERPRETERS / VARIOUS

Brooklyn Rider continues to expand their transformational approach to string quartet tradition with Seven Steps. The new album features Beethoven's opus 131, the premiere recording of a work by Slow Six front man, Christopher Tignor and Brooklyn Rider's first-ever collaborative composition, "Seven Steps." the intersection between the improvisatory spirit of "Seven Steps", the luminescent sound world of "Together Into This Unknowable Night", and the transcendent world of late Beethoven aptly represents the multi-faceted passions of Brooklyn Rider.

SONG TO REMEMBER

Much of Giovanni Gabrieli's music was composed for grand ceremonial occasions and 2015 marks not just the 400th anniversary of the publication of this collection of works from 1615, but also the 500th anniversary of the completion of King's College Chapel. The Choir celebrates these anniversaries with the first classical album ever to use Dolby's new Atmos technology, which uses ceiling-mounted speakers tp reproduce the acoustics of the Chapel with unprecedented realism. Paying homage to one of the most influential musicians of the Venetian Renaissance, Gabrieli was a prolific composer of sacred vocal and instrumental music. The Choir is joined by His Majesty's Sagbutts & Cornets playing faithful recreations o instruments from Gabrieli's time. This recording is also available in SACD and Pure Audio Blu-ray formats"

VERDI

After it's first performance in Vienna, the operetta Die Fledermaus set out to conquer the world. It is one of the few operettas which are regularly staged by the great opera houses of the world such as the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Milan Scala, The

(2-LP set) 1971 album by the legendary composer.

Double vinyl LP pressing.

A song recital new to CD from a peerless lyric soprano, coupled with classic recordings of Ravel and Verdi. In 1971 Andrew Porter wrote that Margaret Price's voice was among the things that make one 'glad to be alive'. In the 1960s she had recorded for a small Welsh label a recital of Welsh, German and Italian songs that would become signature items for her over the coming decades. Reissued in 1969 by L'Oiseau-Lyre, the album makes it to CD for the first time in this compilation. In favourites such as Schubert's Heidenroslein, Verdi's Ave maria and five Welsh folksongs, Price is on sovereign form, with a gleaming upper register and engagingly fresh phrasing. Also from the early 70s is a rare foray into contemporary music inspired by her Welsh heritage, with Alun Hoddinott's setting of a text by Emyr Humphries, Roman Dream. She recorded this for Argo along with a set of Gaelic folksongs by Phyllis Tate; these, too, are transferred to CD for the first time. More familiar delights are offered on CD2, with Deutsche Grammophon capturing her voice in full and glorious maturity in a 1987 album of Verdi songs and a recording of Ravel's opulent, oriental song-cycle Sheherezade, in which she is sensitively partnered by the London Symphony Orchestra under a long-time musical partner, Claudio Abbado; together in 1971 they had recorded the Altenberg-Lieder of Berg which fill out CD1. Thus Price sings in five languages through the course of the compilation, and shows herself a gifted word-painter in each of them: it's a comprehensive tribute to the art of a soprano esteemed by Sir Georg Solti as 'a musician's singer and a conductor's singer'.

Japanese SHM-CD pressing. Universal. 2023.

SILVESTROV: SILENT SONG

Japanese SHM-CD pressing. Universal. 2023.

VIVALDI: CANTATE PER SOPRANO

In 1781, the Zong - a British slave ship - left Ghana with twice the number it was designed to carry, bound for Jamaica. The ship's owners claimed that drinking water was running low, and ordered the crew to throw more than 130 living enslaved people overboard. Over 200 years later, Jamaica has become a place of significance for Witter-Johnson. As a young child, she often spent her six-week summer holiday visiting extended family in Jamaica, taking trips to a favorite beach on the south coast. It was here that she witnessed a terrible fatal accident at one end of the beach, yet at the other end, a baptism and celebration was taking place. Witter-Johnson explores this spectrum of events tied together by their central themes of ancestry, family and the ocean, noting that even amidst the darkness of death, there is still room for joy. Combining alternative R&B with classical, and with influences from soul, hip hop and reggae, Ayanna Witter-Johnson is the definition of an eclectic soul. Th

Japanese SHM-CD pressing. Universal. 2022.

Japanese SHM-CD pressing. Universal. 2024.

Japanese 2 x SHM-CD pressing. Universal. 2023.

The internationally acclaimed 12 Ensemble return with their third studio album Metamorphosis, recorded at the iconic Abbey Rd studios. From the divine nature of transformation to alien visions of new worlds and rebirth, the conductor-less 12 Ensemble explore Renaissance hymn reborn as futuristic prayer, ancient Japanese ritual, otherworldly operatic arias and a monumental elegy that sees the ensemble harness it's biggest forces to date. This deluxe double-vinyl package has been created in collaboration with celebrated Art Director Ben Ditto, featuring photography by Greta Ilieva. Recorded in London's Abbey Road Studio 2, this high-quality edition is pressed in France from a bespoke lacquer cut by Cicely Balston. Presented in a double gatefold package with gold-foil embossing and UV gloss to the front cover, the record includes a foreword by author Charlie Fox and liner notes by Hugh Morris. The luxury 300g cover contains two slide-out double-sided record sleeves featuring further artwork from the series, and a double-sided foldout poster on 150g fine-art paper.

Fanny Mendelssohn -"Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn" - Felix Mendelssohn's Wedding March is probably the single most popular classical composition of all time. But Felix was not the only genius in the family; meet his brilliant sister Fanny, whose unknown Easter Sonata surfaced in 1972. In "Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn," director Sheila Hayman reveals the extraordinary life of a composer long neglected by the guardians of classical music and goes on a quest to prove that this lost masterpiece attributed to Felix was actually composed by Fanny. Piano prodigy Isata Kanneh-Mason brings the beauty of Fanny's music to life in this story of a very modern woman who happened to live 200 years ago. Blu-ray/DVD set in Softpak

Japanese SHM-CD pressing. Universal. 2024.

Japanese SHM-CD pressing. Universal. 2024.

Japanese SHM-CD pressing. Universal. 2023.

TUTTO PAVAROTTI

HIMMELSMUSIK