*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

BAROQUE ESPRIT - BEETHOVEN: VI

Beethoven: Fidelio performed by Arnold Schoenberg Chor and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe lead by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. 2 CD Set.

PIANO CONCERTO NO. 3 PIANO SO

This is a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording

MISSA SOLEMNIS

Gunter Wand's NDR Beethoven cycle is one of the great ones, and these performances, while not quite the best in the set, will disappoint no one. Judicious tempos, lean and clean textures, and taut rhythms characterize this "Eroica", which never wears its Classical-period orientation like a hair-shirt, leaving plenty of room for Romantic angst in the funeral march. The Finale also has unusual cogency, and it's only in the first movement where I might have wished for a bit more impulsiveness. No such reservations apply to the Eighth, however. Wand's interpretation brims with humor and benefits from his careful attention to bass lines when they get the melody (as at the first-movement recapitulation). The recording also enjoys terrific sonics. If you don't have the complete set and don't want it, you can certainly get this disc with confidence. --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

BEETHOVEN: Piano Trios Nos. 5 ("Ghost") and 6, Op. 70

Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 4 & 5

The Essential Beethoven

Jeremie Rhorer and Le Cercle de l'Harmonie launch a new collaboration with Alpha Classics, with several projects planned, following the Mozart operas released on the label in 2016 and 2017. Here they tackle a monument of the sacred repertoire that is fascinating for it's rich, complex, even 'mysterious' conception. Rhorer tells us that his interpretation pays close attention to the question of tempi, which have often become progressively slower and heavier since the post-Romantic period: the tempi have 'a direct bearing on the vocal comfort of the singers, since breath control is one of the great difficulties of this work', he says. For this recording, he has called in a quartet of top-flight soloists along with the Audi Jugendchorakademie, a remarkable German youth choir founded in 2007. In conjunction with his period-instrument orchestra, soon to celebrate it's twentieth anniversary, they offer a passionate vision of Beethoven's masterpiece.

The Heifetz Collection, Vol. 30

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music