For his second recital harpist Sivan Magen performs some of the greatest French masterpieces written for harp at the turn of the last two centuries, by Fauré, Caplet, Tournier, and others. Praised by the press as ‘a magician’ (New York’s WQXR), whose ‘virtuoso playing conjures astonishing color and dynamic range’ (The Daily Telegraph), Sivan Magen is the only Israeli to have ever won the prestigious Int’l Harp Contest in Israel. Sivan Magen’s Britten recital was listed in the New York Times’ ‘Best Recordings of 2012’, whilst his Linn debut ‘Fantasian’ was awarded five stars by BBC Music Magazine.

Includes work(s) for guitar by various composers. Soloist: Alejandro Saladin Cote.

Classical Music

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 14, 23, 24 & 26

Bach: Lute Suites, Vol. 1

In the 3rd volume of the overview of Viktor Stepanovych Kosenko's (1896-1938) piano music, Natalya Shkoda continues in her mission to unveil the music of this Ukrainian pianist and composer with Eleven Etudes for Piano, Op. 8 and Twenty-Four Children's Pieces, both receiving their premiere recordings. Gramaphone magazine has said of this series: "Bravo to Shkoda for putting her accomplished playing at the service of this music".

Stephen Beus made his professional debut after wining the Julliard School Concerto Competition playing Prokofiev Concerto No. 3. He has performed with ensembles such as the Gulbenkian Symphony, Oxford Philomusica, the Tivoli Symphony, the Northwest Sinfonietta and many others. This release showcases some of Beus's favorite pieces and is his third recording with Centaur records.

The solo piano music of Ives represents an extraordinary achievement. Experimental is a word often associated with it. But experimental in what sense? Certainly he was exploring a wholly unique and personal style. Ives' music is by turns, exploratory, powerful, sensitive and transcendental always wholly consistent within it's own, sometimes highly unusual terms. These qualities are there in abundance in his two crowning achievements the first and second sonatas. The studies and others orbit round these like planets to twin suns. VOTED GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE TOP CHOICE 2012 (for the Concord Sonata)

Emsley's music relates to time and timelessness. To Kantian philosophy to conceptual thought to nominal reality. In simpler terms, music itself can transcend time, being the universal language of Pythagoras and modern science - the Divine Art. Played by Topologies, one of the UK's foremost contemporary music ensembles, and featuring Ian Pace on solo piano tracks.

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

Peter Tchaikovsky composed one of the most popular piano concertos in the repertory, but in solo recital programmes his name is rarely seen. Although little known, his solo piano music can nevertheless be surprisingly rewarding. It includes two large-scale sonatas, a youthful work in C-Sharp Minor, and the Grand Sonata in G major recorded here and a large number of mainly short pieces published either singly or as collections throughout the composer's life. This type of work was profitable for composer and publishers, and an indication of the relative commercial value comes from a letter in which Tchaikovsky offers his publisher the Grand Sonata for only 50 roubles, but asks 240 roubles for the twenty-four little pieces of his Children’s Album, Op. 39. A work of big, public gestures, the sonata is anything but childish and to a large extent Tchaikovsky keeps the lyrical ideas that came so naturally to him firmly under control.

In contrast, lyricism was given free rein two years earlier, in the twelve pieces that make up The Seasons. They were the result of a commission for a series of piano pieces to appear in a monthly St Petersburg journal. Some ten years after the serial publication in the journal the pieces appeared in print as a collection which has become Tchaikovsky’s best-known solo piano music. As with much of his work in this genre, the ultimate model is Schumann: January, for example, combines hints of Schumannesque Innigkeit with Tatiana’s music in Eugene Onegin. With the present recording Freddy Kempf, who made his acclaimed début recording with Schumann's Carnaval and has gone on to demonstrate his versatility in programmes taking in Bach as well as Liszt and Stravinsky, now adds Tchaikovsky to his discography.

Anders Miolin here expresses the universality of Christmas by selecting festive songs from across the world and creating fantasies on them.

Here he uses songs from Russia and Poland, as well as Scotland, Mexico and his native Sweden. In his adaptations he employs a wide variety of styles.

He also includes two of his own compositions: Azure Christmas is a memory of a Christmas he celebrated on Martinique, while Stellæ nocte hibernali somniantes (‘Winter Night Dreaming Stars’) catches the experience of ‘standing in the snow looking up at the clear winter sky, with all its twinkling stars dreaming on our behalf’. 

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Classical Music

Though generally performed on the organ, the music of the great Dutch keyboard master Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck deserved to find another, no less intense means of expression on the harpsichord. These songs, dances and polyphonic pieces, played by Sébastien Wonner on a copy of a Ruckers, a Flemish instrument of 1612, allow us a glimpse into domestic life, as in a painting by Vermeer. This disc, Mr. Wonner’s first solo recital recording, was recorded in the auditorium of the convent of Saint-Ulrich, Sarrebourg, August 2013. A bilingual book – French and English – is included.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Sergei Prokofiev was an adept composer of violin music. Nathan Milstein once described his first violin concerto as “indeed one of the best modern violin concertos… a brilliant piece, perhaps the finest of all Prokofiev’s works.” This work, along with Prokofiev’s second concerto is performed on this new release by Vadim Gluzman, who is critically acclaimed for his performances of the works of the virtuosos of the 19th and 20th centuries. Neeme Jarvi and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra join Gluzman for this recording. The ensemble has been applauded for their interpretations of Prokofiev’s music.