Fernando Suarez Paz joined the Quinteto Nuevo Tango at the request of Astor Piazzolla in 1978, and he toured with the ensemble until their disbandment in 1988. In his decade of performing alongside Piazzolla, Paz recorded 18 albums all over the world. The first track on this album, Escualo by Piazzolla, is dedicated to Fernando Suarez Paz. The New York Times gave Paz a 7-star rating after his performances alongside vibraphonist Gary Burton at various jazz festivals across Europe, Japan, and the United States. Fernando’s son, Leonardo Suarez Paz is featured on this release. Leonardo grew up alongside Astor Piazzolla and was mentored by both Piazzolla and his father. He directs tango projects all over the globe, and his productions have appeared in such venues as the Lincoln Center in New York, and the Teatro Colon Opera House in Buenos Aires.

Albert and Emil Mangelsdorff are two brothers who had an important impact on the development of German jazz. Emil studied clarinet at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, but he is more widely known for his saxophone playing. After he was a member of the illegal ensemble Hot Club, (jazz was banned in Germany at the time) he was imprisoned by the Gestapo and forced into the Hitler Army. After the war he performed in the Frankfurt All Stars and the Jazz-Ensemble des Hessischen Rundfunks before forming his own quartet in the 1960s. Albert is most known for his technique of playing multiphonics. A trombone player, he led a hard bop quintet in the late 50s, and performed frequently with his brother. This release is a compilation of concerts and studio sessions, recorded in the height of the brothers’ career, between 1956 and 1963.

One of Philip Glass’ most glorious themes, this release focuses on the subject of love. From his BAFTA award-winning music for The Hours to his iconic Music In Fifths, the genius of this composer is felt throughout the duration of this album. The Hours is featured here in its entirety, complete with three previously unpublished movements. The release also includes the breathtaking Modern Love Waltz and the world premiere recording of Notes On A Scandal. Performing these works is Nicolas Horvath.

Christmas, more than any other holiday, is deeply rooted in a nation’s culture. This is why Christmas carols from different cultures sound so vastly different from one another. This collection of songs includes music all the way from the Middle Ages to the present day. Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols is a notable track on this release, and is built on folk carols and considered by many to be one of the best Christmas cantatas. One of the world’s best choirs, the SWR Vokalensemble, performs these works.

This release is the first of three discs devoted to the piano music of George Enescu. The works chosen for this first album are three significant pieces - Nocturne in D-Flat Major "Hommage a la Princesse Marie Cantacuzene", Pieces impromptues, and Piano Sonata No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor. Enescu’s Romanian influences show in these works, which feel strongly of Romanian folk music. Pianist Josu de Solaun performs these works.

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REVIEW:

His technique is excellent here. The concluding Sonata 1 is shot through with harmonic twists and driving rhythms, handled expertly.

– American Record Guide

Centered around accordionist Vincent Peirani, the ensemble Living Being presents this new, extended album. The works on these two discs were recorded at the November 2013 SWR NEWJazz Meeting. For this meeting, Peirani expanded his core quintet to include Mathias Eick and Leila Martial. The extended group performed three concerts, in Tubingen, Mainz, and Karlsruhe.

Classical Music

In nineteenth-century Portugal, Italian opera was king. During this time, however, instrumentalists still emerged. Piano prodigies Jose Viana de Mota and Guilherme Daddi did considerable work to advance concert life in Portugal throughout their careers. Not only were these gentlemen outstanding pianists, they were also virtuosic composers. Their entertaining and challenging pieces helped to draw Portugal into the scene of European music-making. Performing these works is Sofia Lourenco, an outstanding pianist and educator.

A legend of progressive jazz, Stan Kenton led one of the most influential, innovative, and controversial jazz orchestras of the twentieth century. This album is a live recording from January 17, 1972, taken during the Stan Kenton Orchestra’s European tour. This release contains staples of the repertoire, including Rhapsody in Blue, Malaguena, Malaga, and Love Story.

Sylvia McNair has won two Grammy Awards, and is today’s leading interpreter of American Popular Song. After a thriving opera career, she recorded several albums, including her award winning albums with pianist Andre Previn. This programme includes a mix of new and old standards, such as Orange Colored Sky, Love Is In The Air, Summertime, and One Hundred Easy Ways. Jazz musicians Ted Taylor, Jeremy Allen, and Steve Houghton accompany McNair for this recording.

How Fair Thou Art - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525/6-1594) This selection from the Palestrina's settings of The Song of Songs is interspersed by four of the composer's Marian antiphons. Once you get used to the close recording and The King's Singers' distinctive 'barbershop' sound, these performances are highly enjoyable, benefiting from the singers' diffident and yet expressive approach. Just occasionally the very close recording shows the alto voices at a disadvantage, but the singing is generally of a very high quality and the readings of these beautiful pieces is intelligent and sensuous. I take a little bit of exception to the title with it's presumably intentionally punning use of the phrase 'Biblical Passions'-the Passion has a very specific religious meaning, and it's extension to embrace the erotic underpinning of The Song of Songs makes something of a nonsense of this. It is not entirely clear what context Palestrina's Song of Songs settings were intended for, but if-as seems likely-they were for private domestic consumption, then I am sure that the earliest performances would have sounded very much like the present recording. It is interesting to hear the Marian antiphons in the same context-almost certainly written for liturgical choral presentation, they work equally well sung by reduced forces and in a smaller acoustic. Indeed without listening closely to the texts, it would be difficult to differentiate the two repertoires from one another. Early Music Review

All of the pieces chosen for this new release center around the theme of evening time. Mark Williams and his Choir of Jesus College Cambridge have released four prior albums with Signum, all of which have gained critical praise. The programme of this album blends ancient and modern, featuring works from Thomas Tallis, William Harris, Gustav Holst, and many more.

Also available: Handel in Italy, Vol. 2 / Cunningham, London Early Opera

This new release is an eclectic collection of 22 folk songs from all over the world. Cathy Berberian performs these works exceptionally well, performing in 17 different languages. Pianist Harold Lester accompanies Berberian on this recording.

This live recording of Quincy Jones and his Orchestra was taken in Ludwigshafen in 1961. The orchestra had an all-star roster, including Freddie Hubbard, Benny Bailey, and Sahib Shihab. The program includes classics such as Summertime and Stolen Moments.

This concert, which has lay forgotten for almost fifty years, is now available on CD. This concert, recorded June 22, 1964, established Albert Mangelsdorff as Germany’s international jazz star. Along with his quintet, he performs works such as Set ‘em Up, Far Out Far East, Okaka, and more.

More than just a collection of delightful tunes, the track list of Kings of Swing Opus 2 takes us on a journey through the golden age of swing. After the positive reception of Kings of Swing Opus 1, the SWR Big Band presents a new list of classics, including Satin Doll, Love Me or Leave Me, One O’Clock Jump, and many more. Under the direction of Pierre Paquette, the SWR Big Band is one of the most acclaimed big bands in Germany. Vocalist Fola Dada is featured on this album, and is widely recognized as one of the most versatile vocalists of our time.

A beautiful collection of songs, Only a Singing Bird features Michael Head's best-known works, The Ships of Arcady and The Little Road to Bethlehem, as well as his beautifully-imagined, nostalgic song-cycle, Snowbirds. NYCoS National Girls Choir is joined by it's patron and world renowned mezzo soprano, Karen Cargill for this incredible new recording.

CPO's previous release with the soloists and ensembles of the Boston Early Music Festival was awarded two prestigious prizes. The recording of Charpentier’s opera La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers and La Couronne de Fleurs received the Grammy Award for the Best Opera Production in February 2015 and recently won the Klassik-Echo 2015, again for the Best Opera Recording of the Year. Prior to this double success, other productions by cpo and BEMF had been nominated for Gramophone Awards. In the category of the Best Opera Production these were Ariadne by Johann Georg Conradi and Thésée and Psyché by Jean-Baptiste Lully. In addition, Thésée and Psyché received nominations in the category honoring Baroque Vocal Works.

Now the American ensemble joins forces with successful soloists like Aaron Sheehan and Teresa Wakim for our production of Handel’s opera Acis and Galatea in the version of 1718, which was composed for the landed estate of the Earl of Carnarvon and does not recycle music from the earlier version. Both Acis and Galatea and the cantata Sarei troppo felice heard here represent decisive turning points in Handel’s career. The Italian cantata came at the beginning of the one and half decades spent by Handel in the service of patrons. Acis and Galatea marks the highpoint of this phase and therefore, like the cantata before it, clearly renders recognizable the musical means available to him in the private ensembles of his employers. Moreover, Acis and Galatea contains the musical and textual seeds of the English oratorio, which after 1742 completely supplanted opera compositions.

Tanja Becker-Bender, one of Germany's most distinguished violinists, already has a number of critically acclaimed CDs of absorbing repertoire to her credit. Her collaboration with the Hungarian pianist Peter Nagy over many years has borne musical fruits of remarkable quality, as this Bartok recording so impressively demonstrates.

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REVIEW:

These players don’t seem to be among those who conceive Bartók’s music primarily as a rigorous exploration of dissonance; and their moving it from center stage, though hardly underplaying its jagged power (as in the Solo Violin Sonata), allows it to speak naturally and, in general, cogently. Highly recommended to admirers of the composer’s paradigm-shattering synthesis.

– Fanfare

Johann Baptist Cramer made his name in London and Europe as one of the leading pianists of the day. His virtuoso skills at the keyboard can be heard in the florid and playful Variations on an Anglo-Caledonian Air and the ebullient Sonata, Op. 25, No. 2. Matteo Napoli is an honors graduate of the Giordano Conservatory (Foggia). Early in his career he captured worldwide attention winning many competitions, including First Prize in the International Liszt Competition at Lucca in 1986.

The cabaret singer Barbara Fasano releases a collection that features selection from the Great American songbook of classics as well as her covers of pop songs delivered with her recognizable purr that has won her fans worldwide.

Bach a poet? In our age of performer's intensive efforts at keeping faithful to the original and the "correct" performing style, this statement sounds surreal today, seeming to reek of nostalgia. From this perspective, Bachiana, featuring the Duo d'Accord, must appear anachronistic, since it's music takes us back to an epoch - the era of the Romantics - in which Bach was played in a free, even occasionally downright carefree, style. "The artistry of Duo d'Accord lies in that their performance appears to develop completely freely and flows with all due desirable precision." - (FonoForum)

Written during the summer of 1875, Antonín Dvorák's Symphony No. 5 in F Major, Op. 76 is considered the first work in which Dvorák found his way to a new symphonic idiom. It's noticeable inflections of Bohemian folklore, accompanied by almost Schubertian phrases, infuse the symphony with light and give it buoyancy. Two of Dvorák's many one-movement orchestral pieces, In Nature´s Realm Op. 91 and the Scherzo capriccioso Op. 66, serve as considerable, substantial encores. Karel Mark Chichon (OBE) is Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbru¨cken Kaiserslautern.

A lasting love affair with the clarinet amongst composers from the dawn until the dusk of the Romantic era (i.e. from Schubert to Strauss) is the key takeaway of this Signum release. In recognition, a trio of leading British soloists - clarinetist Julian Bliss, soprano Ailish Tynan and pianist Christopher Glynn - perform a sumptuous selection of the era's chamber music by Brahms, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann and Richard Strauss. The program is centered around Schubert's iconic The Shepherd on the Rock, virtually the final complete work that Schubert composed before his tragic death in 1828, age 31.