{"title":"One-Day Sale | November 11th, 2026","description":"\u003cp data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet a head start on your holiday shopping with our \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOne-Day Sale!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e For a very limited time, explore \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eover 400 titles at 50% OFF\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, featuring an extensive selection of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDVDs and Blu-rays\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, alongside vinyl favorites and an impressive collection of CDs from renowned labels including \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eChandos, BIS, Sony Masterworks, Brilliant Classics\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and more!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhether you're searching for the perfect gift for a music lover or adding something special to your own collection, now is the perfect time to discover extraordinary music at half the price.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHurry! This sale ends Thursday, November 12, at 9:00 AM CT.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e Don't miss your chance to shop these incredible savings before they're gone!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eShop Now \u0026amp; Save 50%!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"laboccetta-a-tenor-cellist","title":"Laboccetta: A Tenor Cellist'- Chamber Music \/ Malagoli, De Polo, Centa et al.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"TextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\" lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"none\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eRomantic miniatures by a forgotten Italian cellist and composer: the first album ever dedicated to the music of Domenico \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eLaboccetta\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e. Born to a poor family in the Sicilian town of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eMessina\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e Domenico \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eLaboccetta\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e (1823-1896) was entrusted to the care of an orphanage where his musical talents rapidly revealed themselves as a child. At the age of seven he made an appearance in concert at the Teatro Nuovo in Messina\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e and soon won a scholarship to study gratis at the conservatoire in Naples. At just 18\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e he became principal cellist of the Teatro San Carlo\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e at a time when the opera house was known across Europe for staging and advancing the works of bel canto composers such as Donizetti and Bellini. Through this \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eexperience\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eLaboccetta\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e developed a superb tenor voice alongside his cello playing\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e and soon began taking lead roles in those bel canto masterpieces such as Bellini’s La \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eSonnambula\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e. He went on to tour Europe and America in the 1850s\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e but eventually settled back in his adopted home of Naples\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e where he became professor of cello at the conservatoire in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e1877\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e and\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e passed on his mastery of the instrument to students for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003ealmost the\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e next 20 years until his death.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"TextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\" lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"none\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eIn \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eLaboccetta\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e the cellist and indefatigable researcher Matteo \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eMalagoli\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e has turned up another remarkable figure down the byways of cello history. His booklet essay introduces \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eLaboccetta’s\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e eventful life\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eproviding\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e invaluable context to these miniatures written for salon performances among friends and patrons in Neapolitan musical life in the later decades of the 19th century – music written \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eabove all to\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e charm and entertain. ‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003edeserves\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e the attention of listeners intrigued by history and appreciative of fine playing. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eIt’s\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e an album that will make a genuine contribution to any collector’s album hoard. Album leaves\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e romanzas and instrumental songs are scored for cello and piano or cello and harp\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e but there is also a ‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eNotturnino\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e’ for two cellos and piano. More substantial is a cycle of four songs for soprano\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e tenor\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e cello and piano: all beautifully evocative pieces with an affectingly folk-like simplicity of expression.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"TextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\" lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"none\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eLaboccetta\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e was also a pioneer in the genre of cello quartets\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e and the album closes with several such works\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e ingeniously scored to exploit the full register and richness of the instrument. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eMalagoli’s\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eprevious\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e albums for Brilliant Classics include a disc of music by Greco and Francone (96345)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LastReplacedFindHitThemed SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e welcomed in glowing terms by Fanfare magazine: ‘Early Neapolitan Cello Music… deserves the attention of listeners intrigued by history and appreciative of fine playing. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003eIt’s\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e an album that will make a genuine contribution to any collector’s album hoard.’\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-ccp-props='{\"201341983\":0,\"335559739\":160,\"335559740\":259}' class=\"EOP SCXW114018062 BCX0\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012430123242,"sku":"5028421969527","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4237547-3141832.jpg?v=1786639792"},{"product_id":"bossi-jongen-poulenc-l-orgue-soliste-music-for-organ-orchestra-mazzoletti","title":"Music for Organ \u0026 Orchestra \/ Mazzoletti, Carmona, Helvetica Orchestra","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen we think of a concerto for solo instrument and orchestra, the organ is certainly not the first instrument that comes to mind. And yet, the symphonic organ is perfectly adapted to the role of soloist, being capable of duelling as well as duetting with the orchestra. The Concerto for organ, strings, horns and timpani Op. 100 by Marco Enrico Bossi, for example, is one of the most important and successful pieces in the entire repertoire, and yet it does not enjoy the recognition it deserves among the wider public. Structured in three movements of genuine expressive power, this is music that is both majestic and intimate, able to touch the hearts of listeners and performers alike – a work on which this great composer really lavished his extraordinary creativity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHymne by Joseph Jongen is a real rarity. The organ has less of a ‘solo’ role than in the Bossi and Poulenc works; rather, it blends into the warm textures of the orchestra as an integral part of the sonic conversational flow so typical of Jongen’s impressionist idiom. Here too, the composition of the Gland organ and its eminently full, warm and poetic sound are an ideal showcase for the mysterious atmosphere of this work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnlike the Bossi and Jongen works, the Concerto for organ, strings and timpani by Francis Poulenc is very well known indeed. Uncharacteristically written in a single movement divided into seven sections, this concerto is surely one of the best-known organ works of the 20th century. In certain sections the sonorous, weighty and deliberately strident organ writing is juxtaposed alongside orchestral textures that are extremely graceful and poetic, almost like a rough country giant trying to attract the attentions of a refined princess. At other moments, the organ imposes itself upon the orchestra, only to come together with it at other times, before proceeding to turn everything upside down once again.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012431794410,"sku":"5028421969558","price":8.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4223208-3130275.jpg?v=1786635614"},{"product_id":"vacchi-complete-music-for-guitar","title":"Vacchi: Complete Music for Guitar","description":"\u003cp\u003eBorn in 1949, Fabio Vacchi stands among the pre-eminent Italian composers of his generation. Working primarily in the operatic field, he has had pieces staged at the Teatro alla Scala and by the Opéra Comique in Paris, the Opera de Lyon, the Maggio Musicale in Florence and the Teato Comunale in his home city of Bologna. Vacchi’s instrumental pieces have attracted similar high-profile performances. His chamber cycle Luoghi Immaginari (1987-1992), has been given across the world, including at the Salzburg Mozarteum conducted by Daniel Harding. Other pieces were commissioned by Claudio Abbado and by the Tokyo Quartet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe most substantial piece on this new collection of his chamber pieces was commissioned by the Swedish guitarist Magnus Andersson and first performed by him in 1997 as a guitar concerto; this Quintetto Notturno Concertante dates from 2012 and is a masterful condensation of the complexities of the original, rich instrumental texture, while preserving its fleeing moods and subtly shifting changes of harmony. At the other end of this collection, Livia Rado sings Flow my Dowland, a rapturous transformation of five songs by the Elizabethan lutenist, in which the original vocal part is richly embroidered by Vacchi’s own modern reimagination of the accompanying part, scored for a small ensemble of winds, strings, vibraphone and harp, to melting and magical effect. In between come a pair of solo works, though in fact Plynn quotes Britten’s Nocturnal after John Dowland as a study of harmonics on the guitar, evoking its most dreamlike and insubstantial timbres. The earliest piece here is a Suite for flute and guitar, dating from 1971. Here, the 22-year-old Vacchi is at his most experimental in terms of both form and harmony, employing extraneous elements such as pen and paper and sending both instruments to the extremes of their register, though always with an intrinsically idiomatic sympathy. Any listener with an ear for the Italian postwar avant-garde will find this newly recorded album full of delight and discovery.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012437758186,"sku":"5028421969763","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4223209-3130276.jpg?v=1786640368"},{"product_id":"monteverdi-frammenti-koetsveld-le-nuove-musiche","title":"Monteverdi: Frammenti \/ Koetsveld, Le Nuove Musiche","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOn this album, we find a wonderful collection of often short sacred works by Monteverdi, all published in compilations made by others. Parts of psalms and hymns of all descriptions make up the texts – and always in the style that we know so well from, among others, the concertos in the Vespro della Beata Vergine; the pieces from the Selva Morale e Spirituale (a collection by Monteverdi himself, containing only his own music); and the posthumous collection from 1650, Messa a quattro voci ed salmi.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe repertoire on this album derives from multiple sources and was probably included in the various collections because the compiler simply liked it. Besides the polyphonic, madrigal-like pieces such as Adoramus te, Christe adoramus te and Domine in furore, the often highly virtuosic duets and solo pieces stand out. Sometimes, for example in Salve o regina, the embellishments are written out, which in turn teaches us a lot about how Monteverdi envisioned them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012441788650,"sku":"5028421969824","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4237548-3141838.jpg?v=1786633292"},{"product_id":"sancan-a-musical-tribute-yan-pascal-tortelier-bbc-philharmonic","title":"Sancan: A Musical Tribute \/ Bavouzet, Tortelier, BBC Philharmonic","description":"\u003cp\u003eWithout question born a little too late in a century of huge upheavals, Pierre Sancan has almost completely disappeared from our memories. He nevertheless occupied a place at the heart of the history of French music in the second half of the twentieth century: composer, pianist, teacher, and an extremely endearing personality, as one will discover on this disc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis program of the Piano concerto, orchestral works, works for solo piano, and the flute Sonatine (played by Adam Walker) serves as a personal tribute to Sancan from both pianist and conductor, and will hopefully help to raise awareness of this gifted composer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012449325290,"sku":"095115215425","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4201659-2975984.jpg?v=1786680256"},{"product_id":"holt-meandres","title":"Holt: Meandres","description":"A mesmerising piano cycle by the master  of Dutch minimalism.  'I write music like this not because I'm  isolated,' Simeon Ten Holt once said. 'I'm  isolated because I write music like this.'  And yet, since his death in 2012,  performances and recordings of his music  have multiplied like one of his motivic  cells, gathering energy and momentum to  spread the reputation of a composer who  took the rhythmic precepts of American  minimalists such as Reich and Glass, and  coloured them with a European-Romantic  glow of harmony.  Composed in 1995-97 for four pianos,  Meandres is another monumental yet  approachable piano cycle in the mould of  his celebrated Canto Ostinato, more  complex and more chromatic than the  earlier cycle but sharing with it a hypnotic  clarity and an improvisatory freedom which  leaves a good deal of liberty to the  performers. At first, there is no melody, in  the usual sense of the word. However, over  time, a pattern emerges like a puzzle taking  shape before the listener.  The title refers to the meandering course of  rivers, which takes them to mountain slopes  as well as lowlands. 'Because it is like a  work in progress which never reaches  closure,' remarks the composer, 'the  meandering structure of the piece is quite  demanding on the performers. It is the  condensation of an inquiry into the very  limits of time and space.'  This recording of Meandres was made in 1999  by a team of Dutch pianists who had all worked  with Ten Holt on his music, and accordingly it  vibrates with disciplined authenticity. Sharp  accents continually break and articulate the line  and the restatement of the germinal motif, but  it always loops back to a cadence which Robert  Schumann would have recognised. Combining  Baroque rigour with early-Romantic harmony  and late-20th-century form, Meandres is both  post-modern and timeless as an extension of  piano literature.","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012449915114,"sku":"5028421970059","price":8.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4335059-3177825.jpg?v=1786667788"},{"product_id":"dowland-melancholy-britten-nocturnal-pascal-boels","title":"Dowland: Melancholy; Britten: Nocturnal - Guitar Music \/ Boëls","description":"\u003cp\u003ePavans and galliards by the Elizabethan master of melancholy, complemented by a new recording of Benjamin Britten’s magnificent Nocturnal inspired by both Dowland’s music and by the playing of Julian Bream. After the success of ‘The Golden Age of the Guitar in Europe’ (2CD, 96157), Brilliant Classics releases a second album by the French guitarist Pascal Boëls, a unique collection of music by 17th and 20th-century English masters. In a booklet introduction, the guitarist explains how he sees Dowland as ‘a universal genius, eternal wanderer who – already! – knew how to rub shoulders with all facets of the human soul.’ Pascal Boëls plays a personal selection of Dowland’s piece originally written for solo lute, pieces which embody a spirit of introversion such as the ‘Forlorn Hope’ Fancy and the ‘Lachrymae’ Pavan which became famous across Europe, much imitated and adapted by other composers of the day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLightening the mood are also the kind of courtly dances and romances which delighted the composer’s aristocratic patrons such as the Earl of Essex and King Christian of Denmark. The English guitarist Julian Bream played Dowland’s pieces on the guitar from an early stage of his career, and made a best-selling album of them for RCA. It was this antique palette of gentle, musing expression that inspired Benjamin Britten to write a Nocturnal for guitar which builds as a sequence of eight variations towards (rather than away from) the Dowland song on which they are based. The resulting work, according to Bream, was the greatest solo work ever written for guitar, exploring a slippage between wakeful and dream states with a subtle ambiguity between major and minor harmonies and a language that bridges the divide between the 17th and 20th centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012457484522,"sku":"5028421970134","price":8.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4247981-3141841.jpg?v=1786639835"},{"product_id":"strauss-schumann-weber-owen-wilson-bbc-philharmonic","title":"Strauss, Schumann \u0026 Weber: Works for Horn \/ Owen, Wilson, BBC Philharmonic","description":"\u003cp\u003eRegarded as one of Europe’s leading horn players, Martin Owen appears as a soloist and chamber musician around the world. Currently principal horn at the BBC Symphony Orchestra, he has previously served as principal horn of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and as solo horn of the Berliner Philharmoniker.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWeber’s Concertino was written for the old, valveless ‘natural horn’; its limited range of notes (tied to the harmonic series) was extended mechanically with additional tubing (‘crooks’) and, more artfully, by virtuoso players bending notes, and varied hand stopping. The technical demands of the Concertino are testament to the extraordinary facility of the hornists of the period. The first Horn Concerto by Richard Strauss, written at the age of nineteen, whilst a student, is widely considered his first uncontested masterpiece. Although the influence of Brahms and Schumann are evident, his own compositional voice is unmistakable. Strauss would continue to write significant parts for horn in all of his orchestral scores (possibly an influence of his father, who was a virtuoso hornist), but the second Concerto was not composed until 1942 – some sixty years later. The style is much more neo-classical, even ‘Mozartian’. Schumann’s riotous Concertstück for four horns opens the programme, and features three more outstanding soloists: Christopher Parkes (Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia of London), Alec Frank-Gemmill (Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra), and Sarah Willis (Berliner Philharmoniker).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012457615594,"sku":"0095115216828","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4226831-3132087_72883de0-5006-44c3-ab3d-ad68bb770766.jpg?v=1786640329"},{"product_id":"fiorillo-36-caprices-op-3-for-violin-transcribed-for-viola-marco-misciagna","title":"Fiorillo: 36 Caprices, Op. 3 \/ Misciagna","description":"\u003cp\u003eFederigo Fiorillo (1755-1823) is principally remembered now as a composer, and in particular the author of a set of solo Caprices which formed a method of which formed a method of instruction for every advanced violinist. Until now, however, they have never been recorded on Fiorillo’s ‘second’ instrument of the viola; and indeed complete recordings of the set, even on violin, are very few.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith this new recording, Marco Misciagna demonstrates that these 36 pieces have much more than pedagogic interest to them. While they systematically address technical issues in the bow arm and fingering, testing the player’s technique for playing octaves, multiple stopping, passagework, chromatic scales and so on, Fiorillo was a Italianate melodist who naturally wrote and thought in long, cantabile lines which are as grateful to hear as they are to play.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBorn in 1984, Marco Misciagna studied in Bari and Rome and then with Salvatore Accardo; he now lives and works in Spain. Among his previous recordings is a Brilliant Classics album of a similar undertaking, the 41 Capricci for viola by Bartolomeo Campagnoli (1751–1827).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012459450602,"sku":"5028421970189","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4230667-3141842.jpg?v=1786676278"},{"product_id":"mendelson-bacewicz-chamber-works","title":"J. Mendelson \u0026 Bacewicz: Chamber Works \/ Silesian Quartet","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe award-winning Silesian quartet present a new album featuring two composers from Warsaw – Joachim Mendelson and Graznya Bacewicz. After completing his music studies in Warsaw and Berlin, Joachim Mendelson moved to Paris in 1929, where he joined the Association des Jeunes Musiciens Polonais, a society founded in 1926 to facilitate the study, publication, and promotion of the works of young Polish composers. Bacewicz also received support from the Association, and from Paderewski, and studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. The associations’ aims included re-establishing a national musical life at the highest level back in Poland (after more than a century of joint occupation by Russia, Prussia, and Austria), and both composers returned to Warsaw and worked there until 1939. Mendelson taught at the Institute of Music, and Bacewicz became leader of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and continued her career and a composer and soloist. Mendelson was imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto until 1943 when he was murdered by the Gestapo. Five of his works survive, thanks to the French publisher Max Eschig, including the quartet and quintet recorded here. Both Bacewicz works on this recording were rejected by the composer, and never included in her catalogue of works. It is extremely lucky that the manuscripts have survived, preserved at the National Library in Warsaw. Half a century after her death the Royal String Quartet prepared performing scores and gave the first performances.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012461318378,"sku":"0095115218129","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4220712-3006228.jpg?v=1786640508"},{"product_id":"haydn-piano-sonatas-vol-11-0095115219324","title":"Haydn: The Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 11 \/ Bavouzet","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Bavouzet’s Haydn is unmatched in its zest and its wit. But it is also substantial, informed and deeply rewarding.\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e--The \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eon Bavouzet's Haydn Sonatas cycle, 2022\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJean-Efflam Bavouzet’s survey of Haydn’s piano sonatas reaches its conclusion with this 11th and final volume. As with the previous releases, the acclaimed pianist has included repertoire from different periods of Haydn’s career to create a recital of interest in its own right, as well as the completion of the series.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJean-Efflam notes: ‘It has been eleven years since the launch of this project to present Haydn’s sonatas, not in their chronological order, but as collections juxtaposing works from different periods. The program for this final album was actually the first one to be devised: I wanted to place side by side the very first and the very last sonata. Then the idea of fleshing out the sonata cycle with other major pieces began at volume four, with the addition of the famous \u003cem\u003eVariations in F minor\u003c\/em\u003e, and finally this last volume is made up of as many sonatas as other types of works. The complete series is thus able to offer music lovers all the sonatas identified to date, together with the other major keyboard works.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEWS\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-text\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-text\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFive stars \u0026amp; editor's choice\u003c\/strong\u003e |\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003eJust when I thought it couldn’t get any better, this last volume hits new heights. --\u003cem\u003eGramophone\u003c\/em\u003e (Michelle Assay)\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e---\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-author\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-text\"\u003eThis album concludes Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s epic and scintillating cycle of the complete Haydn Piano Sonatas. Sandwiched between the first and last sonatas – the former delightfully without a hint of angst, the latter richly expressive and exploratory – lies a wealth of contrasts…As on previous occasions [Bavouzet] makes it difficult to imagine Haydn presented with greater gusto, precision and charms[.] --\u003cem\u003eInternational Piano\u003c\/em\u003e (Bryce Morrison)\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-text\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e---\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-text\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-text\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-text\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-text\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-text\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA project that began in 2011 is completed; what a journey it has been. Bavouzet’s gifts of insightful exposition and revelation are matched by the wisdom of his curation… A triumph. --The Sunday \u003cem\u003eTimes \u003c\/em\u003e(Dan Cairns)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-stars stars0\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012464988394,"sku":"0095115219324","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4112389-2877017.jpg?v=1786814896"},{"product_id":"rocking-horse-road","title":"Rocking Horse Road \/ Dankworth, Broadsky Quartet","description":"\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRocking Horse Road is the debut recording of Jacqui Dankworth and the Brodsky quartet, bearing witness to a musical relationship that stretches back almost two decades. Jacqui Dankworth is one of the most highly regarded and celebrated vocalists in the UK. The Sunday Times called her ‘One of our finest singers, regardless of category’, whilst the Guardian noted she ‘exhibits a subtle control of dynamics and a voluptuous tonal richness that seems to make almost any material sound special’. Formed in 1972, the Brodsky Quartet have given more than 3,000 concerts around the world, and recorded over 70 albums, covering both the core classical repertoire and collaborations with a wide range of artists from all walks of musical life. The album covers a wide range of material that this partnership has gathered and honed over the years: compositions by Harvey Brough, David Gordon, Charlie Wood and Jacqui Dankworth herself sit alongside arrangements of songs by Björk, Sting, Diana Krall and Elvis Costello.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012466462954,"sku":"095115221921","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4046063-2796653.jpg?v=1786664072"},{"product_id":"mozart-violin-sonatas-kv301-kv303-kv305-kv454","title":"Mozart: Violin Sonatas \/ Dego, Leonardi","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFollowing her critically acclaimed recording of Mozart Concertos with Sir Roger Norrington and the RSNO, Francesca Dego turns to a selection of his Sonatas with her long-term recital partner Francesca Leonardi. Dego commented ‘Francesca and I have been playing together for seventeen years, more than half my life and the totality of my career. To work as a duo on a regular basis means reaching common interpretative solutions, ones that sum up each player’s qualities, and creates a great sense of mutual responsibility. What you do together somehow feels naturally complete. We decided to build this album around our very favorite Sonata, KV 454 in B flat major, which we had been performing for many years and in which Mozart’s simplicity and flamboyance coexist in perfect harmony.’\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEWS\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-text\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“… the balance between Dego and Leonardi is impeccable, along with the sense of two musicians singing from the same hymn sheet…If you’re looking for unfailingly tasteful and refined playing, then Dego and Leonardi neatly tick that box…”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-author\"\u003e– Gramophone (Charlotte Gardner)\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-stars stars0\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-text\"\u003e“…The approach is modern-instrument with period awareness, the youthful playfulness of much of this music well caught…Dego and Leonardi’s polished and deeply considered performances of all four sonatas provide 70 minutes of unvarnished pleasure.”\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-text\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-author\"\u003e– The Strad (David Threasher)\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-stars stars0\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-text\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e“…There is an infectious delight in give-and-take between piano and violin throughout …an exquisite recital.”\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"review-author\"\u003e– BBC \u003cem\u003eMusic\u003c\/em\u003e magazine (Julian Haylock)\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012469444842,"sku":"095115223222","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4057331-2867080.jpg?v=1786664043"},{"product_id":"alberto-hemsi-chamber-works-arc-ensemble","title":"Hemsi: Chamber Works \/ ARC Ensemble","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlberto Hemsi was born in 1898 in Turgutlu (also known as Cassaba), in Anatolia (present-day Turkey). Although there had been a Jewish presence in Anatolia for more than 2000 years, the population expanded considerably following the Alhambra Decree of 1492, with the arrival of Sephardim from Spain and Portugal. It then dwindled precipitously with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of Nazism, the creation of the state of Israel, and the escalation of anti-Semitism in the Arab world. Having completed his training at the conservatory in Milan, Hemsi returned to Anatolia determined to collect and notate as much traditional Sephardic music as he possibly could.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA fascination with national folk music had taken root throughout Europe – Bartók and Kodály in Hungary, Dvorák and Smetana in Bohemia, and Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst in England being the most familiar examples. Because his research was not defined by political or geographical boundaries, Hemsi was compelled to survey the myriad communities spread throughout the vast Sephardic diaspora. He was as fascinated by this musical heritage as he was concerned about its survival but, like so many composers, he also understood how traditional melodies, together with the various performance styles and conventions that supported them, could provide inspiration and nourishment for his own music.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEWS\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003eDespite Hemsi’s nomadic existence, the works on this disc reflect the composer’s lifelong fascination for Sephardic folk music which he assiduously collected and transcribed, as well as a keen absorption of other exotic idioms. The net result is a sequence of attractive and atmospheric works that cover similar ground.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003e-- BBC Music Magazine\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHemsi is probably best known for his set of Coplas Seferdies, Sephardi songs published in numerous volumes, but his chamber music is well worth getting to know. The earliest piece in this disc is the innocuous-sounding Méditation for cello and piano (Tom Wiebe and Kevin Ahfat), written at some point before 1931, and couched in the ‘Armenian style’. Pianistically it evokes the cimbalom or, as the notes remind us, to be specific, the Greek santouri, a hammered dulcimer. The slow intense dialogue between the two instruments seems almost deliberately imitative of, or a shadowy second cousin of, Bruch’s Kol nidrei. In 1942 he wrote the Pilpúl Sonata for violin and piano (Emily Kruspe and Ahfat). It’s cast in a standard three-movement format and encodes plenty of Sephardic material, not least in the fleet and pithy first movement, and also in the call-and-response central one, a kind of cantorial recitative that takes the violin high in a way somewhat reminiscent of Bloch. There’s fine drama in the driving finale.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe following year – or thereabouts, as dating can’t be sure – Hemsi wrote an intriguing Quintet in G for Viola (Steven Dann) and string quartet. It signals a slight compositional shift in Hemsi’s thinking, being somewhat more conventional in structure and effect. His relish for insouciant dance patterns and folkloric inflections, though, is most obvious in the Burlesca second movement but the most paradoxical movement is the slow one, a Berceuse, that exudes flowing lyricism which, whilst hardly expressively deep, opens up a channel of lightly flecked impressionism: Hemsi looking backwards and sideways simultaneously. For the finale there’s a Greek dance, bright and brisk and over quickly and triumphantly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTre arie antiche (c.1945) are derived from the Coplas Seferdies and are brief three-minute (or so) studies. The first is fast, the central panel more gauzy and withdrawn, and the final piece extremely catchy. Which leaves the 1956 Danze nuziali greche, Op 37 rewritten from piano originals for cello and piano and dedicated in the piano original to Gina Bachauer. These three nuptial dances cover some expressive ground. The first is a fast and exciting panel honoring the mother-in-law, the second is the bride with her slow and expressively ‘sung’ lyricism, thoughtful, tactile and with Semitic cadences, and the final panel is the godfather – loquacious, big-boned, and excitable. It works beautifully for the cello, for which instrument Hemsi clearly had a real affinity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are comprehensive, astute notes and an excellently judged recording.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is another fine reclamation from the ARC Ensemble, some of whose members I’ve mentioned by name but all of whom play with considerable enthusiasm and technical accomplishment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-- MusicWeb International\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012473901290,"sku":"095115224328","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4129362-3140392.jpg?v=1786635863"},{"product_id":"henze-reinventions-arrangements-mozart-c-p-e-bach-vitali-caroli-tifu-battigelli","title":"Henze: Reinventions of Mozart, C.P.E. Bach \u0026 Vitali \/ Padova-Veneto Orchestra","description":"\u003cp\u003eGerman composer Hans Werner Henze’s (1926–2012) admiration for the great masters of the Baroque and musical Classicism manifested in compositions born from a desire to transcribe, rework and transform 17th- and 18th-century masterpieces into new orchestral textures. The project Travestimenti (Disguises), managed by conductor Marco Angius and the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, from which this CD was created, makes reference to Henze’s ‘reinventions’ of masterpieces by Mozart, C.P.E. Bach and Vitali, clothed in new, modern fashion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor the Drei Mozart’sche Orgelsonaten, Henze takes up three of Mozart’s one-movement Kirchensonaten (church sonatas or trio sonatas). Sonatas 17 and 15 are in an Allegro tempo, whereas the Sonata K.67 is marked Andantino, so Henze, in his transcription, places the latter between the two livelier tempos, thus reconstructing the tripartite structure of a classical three-movement sonata. Scored for an ensemble of 14 players that includes the less common, softer variants oboe d’amore and viola d’amore, it aims to underline the darker instrumental timbres, favouring the sombre sonorities of the alto flute in G, the bass flute in C, the bass clarinet and the bassoon. During the last year of his life, in 1787, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach composed a Fantasia libera per tastiera sola (Free Fantasia for keyboard alone) which he expanded into the Clavier-Fantasie mit Begleitung einer Violine (Fantasy for harpsichord with violin accompaniment), one of his most personal and expressive works.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHenze transcribed it for solo flute, harp and strings, aiming to project the extremely interesting and expressive harmonic material of the composition into a larger instrumental apparatus, thus making its future-oriented harmonic structures more manifest and moulded. He proposed two options for division of the: string quartet + string quintet or string quartet + tutti (the latter version is recorded here).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlthough it was probably composed in the early 18th century, Vitali’s Ciaccona ‘Il Vitalino’ – whose musical form is inspired by dance and consists of variations on a ground bass – was only rediscovered in 1867, published by the German virtuoso violinist Ferdinand David. Henze’s Il Vitalino raddoppiato – called “raddoppiato” (“doubled”) because of his extension of the composition by means of interpolated variations of each original section in the style of 18th-century doubles – retains Vitali’s bass almost throughout the entire composition. It alternates Vitali’s variations on his chaconne theme with Henze’s variations of Vitali’s variations, in an ever-changing dialogue between the 18th-century past and Henze’s present.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012474065130,"sku":"5028421970776","price":8.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4247982-3141848.jpg?v=1786650766"},{"product_id":"mozart-piano-concertos-vol-8-k-537-595-overtures-bavouzet","title":"Mozart: Piano Concertos, Vol. 8 - K. 537 \u0026 595; Overtures \/ Bavouzet","description":"\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eVolume 8 of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s survey of Mozart’s piano concertos with Gábor Takács-Nagy and Manchester Camerata features two late concertos – Nos 26 and 27 – along with the overtures to Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), and La clemenza di Tito. Concerto No. 26, the ‘Coronation’, was completed in 1788, premièred in Dresden, and then played at the coronation of Leopold II as Holy Roman Emperor, in Frankfurt, on 15 October 1790. As Mozart did not prepare the score for publication, large sections of the left hand were left blank in the manuscript score. It’s not known who created the part for the first printed edition, although this has been widely accepted ever since. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has created his own version for this recording. Mozart premièred his final piano concerto, No. 27, in Vienna on 4 March 1791, in his last public performance. The album was recorded in Manchester’s Stoller Hall, Bavouzet playing a Yamaha CFX nine-foot Concert Grand Piano.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012476326122,"sku":"0095115224625","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4246189-3271934.jpg?v=1786639903"},{"product_id":"bridge-britten-works-for-viola-beatson-clement-connolly","title":"Bridge \u0026 Britten: Works for Viola \/ Beatson, Clément, Connolly","description":"\u003cp\u003eHélène Clément, violist with the Doric String Quartet, is the current holder of the viola previously owned by both Bridge and Britten. Her ambition, quickly formed once she first played this instrument, has been to create a testament to both composers and the instrument that binds them all together. This recording, where Hélène is joined by pianist Alasdair Beatson and Dame Sarah Connolly, is the realization of that ambition. Hélène writes: ‘Frank Bridge owned and played the beautiful viola made by Francesco Giussani, in Italy, in 1843. Benjamin Britten was Frank Bridge’s most beloved pupil, and Bridge gave him the viola as a parting gift when Britten had to embark on a ship’s journey to the United States at the outbreak of the Second World War. The composers were never to see each other again. To record the viola repertoire of both composers, producing the very sound that they would have had in their ears, the sound that inspired their love for the instrument and its special language, became a priority for me.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEW\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003eThe soul of this beautifully constructed recital is the luminous variety Hélène Clément extracts from the 1843 Giussani viola owned by Frank Bridge and passed on to his favorite pupil, Benjamin Britten. The anguished overlapping of mezzo and viola at the climax of ‘Where is it that our soul doth go?’ is one of many revelations on the disc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003e-- BBC Music Magazine\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012477178090,"sku":"0095115224724","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4112390-2871800.jpg?v=1786633136"},{"product_id":"vladigerov-slavic-roots-tabakova-piano-works","title":"Vladigerov, Tabakova: Slavic Roots - Piano Works \/ Staneva","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAwarded the title Young Steinway Artist in 2020, the Bulgarian pianist Marina Staneva received the 2019 Sam Hutchings Piano Prize and was a 2018 Britten-Pears Young Artist. She has been praised for her serious talent, outstanding musicianship, extraordinary instinctive artistry, and fine technical command. For this her début recording, she presents works by two contrasting Bulgarian composers.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePancho Vladigerov was arguably the most influential Bulgarian composer of all time. He was one of the first successfully to combine idioms of Bulgarian folk music and classical music. He was also among the founding members of the Bulgarian Contemporary Music Society (1933), which later became the Union of Bulgarian Composers. The British-Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova studied composition under Simon Bainbridge, Diana Burrell, Robert Keeley, and Andrew Schultz. Her composition \u003cem\u003ePraise\u003c\/em\u003e was sung at St Paul's Cathedral to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, and she has received commissions from the Royal Philharmonic Society, BBC Radio 3, Cheltenham Music Festival, Britten Sinfonia, Three Choirs Festival, Wigmore Hall, and, in 2014, the PRS Foundation's first UK New Music Biennial.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012478849258,"sku":"095115225127","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4069297-2810011.jpg?v=1786664024"},{"product_id":"antonioni-my-river-music-for-strings-ashkenazy-antonioni","title":"Antonioni: My River - Music for Strings \/ I Solisti Aquilani","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe legendary pianist and conductor joins his clarinettist son and Italian musicians in music by one of Italy’s most powerfully individual living composers. Born in 1971, Francesco Antonioni studied in Rome with Azio Corghi and then in London with Julian Anderson and George Benjamin: a formidable pedigree of teachers testifying to the strength of both his technique and his creative voice, which became internationally known in 2001 with a string quartet written for the Venice Biennale. Since then, Antonioni has gone on to assemble a substantial catalogue of fastidiously crafted works for both the stage and the concert hall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis collection features two pieces for string orchestra, Ballata and Sull’ombra, alongside his concerto for clarinet and viola, Lights after the Thaw. Premiered in 2009, Ballata arose from a commission of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, to be conducted by Benjamin, and takes its initial inspiration from an anonymous lullaby, and a ballad by the 14th-century composer Francesco Landini. These are songs about love, seen from two opposite points, near the beginning and the end of life, and their meeting-point in this modern Ballata is bittersweet and charged with tension.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe origins of Sull’Ombra are no less distinguished. Yuri Bashmet conducted the Moscow Soloists in the premiere in 2014. Antonioni found himself moved to write it by lines of John Donne, which themselves reminded him of poetry by Eugenio Montale. The shadows here are dark indeed, though always lit with imagination, and harmony that leads the listener on, just as the concertante Lights after the Thaw draws out the intrinsically songful character of both solo instruments, in search of a point of reference amid a pervasive melancholia. There is a refined ear for harmony and texture evident in all three works, which reward attentive listening by anyone interested in the music of today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012479308010,"sku":"5028421970868","price":8.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4289562-3141850.jpg?v=1786662180"},{"product_id":"amarcord-dun-tango","title":"Piazzolla, Gardel, et al.: Amarcord d'un Tango \/ Albonetti, Bonaventura, Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana","description":"\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMarco Albonetti writes: ‘”Amarcord” signifies memory, the nostalgic re-enactment of the past. Here, it evokes the idea of joining two instruments, the saxophone and the bandoneón, both of which were invented in the middle of the nineteenth century. The bandoneón, created as a more agile substitute for the organ in the world of sacred music in Germany, was brought by German immigrants to Buenos Aires, where it became central to the tango, a music enlivened by rhythmic ideas from Africa and inextricably linked to dance. The saxophone – the central character of an adventure story which originated in Belgium, from which the instrument travelled to America where it discovered its promised land – executes the mellow melodies of the tango with a lightness, a pliancy, and a tone that further intensify the feelings running through them. \u003cem\u003eAmarcord d’un Tango\u003c\/em\u003e was created to offer the listener a brief journey through the history of the tango. Composed in 1903, Villoldo’s El choclo is one of the oldest examples of the genre. The well-known melodic tangos \"Por una cabeza\" and \"Sus ojos se cerraron\" are by the great singer Carlos Gardel, who died tragically in a plane accident, in 1935. I include a homage to Astor Piazzolla, on the thirtieth anniversary of his death. The album opens with his \u003cem\u003eTriunfal\u003c\/em\u003e, the piece that, thanks to Nadia Boulanger, created awareness and spurred the metamorphosis of Piazzolla’s “nuevo tango”. It represents the ideal point of embarkation.’\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012482814186,"sku":"095115225929","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4069298-2811225_430cf82f-ec7b-4104-be7c-787d2953d7a1.jpg?v=1786694623"},{"product_id":"mosaic-voices-letter-to-kamilla-music-in-jewish-memory","title":"Letter to Kamilla – Music in Jewish Memory \/ Mosaic Voices","description":"\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMosaic Voices are the Resident Choir at the New West End Synagogue, in London. The synagogue, designed in 1877 by the Scottish architect George Audsley, is a masterpiece of Victorian architecture, known for its beautiful choral acoustic. A great deal of the material on this album is therefore music sung by Mosaic Voices, in Hebrew, during religious services and festivals, of which this music forms a functional element. Ochila la’El, El Melech Yoshev, and Avinu Malkeinu are key musical works that form part of the New Year festival liturgy. Shomer Yisrael is sung during the little-known, but beautiful, midnight service of Selichot, which is part of the penitential prayers of the Hebrew month of Elul leading up to the New Year. Tree of Life, Generation to Generation, Yis’mechu, Ein Keloheinu, Uv’nucho Yomar, and Veh’al Kulam are pieces that the ensemble regularly sings at weekly Shabbat services, and form part of the liturgy for those services. The Musical Director, Michael Etherton, writes: ‘Exactly eighty years ago, my great grandmother Kamilla wrote a letter to her children. It was 1942. Fortunately, her children had escaped Nazi-occupied Austria, but Kamilla had not been so lucky. She endured four terrifying years of brutality and unimaginable suffering. The letter to her children was the last thing she wrote before being sent to Auschwitz, where she died. She did not know if her letter would ever reach her children. Eighty years later, my vocal ensemble, Mosaic Voices, is writing back to her in the form of an album of Jewish songs. We want Kamilla to know that, although she, her husband, and her sister, Minka, lost their lives in the Holocaust, all her children survived, and lived their lives successfully and happily in Britain, as proud Jewish people. Hitler’s mission failed. Her touching letter, which Kamilla wrote in German, has been set to music as one of the songs on this album (Letter from Kamilla). The other tracks that we have chosen to record celebrate the diversity, mysticism, and beauty of the music that Jewish people have brought to the world over time.’\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012484518122,"sku":"0095115226124","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4041634-3207680.jpg?v=1786694043"},{"product_id":"neeme-jarvi-in-concert-estonian-national-symphony-orchestra","title":"Neeme Järvi in Concert \/ Estonian National Symphony Orchestra","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe legendary conductor Neeme Järvi celebrated his eighty-fifth birthday in the summer of 2022, in Tallinn, giving a series of concerts with his beloved Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. This album serves not just as a commemoration of those wonderful concerts, but also as a personal calling card for this remarkable musician. The concert overture Polonia, published in 1836, may well have been inspired by Wagner’s encounters with defeated Polish nationalists in Leipzig in 1832. Wagner wrote several concert overtures during this period – whilst plans for his revolutionary operatic output were developing – including Christoph Columbus and Rule Britannia!!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMax Reger composed the Serenade in G major in 1905 – 06; it demonstrates the style and talent of this too-little-heard composer. Brahms set Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny), a poem by Friedrich Hölderlin, in two movements with chorus, but then added a third, an orchestral postlude. Ave verum corpus, possibly Mozart’s best-known setting for chorus, rounds off the program.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEWS:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe quality of choral singing of the Latvian State Choir is rightly celebrated, and this is a beautifully shaped performance [of the \u003cem\u003eSchicksalslied\u003c\/em\u003e], with vocal warmth and blend, and the orchestral postlude bringing a radiant conclusion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-- BBC \u003cem\u003eMusic \u003c\/em\u003eMagazine\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a marvellous recording...Although Brahms’s Schicksalslied enjoys numerous recordings, Järvi’s is distinguished by the radiance and depth of the first and last sections as well as the vehemence of the central allegro.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-- Gramophone\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAs well as being a thoroughly attractive concert conducted with characteristic élan by Chandos star conductor Neeme Järvi, this program represents for collectors a very useful way of acquiring a variety of pieces, some unfamiliar, some less so… this is a very tempting disc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e-- CDChoice.co.uk\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012485173482,"sku":"095115226223","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4164110-3140394.jpg?v=1786684283"},{"product_id":"hoffmann-mandolin-quartets-5028421971179","title":"Hoffmann: Mandolin Quartets","description":"\u003cp\u003eThere is still much we do not know about the veritable mandolin-mania of late 18th-century Europe, particularly Vienna, which in that period was home to the three greatest musicians of the Classical period: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The instrument certainly enjoyed dazzling success in Viennese musical circles, embraced by the cultured aristocrats who resided in the Habsburg capital, and its meteoric rise was supported by some extraordinary virtuosos who helped promote its high-quality and fast-growing repertoire.\n\u003cbr\u003eGiovanni Hoffmann’s refined chamber music featuring the mandolin was warmly received among the Viennese elite, making him one of the foremost figures behind the burgeoning mandolin repertoire of late 18th-century Vienna. Very little is known about his life; the Italianate first name alongside a clearly central-European surname adds to the mystery shrouding his birthplace and sphere of education.\n\u003cbr\u003eHoffmann was both a mandolin virtuoso and an esteemed composer. In 1799, the music merchant Johann Traeg advertised a list of the mandolin scores available to purchase from his shop on Vienna’s Singerstraße. It included a Trio for mandolin \u0026amp; bass by Hoffmann, and that same year, the composer released a further number of manuscript works through Traeg including his Quartets for mandolin, violin, viola \u0026amp; cello and\n\u003cbr\u003eSerenatas for mandolin \u0026amp; viola. Hoffmann’s work is recorded again in Austria in the early decades of the 19th century, but – like his birth – the place and date of his death have not yet come to light. His music, however, lives on, a testament to his talent for composing delightful music in a Classical style evoking the fascinating gatherings of the Viennese literati.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012487401706,"sku":"5028421971179","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4281843-3124935.jpg?v=1786662296"},{"product_id":"shadow-dances-british-works-for-flute-adam-walker-huw-watkins","title":"Shadow Dances - British Works for Flute \/ Walker, Watkins","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor his second album for Chandos, the flute virtuoso Adam Walker explores the music of British composers with pianist Huw Watkins. Vaughan Williams’s Suite de ballet was commissioned by the French flute virtuoso Louis Fleury (who had given the première of Debussy’s Syrinx). The work uses eighteenth-century French dance forms, a common practice in ‘neo-classical’ composition. Bax’s Four Pieces rescue music from an abandoned ballet originally conceived for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Sir Lennox Berkeley’s Sonatina was originally written for treble recorder; James Galway’s championship of the piece made it a staple of the flute repertoire. Howard Fergusson’s Three Sketches were composed intermittently over a period of twenty years. The theme of the third piece is a Hindu melody, ‘Koyalinya bole ambuvan’ (Cuckoos sing in the mango tree). Sonatas by York Bowen and William Alwyn complete this varied and engaging program.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEW\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003eSeventy-seven minutes of British music for flute and piano might at first glance seem like 40 minutes too much. But that ’s without taking on board the nimble and dazzling skills of flautist Adam Walker, or the individual strengths of the works presented...a new pleasure is never far away in this most accomplished recital, full of the sounds of spring.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003e-- BBC Music Magazine\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012487663850,"sku":"095115226520","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4201660-3140395.jpg?v=1786672847"},{"product_id":"berlin-stories-trio-gaspard","title":"Berlin Stories \/ Trio Gaspard","description":"\u003cp\u003eBerlin Stories is the first in a new series of recordings by the Trio Gaspard, based on different cultural capitals and composers associated with them. The album features three composers who lived and worked in Berlin for a period of their lives – for different reasons and in varying circumstances.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMendelssohn’s grandfather, Moses, was a philosopher and leader of the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment, establishing a pre-eminent position for the family in Berlin, and creating the opportunities for both Felix and Fanny to realize their musical potential. The second piano trio is a perfects example of Mendelssohn’s style, combining a total mastery of classical structure and counterpoint with romantic sensibility. Moscow-born, but of Swiss parentage, Paul Juon came to Berlin in 1894 to study composition at the city’s foremost Conservatory, and remained in the city until he retired to Switzerland in 1934. Litaniae, his fourth piano trio, is unlike anything else in the piano trio repertoire. It is cast as a single movement and resembles Richard Strauss’s tone poems in scale and ambition. Greek composer Nikos Skalkottas, arrived in Berlin in 1921, and stayed until 1933. He studied composition with a number of leading tutors, before spending 5 years studying with Arnold Schoenberg. His eight variations exemplify his ability to combine serial composition with his native folk music. All the members of Trio Gaspard have lived or still live in Berlin and Berlin Stories expresses their love and admiration for this endlessly fascinating and invigorating metropolis.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEW\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe playing in Mendelssohn’s Second Piano Trio is of quicksilver clarity but the musicians are equally alive to its stormy turbulence. Trio Gaspard highlights the surging, epic qualities in Juon’s Litaniae, and is fully committed to the piece’s almost unabating intensity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-- The Strad\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012490776810,"sku":"095115227121","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4211078-2990342.jpg?v=1786680273"},{"product_id":"path-to-the-moon-095115227428","title":"Path to the Moon \/ van der Heijden, Coleman","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe performers write: ‘Selecting the repertoire for our album Path to the Moon, we wanted to explore a number of possibilities for binding together a programme. To place different works alongside one another is a wonderful way of bringing out new and unusual qualities in each piece. William T. Horton’s fantastic image The Path to the Moon immediately inspired a flurry of ideas, including works on the subjects of both night and the moon, as well as pieces which invoke the exploratory nature of humankind’s voyage to the moon. Britten wrote his Sonata for Cello and Piano only two years after the first object made by humans had touched the surface of the moon, in 1959. Humans throughout history and from all cultures have been drawn to and taken inspiration from the moon and we have tried to reflect this in our eclectic choice of song repertoire: from Toru Takemitsu to Nina Simone and from Lili Boulanger to Florence Price. As we hope you will hear on this album, Walker’s Cello Sonata rings with echoes of the sound-worlds of blues and jazz and is infused with a beautiful lyricism. We really believe that Walker’s Cello Sonata deserves to become a staple of the chamber music repertoire and are absolutely thrilled to offer you a recording of it in the context of our own exploration of a path to the moon.’\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012492185834,"sku":"095115227428","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4289986-3147683.jpg?v=1786649623"},{"product_id":"mystique-krzysztof-meisinger","title":"Mystique \/ Krzysztof Meisinger","description":"\u003cp\u003eBefore a phrase from the Gran vals by Francisco Tárrega unexpectedly shot to international fame as the Nokia ringtone, his most celebrated pieces included the Capricho árabe, composed in 1892. The piece is inspired by the mixture of Muslim Castilian and Christian cultures which had always been a feature of the Valencia region where Tárrega grew up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTárrega’s friend and near-contemporary Isaac Albéniz was a virtuoso pianist who also played the guitar. Even though he evoked the guitar brilliantly on the piano, he never composed any music for the instrument. ‘Malagueña’ was first published in the collection España. Published in 1892 as ‘Prélude’, the piece widely known as ‘Asturias’ is also imbued with the spirit of southern Spain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFederico Mompou’s Suite compostelana was commissioned by Andrés Segovia and was published in 1964, the same year as Segovia’s first recording of the piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Italian guitarist and composer Carlo Domeniconi has drawn on several national traditions for his works, but has a particular interest in Turkish music which he has studied in depth. The Variationen über ein anatolisches Volkslied (Variations on an Anatolian Folksong) were composed in 1982 and are based on the song (türkü) ‘Uzun ince bir yoldayim’. Koyunbaba is a four-movement suite for guitar which started as an improvisation, and was then notated soon afterwards. The composer describes the score as ‘no more than a sketch’ and insists that players improvise in their performance – which Krzysztof Meisinger does to great effect with his additional ‘Invocazione’ at the start of the work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEW\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003eIt’s a pity Mompou didn’t write more for the guitar. His only work for that instrument, the Suite compostelana, is a minor masterpiece, profound in its simplicity. It takes a player of Meisinger’s stature to pull off a successful performance, and here the Preludio, Cuna and Canción are especially well rendered.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003e-- Gramophone\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012495921386,"sku":"0095115227824","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4226833-3132682.jpg?v=1786636016"},{"product_id":"mozart-piano-concertos-vol-9-bavouzet-takacs-nagy-manchester-camerata","title":"Mozart: Piano Concertos, Vol. 9 \/ Bavouzet, Takács-Nagy, Manchester Camerata","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe three concertos featured on this album were composed together in 1782 \/ 83 – shortly after Mozart had left his patron and position in Salzburg to establish himself as a freelance composer and performer in Vienna. The concertos were all performed by the composer in a series of subscription concerts that he gave in the city. All share the same form – opening movement in sonata form, slow movement in ternary form, and a bright rondo finale. Despite these similarities, though, each piece has its own distinct character and identity; such was the extent of Mozart’s genius for invention. Although formally scored for strings with wind, horns, trumpets, and timpani, Mozart also offered them to his publisher to be performed ‘a quatro’ – for strings only. These would be the last concertos he wrote in which this would be possible, and it is certainly likely that it reflected a need to earn greater income as opposed to being a purely artistic decision. As in the rest of this series, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is joined by the Manchester Camerata and Gábor Takács-Nagy, who open the album with a dazzling performance of the Overture to Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which dates from the same period.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012501098730,"sku":"095115228623","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4293770-3140399.jpg?v=1786639748"},{"product_id":"barbieri-morricone-rota-silvestri-postcards-from-italy-italian-music-for-film","title":"Postcards from Italy - Italian Music for Film \/ Albonetti, Silvestri, Roma Sinfonietta","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor his third album for Chandos, the saxophonist Marco Albonetti turns to the rich tradition of film music from his native Italy. Marco writes: ‘Film music has been described as the defining new genre of classical music in the twentieth century. It engages both the ear and the heart of an audience. The masterpieces composed by two Italian film composers in particular, Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone, embody the cultural identity of most Italians and they have become recognised and loved by audiences around the world. The film themes on this album capture the magical combination of romance, melancholy, friendship, and violence. The notes vibrate with such passion that the compositions continue to engage the listener, bringing the work of these great Italian composers to life wherever and whenever it is performed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFilm music is meant to be an accompaniment to the action on screen. However, the music of the great Italian composers is so powerful and enduring that these melodies can stand on their own merit, transporting us to another time and place, evoking memories of past experiences or introducing us to new worlds, places which we can only see in our imagination. 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With the advent of National Socialism, in 1933, Müller-Hartmann was forced to resign from his teaching posts at the University and Conservatory. He continued to teach at Hamburg’s Jewish girls’ school, and was an active contributor to the Jüdischer Kulturbund (Jewish Cultural Federation).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the mid 1930s, Eugenia and Jacob (Yanya) Hornstein, Hamburg friends of the Müller-Hartmanns, moved to the town of Dorking, some twenty-five miles south of London, and in 1937 the Müller-Hartmanns followed them. The thirteen years Robert spent in England saw the country scarred by the losses, destruction, and privations of war. There was very little time or opportunity for him to secure a place in his adoptive country’s musical life, and despite his considerable success in Germany during the 1920s and ’30s, his reputation had failed to cross the English Channel. A general antipathy to the inclusion of German musical exiles and his modest, rather retiring personality ensured that he would soon be forgotten.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012506636522,"sku":"0095115229422","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4257609-3206437.jpg?v=1786639487"},{"product_id":"go-lovely-rose-songs-of-roger-quilter","title":"Go, Lovely Rose - Songs of Roger Quilter","description":"Born in Sussex in 1877, Roger Quilter was a fellow-student of Percy Grainger, Cyril Scott, and H. Balfour Gardiner at the Hoch Conservatory, in Frankfurt, where he studied for almost five years under the guidance of the German professor of composition Iwan Knorr. He is best known for his contribution to English art song, having composed around 150 songs, many of which remain regular recital favourites. For this album, the tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Anna Tilbrook explore his output from early works such as 'Now sleeps the crimson petal' through to late examples such as 'The Ash Grove'. All of the songs are settings of English texts, with the exception of the Four Songs of Mirza Schaffy, which set German texts by Friedrich von Bodenstedt. The musicians have arranged their selection of twenty-seven songs into thematic groups - Shakespeare songs, songs about flowers, folksongs, songs of love etc. - which makes for a fascinating and rewarding programme.","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012515090666,"sku":"095115232224","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4339003-3201829.jpg?v=1786644551"},{"product_id":"delibes-la-source","title":"Delibes \u0026 Minkus: La Source \/ Kessels, Paris National Opera Ballet \u0026 Orchestra","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAt last! While we have plenty of filmed productions of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCoppélia\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e to watch and enjoy – whether \u003c\/span\u003evintage\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003ebang up to date\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e or \u003c\/span\u003edownright wacky\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e – and a very good one of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSylvia\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, this new release finally brings the first of Delibes’s three ballets, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLa source\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, to a wide audience via Blu-ray and DVD.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe usual explanation for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLa source\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e’s historical neglect has been that the contribution of Delibes’s co-composer Ludwig Minkus diminished the overall quality of the score. But that suggestion isn’t an adequate one – or even necessarily accurate. In the first place, we need to be clear that “co-composers” doesn’t mean that each of the score’s individual numbers was a sort of high-quality-Delibes-watered-down-by-workmanlike-Minkus hybrid. In fact, the way in which the collaborative process worked was a very practical one – even if we have no idea why it was adopted – with each man allocated responsibility for different parts of the score. Minkus was entrusted with Act 1 and the second scene of Act 3, while Delibes was responsible for Act 2 and Act 3’s first scene. That turned out, in practice, to be a pretty even split, for Minkus ended up providing about 45 minutes worth of music and Delibes penned about 44[.]\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIt is certainly true that there are \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003edifferences\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e between the two men’s scores. To some extent, those derive from the mundanely practical point that each composer was writing music for very different sections of the story. Minkus’s focus in Act 1 was on establishing the ballet’s various characters and generally setting the scene, while the finale to Act 3 offered few opportunities as it gave him only six minutes to wrap up the whole drama. Delibes, on the other hand, was tasked with creating the music underpinning the more glamorous jollifications at the khan’s court, which allowed him to concentrate on writing livelier material that was characterised by far more colour, glitter and exotic sensuality.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThere is, however, a second and somewhat more fundamental explanation for the perceived contrasts between the two composers’ scores, for Minkus and Delibes had rather different conceptions of what writing music for the ballet actually meant. The former was a composer of the old school who, as Ivor Guest wrote in his booklet essay for the aforementioned Bonynge CD, “specialised in composing music for the ballet, a field not highly regarded in musical circles but which nonetheless demanded a special gift to satisfy the ballet-master’s requirements – to produce melodious numbers for the dances and suitably descriptive passages for the action, and above all to deliver to a deadline”. That has led some critics to perceive Minkus as little more than a hack journeyman who churned out unmemorable material on demand, even though audiences who have come to appreciate the manner in which his skilfully-wrought scores underpin such popular ballets as \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDon Quixote\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLa bayadère\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e might beg to differ. In reality, his music was in no way “inferior” to that of the next generation of ballet composers: it simply aimed to achieve a very different - but certainly no less legitimate – musical and dramatic purpose. The first embodiment of that subsequent generation, Delibes himself, was, on the other hand, a composer whose conception of ballet was developing into something rather more ambitious. No less a figure than Tchaikovsky, the originator of the modern “symphonic” style of ballet score, regarded \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSylvia\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e as “the first ballet in which the music constitutes not just the main, but the sole interest. What charm, what grace, what melodic, rhythmic and harmonic richness. I was ashamed. If I had known this music earlier, then of course I would not have written \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSwan Lake”.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIt is far too easy, in fact, to assert glibly that any contrasts between the two composers’ contributions are necessarily \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003equalitative\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e in nature. Indeed, when listened to blind and without foreknowledge of who actually composed what, the score of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLa source\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e – skilfully edited and occasionally augmented here by Marc-Olivier Dupin - actually emerges as a pretty seamless whole.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn reality, there were two other much more significant causes of the ballet’s failure to maintain a long-term place in the repertoire. In the first case, its plot was undeniably involved, and it is notable that the production under consideration omits several of its complicating plotlines. Moreover, the fact that there are no less than three central female figures and that easily confused names were selected for some of the central characters (Naïla\/Nouredda, Djémil\/Dadjé) does not help. The inconsistency of some of the participants’ on-stage motivations can also be puzzling from time to time – though, in the absence of any other modern production with which to compare it, that may be a feature unique to this particular one.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe second legitimate reason for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLa source\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e’s relatively rapid descent into obscurity is simply accidental. It successfully maintained its place in the repertoire for a decade and there is no reason to doubt that regular revivals might subsequently have been mounted. However, a disastrous fire in 1873 destroyed the drawings, models and plans on which the original production had been based and, rather than recreate them from scratch, it no doubt seemed easier to ballet impresarios at the time to move on to different projects.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThis new Blu-ray\/DVD release preserves a new production of the ballet dating from almost 150 years after its premiere. Conservatively choreographed by Jean-Guillaume Bart for the Paris Opera Ballet, it follows the original story’s broad outlines and uses much of the Minkus\/Delibes score. Booklet notes author Laure Guilbert is nevertheless at pains to stress that this production is in no way a “reconstruction” of the original but instead has a character and identity of its own. Those last words might be enough to strike fear in the heart of traditionalist ballet fans, but in reality the French choreographer (gushingly described by Ms. Guilbert as a man who “fervently cultivates his attachment to the classical universe… a lover of dance who has transformed [it] into an odyssey throughout the near- and far-flung realms of the art”) is owed a real debt of gratitude for his achievement in returning \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLa source\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e to the stage. There are, it’s true, a few significant problem areas that would have benefited from attention. In the case of the plot, Nouredda’s motivation and reactions as she experiences her character’s trials and tribulations can be somewhat opaque or even downright puzzling. In addition, the stage production itself is visually rather disconcerting. There is, to my own eyes at least, a jarring mismatch between Christian Lacroix’s detailed and often gorgeously elaborate costumes and Éric Ruf’s essentially impressionistic set designs. The latter are highly imaginative and attractive in their own right (especially a set of prominent and exquisitely lit ropes, lowered over the stage from the flies, that represent trees) but they are clearly not intended as any sort of realistic depiction of the settings and that doesn’t gel with the detailed, elaborate and convincingly “realistic” clothing sported by the dancers. Neither element can be described as wrong in itself, but another producer might have chosen to integrate them more effectively.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe quality of the dancing, meanwhile, is generally high, with the women, in particular, demonstrating confident assurance in their own technical skills. Ludmila Pagliero as Naïla performs with delicacy and an appropriate sense of otherworldliness; she presumably impressed not only the theatre audience but the company’s management, too, as within a year of this performance she had been promoted to the top rank of \u003c\/span\u003edanseuse étoile\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e. Meanwhile, the nature of her role as the princess Nouredda means that the other leading female dancer, Isabelle Ciaravola, tends to spend a disproportionate amount of time on stage looking depressed and generally mopey – although there are also moments, as already noted, when she looks bizarrely happy even though her circumstances are at their worst. If her acting is somewhat questionable, the same cannot be said, however, of Ms. Ciaravola’s dancing which is, invariably, both sensitively and often rather beautifully delivered. Of the men, Karl Paquette combines sheer energy with attention to detail in a winning performance that suffers only from an uncharacteristically drab and featureless costume, little suited, in my opinion, to the hero of a classical ballet. The role of Nouredda’s brother Mozdock, concerned about her only as far as she serves his own political ambitions, is taken by Christophe Duquenne who delivers an effectively villainous turn while leading his energetic and well-drilled soldiers in several lively numbers. Dancing as the elf Zaël, Mathias Heymann is the audience’s favourite as he leaps his way enthusiastically and repeatedly across the stage, creating a genuine character out of his role. The dancer portraying the libidinous khan, Alexis Renaud, makes the most of his opportunities but does not create as much of an impression as the other men. The rest of the company make a very positive contribution, to the extent that I thought that the numbers in which the primary focus was on the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ecorps de ballet\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e were among the most effectively delivered in the whole performance.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOn the technical side, I was particularly impressed by the effectively realised stage lighting which has been very well captured on film. The sound, as relayed on this recording, is also more than merely acceptable and allows us to appreciate plenty of felicitous detail from the orchestra, led on this occasion by Koen Kessels who will be known to many as music director of the Royal Ballet. Meanwhile, the experienced François Roussillon’s film direction focuses our attention to everything that we need to see while not distracting us unnecessarily or drawing undue attention to itself.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThis is an important release for balletomanes. It is, I think, unlikely that there will be an alternative version of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLa source\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e any time soon...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eI repeat, therefore, my original reaction to the release of this new and well-produced Blu-ray disc – \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eat last!\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRob Maynard\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Naxos AudioVisual","offers":[{"title":"Blu-Ray","offer_id":46012526854378,"sku":"730099014564","price":17.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4069368-2800541.jpg?v=1793908912"},{"product_id":"wagner-gotterdammerung","title":"Wagner: Gotterdammerung","description":"Gotterdammerung ('Twilight of the Gods') is the final opera of Wagner's epic tetralogy \"Der Ring des Nibelungen\" ('The Ring of the Nibelung') in which his visionary masterpiece reaches it's cataclysmic conclusion. Betrayal and death, murder and remorse, lie at the opera's heart, in a work that draws together every plot element in writing of blazing intensity. As the ring is restored to the Rhinemaidens, the age of the gods ends, with the opera offering the certainty of destruction but the consolation of renewal. Staged by the award-winning director Stefan Herheim, this innovative new production from Deutsche Oper Berlin features a leading international cast conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. The release includes \"Making Of\" documentary featuring interviews with Stefan Herheim and Sir Donald Runnicles, and behind the scenes footage.","brand":"Naxos AudioVisual","offers":[{"title":"Blu-Ray","offer_id":46012537864426,"sku":"730099016063","price":20.48,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4322703-3142902.jpg?v=1793128013"},{"product_id":"razaz-the-strange-highway-7318590026342","title":"Gity Razaz: The Strange Highway \/ All-American Cello Band, Metropolis Ensemble","description":"\u003cp\u003eGity Razaz was born in Tehran, where she spent her formative years before moving to the United States in 2002. Razaz’s identity as an immigrant is integral to her artistic work, in terms both of the subject matter that attracts her and the musical structures she employs. The relationship between the grounded and the ephemeral inhabits much of her music: her choice of titles reveals a poetic sensibility, but her music is never purely cerebral. Instead it is often anchored by the visceral, as with the punchy rhythms and earthy colours of The Strange Highway for cello octet. That piece, which has given name to the album, takes its inspiration from a poem by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. Two other works on the disc also have extra-musical roots: Legend of Sigh is a retelling in music of an Azerbaijani folktale while Metamorphosis of Narcissus was inspired by the famous painting by Salvador Dalí. In both these works Razaz embraces electro-acoustic techniques as a means of enhancing her palette.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe five works on the disc were composed between 2007 and 2020, with the earliest piece being Duo for violin and piano. The latest work is Spellbound, a solo for viola inspired by the mournful sound quality of Persian instruments such as the ney and kamanche.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BIS","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012549038314,"sku":"7318590026342","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4112382-2852408.jpg?v=1786656781"},{"product_id":"pictured-within-kuusisto-symphony-bbc-scottish-symphony-helsinki-philharmonic","title":"J. Kuusisto: Symphony; Pictured Within","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis disc is a double tribute. The first work, Pictured Within, is a collective effort conceived as a major project to mark the 60th birthday of conductor Martyn Brabbins, whose reputation in new music and British music is beyond reproach.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing the pattern of Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Pictured Within is a series of 14 variations on a theme, each of which takes up the character of the equivalent variation in Elgar’s work, the difference being that here 14 different composers have each contributed a variation in tribute to Brabbins.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlso on the SACD is Jaakko Kuusisto’s Symphony, a fitting tribute to the composer, conductor, and violinist who passed away in 2022. Illness left Jaakko no time to complete his work, so it fell to his brother Pekka – who conducts here – and Jari Eskola to finish it. The result is a powerful piece, full of familiar themes and melodies derived from Jaakko’s existing compositions, to which are added autobiographical extra-musical elements. The moving conclusion is a collage of fragmented phrases inspired by the signals emitted by lighthouses and ships, as if Kuusisto’s spirit had been sent out to sea.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BIS","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012549824746,"sku":"7318590027479","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4408913-3332416.jpg?v=1786690407"},{"product_id":"medtner-wandrers-nachtlied-complete-songs-vol-4-5028421960661","title":"Medtner: Wandrers Nachtlied - Complete Songs, Vol. 4 \/ Levental, Peters","description":"\u003cp\u003eNew recordings of Goethe and Heine settings by a master Russian song-writer, by performers thoroughly versed in the composer’s complex harmony and heritage. While Nikolai Medtner only emigrated from Moscow to Berlin in 1921, eventually settling in London, the Russian composer traced a deep connection to German culture through the ancestry of his mother. He was familiar with the German language and culture from his childhood, and made his first visit to Berlin in the winter of 1904-5, then returned for most of 1907 and the summer of 1909. It can be no coincidence that these original-language settings of two of Germany’s greatest poets date from this period in Medtner’s life. In his mid-20s at this point, Medtner had become internationally known as a pianist of formidable technical and interpretative gifts, but he continued to compose and to teach, taking up a post at the Moscow Conservatoire in 1909. While Medtner’s pianism often lends the quicker songs a scintillating brilliance, such as the Elfenliedchen which is third in the Opus 6 collection of Goethe’s songs, the overall mood of the collection is imbued with the feelings of love and longing which are key-signatures of Romanticism (German or Russian). Medtner was always drawn towards musical contemplation of life’s deeper themes, and he accordingly sets both poets at their most philosophical and visionary, in the Wandrers Nachtlied of Goethe and the Bergstimme of Heine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn this album, recorded in 2022, Ekaterina Levental and Frank Peters couple the Opp 6, 15 and 18 settings of Goethe with the three Op 12 settings of Heine: a unique but natural pairing on record. The booklet includes both original texts and English translations.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012562735338,"sku":"5028421960661","price":8.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4169743-3141725.jpg?v=1786684327"},{"product_id":"picchi-organ-music-5028421960982","title":"Picchi: Organ Music","description":"\u003cp\u003eLuigi Picchi learned the rudiments of music from his father Faustino; a self-taught organist; and later studied with the Pavia-based teachers Giovanni Baroni and Franco Vittadini in preparation for admission to the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan in 1909. The first phase of his musical activity saw him engaged in the concert and operatic life of the province as well as composing: instrumental and vocal works; a Requiem Mass (1922) and musical accompaniments for the Passione di Cristo (1925) to a text by Don Ennio Bernasconi. In Como; Picchi’s true vocation; for sacred music; was able to be realized: as a boy he had had the opportunity to play for liturgical services on the Sairano organ and; as a young student at the Conservatory; he had continued this activity in villages in the surroundings of Milan. He also composed pieces for organ which were featured in L’Organista italiano (1922–26) and I Maestri dell’Organo (1931); journals issued by the Carrara music publishing house of Bergamo; whose founder Vittorio Carrara was astute enough to sense and appreciate Picchi’s talents: his artistic substance as well as the playability of his music and its suitability for the liturgy. In 1932 Carrara entrusted him with the editorship of a new journal; L’Organista liturgico; which he held until 1943.  Alongside his music for organ Picchi also composed vocal works for use by the cathedral choir as well as amateur choral groups and public assemblies; including various motets as well as masses (Cristo risusciti; 1932; Italica; 1940; Christus vincit; 1941) and also educational music (theatrical sketches; school songs) and theoretical works (Scuola moderna di Teoria e Solfeggio; 1941–44). His wish to set the text of the mass in an appropriate manner together with his faithfulness to Cecilian ideals led Picchi to the innovations of his Missa Misericors Deus (1949); published by Ricordi together with the masses in honour of San Nicolao della Flüe (1947) and San Pio X (1954) and his collections of Christmas Carols (1947) and Easter Songs (1950–54). In 1954 Picchi established a new journal on organ music; Laus Decora; operating from Como; it was issued over the course of a decade with associated publications from the Schola music publishing house and introduced readers to a wide range of vocal compositions by Picchi; including various songs and motets; the masses Rex pacificus (1945); In onore di Maria Vergine Assunta (1950) and Auxilium Christianorum (1960) as well as various school songs and educational works (Nuovo Corso di Solfeggio; 1954; Metodo teorico-pratico per lo studio dell’Armonio e del Pianoforte; 1956). The resumption of his collaboration with the Carrara publishing house coincided with the implementation of the liturgical reforms as stipulated by the Second Vatican Council; of which Picchi had already been a precursor in his interpretative consistency as well as his involvement of the assembly of the faithful; namely in his songs for Il popolo alla messa; 1953; written in collaboration with Don Luigi Agustoni and Don Silvano Albisetti. His greatest success in this field was the Messa Vaticano II (1965) followed by the Messa dei Defunti (1966) and the Messa Apostolica (1968). Picchi’s organ output included compositions written for later editions of Laus Decora (1966–67) as well as for the journal I Fiori dell’Organo (1968–70).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012568600810,"sku":"5028421960982","price":8.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4412830-3337365.jpg?v=1786693192"},{"product_id":"rebay-complete-music-for-violin-guitar-sacco-diecl","title":"Rebay: Complete Music for Violin \u0026 Guitar \/ Sacco, Dieci","description":"Austrian composer Ferdinand Rebay (1880–1953) gave the guitar a fresh identity in the world of chamber music, transforming it from a mere accompanying instrument to a soloist in its own right. His vast oeuvre for guitar, which was overlooked by leading performers like Andres Segovia and Julian Bream, has enjoyed an enthusiastic and well-deserved revival in recent years. Rebay’s refined and dignified voice has made itself heard, thanks to the music’s\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003esolid craftsmanship but above all its sincerity. Its rediscovery dispels many clichés and reassures us that humble yet beautiful music is not necessarily destined to be unjustly forgotten.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012576399594,"sku":"5028421961767","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4412831-3337366.jpg?v=1786690973"},{"product_id":"horowitz-dvoraks-prophecy-a-new-narrative-for-949632","title":"Dvorak's Prophecy - Film 3 - The Souls of Black Folk \u0026 the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music [DVD]","description":"\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eThe Souls of Black Folk\u003c\/em\u003e and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music”\u003cbr\u003eWritten and produced by Joseph Horowitz\u003cbr\u003eVisual presentation by Peter Bogdanoff\u003cbr\u003eFilm three in the six-film Naxos series:\u003cbr\u003e“Dvorak’s Prophecy: A New Narrative for American Classical Music”\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eIf George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess – the highest creative achievement in American classical music – embodies a glorious (and controversial) fulfillment of Dvořák’s prophecy, there also exists a buried lineage of exceptional compositions by Black composers following in Dvořák’s wake. Coming first was his assistant Harry Burleigh, whose seminal settings of “Deep River” are – as our film illustrates – as much compositions as transcriptions. Burleigh’s initiative was sealed by singers like Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson. But William Levi Dawson’s oracular Negro Folk Symphony, though triumphantly premiered by Leopold Stokowski and his Philadelphia Orchestra in 1934, gathered dust – and Dawson was never to create the symphonic catalogue he seemed destined to undertake. Commentators include George Shirley, the most legendary name in present-day Black classical music, also Kevin Deas, music historians Gwynne Kuhner Brown and Michael Cooper, and conductor Michael Morgan. This film includes performances by pianist Benjamin Pasternack, The Fort Smith Symphony conducted by John Jeter, The Vienna Radio Symphony conducted by Arthur Fagen and Kevin Deas recorded in live performance.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e“The disconnection between the rich history of Black American music and the classical music we typically hear has proved impoverishing. Because of our current conversation about race we now observe a seemingly desperate effort to make up for lost time, to present Black faces in the concert hall. I think that's only fair. But if it's going to become a permanent new way of thinking, there has to be new understanding. Dvořák's Prophecy is on time, it's a bull's-eye. We have been left unprepared for the current cultural moment. Joe Horowitz's book explains how we got there. . . . Dvořák's Prophecy proposes a bigger world of American classical music than what we have known before. It is more diverse and more equitable. And it is more truthful.” –from George Shirley's Foreword to Dvořák's Prophecy\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Naxos","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":46012586852586,"sku":"747313570058","price":6.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4009931-2761400.jpg?v=1786646397"},{"product_id":"piatti-complete-cello-sonatas","title":"Piatti: Complete Cello Sonatas \/ Curtoni, Miglietta","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA capacious library of Baroque-era works bears the name of the Italian cellist Alfredo Piatti (1822-1901) as an assiduous and pioneering editor, arranger and promoter of music for his instrument. Much less familiar are Piatti’s own original pieces. This is the first modern recording and the only available collection on record of all six sonatas by a man hailed by Liszt as ‘the Paganini of the cello’. Ever true to his word and generous, Liszt presented Piatti with a replacement instrument after the Italian had been forced to sell his cello, having fallen into reduced circumstances. Piatti played with him in concert, as he did with Joseph Joachim and many other luminaries of mid-19th-century Europe. Of all his own music, Piatti was apparently proudest of the sonatas. They were written over an eleven-year period begun in 1885, during the last part of Piatti’s creative life, long established as a celebrity of musical life in Victorian London. He gave the first performances of each one at the series of Popular Concerts, and to huge acclaim. While many virtuosos have written for their own instruments, the cello sonatas of Piatti stand out for their artistic confidence, their balance of extroversion and well-wrought sensitivity to form.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAll the Sonatas embody qualities associated with Piatti, especially in the handling of melody, which is distinctly operatic in its lyricism. The slow movements share the passion that Verdi put into the lead characters of his operas. In terms of construction they are also highly varied, while remaining true to the traditions of cantabile and display which underpin his Italian heritage. Born in 1987 in Piacenza, the cellist Lamberto Curtoni introduces this new recording of Piatti’s sonatas with an invaluable survey of the works within the context of their times and their place in the composer’s career.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012593275114,"sku":"5028421962993","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4085512-3141746.jpg?v=1786694028"},{"product_id":"miroir-de-peine","title":"H. Andriessen, Badings, Van Lier, Wertheim: Miroir de Peine \/ Van Veldhoven, Havinga","description":"\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eMiroir de Peine\u003c\/em\u003e, five stages of the Agony of Christ are viewed from the perspective of Mary, mother of Jesus. Composed in 1923, Hendrik Andriessen’s settings of poems by Henri Ghéon eschew both Romantic and modernist tropes of the time in favor of a meditative consideration of intimate, mystical simplicity. This quality is shared by his later setting of a Paul Claudel text, \"La Sainte Face.\" In the midst of the Second World War, imprisoned in an internment camp by Nazi forces, Andriessen made a devotional setting of a medieval Marian text, \"Maria, schone vrouwe,\" as a wedding-anniversary gift to his wife. The consciously archaic style of this prayer for aid conveys an intimate yearning, while his \u003cem\u003eSonata da Chiesa\u003c\/em\u003e for solo organ employs a more chromatic language despite the neoclassical origins of the form. In search of companion pieces for \u003cem\u003eMiroir de Peine\u003c\/em\u003e, Klaartje van Veldhoven and Matthias Havinga turned up the music of Rosy Wertheim, a Dutch-Jewish pianist, teacher, writer and composer who organized covert concerts in the cellar of her home in Amsterdam during the Occupation. Like Andriessen, she also set \"Magna res est amor,\" a hymn in praise of love by Thomas a Kempis. Just as Miroir de Peine is heard here in a version with solo organ rather than the original string-orchestra accompaniment, Wertheim’s accompaniment for violin and viola has been adapted for solo organ by Havinga. Havinga has also transcribed the piano part of \"Vrijheid,\" a neoclassical ode to freedom composed at the end of the war by Bertus van Lier. Between the vocal items on the album, he interleaves solo-organ pieces by Henk Badings, including an early Toccata and two densely woven preludes and fugues.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012594651370,"sku":"5028421963044","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4046047-2795356.jpg?v=1786665496"},{"product_id":"muffat-componimenti-musicali-per-il-cembalo-1739-5028421963402","title":"Muffat: Componimenti Musicali per il cembalo (1739) \/ Loreggian","description":"\u003cp\u003eGottlieb Muffat’s oeuvre, dedicated almost in its entirety to keyboard instruments and skilfully straddling the stile antico and stile moderno, deserves more detailed attention than it has ever been afforded. The majority of sources containing music by Muffat are unpublished, with only two collections published at the composer’s own behest during his years in the Emperor’s service in Vienna. One of these is the Componimenti Musicali per il Cembalo (Augsburg, 1739).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis collection contains 6 Suites and a Ciacona with 38 variations for solo harpsichord. The composer describes these seven works as capricci or galanterie to be performed in the stile moderno and to suit modern tastes. Although arranged in the conventional order of Allemande–Courante–Sarabande–Gigue, Muffat also added various optional dances, displaying no shortage of innovation. The first movements are introductory in nature, often fugal in form and varying in style and pace: Ouverture (Suites 1 and 5), Prelude (Suite 2) and Fantaisie (Suites 3, 4 and 6). The seventh piece in the collection, the Ciacona con 38 Variazioni, is a special case. As Christopher Hogwood suggests in his introduction to the modern edition (Orpheus, 2009), the Ciacona could be another tribute to the imperial family, as the number of variations matches the age Charles VI’s niece, Maria Amalia, would have been on 22 October 1739.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMuffat’s interest in contemporary harpsichord composition is most clearly evident in his transcription and reinterpretation of works by George Frideric Handel, based on a manuscript copy of the Suites des pièces pour le clavecin he held in his library. Muffat reworked the suites in Handel’s collection, suggesting new ornamentation, distributing the notes differently between the hands, changing the clefs and sometimes note values, and adding slurs and cadenzas. He then applied everything he had observed while rewriting Handel’s suites to his own Componimenti musicali: including a table of ornaments, which the composer asks be played with ‘art and discretion’; he considers the positioning of the player’s hands on the keyboard in his writing and avoids using multiple clefs on one line to prevent confusion; he describes the optimum way to use the thumb for accidentals; and he provides the correct technical interpretation of trills and slurs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eStudy of the Componimenti reveals what could be defined as a pedagogical intent, as well as a clear desire to make the score unambiguous and accessible by means of his introductory instructions. The collection contributed greatly to setting a new benchmark for keyboard writing in the lands of the Viennese Empire.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012596682986,"sku":"5028421963402","price":8.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4412835-3337371_486a17df-5eb3-4410-943b-e54ec37a97b5.jpg?v=1786690751"},{"product_id":"naxos-dvdwagner-gotterdammerung","title":"Wagner: Götterdämmerung \/ Runnicles, Deutsche Oper Berlin","description":"\u003cp\u003eGötterdämmerung ('Twilight of the Gods') is the final opera of Wagner’s epic tetralogy \"Der Ring des Nibelungen\" ('The Ring of the Nibelung') in which his visionary masterpiece reaches its cataclysmic conclusion. Betrayal and death, murder and remorse, lie at the opera’s heart, in a work that draws together every plot element in writing of blazing intensity. As the ring is restored to the Rhinemaidens, the age of the gods ends, with the opera offering the certainty of destruction but the consolation of renewal. Staged by the award-winning director Stefan Herheim, this innovative new production from Deutsche Oper Berlin features a leading international cast conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. The release includes \"Making Of\" documentary featuring interviews with Stefan Herheim and Sir Donald Runnicles, and behind the scenes footage.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Naxos AudioVisual","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":46012597338346,"sku":"747313574551","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4322711-3143547.jpg?v=1786636563"},{"product_id":"paganini-music-for-violin-strings-pieranunzi-lombardo-stratulat","title":"Paganini: Music for Violin \u0026 Strings \/ Gabriele Pieranunzi","description":"\u003cp\u003ePaganini was the first great ‘star’ of instrumental music, the precursor of the rock stars of today, able to induce collective hysteria as well as to dictate fashion and to influence the behaviour of entire generations. He did this by transforming the violin into an orchestra of multiple voices and timbral experimentation, in other words, stretching the very limits of what a single instrument could do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis programme is particularly interesting, both for the quality of the performances as well as the new chamber-string versions created by Francesco Fiore and Salvatore Lombardo. It also juxtaposes extremely popular Paganini works alongside compositions not very often heard in the concert hall but which help flesh out our understanding of the artistry of a composer too often misjudged as merely an acrobat of the violin. In four of Paganini’s best-known compositions – the ‘Campanella’ (Bell) movement from the Violin Concerto No.2, the Moses Fantasy, the Witches’ Dance and the Cantabile – the solo violin is here accompanied by a string quintet. In the first three, the string quintet stands in for the orchestra with a consequent lightening of accompaniment. In the Cantabile, the original of which was for violin and piano (Paganini’s only piece to be accompanied by keyboard rather than guitar), the ‘heavier’ quintet accompaniment still manages to retain a discreet sense of enjoyable sophistication.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe next two works, Nos. 6 and 3 of the 6 Sonatas Op.3 for violin and guitar, are presented here in transcriptions for two or three violins. These two sonatas, written in the salon style typical of the age, delight the listener with the conversational nature of the violin writing. Finally come three compositions in their original versions, providing an excursion into a lesser-known, but still very interesting, area of Paganini’s chamber output. The three Duetti concertanti for violin and cello were written for the enjoyment of amateur players, each comprising two movements\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012601041130,"sku":"5028421963754","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4412837-3337373.jpg?v=1786690459"},{"product_id":"martynov-edition-5028421963808","title":"Martynov Edition","description":"\u003cp\u003eBorn in 1946, Vladimir Martynov is one of several composers from the former USSR whose music taps into a vein of perpetual memory and farewell. Literally so in the case of Der Abschied, an eight-movement cycle for small ensemble which stands on the threshold like a guest at a gathering of friends, unable or unwilling to shut the door behind them and venture out alone. One of Martynov’s most distinguished contemporaries was the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, who talked of a ‘genetic aural well’ for Russian music which, like Orthodox prayer, cannot be learnt as a text, but which exists beyond any text. Silvestrov explicitly recognized his own output as ‘meta-music’ or even ‘post-music’, and the same could be said of many pieces in Martynov’s output. Tiny motifs and gestures are layered and expanded across a meditative space in a distinctively Russian form of Minimalism that bears certain similarities with the better-known outputs of Pärt and Schnittke but pursues a consciously more austere path: both the Requiem and Stabat mater are imbued with the timeless qualities of chant and ancient melisma. Martynov’s music began to attract a certain cult following in the West during the 1990s with performances and recordings made principally by the violinist Gidon Kremer and his former partner, Tatiana Grindenko. As both a violinist and conductor, Grindenko has continued to keep Martynov’s flame burning, and she leads most of the performances here, which were made mostly in Moscow over the course of several years and in several cases receive here their first international release.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012602581226,"sku":"5028421963808","price":25.48,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4136057-2903172.jpg?v=1786676383"},{"product_id":"langgaard-antikrist","title":"Langgaard: Antikrist","description":"Rued Langgaard's remarkable opera 'Antikrist' confronts the decline and fall of Western civilisation, critiquing modern lifestyles and ways of thinking, which resonates with our times more than ever before. Never performed in the composer's lifetime, 'Antikrist' blends Romantic and contemporary styles to create a score that is both seductive and opulent, while the lack of a conventional plot creates space for an ironic and sarcastic exposé of contemporary civilisation's weaknesses. This spectacular Deutsche Oper Berlin production was acclaimed in 'The New York Times' as a 'riotously colourful, boldly stylised staging [in] a near-breathless swirl'.","brand":"Naxos AudioVisual","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":46012608053482,"sku":"747313576456","price":17.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4344190-3187742.jpg?v=1786650870"},{"product_id":"hans-van-manen-moving-to-music-ballets-documentary-1","title":"Hans van Manen: Hommage à Hans van Manen \u0026 Moving to Music","description":"Guided by his idol George Balanchine, Hans Van Manen has striven all his life to create meaning in his choreography. Alongside conversations with colleagues and collaborators, in the documentary Moving to Music, van Manen talks about his life and work, and from where his inspiration came in ballets that are charged with drama and eroticism. Also included are three complete works from Dutch National Ballet - the early Metaforen; Adagio Hammerklavier, which presents the slow movement of Beethoven's Op. 106 sonata performed live on stage with three couples in various configurations; and Frank Bridge Variations, a late masterpiece that plays with balance and counterpoint to music by Benjamin Britten. Total playing time: 127 minutes (Documentary: 52 minutes · Ballets: 75 minutes). Language: English · Subtitles: English, German, Japanese, Korean. NTSC 16:9 · PCM Stereo · DVD 9 · Region: 0 (Worldwide). Photos: Front cover © Erwin Olaf; Back cover Courtesy Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam © Erwin Olaf. Documentary © 2022 RM Creative · Ballets © 2017 La Belle Télé - Festival Montpellier Danse - Mezzo. © 2024 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd · Made in Germany.","brand":"Naxos AudioVisual","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":46012612509930,"sku":"747313577552","price":17.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4357759-3236460.jpg?v=1786636542"},{"product_id":"cirri-sonatas-duos-for-cello","title":"Cirri: Sonatas \u0026 Duos for Cello \/ Montesinos Defez, Breaking Bass Ensemble","description":"This world premiere recording presents four sonatas and four duos by Giovanni Battista Cirri (1724-1808), a cello virtuoso and teacher whose reputation took him across Europe – including to London, where for a time during the 1760s he was employed by members of the Royal Family, and took part in the first concert given in the English capital by the eight-year-old Mozart. By now, however, Cirri’s name has been almost forgotten, save through an edition of dubious scholarship from the 1950s of a viola concerto which is in fact an arrangement of one of his London cello sonatas. His set of six cello concertos Op 14 has been recorded before now, revealing his creative gifts to be not dazzlingly original but always pleasing, and superbly conceived for his own instrument. All cellists of an adventurous disposition will accordingly be drawn to this new collection, which contains work dating from after his return to Italy in 1780, and to his native Emilia-Romagna region. The Breaking Bass ensemble has selected four of the 12 Sonate di camera, and alternated them with four of the Eight Duets for two cellos to make a satisfying contrast of genre and texture within the album. The solo parts of the sonatas bristle with technical challenges as well as attractive melodic writing, and the duos are full of lively exchange between the two instruments, revealing a far more theatrical side to the composer, with the two instruments taking on solo roles and sharing the limelight on equal terms. They were clearly designed for pedagogical use to be performed by teacher and pupil.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012614017258,"sku":"5028421964164","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4063814-2828417.jpg?v=1786665553"},{"product_id":"rheingold","title":"Rheingold \/ Strobos, Gasteren, Ciconia Consort","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePrevious Brilliant Classics albums by this Dutch string orchestra, based in The Hague, have focused on late-Romantic ‘American Pioneers’ (96086) and composers in early 20th-century Paris (95734). Under their founder-director Dick van Gasteren, they now turn to the rich history of Rhineland music from the high-point of its immortalisation in operatic culture as the bedrock of Wagner’s Ring cycle. Das Rheingold itself is present by implication in the cycle of Wesendonck-Lieder which Wagner composed on the shore of Lake Zurich, initially as sketches for Tristan und Isolde, which he had embarked upon as a venture to drum up interest and capital for the larger project of the Ring. Inspired by his intimate association with as well as the poetry of Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of a wealthy silk merchant who was underwriting the composer’s sojourn in Zurich, Wagner then developed the songs into a self-contained cycle which throbs with transfigured desire much like the opera. The cycle is sung here by the mezzo-soprano Karin Strobos, whose career was launched by singing Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at the Netherlands Opera under Sir Simon Rattle. She also sings the album’s notable rarity: a setting of Heine’s Loreley text, which describes the mythical creatures who lure unsuspecting Rhenish sailors to their doom like Greek Sirens. Originally composed as a male-voice partsong by Friedrich Silcher (1798-1860), the song has been transcribed by Dick van Gasteren for Strobos and La Ciconia. Complementing the songs are two unfamiliar but attractive examples of late-Romantic German string music: the Serenade Op.242 by Carl Reinecke, and the Concerto for String Orchestra by Max Bruch. Neither work enjoys more than a toehold on the record catalogue, and this engagingly vivid new recording makes the most persuasive case for them.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEW\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"B\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"TIMES\"\u003eSomehow this quartet of pieces brought to my mind the old wedding saw of “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” For “something old” there is this Serenade of Carl Reinecke (1824–1910). Although I certainly recognize his name, I cannot recollect ever having heard any of his music before now, but this thoroughly delightful six-movement work shows that his \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"TIMESi\"\u003eoeuvre\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"TIMES\"\u003e warrants further investigation. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"B\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"TIMES\"\u003eFor “something new” we have a work by Max Bruch (1838–1920) — the string octet he wrote in 1920, only a few months before his death. In the score, Bruch indicated that the piece was also suitable for performance by a full string orchestra, and upon publication of that version his publisher Simrock attached the title “Concerto.” While the octet has enjoyed no less than six previous recordings in its original form, this is the first one for full orchestra, and thus makes a welcome addition to the Bruch discography. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"B\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"TIMES\"\u003e“Something borrowed” comes in the guise of Wagner’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"TIMESi\"\u003eWesendonck Lieder\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"TIMES\"\u003e, in a 2006 reduction for string orchestra by Gerhard Heydt. Frankly, I’m not certain what the point of this exercise is; certainly Wagner is hardly in need of reorchestration, and a good degree of tonal color is lost in subtracting woodwinds and brass. Mezzo-soprano Karin Strobos has a reasonably attractive and well produced but not exceptional voice; she sings with sincerity, but not the degree of subtle inflection these texts and settings require. This was by no means unpleasant to listen to, but there is no strong incentive to return to it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"B\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"TIMES\"\u003eFinally, for “something blue,” Strobos sings a setting by Friedrich Silcher (1798–1860) of Heinrich Heine’s famous poem of the original Rhine Maiden, whose beautiful appearance and singing lure ships and sailors to destruction. Silcher’s Lied is a bit peculiar in that it’s a lilting, waltz-like ditty, devoid of any darker undertones. Here Strobos and the ensemble are in their proper element.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Br\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"TIMES\"\u003eThe Ciconia Consort is further identified as being a \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"TIMESi\"\u003enom de guerre\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"TIMES\"\u003e for The Hague String Orchestra. Dick van Gasteren directs the players with a sure hand. The recorded sound is warm, with a certain degree of plush resonance. The booklet provides brief notes and song texts in German without translations. Although I would have preferred a full disc of lesser-known German string serenades, this definitely makes for enjoyable listening; cordially recommended.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-- Fanfare (James A. Altena)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012618834154,"sku":"5028421964263","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4046049-2798594.jpg?v=1786694677"},{"product_id":"50-american-patriotic-military-songs-limited-edition-vinyl-us-military-bands","title":"50 American Patriotic Military Songs [Limited Edition Vinyl] \/ US Military Bands","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e50 American Patriotic Military Songs is presented as a four-vinyl LP set of the greatest patriotic music available! This album features over fifteen traditional favorites such as 'This Land is Your Land', 'God Bless America', 'You're a Grand Old Flag', and 'God Bless the USA', along with all the service songs, and Naval and Air Force hymns. This best-selling album also features original compositions by members of the military band including the songs 'The Flag Still Flies High', 'They Died For You, They Died for Me', and 'Honor With Dignity'. This is a great patriotic collection with over two and a half hours of marches, concert band, choral, sing-a-long, and contemporary songs for all to enjoy!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Altissimo","offers":[{"title":"Vinyl","offer_id":46012619260138,"sku":"842840114444","price":37.98,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4313296-3180731_debbc5ce-01a5-42b1-a8e6-08f65c92e6fd.jpg?v=1793557682"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/collections\/3_15056335-fb5b-4b48-88f6-4c727069a42b.png?v=1794333143","url":"https:\/\/arkivmusic.com\/collections\/one-day-sale-november-10th-2026.oembed?page=2","provider":"ArkivMusic","version":"1.0","type":"link"}