Classical Music

Classical Music

Steeped in the rich heritage of Persian music, young composer/multi-instrumentalist Hafez Nazeri strikes out on a bold new path to create Untold, a fusion of musical languages with a spiritual quest at its heart. Nazeri draws on classical traditions of both Iran and the West, seamlessly adding jazz and other world cultures to the mix.This new music, played by the Rumi Symphony Project and such guest artists as the legendary percussionist Zakir Hussain, Grammy®-winning drummer Glen Velez, and his father, iconic singer Shahram Nazeri, places Hafez Nazeri at the epicenter of the important new voices on the global stage. The Western classical tradition plays a part, in the deeply meditative contributions of cellist Matt Haimovitz and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center violist Paul Neubauer. Untold is a multi-layered and illuminating experience, taking the listener from the center of stillness to a dancing, joyous state within the space of a few tracks.

Anton Rubinstein (1829-94) was a central figure in the growth of Russian music in the second half of the 19th century. He was famous across Europe as a virtuoso pianist, but in Russia he was also well known as a composer, conductor and educator. In 1862, Rubinstein founded the St Petersburg Conservatory, where he would later teach Tchaikovsky. In 1866, Rubinstein's older brother, Nikolai, also an important pianist and composer, founded the Moscow Conservatory, and the two brothers played an important role in the consolidation of musical education in Russia. The cello concertos presented here demonstrate the two sides of Rubinstein's musical personality, combining aspects of the German techniques he had learned with distinctively Russian elements, especially in the folk-inspired melodies of their faster sections.

Classical Music

Classical Music

78+ minutes of classics in superb sound - (UK best-seller) originals plus 18 minutes with favourites for Pipes & Drums !

Drawing on the adventures of Byron’s Childe Harold and the composer’s own Italian experiences as a Prix de Rome winner, Harold en Italie was intended for the great violinist Paganini who, having initially rejected the work, later repented, giving it his highest praise. + The brilliant concert overtures Benvenuto Cellini and Le carnaval romain are among Berlioz’s most popular works. + Quickly taken up by several celebrated violinists of the time, the elegant Rêverie et Caprice is his only work for solo violin and orchestra. + Leonard Slatkin’s Lyon recording of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique (8.572886) has been acclaimed as “quite simply one of the best on disc” by MusicWeb International.

This 2-disc recording of Verdi’s Requiem is a live version from Berlin in 1960. Ferenc Fricsay, who is noted for his outstanding Verdi interpretations, conducts the RIAS Symphony Orchestra in this recording. In addition to the Requiem, this album also contains Verdi’s 4 Pezzi sacri and Sinfonie e Preludi which features preludes from Nabucco, La Traviata, La forza del destino, and Aida. The 4 Pezzi sacri and the Sinfonie e Preludi presented here are recordings from 1952 and 1953, respectively.

Music from the original soundtrack 'Swan Lake,' presenting scores by Tchaikovsky. Performed by Oliver Award winning production nominee Matthew Bourne and The New London Orchestra under the direction of David Lloyd-Jones. An original BBC release is now available on the Teldec label.

In 1935 Talich brought the Czech P.O to London, where he made legendary Dvor�k recordings including this Eighth Symphony - in which he felt truly in touch with the composer. Stanislav Nov�k's violin solos are exquisite, the pacing of the traditionally shaped performance is flawless and the strings sliding up and down in the Scherzo are irresistible. In 1938, just after the Munich betrayal, conductor and orchestra were back at Abbey Road to record supple accounts of Dvor�k's Sixth and Seventh symphonies and, (here..) their loveliest Talich recording, Suk's Serenade for Strings. Here everything is dewy-fresh and transparent, the solo playing (Alexander Plocek) is light as gossamer (Suk wrote the passage for solo strings at the end of the Adagio specially for Talich)." [Gramophone Awards 2005]

Classical Music

For their fourth Fuga Libera-project, the Russian orchestra Musica Viva recorded one very famous, and one forgotten piece by Antonín Dvorak. The well-known piece is the Serenade for Strings in E major, written by Dvorak in 1875. It is believed that Dvorak took up this small orchestral genre because it was less demanding than the symphony, but allowed for the provision of pleasure and entertainment. The other piece is the Cello Concerto in A major. Unlike its brother, the B minor Concerto Op. 104, this concerto has been more than overlooked. It was left un-orchestrated by Dvorak, existing only in piano-score form. It was only after his death that a few composers orchestrated this dazzling piece of music. Cello virtuoso Alexander Rudin, and Musica Viva let us taste from this magnificent forgotten treasure...

Dvorak: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8

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

A hybrid work between oratorio, ode and serenata, L'Allegro is undoubtedly one of Handel's most mysterious works, but also his most inspired. With their accustomed poetry, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants offer us the chance to rediscover this masterpiece, in which the composer transforms metaphysics into painting and ideas into pure emotions.

Toshio Hosokawa is one of Japan’s most eminent living composers. The first volume in this series devoted to his orchestral works [8.573239] explores the idea of the blossoming lotus – “music as plant-like development and growth” – and continues here with Blossoming II for chamber orchestra. Woven Dreams traces the journey from womb to birth by employing techniques drawn from Gagaku, the ancient Japanese court music. Of Circulating Ocean the composer writes: “I am attempting to express in sound the flow and change of water... The ocean is for me the birthplace of life, a being possessed of infinite depth and expanse.”

In the late-1990s, Stalteri was a pioneer in interpretations and arrangements of Philip Glass's piano music. His album, Circles, became one of the early classics of the Glass piano repertoire. When approached by the label about an anniversary re-release of Circles, Stalteri responded with the idea to re-record, re-interpret, and re-imagine these Glass works. The title, Dodecagon, is drawn from the name of a shape with twelve sides - corresponding to the twelve tracks on the album.

This set contains 2 DVDs, 1 Blu-ray Video Disc, and a 7-day Digital Concert Hall pass.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle was one of the outstanding events of the past season.

As before with the St. Matthew Passion, star director Peter Sellars succeeded in creating a staging which made the spiritual and dramatic content of the Passion story even more intensive. The New York Times also praised the “brilliant and energetic” playing of the orchestra, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung the “haunting, almost unsurpassable singing of all those involved.”

The top-class ensemble of singers was led by Mark Padmore, one of the leading Evangelist interpreters of our day.

The edition features both a DVD and a Blu-ray version, making it playable on all popular video players. Added to this, it is exclusively presented with a linen hardcover, a comprehensive booklet and numerous photos. The extensive bonus material includes an interview with Simon Rattle and Peter Sellars, an introduction to the work by chorus master Simon Halsey, and a voucher for the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Digital Concert Hall.

"The follow-up [to the St. Matthew Passion], Mr. Sellars’s “St. John Passion,” has been eagerly anticipated. Granted a luxurious amount of rehearsal and a nearly intact cast from the “Matthew” performances … the simmering performance lives up to the high expectations. ... The Philharmonic was lucky to have once more the tenor Mark Padmore, one of the great Evangelists of our time, and superb here." – The New York Times

2 DVDs [NTSC 16:9 / PCM Stereo • DTS 5.1]

Blu-ray Disc in high definition video [1080i Full HD 16:9 / 2.0 PCM Stereo • DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1]

Playing time - Concert: 135 mins • Bonus: 52 mins

Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean

Region: 0 (All region)

7- day pass to the BPO's Digital Concert Hall video streaming service

Classical Music

Born in 2000, Simon B�rki has won many international competitions and is currently studying at the Juilliard School, New York, with Sergei Babayan. His d�but recording features works by Rachmaninov - 2023 marks the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth - and Scriabin, Tchaikovsky, Liszt and Schumann. The program confirms Simon B�rki's affinities, with some of Rachmaninov's sombre �tudes-Tableaux and Pr�ludes, together with two �tudes by Scriabin, and a selection of transcriptions and short pieces. In these (post-)Romantic miniatures, the young pianist demonstrates his outstanding virtuosity and sober elegance, as well as the exciting flamboyancy and intensity of his playing.

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The outstanding English composer working in the mid-20th century, Benjamin Britten won a significant international reputation, whilst remaining thoroughly English in inspiration.

This is an audio-only (i.e., with no video content) Blu-ray disc playable only on Blu-ray players.

Using the new Polish National Chopin Edition, acclaimed pianist Eldar Nebolsin and Poland’s national orchestra conducted by the renowned Polish conductor Antoni Wit, here present fresh interpretations of Chopin’s great works for piano and orchestra. The Second Piano Concerto was written before the first and completed in 1830, the year in which the composer set out for Vienna and then Paris. Chopin’s Variations on Là ci darem la mano, bear witness to his admiration for Mozart, instilled by his earliest teacher, the Bohemian Wojciech ?ywny. The Grande Polonaise brillante in E flat, Op. 22, was written in Vienna, and later augmented with the introductory Andante spianato.

Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Listen to the Naxos Podcast to learn more about this release

L’épreuve villageoise – which, in its original form, was first performed before Marie Antoinette at Versailles - was one of André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry’s most popular works. For a century after its 1784 premiere it enjoyed huge acclaim across Europe and even travelled to the New World, where it captivated audiences in New York. Grétry was a master of eighteenth-century opéra comique and his crisp and lively farce centres on a clever farmer’s daughter and her two competing suitors. Employing divergent stylistic registers – finesse and naiveté, music reminiscent of popular song, and extended ensembles – Grétry fashioned a score of sophisticated wit and huge charm.

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REVIEW:

Every so often it’s nice to take a break from operas with deep meanings and just feel like a bit of French royalty at Versailles in 1784, where this sweet, fluffy operetta was first performed. L’épreuve villageoise (The Village Trial) has simple country folk in a sitcom situation: soprano Denise is engaged to tenor André, but his jealousy, recently ignited by the attentions being shown Denise by the more sophisticated Monsieur de la France, is really getting on her nerves.

Soprano Madame Hubert, Denise’s mother, until recently was being wooed by de la France, so mother and daughter plot to get back at both men. Denise pretends to care for de la France and André claims to have found another girlfriend, which makes Denise sad and reflective (in a lovely aria). She then overhears de la France tell the town’s finer ladies that he has found a “rural” girl, and this angers her and her mother. Denise publicly denounces de la France and he leaves, making way for André and Denise to live a jolly life. Dancing ensues.

Sophie Junker’s bright voice is ideal for Denise; Talise Trevigne’s more darkly colored tone gives Mme Hubert a certain wisdom. Thomas Dolié sings with “attitude” and a fine baritone, while André is sung by a rather timid Francisco Fernandez-Rueda.

Nothing here will change your life, and you’ll be happy to learn that all we get on this 54-minute CD is the opera’s music, shorn of its spoken dialogue. There are two fine ensembles and a duet or two. Nothing outstays its welcome. A bon-bon, nothing deep, that’s good for you. Ryan Brown leads his Opera Lafayette–24 strong, with lovely flutes–and small chorus spiritedly.

– ClassicsToday (Robert Levine)