Based loosely on the 1932 screwball comedy starring Carole Lombard and John Barrymore, where a Broadway producer tries to re-sign his reluctant top star on a train called the Twentieth Century Limited, this modern musical won 4 Tony Awards. It stars Kevin Kline, Madeline Kahn and Imogene Coca!

MONTEVERDI: VESPERS MALGOIRE,

Drawn from the worldwide catalog holdings of Sony Classical, which includes both the Columbia/CBS and RCA Victor label imprints, the SONY Classical Originals, SONY Classical Masters Singles and Box Sets, and SONY Opera House series offer an extensive selection of highly desirable and collectible EU (Germany) pressed import editions, smartly designed and graphically pleasing, featuring the most sought-after recordings by the world's preeminent, legendary artists both past and present, with many titles newly re-mastered in 24bit High Resolution Audio.

SYMPHONIA DOMESTICA SACD

Original Score composed by Grammy@ Award-winning composer Danny Elfman. The soundtrack includes the end title song 'Ordinary Miracles', written by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard, performed by Sarah MCLachlan. E.B. White's magical, beloved story of loyalty and sacrifice comes to life in this live-action adaptation. Charlotte's Web stars Dakota Fanning as Fern and Julia Roberts lends her vocals in the lead role of Charlotte A. Cavatica, a spider and the heroine of the book who goes out of her way to save Wilbur the pig's life by weaving miraculous words into her webs. The star-studded cast also includes Oprah Winfrey, John Cleese, Steve Buscemi, Cedric the Entertainer, Reba McEntire, Kathy Bates, Thomas Haden Church, Andre Benjamin, Robert Redford and Jennifer Garner. The critically acclaimed book 'Charlotte's Web' written by award-winning author E.B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams is the best-selling children's paperback of all time. To date the book has sold 45 million copies worldwide.

Bach: Italian Concerto & Partitas Nos. 1 and 2 (Great Perfor

This reissue of two concert performances--from London's Wigmore Hall in 1963 and Conway Hall in 1969--makes delightful and frequently very compelling listening, given the superlative musical selections (22 of the period's finest songs) and the facility and inherent compatibility of the two great artists who perform them.

Reviewers of tenor Peter Pears' performances so often feel compelled to mitigate praise for his artistry with some comment about, or apology for, the voice's quality--that it's one of those "love it or hate it" voices. Nonsense. I say it's a wonderful voice, its unmistakable timbre pleasingly distinctive, its somewhat bright edge accompanied by a warm, natural, unforced, open-throated resonance. And especially in English songs, Pears was a master storyteller, shaping the musical lines with a poet's sense of textual nuance and clever inflection, often delivered with a twinkle in the eye or, especially with Dowland, a tear or two. His lovely rendition of Dowland's "Come, heavy sleep" is about as close to perfect as we'll ever hear a song sung.

Of course, Pears' partner in this recital, Julian Bream, was a master of Dowland's solo music and is more than comfortable in his significant supporting role here. Pears and Bream performed many concerts together over a period of many years, beginning around 1963 when the earliest of these tracks were recorded, and you simply can't listen to such gems as Philip Rosseter's "What then is love?", Morley's "It was a lover and his lass" and "Absence", or Dowland's "Weep you no more, sad fountains" without being grateful for this rare and rewarding partnership. The sound tends to favor the treble on some tracks, but your ear adjusts to this quickly, readily and happily attending to the singing and playing, enjoying the promise of the disc's title.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

PARADE

Also Available:
Volume 1 - Vladimir Horowitz At Carnegie Hall - The Private Collection - Music of Mussorgsky & Liszt.
and:
Volume 2 - Vladimir Horowitz At Carnegie Hall - The Private Collection - Music of Schumann, Chopin, Liszt and Balakirev.

Vladimir Horowitz donated these live mono recordings, made at his behest for his personal archive, to Yale University in 1986. Originally contained on 12 and 16 inch acetate discs, they have been impeccably remastered for this release, with the sound carefully restored, based on new transfers made from the archival masters in the Yale collection.

The critically acclaimed series Vladimir Horowitz – The Private Colleftion continues with the third release of never-before-available live recordings of Horowitz in recital in Carnegie Hall during the prime of his career, between 1945 and 1948. This third release takes the listener into a fascinating, often overlooked corner of Horowitz’s repertoire – the Classical keyboard sonatas of Haydn and Beethoven. The pianist had recorded Haydn’s Sonata No. 52 in E-flat Major in 1932, when the work was virtually unknown; when he returned to it for this 1948 performance, he brought a grander, more orchestral sound to the piece, adding to it with the interpretive detail and dazzling technique that were his calling cards. The two Beethoven masterpieces – the “Waldstein” and “Moonlight” – are instantly recognizable and Horowitz makes them quite special in these live performances, filled with compelling insights and flashes of performing genius.

VLADIMIR HOROWITZ AT CARNEGIE HALL—THE PRIVATE COLLECTION • Vladimir Horowitz (pn) • RCA 754604, mono (50:10) Live: New York 1945–1950


SCHUMANN Phantasie in C. BALAKIREV Oriental Fantasy, “ Islamey.” CHOPIN Barcarolle. LISZT (arr. Horowitz) Légendes: St. Francis de Paul Walks on Water


This latest treasure trove from the recorded legacy of Vladimir Horowitz, all previously unreleased recordings, is of performances recorded live in concert at Carnegie Hall between 1945 and 1950. (A similar collection of recorded performances, with different repertoire, was released by RCA in the mid 1990s.) The present discs were donated to the Yale Music Library by Horowitz and his wife, along with a wide variety of other valuable archival materials such as concert programs, scores, correspondence, and the like. The interesting background to this CD is that Horowitz hired a private company to record his Carnegie Hall concerts during those five years, apparently for his own use, and would listen to them on occasion. Eventually, they were forgotten, and given to Yale by Horowitz as part of the archive. The restoration of most of the originals has been remarkably successful.


The music world is a great deal richer for having access now to this collection. While some of the works on this disc were favorites of Horowitz, and performed and recorded on other occasions, there are two indisputably important and unique additions here: arrangements by Horowitz of Liszt’s “St. Francis de Paul Walks on Water” from Légendes , and Balakirev’s fabled “Islamey.” Although he performed them in concert, they were never recorded for commercial release. (Actually Horowitz performed “Islamey” during only one concert season, 1950, and the present performance dates from that time.) As most pianists are well aware, “Islamey” is considered one of the most technically demanding works in the keyboard repertoire—in other words, a perfect vehicle for Horowitz. Both the Liszt and Balakirev are absolutely stunning; the sheer technique involved—the tricky fast repeated notes, the cascades of runs and other fast passages, the accuracy of leaps, the control of dynamics—reveal Horowitz at the very peak of his career, demonstrating his absolute supremacy over the keyboard. The same must be said for his beautiful performance of Chopin’s Barcarolle, in which the pianist’s legendary singing right hand and judicious use of rubato create a haunting landscape.


The Schumann Phantasie was one of Horowitz’s favorite works; it was on the program at his 1965 Carnegie Hall “comeback” concert following a 12-year absence from the concert stage, and was issued by Columbia shortly after. The Phantasie heard here was recorded in April 1946, unfortunately accompanied by a good bit of noise from the original lacquer surfaces. Horowitz’s treatment of the first movement is truly like a fantasy, sounding dreamlike and spontaneous. It is a beautiful performance, even though in the treacherous coda of the second movement Horowitz seems to succumb to an attack of nerves, begins to rush, and actually loses it briefly before the final measures, with a memory slip and some wrong notes. But magically, the worst over, he plays the last movement with transfixing tenderness and beauty of sound.


This CD may constitute the final hidden treasures from Horowitz’s recorded legacy; but even if some new treasures are discovered, this one is a must for serious collectors.


FANFARE: Susan Kagan


This is prime Horowitz on staggering, fearless form..."

The second of three releases culled from Vladimir Horowitz's mid-1940s/early-1950s Carnegie Hall recitals offers alternative views of two works long familiar from his commercial discography, along with two showpieces otherwise unavailable in the Horowitz canon. The Schumann Fantasy is a classic example of Horowitz's genius for transforming the composer's busy, often thick textures into lean, translucent, and provocatively contoured sonorities. However, an unsettled quality emerges from the pianist's small yet persistent speed-ups and slow-downs within phrases that he would shape more simply in his 1965 comeback recital. Listeners following the score also will notice booming added octaves, plus a deletion of 19 measures from the second movement that's clearly intentional--not a memory lapse. Horowitz's similarly affetuoso approach to the Chopin Barcarolle flows better here than in his 1957 studio recording, notwithstanding the overly aggressive and tight-fisted coda.

Listeners familiar with Liszt's St. François de Paule marchant sur les flots will notice quite a few textual emendations that ultimately draw more attention to the pianist than the composer. That said, this is prime Horowitz on staggering, fearless form, as he also is throughout Balakirev's Islamey. Simon Barere may be unmatched for sheer speed, yet Horowitz's virtuosity is more expressive in its focused articulation, motoric momentum, and shrewd pedaling. He also omits a few bars here and there. Although words cannot adequately mirror the Horowitz experience, David Dubal's vibrant, refreshingly frank booklet notes come pretty darn close.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

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Also Available: Volume 1 - Vladimir Horowitz At Carnegie Hall - The Private Collection - Music of Mussorgsky & Liszt.

This second release from the Yale archive recordings captures Vladimir Horowitz in his golden prime, playing his signature repertoire in concert at Carnegie Hall, where he celebrated the milestones in his career. Horowitz employed an engineer to make 78-rpm recordings of his Carnegie Hall concerts in this period, and he used them to review and judge his performances. Most of these mono recordings were originally contained on 12 and 16-inch acetate discs. They have been impeccably mastered, with the sound restored, from new transfers made in the Yale archives. Significant press accompanied the original announcement of the donation of these recordings to Yale, where Horowitz performed often through the years and was assistant fellow of Silliman College.

The second Private Collection release includes four works that take the listener deep into the heart of the Romantic age – Schumann’s Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17; Chopin’s lilting Barcarolle, Op. 60; Liszt’s evocative musical meditation Legende No. 2 – St. Francis de Paule Walking on the Waves; and one of the most demanding pieces ever written for solo piano, Russian composer Mily Balakirev’s breathtaking steeplechase Islamey.

- Carnegie Hall Presents Series from Sony Masterworks

CHILDREN OF EDEN

SYMPHONY 7 SACD

X2:BAROQUE ALBUM

"These are extremely fine recordings, topped only by Boulez himself on DG, performances not necessarily "better", but certainly sonically superior. Still, I retain a marginal preference for this ebullient and harrowing La Valse, and the super-precise and super-cool Cleveland interpretation of the Rapsodie is unique. Whether those qualities are what you want in this particular piece is very much a matter of personal choice; in his Berlin remake, Boulez put a little more meat on the music's bones. Boléro builds to a massively powerful climax...The sound suits the different orchestras: chamber-like in Cleveland, big and even boomy in New York, with a touch of glassiness to the strings in louder passages. At less than full price, this is an extremely good deal, even if you already have tons of Ravel in your collection." [4/20/2006]

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com Reviewing earlier release

Featuring Tony Award winner Lachanze, Tony Award Nominee J. Robert Spencer, MiG Aylesa from Rockstar: INXS, and the Boston Pops conducted by Keith Lockhart, HANDELS MESSIAH ROCKS brings the renowned beauty of Handel's Messiah the Western worlds most famous oratorio to contemporary audiences with rock music at it's center.