ALEX HEFFES ON COMPOSING THE SCORE:
I’ve always been a big fan of Catherine Hardwicke’s films and Miss Bala has all the energy and edge that is so characteristic of her work. So I was excited to set about creating the musical world of Miss Bala and Tijuana provided a great musical backdrop to draw on. The gritty action called for the score to have a dark edge, so we ended up fusing a tough synth-driven sound with guitars and Latin percussion. As the lead character Gloria gradually outwits her captors and spreads her wings it felt like she needed her own action sound so you will hear her theme played out on high strummed guitars to give the shine that Gina Rodriguez brings to the character on the big screen.

Sony Music Masterworks is delighted to announce the release of the Original London Cast Recording of Sue Townsend's 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13�' - The Musical. This eagerly-anticipated album with it's infectious score showcases aspects of the life of Britain's best-loved, luckless teenager. It features the original London cast with book and lyrics by Jake Brunger and music and lyrics by Pippa Cleary, all under the musical direction of Alex Parker. The cast includes Benjamin Lewis as Adrian Mole, Kelly Price as Pauline Mole, Gay Soper as Grandma Mole, Dean Chisnall as George Mole, Lara Wollington as Pandora, John Hopkins as Mr Lucas/Mr Scruton, Lara Denning as Doreen Slater/Miss Elf, Connor Davies as Barry and Max Robson as Nigel. Following two highly acclaimed runs at Leicester's Curve theatre in 2015 and the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2017, the musical will open for a limited season from 15 June until 12 October 2019 at the Ambassadors Theatre, London, with a Gala Night on Tuesday 2 July. It is directed by Luke Sheppard. Set in the 1980s in Leicester, this adaptation of Sue Townsend's best-selling book is a timeless tale of teenage angst, family struggles and unrequited love, told through the eyes of tortured poet and misunderstood intellectual, Adrian Mole. One of the most enduring comedy characters of all time, he is the hapless, hilarious, spotty teenager who captured the zeitgeist of 1980s Britain. This critically acclaimed production brings Adrian's story to life for a new generation of theatregoers. The Townsend family noted: "Sue loved West End theatre and she loved working with Jake and Pippa on the creation of this show. We're very happy for her and Mole that thirty years after his last appearance, a new generation has brought him back." Sarah Thwaites, UK Label Head commented: "It's incredibly exciting to see the nation's beloved novel by Sue Townsend 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 �' come to life on the big stage and it's a real honour for Sony Music Masterworks to release the Original London Cast Recording of this critically acclaimed and delightfully British production". 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13�' was Townsend's first novel, originally published in 1982 by Methuen and now published by Penguin Books. It has sold over 20 million copies worldwide, been translated into 30 languages and spawned seven sequel Adrian Mole novels. The novels have previously been adapted for the stage, radio and television.

Pianist and Oscar-nominated composer returns to the pure piano for his first album with Sony. He writes: "In A Different Forest, I'm focusing on the forest as a natural environment and contrast to the urban everyday life; to my surroundings. Where do I want to live and work? What surroundings do I need in order to feel fulfilled? By examining these questions I always come back to nature. How often have I gone for a walk and finished on the crest of a hill or mountain top, and found a new perspective on things. It's quite a moving experience. The experience of the sublime. Realizing that everything has been there for such a long time and will continue to exist, yet in contrast, our human existence is reduced to but a fraction of the earth's history." The forest is also a symbol of change for Hauschka. Here people can find themselves again and feel surrounded by, as well as a part of, a unified whole.

Sony Classical proudly announces an uncommonly attractive new batch of reissues from the CBS/Sony and RCA Victor/BMG back catalogues. This latest installment of the popular series showcases the reissue of a path-breaking composer edition as well as recordings by some of the labels’ greatest artists of the last half century.

Throughout his long tenure with The Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell and his peerless ensemble set standards with their recordings of Czech music. This new release now offers them all, many for the first time on modern recording technology, including earlier mono versions of Dvorák’s “New World” Symphony (1952) and Slavonic Dances (1947–56) as well as his Piano Concerto (1954) with its finest soloist, Rudolf Firkušny.

The main attraction for most listeners, however, will likely still be Szell’s stereo recordings. When the symphonies, set down in 1958–60, were most recently reissued along with some of the mono Smetana performances, ClassicsToday declared, “you won’t find a more authoritative, urgently exciting, well-played collection of Dvorák’s last three symphonies at any price.

The remastering has been managed with great care and is wholly successful. This is particularly gratifying with respect to the mono items, which include the Bartered Bride Overture and Szell’s own surprisingly colorful and uninhibited orchestration of Smetana’s First Quartet. Indispensable!” And, of course, Szell’s “miraculously detailed and immaculately phrased” 1962–63 set of the complete Slavonic Dances, never out of the catalogue, is still the benchmark for these joyous masterpieces, especially in this superb SACD remastering.

As the climax of his hugely successful 2018/19 season, in which he celebrated both his sixtieth birthday and the fortieth anniversary of the launch of his sensational career, legendary Croatian pianist Ivo Pogorelich releases an eagerly-anticipated new recording on Sony Classical. This will be his first new album since 1998. The repertoire comprises two sonatas by Beethoven - No. 22, Op. 54, and No. 24, Op. 78 – and a work written just over a hundred years later, Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Sonata Op. 36. Pogorelich has chosen these works to explore the profound influence of Beethoven’s revolutionary compositional techniques (which one writer calls ‘specifically pianistic forms of musical thought’) on a later generation of composers. His uniquely powerful interpretation casts a new light on the understanding of these fascinating, though undeservedly lesser-known, masterpieces. Pogorelich’s career continues with unabated energy and dynamism across all corners of the globe. After a performance at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie as part of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival this summer, his further recitals and concerts during the 2019/20 season will take him to the principal music centres around Europe and the Far East, including the Berlin Philharmonie, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Centre For The Performing Arts in Beijing, the Santa Cecilia Hall in Rome, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, and more. He continues, as ever, to strive for greater self-development and pianistic perfection.

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REVIEW:

Rachmaninov's Second Sonata, at just under half-an-hour, receives a performance radically broader and more suffering than one he gave in Nüremberg in December 1991 (20:45). He traverses all shades of touch and emotion: a raw, naked narrative, not a little frightening. Pogorelich's deliberated handling of the piano, his re-creative aesthetic, brings to mind Nyiregyházi's manner and tone. Chords roar, octaves jangle, voices tumble into pedalled whirlpools, mantric low B-flats pound and toll. Smiles are few. What glitter there is, is veiled in muslin. Not everyman's Rachmaninov, but strangely fascinating.

– ClassicalSource.com

All of the recordings of Reinhard Goebel's project "Beethoven's World" have received great attention and excellent reviews worldwide. For the first album with violin concertos by Franz Clement, the Welt am Sonntag wrote: "If the discovery of Beethoven contemporaries, which Goebel has just signed up for the Beethoven Year, continues in this way, it will be a fine year". For the second album with double cello concertos by Reicha and Romberg, Deutschlandfunk wrote: "This recording (...) sets new standards." Great reviews for the third album with works by Salieri, Hummel and Vorisek followed: "An outstanding contribution to the Beethoven Year: With his alternative Beethoven Project, Reinhard Goebel once again impressively proves that there was even more to hear in Vienna at the time than Mozart piano concertos and Beethoven symphonies."

The fourth album of this celebrated series continues the musical foray into the Vienna of the early 19th century with extraordinary rarities from Beethoven's contemporaries. Recorded with the excellent piano duo Tal & Groethuysen and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the album features the Concerto for Two Pianos by Anton Eberl (1765-1807) and the Concerto for Two Pianos by Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812). The album also presents the world premiere recording of Joseph von Eybler's (1765-1846) “La Follia di Spagna” with all Instruments after the Violin Sonata, op. 5 no. 12 “La Follia” by Arcangelo Corelli. Goebel also includes a rarity by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) to the program: Gratulations-Menuett for Orchestra in E-flat Major, WoO 3. The recording proves once again that there was far more to hear for Vienna music lovers than piano concertos by Mozart or symphonies by Beethoven.

Principal cast: Ernestine Jackson (Ruth Younger); Ralph Carter (Travis Younger); Helen Martin (Mrs. Johnson); Joe Morton (Walter Lee Younger); Debbie Allen (Beneatha Younger); Virgina Capers (Mama Lena Younger); Robert Jackson (Joseph Asagai).
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York on October 27, 29 and November 2, 1973. Includes liner notes by Robert Brittan and Judd Woldin.
All songs written by Judd Woldin and Robert Brittan.
RAISIN opened at the 46th Street Theatre in New York on October 18, 1973 and ran for 847 performances, closing on December 8, 1975.

WONDER PARK (ORIGINAL MOTION P

Sequel to popular action flick

This disc received a 1997 Grammy nomination for "Best Chamber Music Performance".

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

La Petite Bande recorded its set during the late 1970s and these are performances which do considerable justice to the music. Brisker tempos, lighter bass string playing and an altogether more imaginative approach to continuo realization bring these concertos alive to an extent hardly realised by I Musici. Sigiswald Kuijken, the leader and director of La Petite Bande, includes a theorbo in his continuo group and this is invariably an effective addition... [I]n matters of baroque style, as in its more highly developed spirit of fantasy, La Petite Bande offers satisfying performances.

-- Nicholas Anderson, Gramophone [9/1990]

This selection is a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording.

Ahead of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary in 2020, Sony Classical is pleased to release Beethoven Sonatas Nos 3 & 23 “Appasionata” by superstar pianist Lang Lang. Lang Lang is acritically acclaimed piano virtuoso. Lang Lang began playing the piano at the age of three. Lang Lang studied at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music. At the early stages of his career, Lang Lang won numerous competitions including the Xinghai National Piano Competition and the Fourth International Competition for Young Pianists in Ettlingen, Germany. Lang Lang has performed with some of the worlds highly regarded orchestras including the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. As bonus track it contains the 3rd movement of the “Tempest” sonata. Beethoven (1770—1827) was a German composer and pianist who is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. He is one of the most recognisable and influential composers of the Romantic period and his music remains popular around the world today.

Conductor Reinhard Goebel is one of the most famous personalities of the German classical music world, an "icon of the Early Music" (S�ddeutsche Zeitung), an "enlightenment in a sea of mediocrity" (New York Times), a world-renowned mediator of historical performance practice and a never-ending source for repertoire treasures. His Sony Classical recording of the Brandenburg Concertos by Bach with the Berlin Baroque Soloists received worldwide best reviews, an Opus Klassik and is considered a new reference. For Beethoven's anniversary year 2020, "Beethoven's World" now appears as the result of a long-standing research and music project in which Reinhard Goebel explores unknown works by Beethoven and his contemporaries, thereby encouraging a relocation of Beethoven. The present recording is the first album of "Beethoven's World" and features the two violin concertos by Franz Joseph Clement (1780-1842). Clement was considered one of the greatest violin virtuosos of his time and Beethoven (1770-1827) dedicated his Violin Concerto to Clement by writing on the score "Concerto par Clemenza pour Clement" and which can be considered in response to Clement's first Violin Concerto of 1805. The similarities between Clement's Violin Concerto No. 1 and Beethoven's Violin Concerto op. 61 are by no means accidental. Rather, they reflect the way in which the two composers could refer directly to one another, tossing balls back and forth with a nod and a wink and sparking creative reactions - a process repeated in reverse in the case of Clement's Second Violin Concerto in D Minor/D Major that was written only a short time afterwards. Both violin concertos by Franz Clement can be heard on this album for the first time - the second violin concerto is a world premiere recording. The works were recorded by Mirijam Contzen with WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Reinhard Goebel. Fascinating music that allows a different view of the exceptional composer Beethoven.