The journey towards simplicity so comprehensively charted by Jeroen van Veen’s discography over the past decade begins chronologically with the unique world of Erik Satie. In the quietly unique music of this ever-underrated pioneer lies the seeds of so much that was to come to fruition in the latter half of the last turbulent century. Satie belonged neither to the Impressionists nor the Modernists nor any other school, and it took John Cage and the New York modernists of the 1950s to rediscover him as more than a provocateur or a purveyor of salon trifles. Yet, at much the same time on the other side of the Iron Curtain, Soviet-era composers were starting to chafe against both the tenets of serialism and also the requirements of the State for neo-Romantic hymns to labour and triumph. Arvo Pärt was reaching for the same destination as the American triumvirate of Adams, Glass and Reich, only from the other end of the stylistic spectrum. The English critic and composer Michael Nyman first used the term ‘Minimalism’ in print, and it stuck. The last 40 years have witnessed an explosion of popularity and wider interest in a world of music that transcends the four-bar sequences and relentless rhythms of pop, while forsaking the ivory tower of modernism, to offer music that speaks to listeners in search of quiet and stillness, music to meditate by as well as music to stir the blood. And for the last 15 years Jeroen van Veen has recorded much of it in his home studio in the Netherlands, as well as achieving great popular success with performances much farther afield. His recordings have been acclaimed for their nuances of touch as well as their technical command of music demanding formidable reserves of precision and patience.

Multiquarium Big band feat. Bir�li Lagr�ne: "Remembering Jaco" is a tribute to Jaco Pastorius's music, made by Andr� Charlier (drums) and Benoit Sourisse (piano) from the Multiquarium Big band, one of the best French Big Bands. Jaco Pastorius is a big star in the Jazz-Rock scene (and beyond), an icon for the bass players all around the world, the one who brought to electric bass the possibility of becoming in some case a soloist instrument in a band. Jaco Pastorius made very famous solo albums and wrote amazing big band music. He played with Pat Metheny, Joni Mitchell but was also a very important member of the famous Jazz-rock band, Weather Report with Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Peter Erskine (who participates to this album with some spoken words!)... The virtuoso gypsy guitar player, Bir�li Lagr�ne, has been invited to play electric fretless bass on the album. Bir�li, who, as a young genius of the guitar, began to play in Montreux when he was 14, he is now 50 and played one year and a half with Jaco Pastorius on stage when he was 19 years old. Bir�li is an amazing bass player, he perfectly integrated how Jaco's Music was working and pushed it beyond it's borders.

When the ORFEO label was established in Munich 40 years ago, few would have predicted that the record company would develop into a firmly established player in the classical music market. One of the label’s priorities in the early years was vocal music, with opera rarities top of the list and, since the mid 1980s, the re-use of historic tape recordings. Big names featured on the label’s own productions, while ORFEO also developed into a talent factory for discovering and nurturing young artists. This Legendary Pianists 10-disc boxed set continues the series marking ORFEO’s 40th anniversary and features nine pianists in historical and modern recordings dating from the 1950s to the 2000s.

REVIEW:

This edition should be quite intriguing to collectors who surely will find a set of names quite different from what they might have chosen. It does not claim to be definitive; a collection, not the collection. There are ten CDs in the box featuring nine artists recorded live or recorded for broadcast, giving a sense of hearing an actual performance that contributes a heightened sense of you-are-there. Repertoire consists of mainly concertos from Bach to Brahms, via Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann. Also, a handful of variations, etc. This is a most attractive collection of pure pleasure.

-- The Whole Note

But for Kempff at his most unbridled you need to hear 1956 WDR Cologne radio recordings of Beethoven’s Op 111 and Schumann’s Fantasie, where bass chords are augmented and the sense of uplift is so acute that you could as well be listening to Schnabel, Cortot, or Fischer live. The disc is one of 10 in Orfeo’s Legendary Pianists, which opens with the player Furtwängler described as ‘the troubadour of the piano’, Géza Anda, who fits that description like a glove in Beethoven’s First Concerto recorded in Munich under Rafael Kubelík, whereas Brahms’s Second Concerto with the same artists fans the flames with consistent intensity, the second movement especially. In the same collection, Gulda plays concertos by Beethoven and Schumann, a rather brittle-sounding Oleg Maisenberg is compelling in Schubert (including the Wanderer Fantasy), Konstantin Lifschitz brings a Gouldian tautness to the seven Bach keyboard concertos (greatly extending the cadenza in BWV1052’s finale), Carl Seemann is characteristically considered in Mozart’s Concertos K449 and 503, Gerhard Oppitz plays Brahms’s Third Sonata (the second movement being significantly broader than on his RCA recording) and we’re given the Third and Fifth Beethoven Concertos from the cycle that Rudolf Serkin and Kubelík recorded in 1977, a much-underrated set.

-- Gramophone

In the course of the eight recordings released by Alpha, the Orchester Wiener Akademie, conducted by Martin Haselb�ck, has accomplished it's objective of recording the complete Beethoven symphonies on period instruments, in the very venues where they were premiered, scrupulously respecting the orchestral forces of 200 years ago. The symphonies take us back to nineteenth-century Vienna for a tour of the Lobkowitz, Hofburg and Niederosterreich palaces, as well as the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Theater in der Josefstadt.

These editions mark the first publication of Julius R�ntgen's Variations on a Theme by C�sar Franck and his Variations on a Theme by Beethoven. Both works have been recorded and published by Nimbus. Each unique set of variations demonstrates Julius R�ntgen's capabilities of a composer in general and in this important genre specifically. R�ntgen's writing is effortless, balanced, harmonically interesting and highly expressive. The editors believe that introducing this publication into the 2-piano literature will give performers and audiences a new work of artistic merit and musical excellence. Composed is a set of twelve variations with Finale. The theme - Chant de la Creuse - is a 19-measure folksong in D Minor which was not composed by Franck at all The twelve variations exhibit a mastery of unity in terms of their expressivity, moods and architecture in addition to their obvious thematic connections. R�ntgen was a meticulous composer and the manuscript held at Netherlands Music Institute in Den Haag, is comprised of a separate score for each piano part. The end of both parts concludes with "23 Sept, 1903" in the composer's hand. Edited by Mark Anderson and Michelle Mares.

These editions mark the first publication of Julius R�ntgen's Variations on a Theme by C�sar Franck and his Variations on a Theme by Beethoven. Both works have been recorded and published by Nimbus. Each unique set of variations demonstrates Julius R�ntgen's capabilities of a composer in general and in this important genre specifically. R�ntgen's writing is effortless, balanced, harmonically interesting and highly expressive. The editors believe that introducing this publication into the 2-piano literature will give performers and audiences a new work of artistic merit and musical excellence. Julius R�ntgen's Variations on a Theme by Beethoven is a set of seven variations and coda based on the theme from the Finale of Beethoven's string quartet Opus 130. R�ntgen's variations demonstrate considerable musical complexity and harmonic daring. In fact, it displays some of his most engaging and enchanting music. The introduction - marked molto sostenuto - opens with a dark and dramatic statement punctuated with sforzandi. Each 4-measure gesture seems to build on the previous one but without creating direction or momentum. Edited by Mark Anderson and Michelle Mares.

Throughout history, the cultural legacy of some geniuses has been of such universal magnitude that its aftermath has spread far beyond the narrow confines of the actual field of their activity. In a study of the University of Cambridge, which is dedicated to the ranking of the 100 most important, most influential personalities in history, Ludwig van Beethoven is ranked 27th; Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821, rank 2), that brilliant commander and statesman a year older than Beethoven. While the French Revolution and its later emperor influenced contemporary artists, Napoleon himself, did not care a bit about music. In the same way that his military campaigns of that time have continued to have an effect to the present day, Beethoven changed the face of music forever. In his fundamentally new conception of the art of sound based on the Viennese Classicism, everything that was created in composition by him at the time outshone even those, who did not know Beethoven and his music despite his later popularity. While the pianist Beethoven caused a furor and was admired at a young age, his works caused astonishment and confusion from the very beginning, and often met with frowning criticism. Of course, there were also other, more positive voices. While Beethoven was at the height of his career in the middle phase of his life until about 1815, in recent years, the resentments against his misunderstood late style and the supposedly increasing oddness of its author grew. Nonetheless, the respect shown to him by the international music community increased until the end of his life, culminating in a funeral that the city had never seen before. The casalQuartett‘s five-part Concert & album project explores the phenomenon of Beethoven’s impact on his time, or, conversely, how other musicians influenced him.

Also available on Blu-ray

Russian dance superstar Natalia Osipova joined The Royal Ballet as a Principal in 2013 and has since filled each of her leading roles with an unforgettable passion, fiery energy and technical prowess. This collection brings together some of her most spellbinding performances: her dramatic dual performance of Odette and her rival Odile in Swan Lake; outstanding solos and flair for comedy as the young lover Lise in La Fille mal gardée; and her electric stage presence in the title role of the quintessential Romantic ballet Giselle where she was hailed as ‘technically and artistically supreme… ethereal and desperately moving’ (The Daily Telegraph). The set is completed with an in-depth portrait, Force of Nature Natalia, which provides an unparalleled opportunity to become closely acquainted with one of the leading ballerinas of her generation, and invites you to discover why critics and audiences all over the world call her a ‘force of nature’ of the dance world.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Russian dance superstar Natalia Osipova joined The Royal Ballet as a Principal in 2013 and has since filled each of her leading roles with an unforgettable passion, fiery energy and technical prowess. This collection brings together some of her most spellbinding performances: her dramatic dual performance of Odette and her rival Odile in Swan Lake; outstanding solos and flair for comedy as the young lover Lise in La Fille mal gardée; and her electric stage presence in the title role of the quintessential Romantic ballet Giselle where she was hailed as ‘technically and artistically supreme… ethereal and desperately moving’ (The Daily Telegraph). The set is completed with an in-depth portrait, Force of Nature Natalia, which provides an unparalleled opportunity to become closely acquainted with one of the leading ballerinas of her generation, and invites you to discover why critics and audiences all over the world call her a ‘force of nature’ of the dance world.

Amanda Ginsburg's career has gone straight up in the last year. After she came out with her critically acclaimed debut album "Jag har funderat p� en sak" in 2018, the success continued with the Olle Adolphson scholarship, STIM scholarships and Sweden's composers / lyricists' Jazz Prize with the motivation: "There is an echo of our legendary jazz singers in her music. The ability to create new and extremely charming songs that are inspired by their history, but that speak with their own voice. " On February 7, 2019, Amanda received a Grammy for this year's jazz album! This new release is Amanda�s second album "I det lilla h�nder det mesta" This is what Amanda says about the album, which she also describes as a direct sequel to the first: "Everyday life is an eternal source of inspiration and I like to dig into it's strange patterns. It is in the small that most things happen, usually without one seeing it. These are also the things I can long for the most. When it gets too big, I rarely find the words."

Brilliant Classics proudly present 5 new albums in this series: QUINTESSENCE, attractively priced compact box sets containing essential core classical repertoire in outstanding performances. Aimed at attracting both the discerning classical connoisseur and the classical newcomer it presents the pillars of classical music: Brahm’s Complete Symphonies & Concertos, Beethoven’s Complete Piano Trios, Mozart’s Music for Violin, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Orchestral Suites & Violin Concertos and Schubert’s Piano Trios, String Quintets and String Quartets. World class performers include Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra with Jaap van Zweden, Hungarian Chamber Orchestra with Kristóf Baráti and conductor Heinz Bongartz as well as the Berliner Sinfonie-Ochester with Günter Herbig.

Especially in his late sonatas, Leopold Kozeluch’s keyboard music belongs no less to the quickly evolving cultural landscape of late 18th- and early 19th-century Vienna than the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. It can even at times be hard to tell which composer influenced whom; Kozeluch is his own man, not gifted in the final analysis with Beethoven’s feeling for dramatic expression, Mozart’s subtlety of formal innovation or Schubert’s melodic inspiration, but sharing a portion of these qualities while bringing to the table something of his own, not least a mood of deceptive simplicity which belongs to the world of his native Bohemia. Kozeluch (1747-1818) seems to have worked with uncommon ease and fluidity, in command of all the technical possibilities of his instrument, writing in the popular galant style and testing both performer and instrument with moto perpetuo passagework, double trills, sudden contrasts and, in the minor-key sonatas, a brooding chromaticism that belongs to the most powerful expressions of Sturm und Drang. In the hands of Kozeluch, as in those of all fine composers, they produce a musical whole that seems far greater than the sum of its parts; and, as in the creations of all geniuses, there is a profundity that cannot be explained merely by description of the processes at work. Jenny Soonjin Kim is a specialist in performances of Classical-era repertoire on instruments of the period. For this recording she performs on a modern copy of an Anton Walter fortepiano from Vienna in 1795.

Born April 18, 1930, Dénes Kovács began violin lessons at six, becoming Dezso Rados' student at the Fodor Music School two years later. When he was fourteen, he began his studies at Budapest’s Liszt Academy in the class of Ede Zathureczky. Graduating in 1951, he began his professional career, playing first in the army's Central Arts Ensemble, and for a decade, leader of the Hungarian Opera House Orchestra. In 1955, he took first prize in the Carl Flesch competition in London, inaugurating an international career that lasted for the rest of his life. He performed widely and recorded the great works of the violin: Concertos, chamber and solo repertoire from the baroque period to the present, including all the Beethoven sonatas and string trios, Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin, Bartok's works for violin, and many concertos by his Hungarian contemporaries. He began teaching at the Liszt Academy of Music in 1957, becoming head of the violin department in 1959, and professor five years later. He was appointed Rector of the Academy in 1968. His contributions to music were abundantly recognized in Hungary, where he received the Liszt Prize, (1955, 1958), the Kossuth Prize (1963), and the Béla Bartók - Ditta Pásztory Prize (1989, 2000). In 1970 he was named Eminent Artist of the Hungarian People’s Republic. On this second volume dedicated to his recordings, the works of Mozart and Schubert are featured.

Brilliant Classics proudly present 5 new albums in this series: QUINTESSENCE, attractively priced compact box sets containing essential core classical repertoire in outstanding performances. Aimed at attracting both the discerning classical connoisseur and the classical newcomer it presents the pillars of classical music: Brahm’s Complete Symphonies & Concertos, Beethoven’s Complete Piano Trios, Mozart’s Music for Violin, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Orchestral Suites & Violin Concertos and Schubert’s Piano Trios, String Quintets and String Quartets. World class performers include Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra with Jaap van Zweden, Hungarian Chamber Orchestra with Kristóf Baráti and conductor Heinz Bongartz as well as the Berliner Sinfonie-Ochester with Günter Herbig.

Brilliant Classics proudly present 5 new albums in this series: QUINTESSENCE, attractively priced compact box sets containing essential core classical repertoire in outstanding performances. Aimed at attracting both the discerning classical connoisseur and the classical newcomer it presents the pillars of classical music: Brahm’s Complete Symphonies & Concertos, Beethoven’s Complete Piano Trios, Mozart’s Music for Violin, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Orchestral Suites & Violin Concertos and Schubert’s Piano Trios, String Quintets and String Quartets. World class performers include Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra with Jaap van Zweden, Hungarian Chamber Orchestra with Kristóf Baráti and conductor Heinz Bongartz as well as the Berliner Sinfonie-Ochester with Günter Herbig.