Singer Asmik Grigorian has chosen to record both versions of Richard Strauss's ultimate masterpiece, composed in 1948: the version with orchestra and the much rarer version with piano. For her, this work is associated with the idea of solitude, but not an unhappy solitude, rather a journey towards infinity: "Now all my senses long to sink into slumber. And the soul, unguarded, longs to soar up in freedom, so that, in night's magic circle, it may live deeply and a thousandfold." writes Hermann Hesse in Beim Schlafengehen (Going to Sleep), the third song in the cycle. For this unique coupling, Asmik is joined by two long-time accomplices: conductor Mikko Franck, with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and pianist Markus Hinterhauser, artistic director of the Salzburg Festival. The combination of the two versions opens up new sensations: after the well-known abundance of Strauss's orchestration an incredible sensitivity is revealed by the piano version.

Sebastian Cruz possesses one of the most distinctive voices in the flamenco world today. He started out earning a living as a slaughterman, but has always had a deep-rooted connection to music and to the natural world of his native Andalusia. His life was changed when, a few years ago, he came across the film "Tous les matins du monde", starring Gerard Depardieu as Marin Marais, with it's soundtrack of works by Marin Marais and Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe performed by Jordi Savall. From that moment onwards, the music of these pioneering Baroque composers, which had touched him with such unique intensity, filled his mind as he spent time in the Huelva countryside with his beloved greyhounds and horses. On this album, Cruz explores a century and more of flamenco history, venturing into a new soundworld and creating musical poems that express his innermost being. Open to an array of influences, he pushes the strict boundaries of flamenco tradition with incomparable vocal passion and emotional depth. Sebastian Cruz sees flamenco with his heart and, together with kindred spirit Ra�l Cantizano, his friend and musical director, forges breathtaking music that speaks to both body and soul. (Translation: Susannah Howe) Sebastian Cruz, born in 1977 in Beas, lives in Niebla, both villages are located near Huelva, close to the Gulf of Cadiz. He is deeply attached to his homeland, loves the country life, likes to spend time with his horse, takes care of his donkey and breeds greyhounds. Since his early youth he has sung flamenco at fiestas, pe�as and festivals. His love for flamenco led him to the Fundaci�n Cristina Heeren in 2002, where he studied with Jose de la Tomasa, Calixto Sanchez, Paco Taranto and Esperanza Fernandez, among others, until 2006. Since the completion of his studies, he has dedicated his life exclusively to flamenco. In addition to being a solo cantor, he also worked as a cantor with Jose Antonio Rodr�guez's group, accompanied Jose Luis Postigo and Manolo Franco in concerts, was guest cantor of the Ballet Nacional de Espa�a from 2006 to 2019, and was part of the cast of the Ballet Flamenco de Andaluc�a from 2017 to 2022. In 2007, he gave his first solo concert at the Sala Clamores in Madrid and since then he has collaborated with many high profile artists in various productions. Among others, with Juan Manuel Ca�izares, Juan Jose Amador, Chano Dom�nguez, Alejandro Granados, Antonio Canales, Merche Esmeralda, Pepa Montes, Lola Greco, Choni, Ra�l Cantizano and Fernando Romero. His first album was released in 2012 by Karonte Records under the title "Temple de junco". He participated in the recording of the audio film "El Triangulo del Flamenco" by Winter & Winter, an acoustic travelogue through Andalusia, and in 2017 he recorded the album "Fandangos de Huelva" as a tribute to his homeland. In 2023, Sebastian Cruz, together with his musical director Ra�l Cantizano and outstanding flamenco musicians such as guitarists Rafael Riqueni and Alfredo Lagos, records the album "Zarabanda" for Winter & Winter. The feature film "Tous les matins du monde" was the inspiration for this project. Inspired by the baroque music of Marin Marais and other musicians of the time, he created new cantes that became a unique body of work. Producer Stefan Winter has come to know Sebastian Cruz as a cosmopolitan person: "Today we are in a time in which we are exposed to the most diverse influences, which we must process artistically. This is what Sebastian Cruz's album "Zarabanda" symbolizes. My best friend, the painter Thom Argauer, once said that for him there are three important musical currents: Jazz by Coltrane, Baroque music by Bach and Flamenco by Camar�n de la Isla. Sebastian Cruz has now used these three basic colors and forms like Picasso, mixing new tones... Sebastan loves not only flamenco, but music without borders, is open, listens without bias, gets inspired, has never lost his curiosity since childhood. I think Sebastian Cruz, without knowing it, has been waiting for the discovery of breathtaking baroque music. However, the album "Zarabanda" is not a melange of baroque and flamenco, but the realization of the music that has long lain dormant in his innermost being and has now finally been kissed awake by the film "Tous les matins du monde". Sebastian's openness and willingness to listen to his inner self made this album possible. Sometimes it just takes a spark to light the fire." The Spanish lyrics, written by Lope de Vega [1562-1635], Ram�n Andres, after Edgar Allan Poe [1809-1849] and by Sebastian Cruz, as well as traditional lyrics are also published in English and German translation together with the CD/LP. All these texts were selected and compiled by Sebastian Cruz. The compositions are by Sebastian Cruz in collaboration with performing musicians. Sebastian Cruz was inspired by works of baroque music. He combines these sound worlds in a very natural way with his very own music. To name just a few examples, compositions and melodies by Marin Marais are behind "Te quiero con el alma", by Monsieur de Sainte Colombe behind "De mis soledades vengo", by Georg Friedrich Handel behind "Arroyos sonoros" and also behind "Pa�s del sue�o" as well as by Jean Baptiste Lully behind "Siendo cenizas". Before the actual recording of the album, which took place in Seville, there was only a working title. The album title "Zarabanda" was created only during the production. The sarabande is a courtly, mostly instrumental dance form of baroque music since the middle of the 17th century. This dance inspired several composers to write expressive compositions and later became a standard movement of the Baroque suite... but the once frivolous dance became popular in non-courtly circles in the Spanish colonies much earlier, before it made it's way back across the Atlantic to Spain. Although the dance was banned in Spain in 1583 for it's obscenity, it has been frequently cited in the literature of the time [e.g. in works by Lope de Vega, who penned some of the lyrics selected for this album]. With incomparable depth and voice, Sebastian Cruz breaks with the strict flamenco tradition and, together with his congenial partner Ra�l Cantizano, transcends musical boundaries that have been firmly drawn for over a hundred years. He is assisted by the exceptional guitarists Rafael Riqueni and Alfredo Lagos, as well as bassist Marco Serrato, who, like Ra�l Cantizano, enriches this work with very special timbres.

A half-speed mastered, new LP transfer of a best-selling album in the acclaimed series of minimalist piano music recorded by Jeroen van Veen for Brilliant Classics.
‘Throughout, the playing’s brilliant, confident, and sonorous’: this album of the piano output of John Adams won glowing reviews when it was first released in 2017. As an indefatigable champion of minimalist music from both sides of the Atlantic, Jeroen van Veen had recorded some of these pieces before, within his compendious ‘Minimal Piano Collection’ which became an essential acquisition for collectors of the most influential classical style in music during the last 60 years.

The 2017 remake of China Gates is even more opulent as a performance, superbly engineered to catch van Veen’s subtleties of touch at the piano, and thus eminently suitable for a high-spec vinyl transfer. ‘There’s something quite nice about encountering interpretations of these perennial Adams favourites that sound so comfortable,’ continued the Arts Fuse review: ‘a pianist enjoying himself, freely exploring the enveloping diatonicism of the music.’

Adams regards Phrygian Gates (1977) as his ‘first mature composition’, and it may seem strange that he has not since written more for solo piano than the four pieces gathered here, but as Jeroen van Veen argues in his sleeve-note essay, these pieces between them say all that needs to be said in terms of the composer’s piano style.
Mostly composed in a West Coast beach hut, the gentle flow, rolling swells and thundering breakers of Phrygian Gates add up to a half-hour, overpowering analogy for melodic waves. From the same year, China Gates distils this energy into a five-minute work of memorably concentrated stillness. Adams left off the piano for another 20 years until writing Hallelujah Junction for two pianos in 1996. Van Veen gave the Dutch premiere, and he remains an outstanding, authoritative advocate of Adams’s music.

In Buenos Aires, Tango is described as the forbidden dance and in this performance the violin and piano capture not only the sound but also the essence of Tango creating an evocative dance between the instruments. The violin has the lead melodic material and the piano has some really exciting riffs and plays the supportive role guiding their interplay. Clarissa's Tango starts with a short, cadenza-like introduction on the solo violin, the tango is cast in rondo form, with the central C section moving from the home key of D minor to D major. It's an ebullient duet that makes virtuoso demands on the solo violin, from extreme high tessitura passages and multi-stops to fast passage work as the violin elaborates on the main tango melody. [Richard Blackford]

Giacomo Puccini wrote only a few works for voice with piano accompaniment. Eleven songs were published during his lifetime; others remained lost for over a century. In 2010, a first critical edition of the total of sixteen vocal compositions was presented. Several of them are closely related to Puccini's operas and had already been written during his studies in Milan. It was this edition that inspired Johannes X. Schachtner to arrange the piano score-like accompaniments for orchestra. In early February 2023, the US tenor Charles Castronovo sang these sixteen songs for the first time together with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester conducted by Ivan Repušic. Charles Castronovo has worked with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester ever since a concert performance of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito in 2006. In the 2023/24 season, he will return to Munich as the orchestra's “Artist in Residence”. BR-KLASSIK now presents the CD “Giacomo Puccini - I Canti”.

Puccini's piano songs are entirely in the Italian tradition of the 19th century. Most Italian opera composers - from Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini to Verdi - also wrote lieder, but unlike the German art song, these were always closely related to bel canto, the “beautiful song”. Priority is given here to an irresistible melos over a mostly simple accompaniment, which is nevertheless supported by charming harmonies; hardly ever do these Italian songs eschew the dramatic flair of the opera composer. In the course of his work, Johannes X. Schachtner was increasingly fascinated by the way in which these songs, which were written for very different occasions and have no contextual connection, nevertheless convey the highly exciting story of a composer's life. From the youthful, almost innocent love song “A te” to Puccini's last songs with the impressive “Morire?” – but also small album leaves such as the setting of the Italian proverb “Casa mia, casa mia”, which is only a few bars long. Some songs also afford us a glimpse into the workshop of the composer Puccini, who made use of his earlier pieces in his operas. For example, a melody from the song

“Mentía l'avviso”, which was part of his final examination at the Milan Conservatory, became the famous aria “Donna non vidi mai” of Des Grieux in his opera Manon Lescaut a few years later.

The sixteen songs arranged with orchestral accompaniment are complemented by orchestral works by Puccini, written during his studies at the Milan Conservatory. They reflect the musical spirit of the time that shaped the young composer – ranging from the melodic influences of his teacher Amilcare Ponchielli to the impressions that the music of Richard Wagner left on him. Themes from these pieces also recur in his operas. Puccini's enthusiasm for Wagner shimmers through unmistakably in the “Preludio sinfonica”. In the “Capriccio sinfonica” one can hear a whole reservoir of later opera melodies, the most striking of which (almost note-for-note) is the opening of La bohème. Puccini's funeral music “Crisantemi”, composed for string quartet, was written before his first resounding success with Manon Lescaut, where melodies from it recur. Puccini wrote the piece in memory of Amadeo di Savoia, Duke of Aosta, who died on January 18, 1890, and the morbid scent of the cemetery flowers pervades the three-part Andante movement.

The album “Vetra” features folk music taken from the material collected and written down by Ludvig Mathias Lindeman, in Valdres. Lindeman found his “raw material” in the tunes and folk melodies played and sung in villages and small communities off the beaten track in various parts of Norway, and which had been handed on directly from person to person, and which in the process had been moulded into a style which we can call traditional music – in our case traditional Valdres music. We cannot get away from the local element. Folk music and folk songs in Valdres are closely connected to the local scene: its nature and animal life, its seasons, and its people. Folk songs and short verses refer to people by name, and stories tell of animals and underground creatures. Folk music is very much part of the folk history and identity of Valdres. This album can be a modest contribution to this identity.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the death of Georg Philipp Telemann, mandolinist Alon Sariel presents a diverse compilation of remarkable works by the great German composer. The compilation is enriched with works by three of Telemann’s contemporaries: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Carl Friedrich Abel and Johann Friedrich Fasch, all three of whom engaged in the creative spirit of the Hamburg composer and his works. Together with his ensemble Concerto Foscari he recorded repertoire that has never been heard before in this musical form. This recording is now available on Vinyl.

The popular album"Horn Concertos" by Felix Klieser is being released as a 180g Vinyl Reissue. The talented and unique horn player masters the technically demanding Horn Concertos by Joseph Haydn and his lesser known brother Michael Haydn. He is accomapnied by the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn under the baton of Ruben Gazarian. Together, they display these innovative compositions and their masterful orchestration with brilliance and unrivaled brilliance. The reconstructed 'Horn Concerto No. 0' by W. A. Mozart offers glimpses into the maestro's early Viennese years.

By popular demand, this Berlin Classics recording is reissued on Vinyl. Featured on it are Beethoven’s Concerto in D Major, originally written for the violin, and Concertante Variations by lesser-known composer Franz Schmidt played by virtuoso pianist Ragna Schirmer and the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra. Beethovens Concerto in D Major is a testament to his mastery of crafting music and his profound understanding of melody, harmony, and orchestration. Schmidt’s Concertante Variations are a masterpiece of late Romantic variation writing that not only allows the pianist ample scope for virtuosic display but is also remarkable for its sophisticated formal conception.

�kervinda share a deep love of folk music, and give new life to the Scandinavian folk tunes in their original and modern interpretations. The group's name is inspired by a Swedish wildflower whose roots spread far and wide like rivers under the ground. Like the flower, gracefully entwining melodies, rock solid groove, and ever intriguing harmonies will take root in your mind. Like the flower, they will be impossible to remove.

In Monk's Mood 180g Audiophile Vinyl

The House I Live In 180g Audiophile Vinyl

Groovin' With Big G 180g Audiophile Vinyl

Notes On Ornette 180g Audiophile Vinyl

Malmö Sweden 1965 180g Audiophile Vinyl