Classical Music

Awarded the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory' Rubinstein Medal, classical guitarist Vicente Coves presents a beguiling recital of music from Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Paraguay and Spain.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

An exciting start to a new orchestral collaboration for Signum Records, this disc is the first of a new series with the London Sinfonietta - one of the world's elite contemporary music ensembles with a reputation built on the virtuosity of its performances and ambitious programming. This live recording brings together the UK premiere of Anaïs Nin, a new work for soprano and small ensemble, alongside his famed work De Staat. Anaïs Nin is a monodrama based on the diaries of the same famed author, as well as those of her lovers (Antonin Artaud, René Allendy, Henry Miller and her own Father). A sometimes disturbing tale of desire and passion, Andriessen felt that the music should "closely track the irony, despair and passion of this brilliant, many-sided woman". ' ... [Anaïs Nin's] resonance is profound and disturbing. By pairing it in concert with an invigorating performance of Andriessen's early masterpiece, De Staat, whose concern with the individual body and the body politic bears strong parallels, the Sinfonietta showed the Dutch composer at his searching best.' Guy Dammann, The Guardian (Review of the concert from which this recording was made)

The Heritage of John Philip Sousa, Vol. 7

Berlioz Rottrerdam PO/Nezet-Seguin,Antonacci Symphonie fantastique; Cleopatre

Classical Music

Ongs are simply the most sensuous kind of fun one can have with the combination of words and music,' remarks Scott Wheeler, composer of the highly praised the Construction of Boston.

Popular vocal and instrumental works and excerpts from the Baroque era through earlier 20th Century, all associated with the Winter season and Christmas. On 5 CDs.

Adam:
O Holy Night
Albinoni:
Adagio for Strings and Organ in G minor
Bach:
Air on the G string
Bruch:
Jubilate, Amen Op. 3
Bruckner:
Ave Maria
Corelli:
Concerto grosso Op. 6 No. 8 in G minor 'fatto per la notte di Natale'
Gabrieli, G:
Sacrae Symphoniae No. 2
Gounod:
Ave Maria
Grüber, F:
Stille Nacht
Handel:
Messiah: Pastoral Symphony 'Pifa'
Manfredini:
Concerto grosso in C major, Op. 3 No. 12 'per il Santissimo Natale'
Molter:
Concerto pastorale in G major
Mozart:
Laudate Dominum from Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, K339
Praetorius, M:
Kindelein zart von guter Art
Reger:
Mariä Wiegenlied, Op. 76 No. 52
Traditional:
Süsser die Glocken
O Jesulein Zart
Vivaldi:
The Four Seasons: Winter, RV297

Traditional choruses and excerpts of Christmas music from the Baroque era to the time of Saint-Saens. Performing groups include: Wiener Sängerknaben, Regensburger Domspatzen, Dresdner Kreuzchor, Thomanerchor Leipzig, Tölzer Knabenchor, Academy of London, Dresdner Philharmonie, Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum Leipzig, Martin Flämig, Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden, Roland Büchner, Peter Marschik.

Selections include:
Bach, J S:

Ich steh an deiner Krippen hier, BWV469

Brahms:

O Heiland, reiss die Himmel auf, Op. 74 No. 2

Grieg:

Ave Maris Stella

Grüber, F:

Stille Nacht

Handel:

Messiah: Hallelujah Chorus
Tochter Zion, freue dich

Mendelssohn:

Von Himmel hoch: Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her

Ave Maria, Op. 23 No. 2

Saint-Saens

Christmas Oratorio (Excerpt)

Mozart:

Laudate Dominum from Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, K339

Reger:

Mariä Wiegenlied, Op. 76 No. 52

Traditional:

Maria durch ein’ Dornwald ging
In Dulci Jubilo
Adeste fideles
Stille, stille, lasst uns lauschen
Es ist ein Ros'
O Jesulein suss, O Jesulein mild

REVIEW:

Performances, as you would expect with such esteemed choirs at work, are mostly excellent; recording ambiences and quality are quite variable, but generally fine. The spare booklet contains no notes, texts, or information about the original albums these selections no doubt came from; all we get is titles, performers, and track timings. Still, if you’re a Germanophile or favor a boychoir kind of Christmas, this pleasant collection should enrich your holidays.

– American Record Guide

Classical Music

Classical Music

From mysterious moonlit night to joyous sunlit day, this recording runs the gamut of Alfredo Casella’s huge stylistic range. Notte di maggio (‘A Night in May’), composed in the wake of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, is Casella at his most radical, while the delightful ‘Divertimento’ Scarlattiana finds him at his most relaxed, spicing up themes from Domenico Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas—in the manner of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella. Between them comes Casella’s Cello Concerto, its style influenced by the ‘baroque magnificence of Rome’, with a finale the composer called ‘the flight of the improved bumblebee’.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The vocal music on Rene Eespere's CD de spe is based on the Latin texts by Seneca, Ovidius, Martialis, Codex Vossianus and Codex Bernensis and on the dramatic-symbolic poem Invocatio by Anne Lill inspired by Franz Kafka's parable Before the Law. This CD is filled with Epigrams, musically expressed in a nuance-rich language of impressionistic, operatic and sacred music elements. The original versions of Epigrams were written for the Opera in the Town Hall concert series and have been premiering within the ancient walls of the Tallinn Town Hall since 2001. Epigrams are dedicated to Francois Soulet, Elena Voznessenskaya and Sauli Tiilikainen whose interpretation of them is recorded on this album.

Classical Music

Sephardic music, from the ancient domain of al-Andalus, lies at the heart of of this selection of songs in remembrance of a lost homeland. The word endechar comes from a time before the expulsion of the Jews and their culture from Spain in 1492; wit.

Classical Music

The music of John Jeffreys is an absolute delight - overtly Romantic and non-modernist, very much in the tradition of Delius, Warlock and Vaughan Williams. Here a number of delicious orchestral works of stunning beauty are accompanied by fine dramatic vocal works and a Suite of Variations for piano. This CD is essential for anyone interested in the English pastoral tradition - or just in exquisite music.

The United States Army Strings

An die Geliebte

Classical Music