Classical Music

Christmas is a time of singing, a time for giving and a time of celebration with family and friends. Naxos Family Classics is proud to offer you our second Songs of Praise CD, this one for the Christmas holidays'.

Classical Music

Classical Music

SPONTINI: Chamber Songs

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

A lieder recital featuring music by C.P.E. Bach and J.C.F. Bach, sung by bass-baritone Gottfried Schwarz with keyboard accompaniment from Sabine Bauer.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Lili Boulanger (1893-1918), younger sister of the more famous Nadia Boulanger, was a brilliant and precocious French composer who dazzled the world of European music at the beginning of the 20th century. At age 19, Lili Boulanger became the first woman to win France's Prix de Rome. In her short career, Boulanger advanced the impressionism of her era, finding her own voice in music that's expressive and luminous, moving and enchanting. Debussy descriptively described her music as "undulating with grace."

To place Boulanger's music in context, the CD offers songs by prominent French composers who had a connection to her music: Fauré, Ravel, Debussy, Messiaen, and Honegger.

The story goes that Sony had to twist Angelika Kirchschlager’s arm pretty hard to persuade her to record this compilation: after all, she has hitherto been known for rather more rigorous programming both in live recital and on disc. With pictures of herself and her baby enfolded in a bath towel, the packaging may be soft-focus, but Kirchschlager proves herself no soft touch. She takes it all seriously enough to use a Welsh, Provencal and Portuguese language coach where necessary; and to include songs which go darker and deeper than the (itals)Wiegenlieder(end itals) of Schubert and Brahms which frame this recital. For here, too, is Brahms’s ‘Gestille Sehnsucht’, revealing the shadowy yearnings of the distinctly adult soul; and Weber’s ‘Lass mich schlummern’, its latent agitation trembling through John Williams’s guitar accompaniment. The breadth of idiom within this ostensibly single-mood recital is matched by the variety of accompaniment: as well as Williams’s guitar, Yuri Bashmet’s viola puts in an appearance for Brahms, and Roger Vignoles joins the chamber-musical soloists who accompany Haydn’s arrangement of ‘Ar hyd y nos’. Kirchschlager’s kid-gloves Welsh is as nicely attuned to Haydn’s prettification of the folksong as her English is to lullabies by Menotti and Copland, and to the surprising re-invention of ‘Edelweiss’ as folksong manque.

-- Hilary Finch, BBC Music Magazine

Le Sommeil d'Ulisse

If you care about Mahler, make a point of hearing this disc, no matter how many Fourths are already on your shelves. And I hope we will soon need more shelf space for additional CDs of Slowik's Mahler, some of it with full-sized orchestras. Mahler's music is no longer rare, but performances of such freshness, commitment and depth are always in short supply.
-- Bernard D. Sherman, Andante.com

14.99

Classical Music

Classical Music

CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO: Shakespeare Songs

Classical Music

The mission of the U.S. Army Band is to inspire America's soldiers and citizens with music. The men and women of this esteemed musical organization accomplish this mission thousands of times each year during performances in the nation's capital, throughout the country and around the world. Established by General of the Armies John J. Pershing in 1922, the U.S. Army Band is the official musical organization for many diplomatic and state functions at the White House, the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol, at Arlington National Cemetery, and at the Tomb of the Unknown. Leading every Presidential Inaugural Parade since 1925, the U.S. Army Band, known a "Pershing's Own," has also represented the Nation at miliary ceremonies and special events around the world including the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Scotland, The Kennedy Center Honors National Telecast and the opening of the 1984 and 1996 Olympic Games. It is with great pride that Altissimo! dedicates this recording, God Bless America, to all Americans around the world who serve the cause of freedom.

Christmas Celebration

Christmas Songs (Leipzig Thomaner Choir, Rotzsch