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BEETHOVEN: VIOLIN SONATAS NOS 6 7 &
IMPORTS Aug 2015
CD
$16.49

THREE BLIND MICE

SUNNYSIDE

$16.63 Dec 13, 2024

There is an art to combining formal composition with the free grooving essence of jam band music. For decades, guitarist/vocalist Francis Jacob studied and played music from all over the globe, condensing what he absorbed into his own unique style. Along with his longtime friends, bassist Stomu Takeishi and percussionist Gintas Janusonis, Jacob assembled his new group, The Three Blind Mice, that explores the sounds of jazz, funk, and world music through these musicians' unique prisms of influence. Originally from France, Jacob has been based in New York City for three decades. He has invested himself in the local music scene, specializing in the sounds of West Africa and his native France. The Japan born Takeishi has also been a longtime member of the New York music scene, specializing in experimental jazz but also the rhythms of South America. A midwestern with Lithuanian heritage, Janusonis has an eclectic resume with a solid foundation in groove-based music. The three musicians have worked on and off together for decades, but it was during the pandemic that Jacob decided that he wanted to establish a smaller ensemble. He invited Takeishi and Janusonis to regular jam sessions. The trio quickly developed a natural sound based on their mutual love and understanding of a wide variety of musical styles from around the world. Jacob began treating the jams as workshops for his compositions, bringing in pieces that would be fleshed out as the band explored them. Taking inspiration from the band's name, The Three Blind Mice focus on musical elements related to the number three on their self-titled album. Jacob decided to utilize devices based on song form, time signature, and beat subdivisions for his pieces informed by ternary systems. Many musical elements come together in the rich musical world of Francis Jacob, Stomu Takeishi, and Gintas Janusonis's The Three Blind Mice. Weaving these rich elements of world music together, the trio provides a vibrant and addictive listening experience on their new self-titled album.

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THREE BLIND MICE
SUNNYSIDE Dec 2024
CD
$16.63

Dunas - Live in Copenhagen

Storyville Records

Vinyl

$39.99 Nov 21, 2025

Rosa Passos is considered one of the most important and loved Brazilian singers. Many music fans view her as the queen of modern bossa nova and samba, and she's equally loved in South America, Japan, USA and Europe. Whether she's playing with Kenny Barron or Yo Yo Ma she easily sells out Carnegie Hall in New York. She also enjoys touring with her quartet at jazz festivals and jazz clubs around Europe. Rosa Passos is part of the golden generation of Brazilian musicians that includes Joao Bosco, Joyce Moreno, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Maria Bethania, Milton Nascimento, Ivan Lins and many other great artists. Rosa Passos is especially loved for her elegance and soft touch. Her musicality is an inspiration to singers all over the world. Her music speaks to everyone, you don't need to know about jazz or music to understand and enjoy - there is something universal to her vocal and approach that instantly makes the listener go along on the journey Rosa sets out for. It's always beautiful and if you close your eyes you can feel the Brasilian soul and see the beaches for your inner eyes. On July 7th, 2001 Rosa Passos played two sets at the famous Copenhagen Jazzhouse, one of the best jazz clubs in Europe for more than 25 years. The concerts took place as part of a bigger summer tour of Europe, with Rosa Passos playing all the important jazz festivals. In 2001 she was still unknown to the audience in Copenhagen, but Steen Rasmussen, a Danish pianist who was there, remembers: "Her playing was flawless and sophisticated - and it swung like crazy. It was already the best music I'd ever heard. Then she began to sing - and I was almost in a trance. That voice, that phrasing, that swing, that empathy, that way she accompanied herself - and that low volume. I could tell everyone present felt the same. Rosa Passos had changed all our lives forever" The experience speaks to the impact Rosa Passos has on people when they have the honor of experiencing her talent first-hand. She's intimate and powerful at the same time, and the tunes she plays, a mixture of her own compositions and Bossa Nova-classics, support her means of expression in the best way possible. This recording from Jazzhouse presents her and her band at her best. The sound is crisp, and the presence allows for the pure expression to shine through, and makes you wish that you had been there to experience this very special night in Copenhagen. "Imagine you are rocking a baby to sleep. For me, that's Bossa Nova" - Rosa Passos

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Dunas - Live in Copenhagen
Storyville Records Nov 2025
Vinyl
$39.99

LIVE AT MONTREUX 1973
UNIVERSAL JAPAN Dec 2022
CD
$24.49

Ishii: Thirteen Drums
BIS May 2004
CD
$21.99

LIVE

DELMARK

Vinyl

$28.26 Apr 17, 2020

My thing has always been live music. Going to shows, booking shows, playing shows. Playing with the best musicians I could. More than anything, I loved the feeling of getting in the van and going. Even better, once I got there, I love the feeling of knockin' em dead. It's been nearly 20 years since my last live recording. That one, More Real Folk Blues Live, was Chicago in every way, back when living in Chicago was like Christmas for me every day. It was the result of seeing and playing with great blues artists all the time - artists like Eddie C. Campbell, Tail Dragger, Sam Lay, Eddie Taylor Jr., Jimmy Dawkins, Eddie Shaw, Little Arthur Duncan, Jimmy Burns, Big Smokey Smothers, L.V. Banks, Eddy Clearwater - and many others. It was a recording borne of a long, self-imposed apprenticeship - the kind musicians like me came to Chicago from all over the world to get. Although that apprenticeship ended some time ago, I have begun another journey that's taken me from coast to coast in the US and all around the world, across Europe, to Russia, Japan and beyond. Live recordings often just repeat well-worn songs played by well-oiled machines. This live session is the exact opposite. It offers twelve brand-new originals done by artists who don't play together regularly, performed for a packed house of enthusiastic fans of course! We had just one night to nail it - which made this recording a crazy, but thrilling, high wire act! The many miles and musical clairvoyance I've enjoyed with my road band of bassist Chris Matheos and drummer Steve Dougherty gave me the confidence for this do-or-die session. I drew from the great Bay Area blues talent pool that lured me to the West Coast back in 2016. I count all my special guests as friends and knew their contributions would carry me through. Blues legend Charlie Musselwhite's driving boogie-woogie harp on 'California Blues' is an absolute highlight. The end result is a raw, fresh, and original all-star set of blues, shot through with live energy. Chicago Blues sax legend Eddie Shaw once said, 'It takes 20 years to make a bluesman.' Here I am, ready to play my blues for you.

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LIVE
DELMARK Apr 2020
Vinyl
$28.26

BREMEN 1965

SUNNYSIDE

Vinyl

$55.99 Dec 12, 2025

By the mid-1960s, European touring had become a routine familiar to many of jazz's most well-known practitioners. Piano/composer Thelonious Monk was already over two decades into his career when he began to visit Europe in earnest. Europeans were excited to experience Monk and his storied personality, often focusing as much on his appearance and idiosyncratic behavior ahead of the music. // The release of Bremen 1965 finds the legend on his second tour to feature stops in Germany with his seasoned quartet featuring his longtime saxophone foil, Charlie Rouse, along with bassist Larry Gales and drummer Ben Riley. Bremen, Germany was the second stop on the quartet's world tour, which would include much of Europe, Australia, and Japan. The recording was made on March 8, 1965, in Radio Bremen's storied Sendesaal / Studio F in front of an anticipative audience. Bremen 1965 is the first official release of the concert, mastered from the original tapes held in the Radio Bremen vaults under the guidance and blessings of Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), Radio Bremen, and T.S. Monk. The release will be available in a handful of formats, including digitally along with double CD and LP record sets. Included with the physical releases is a researched set of liner notes from Sunnyside's Bret Sjerven. The recording catches Monk just after some notable transitions. The pianist left his former label, Riverside Records, for Columbia Records, where his most recent release, It's Monk's Time, was fresh off the presses when the quartet arrived in Europe in 1965. There had also been a change in the rhythm section, as bassist John Ore and drummer Frankie Dunlop had been replaced by Larry Gales and Ben Riley, who would both appear on Monk's next studio recording, Monk. The long performance captures unique takes of Monk classics, like "Criss Cross, " "Well You Needn't, " "Epistrophy, " and "Rhythm-a-ning, " along with standards that Monk continued to find inspiring, including "Sweet and Lovely, " "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You, " and "Don't Blame Me." Long, loose takes on these pieces allow for listeners to experience Monk and company's ability to swing, duel, and sing in their most unparalleled fashion. The music of Thelonious Monk remains eternally and monumentally singular in approach and conception. Monk's interpretations of his tunes and those of others have left lasting impressions on the genre of jazz. Bremen 1965 highlights an incredible performance during one of Monk and his quartet's most fiery and exploratory periods.

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BREMEN 1965
SUNNYSIDE Dec 2025
Vinyl
$55.99

Takemitsu: String Around Autumn (A) / I Hear The Water Dream
BIS Sep 2002
CD
$21.99

FEELIN THE SPIRIT
UNIVERSAL JAPAN Nov 2024
CD
$32.99

HERE TIS
UNIVERSAL JAPAN Nov 2024
CD
$18.49

D'Agincour: Complete Organ Music

Brilliant Classics

$12.99 Nov 28, 2025

Francois d'Agincour (1684-1758) was a French composer, organist, and harpsichordist. Though overshadowed by contemporaries such as Francois Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau his surviving keyboard works offer a fascinating glimpse into the refined and ornate French classical organ tradition of the early 18th century. D'Agincour served as organist at the Rouen Cathedral for over 40 years and held royal positions as well, which afforded him access to France's finest instruments and a cultured musical environment. His sole surviving organ collection, Premier livre d'orgue (1733), contains a series of pieces organized into suites according to church modes, consistent with the liturgical practices of the time. Each suite contains various movements - including Plein jeux, Fugues, Recits, and Dialogues - that correspond to specific parts of the Catholic mass. His music reflects the elegance and clarity characteristic of the French classical organ school, with it's emphasis on ornamentation, color, and registration. D'Agincour skillfully exploits the tonal possibilities of the French classical organ, composing pieces that call for distinctive solo stops such as the Cromorne, Tierce, and Cornet. While structurally conservative, his music reveals a personal voice marked by harmonic finesse, rhythmic vitality, and melodic inventiveness. Though his output is modest compared to others, d'Agincour's organ works exemplify the culmination of the French classical style just before it began to yield to the more galant and Classical idioms. Modern interest in historical performance practices has led to a renewed appreciation of his music. Recorded by Chikako Nishikawa at the Andrea Zeni tribune organ in the Chiesa Parrocchiale dei SS. Giuseppe e Lucia, Italy After her studies in her Native Japan Chikako Nishikawa went to Europe to study in Zurich, Fribourg and The Hague, meanwhile receiving top prizes at international competitions. Lately she studied organ, with a focus on early music, with Federico Del Sordo at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome (Post-Gradum course).

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D'Agincour: Complete Organ Music
Brilliant Classics Nov 2025
CD
$12.99

Mix & Match

Tansman: Grande Ville - Works for Piano Duo / Baayon Duo

DUX

$19.79 ~~$21.99~~ Save 10% Apr 29, 2022

An agnostic Jew, a descendant of rabbis, brought up in a lay environment. A Jewish composer in Poland, a Polish composer in France, in America- a refugee mingling with the elite. Among his concert tours, he visited Hawaii, Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Ceylon, Bali, Greece, Egypt, and Israel. Greeted by Gandhi during his stay in Bombay; in Japan he was a guest of Emperor Hirohito. Grande Ville- a great city- became this composer’s destiny. Tansman, an eternal wanderer, he would arrive in each new great city with a head full of music and leave with a suitcase full of manuscripts. His biography is as colorful and outstanding as his work. He was an extremely prolific composer. The list of his works is a book of over 100 pages, one fifth of which is chamber music. In 1937, Tansman married the outstanding pianist Colette Cras. Most of the composer’s pieces for two pianos and four hands were written with the intention of performing them in a duet with his wife. Tansman’s works, intended to be performed by the couple, are extremely diverse- displaying neoclassical lightness or the darkness of war experiences, including inspirations from the works of other composers, and entertainment music. Identified with the contemporary avant-garde, dubbed the first Polish neoclassical by his critics, he himself avoided labeling his own art. Faithful to tradition and open to modernity, he defied all categorizations.

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Tansman: Grande Ville - Works for Piano Duo / Baayon Duo
DUX Apr 2022
CD
~~$21.99~~ $19.79

Recent Favorite

LOVE SCENES
UNIVERSAL JAPAN Jun 2025
CD
$21.99

Brahms: The Violin Sonatas / Mayeda

Gramola Records

$24.99 Feb 16, 2024

The fact that an accomplished violinist can also play the piano with equal virtuosity and artistic perfection suggests an extraordinary musical talent. Tomoko Mayeda’s recording of Mozart’s late Viennese violin sonatas already revealed that this is true in her case. On this album, the Japanese artist now presents in a unique way the three violin sonatas by Johannes Brahms by first recording the entire piano part and then adding the violin part in a second recording session. Brahms described his violin sonatas as “Sonatas for Piano and Violin” – himself as an extremely virtuoso pianist being aware of the difficulty and prominent position of the piano part. With this release, Tomoko Mayeda once again demonstrates her extraordinary dual talent.

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Brahms: The Violin Sonatas / Mayeda
Gramola Records Feb 2024
CD
$24.99

FREE FIGHT
BBE Feb 2026
Vinyl
$38.46

EAST COAST JAZZ SERIES 8
BETHLEHEM JAPAN Mar 2013
CD
$10.45

Dvorak's Prophecy - Film 6 - Lou Harrison & Cultural Fusion [DVD]

Naxos

DVD

$6.49 ~~$12.99~~ Save 50% Nov 12, 2021

“Lou Harrison and Cultural Fusion”
A PostClassical Ensemble “More than Music” film
Written and produced by Joseph Horowitz
Visual presentation by Peter Bogdanoff
Film six in the six-film Naxos series:
“Dvorak’s Prophecy: A New Narrative for American Classical Music”

Joe Horowitz writes of this film: "No non-Western musical idiom has so impacted on the Western concert tradition as Indonesian gamelan, beginning with the Javanese Pavilion at the 1889 Paris Exposition: an epiphany. Sampling gamelan-inspired works by Debussy, Poulenc, Messiaen, and McPhee, we arrive at a paragon exemplar of cultural fusion – Lou Harrison – and a pair of concertos, for violin and piano, unsurpassed by those of any other American. The composer/scholar Bill Alves demonstrates the layered complexity of Javanese gamelan, and how it translates into keyboard textures composed by Harrison for Keith Jarrett. For Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion, we tour the “junk percussion” – including flowerpots and washtubs – that Harrison made sing and dance."

He goes on to write "We now inhabit a “postclassical” musical aesthetic that, rather than piling on modernist complexity, draws inspiration from a variety of sources, Eastern and Western, “high” and popular. The prophetic figure, it seems to me is Lou Harrison, who practiced world music before there was a name for it. Harrison was certainly a composer who discovered a usable past – including music from Indonesia, China, and Japan. In the New World, a usable starting point was and remains the sorrow songs of African Americans, so eloquently celebrated around the turn of the twentieth century by W. E. B. Du Bois and Antonin Dvořák. Dvořák’s 1893 prophecy that “negro melodies” would foster a “great and noble” school of American music has never seemed more pertinent.”

"These six beautiful films reveal a compelling, inclusive musical tradition, deeply interwoven with American culture." – J. Peter Burkholder, author of 'A History of Western Music' and 'Listening to Charles Ives'.

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Dvorak's Prophecy - Film 6 - Lou Harrison & Cultural Fusion [DVD]
Naxos Nov 2021
DVD
~~$12.99~~ $6.49

Complete Symphonies, Ouverture

Kontrapunkt

$99.99 Dec 09, 2001

Hans Graf will become the fifteenth Music Director of the Houston Symphony, beginning with opening night of the 200l-2002 season. He debuted with the Houston Symphony in March 2000 conducting Emanuel Ax in Adams‘ Century Rolls, with Schubert‘s The Great also on the program. A week later, he led the orchestra and Houston Symphony Chorus in an expanded weekend series of Orft‘s Carmina Burana. He made an appearance as a guest conductor with two subscription programs in May 2000. The Austrian-born Graf is in his sixth season as Music Director of Canada‘s Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and his third season with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine in France. Believing “there is something to learn from musicians and orchestras everyday,“ Graf guest conducts all over the globe. In the United States, he frequently makes appearances in Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Dallas, Indianapolis and Cincinnati. He has conducted Mostly Mozart at the Lincoln Center, the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Tanglewood and the Cleveland Orchestra in Blossom Center. Internationally, Graf often conducts in the major concert halls of Scandinavia, France, Italy, England, Japan and Australia. He has appeared with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, as well as the St. Petersburg and Israel Philharmonics. He has been part of major European festivals including Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Savonlinna (Finland‘s Opera Festival), Bregenz, Vienna and Salzburg (for thirteen successive seasons). An opera proponent for its “wonderful musical power and sense of human expression,“ Graf first conducted the Vienna State Opera in 1981 and has since appeared at major opera houses in Berlin, Munich, Paris and Rome. His extensive opera repertory includes several premieres.

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Complete Symphonies, Ouverture
Kontrapunkt Dec 2001
CD
$99.99

VIRTUOSO: PIANISTS OF THE SYDNEY INT'L PIANO

ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA

$60.91 Jun 18, 2021

Described by The Australian as 'a boon for lovers of the piano and those keeping an ear on exciting musical talent', the Sydney International Piano Competition (The Sydney) has become a fixture on the classical music landscape. This unique retrospective chronicles more than 100 fascinating performances. They were recorded by 77 pianists during seven events over two decades (1992-2016). Over it's 14 hours, the eleven CDs in this Limited Edition encompass music by more than 55 composers from Agnew to Zaderetsky and the anthology is organized in seven categories: Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Twentieth Century, Transcriptions & Encores, Australian Piano Music and Piano Concertos. Anyone who has followed The Sydney will recognize the excitement, the fever pitch as this great quadrennial festival of pianism heads towards the final rounds. This set provides the listener then with a cornucopia of pianism. You can hear lyrical grace in so many of the Scarlatti sonatas, and particularly Rustem Khairutdinov's 1992 performance of the D minor, Kk.9. Poise and rapt stillness informs Roberto Cominati's 1996 Debussy (Images - Book II), and the clarity of voicing is carried through in his performance of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto, where, you're swept away with the excitement, but hear all the notes! Excitement is to be found on virtually each disc in the set, but particularly in the 'Transcriptions & Encores' volume, as well as in the Rachmaninov and Sancan performances by Olivier Cazal, Yuki Takao's Hexentanz (Macdowell), and Tatiana Kolesova's Petrushka pieces. The anthology also gives us the opportunity to experience Australian piano music as interpreted by a range of pianists from, among others, countries like Russia, Canada, China, the United States, Sweden and Japan (and, of course, Australia). Many are called, few are chosen, as the saying goes, but the philosophy in putting together this collection was purely the merit of an individual performance, no matter which stage it's performer reached in the event. Therefore, it matters little as to where individuals participating in this competition may be now. Fate and time have their own plans for participants and their future paths. But playing that is as good, unique and memorable as that here represented is worthy of preservation. As a snapshot of some outstanding playing across several Sydney winters, this collection is sure to entertain those unfamiliar with the performers and bring back memories for those who were there. The booklet includes full recording details, and introduction by The Sydney's chairman Virginia Braden, and notes by Piers Lane (Artistic Director of The Sydney), and Cyrus Meher-Homji, who initiated a long-running series of recordings from The Sydney from 1992 onwards and curated this boxed set.

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VIRTUOSO: PIANISTS OF THE SYDNEY INT'L PIANO
ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA Jun 2021
CD
$60.91

J.S.BACH: SIX PARTITAS
IMPORTS Jun 2014
CD
$21.99

HORST STEIN: THE DECCA RECORDINGS

ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA

$134.04 Apr 03, 2026

The complete Decca recordings of German conductor Horst Stein cover an astonishingly wide range of repertoire, with Friedrich Gulda in the 'very spontaneous, very lyrical Beethoven concerto cycle' (Gramophone), through music by Cherubini and Weber, to critically-acclaimed recordings of Bruckner, Wagner and Wolf. Included are four discs of his colourful Sibelius: 'free-wheeling readings of great thrust, drive and a big line... The sound is at once biting and smooth' wrote High Fidelity. The complete Decca recordings of a Horst Stein, directed with the unfussy authority of his many appearances at Bayreuth and the Vienna State Opera. The recordings in this set, cover an astonishingly broad range of repertoire. Beethoven concertos (with Friedrich Gulda, once a staple of the Decca catalogue), Cherubini, Prokofiev, Bruckner, Sibelius: all writing in completely contrasting idioms, and yet all brought stylishly to life here under the baton of Horst Stein. Stein learnt his craft as an opera conductor in postwar Bayreuth, where he served as an assistant to Karajan, Keilberth and Knappertsbusch in celebrated performances of the Ring and Parsifal. He later became known for the expert pacing and dramatic pulse of his own Wagner conducting, which is represented in this set by an album of orchestral highlights with the Vienna Philharmonic. Stein worked in Bayreuth and Vienna throughout his career, and later in life became a revered figure in Japan. He represented the best of the German Kapellmeister tradition, which produced straightforwardly eloquent and powerful performances of whatever music was at hand. When Stein conducted Bruckner - the Second and Sixth, again recorded in Vienna - he sounded like a natural Brucknerian. When he recorded Sibelius - four albums of tone poems and the Second Symphony from Geneva - he sounded like a complete Sibelian, and so on. As an addendum to his Decca output comes an album of Russian opera arias with the bass Kim Borg recorded for Deutsche Grammophon. Just as Stein lends noble support to Borg in the Death Scene from Boris Godunov, he is a detailed accompanist to Josef Sivo in violin concertos by Glazunov and Prokofiev, and to Friedrich Gulda in the piano concertos of Beethoven. Horst Stein's conducting will impress many modern listeners with it's rhythmic power and lack of ego, and this set is the most comprehensive survey of his legacy on record ever issued.

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HORST STEIN: THE DECCA RECORDINGS
ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA Apr 2026
CD
$134.04

Bach: Goldberg Variations / Kato

Centaur Records

$18.99 Feb 26, 2013

BACH Goldberg Variations • Sachiko Kato (pn) • CENTAUR CRC3202 (59:15)

When this arrived in the mail, my first reaction was, “Oh no, here we go again; another Goldberg Variations by an artist I’ve never heard of before.” And after being so rattled by my grievous error regarding the matter of repeats in Daniel Pienaar’s recording, I had serious doubts about reviewing another Goldberg Variations ever again. Well, you know what they say about getting right back up on the horse after you’ve been thrown. Had I passed on this assignment out of fear, I’d have missed out on a truly extraordinary experience. For starters, forget that this is a recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations . It’s a disc you should have purely for the velvet smoothness and silken beauty of Sachiko Kato’s tone as captured by the One Soul Studios engineers in New York’s Klavierhaus Hall. This is simply one of the most gorgeous reproductions of piano sound I’ve heard on disc.

Now, of course, this is a recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations , and not being one to be burned twice, I listened to Kato’s performance with undivided attention and followed the score dutifully. Here is what I can tell you. She takes the first-half repeats of each variation, but not the second-half ones. More’s the pity, because in many of the variations’ first halves, she adds some of her own embellishments that tickled me with delight. Kato is an extremely imaginative player, and I would have loved to hear her embellishments in second-half repeats.

Beyond the matter of repeats and her own embellishments, Kato’s readings of the variations are so perfectly realized in terms of tempos, phrasing, and discovery of detail, particularly in the left hand, that one marvels at the utter naturalness and fluency of the music. Notice I said “of the music,” not of Kato’s playing, because she plays with such a sense of effortlessness and ease that it’s as if the piano is having its own joyous conversation with Bach. Listen, for example to the happy mordents and smiling trill-and-mordents in the second half of Variation 5, executed with such perfection that even at Kato’s rapid velocity, not only can you hear the difference between them, your ear can discern the number of squiggles.

I’ve long admired Angela Hewitt, Murray Perahia, András Schiff, and Craig Sheppard in this music, but Sachiko Kato’s performance is truly special, and for piano versions, I think it may now be my favorite. This wonderful Japanese-born, Los Angeles-raised, Juilliard-trained artist has yet to gain much of a presence on record—Amazon, as well as her website, lists only two previous releases, both of modern music, which Kato champions—but she performs extensively throughout the U.S. and Japan. To everyone who embraces Bach’s Goldberg Variations on piano, this deserves to be heard and is urgently recommended.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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Bach: Goldberg Variations / Kato
Centaur Records Feb 2013
CD
$18.99

Wonderland / The King's Singers

Signum Classics

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Sep 22, 2023

Wonderland is full of magic and myth. Containing exclusively works commissioned by The King’s Singers across their 55 years, the album celebrates their trademark musical storytelling, with no shortage of comedy. György Ligeti’s six Nonsense Madrigals, each setting playful children’s poetry or extracts from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, provide a musical spine to the album, commemorating 100 years since the composer’s birth in 1923. From just over 50 years ago, the fairytale The Musicians of Bremen (1972) – set to music by the Australian composer and Master of the Queen’s Music Malcolm Williamson – sits alongside Time Piece (1972) by Paul Patterson, which tells an eccentric alternative creation story. These myth-based works have recent companions such as Judith Bingham’s extended work Tricksters (2019), which unearths what could happen if miscreants from different world mythologies could come together for the first time, and Ola Gjeilo’s A Dream within a Dream which questions the very nature of perception and reality. The album also features the legendary Japanese film and game composer Joe Hisaishi’s first ever choral work, I was there (2022), focussing on the cultural memory of tragic events such as 9/11 and the 2011 Japan Earthquake. Themes of hope and positivity, centred on the natural world, emerge in Makiko Kinoshita’s Ashita no uta (Song for tomorrow) (2020) and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers’ Alive (2022).

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Wonderland / The King's Singers
Signum Classics Sep 2023
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Weinberger: Fruhlingssturme / De Souza, Komische Opera Berlin

Naxos AudioVisual

DVD

$37.99 Nov 06, 2020

Also available on Blu-ray

Czech-born composer Jaromír Weinberger, best known for his opera Schwanda the Bagpiper, was forced to flee to America in order to escape Nazi terror. Frühlingsstürme, staged in 1933 but soon closed down by the Nazi government, was the last operetta of the Weimar Republic. It is filled with cultural complexity, combining serious operatic style with light comedy, and presents a thrilling story involving a doomed love affair set against war between Japan and Russia. This lavish production is staged by the award-winning Australian director Barrie Kosky.

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Weinberger: Fruhlingssturme / De Souza, Komische Opera Berlin
Naxos AudioVisual Nov 2020
DVD
$37.99

Joji Hirota Taiko Drummers: Rain Forest Dream - World Percus
Saydisc May 2005
CD
$20.99