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La leggenda di Vittore e Corona nei codici del medioevo / InUnum Ensemble

Tactus

$21.99 Nov 05, 2021

The recording of “La Leggenda di Vittore e Corona” focuses on the musical-liturgical repertoire that the ancient Venetian medieval tradition named after the two proto-martyrs. The source (Antifonario Marciano, Archivio di Stato di Venezia, 14th century) sings in the form of the minor liturgy of the Vespers the different moments of the Passio involving Vittore until he joined Corona in the martyrdom, reaching eternal glory. Far from representing only a local cult, the legend of Vittore and Corona is fully part of the history of Christianity and, in particular, of the defenseless yet determined struggle for the freedom of faith, thought and conscience. The style between the Gregorian and the Aquileian rite of the Marcian vespers (first performance in modern times) is very well accompanied by that of the polyphonic pieces taken from European codes of the same period, underlining the salient moments of the legend; the original alternation of the voices and medieval instruments between concordant monody and polyphonic dialogue connotes the performance of the InUnum Ensemble enhancing the narrative.

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La leggenda di Vittore e Corona nei codici del medioevo / InUnum Ensemble
Tactus Nov 2021
CD
$21.99

Pucklitz: Musica Baltica 9 - Oratorio Secondo / Szadejko, Goldberg Baroque Ensemble

MDG

SACD

$49.99 Mar 04, 2022

He was a cellar master and council musician, impresario and music manager, concert promoter and composer. But above all, Johann Daniel Pucklitz was a deeply devout protestant Christian. With his Goldberg Baroque Ensemble, Andrzej Szadejko has reconstructed Pucklitz's oratorio "The Very Different Change and Death of the Godless and the God-fearing", bringing a score of incomprehensible color to new life after more than 250 years. The two-part work is already surprising in its proportions: An extensive, three-movement Sinfonia is followed by a wide-ranging chorale motet, which also brilliantly brings out the soloists in the aria sections. Pucklitz was probably following the expectations of the Gdansk public, for he composed such works on his own account and at his own risk. Pucklitz's sense of dramaturgy and tonal effect is fascinating. The instruments of the large orchestra are used sparingly but very effectively, including solo bravura parts. And while the wicked celebrate with timpani and trumpets in the first part before breaking out into fearful lamentation, redemption and eternal peace beckon to the godly in the second part. Pucklitz has saved several sonic surprises for this finale: A glass harp lends the "Desired Hours of Death" almost unearthly magic, while harp and cymbals delicately and gently prepare the triumph of the heavenly kingdom - a grandiose finale that no one can resist.

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Pucklitz: Musica Baltica 9 - Oratorio Secondo / Szadejko, Goldberg Baroque Ensemble
MDG Mar 2022
SACD
$49.99

BACH: GOLDBERG VARIATIONS

ERATO

$17.49 Jan 14, 2022

David Fray adds a landmark of the solo keyboard repertoire to his Bach discography: the Goldberg Variations. "The Goldberg Variations are a real test," he says. "They are the work of a lifetime, perhaps a work about life itself... a kind of rite of passage, a journey. Every element of human life is in them... When you play the theme again after the 30 variations, in it's original purity, it is as if you're at the end of your life, looking back over everything that has happened in the last hour-and-a-half. Few works give such a sense of eternity".

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BACH: GOLDBERG VARIATIONS
ERATO Jan 2022
CD
$17.49

Donizetti: Pia De' Tolomei / Arrivabeni, Ciofi, Et Al

Dynamic

DVD

$36.99 Jan 01, 2011

All Regions | NTSC | Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS, PCM Stereo 2.0 | Colour | 16:9 | 137 min.

In recent years not only music festivals but also important opera theatres have turned their attention towards the neglected masterpieces of the lyrical repertoire. Thus also Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, in a commendable effort, staged this Pia de’ Tolomei by Donizetti, with some of the best singers available today for this type of repertoire. Initial response to this opera, which was performed for the first time in 1837, was ambiguous, so much so that Donizetti re-worked it as many as three times. The version here recorded is that of the critical edition recently published by Ricordi, with the tragic finale originally conceived by the composer. The listener will undoubtedly wonder, once more, at Donizetti’s wealth of melodic inspiration, especially when it comes to the character of Pia, wonderfully interpreted, here, by Patrizia Ciofi. Subtitles in 7 languages.

First DVD recording
First recording of the new critical edition

R E V I E W:

A work far better than its reputation, an attractive production, splendid singing and acting.

Donizetti composed Pia de’ Tolomei during the summer and autumn of 1836 in Naples, where he was living at the time. In December he set out for Venice, where the premiere was planned for February the next year at the Teatro La Fenice He travelled via Livorno and Genoa but when he arrived in Genoa he was met by the news that the theatre had been destroyed by fire on the night of 12/13 December. He realized that there was a great risk that the premiere would be jeopardized. However the production was moved to Teatro Apollo and the premiere took place on 18 February 1837 as planned. Fanny Persiani, who had been the first Lucia di Lammermoor a couple of years earlier, took the title role. The opera was not an immediate success and Donizetti reworked it twice. The second time was for Naples in 1838, where the censors enforced important changes and a happy ending. The present production is based on the critical edition published by Ricordi, where the original tragic finale is restored.

History often repeats itself and on 29 January 1996 Teatro La Fenice was again destroyed by fire. After seven years of intense reconstruction work a Phoenix arose from the ashes. Its inauguration took place on 14 December 2003, almost to the day 167 years after that first disaster. When Pia de’ Tolomei was scheduled less than 1½ years later the performances were carried through without mishap and the result can be seen and heard on this wholly attractive set of DVDs.

“Why is it attractive? I’ve read that this is one the worst of Donizetti’s operas.” I can hear more than one jaded opera-freak’s distrustful grumble. Yes, I have read that too and I wasn’t all that hopeful when I started viewing. Things began badly by mistake I started playing the second disc first and ended up hopelessly at sea. “What has happened before and why don’t we know that?” was my reaction. I shouldn’t blame Dynamic but since the disc I put in my player was in its usual place on the right-hand side of the opened box and to the left was the booklet, I didn’t even notice the admittedly very large 2 on the label. Unfortunately disc 1 was obscured by the booklet. However, when starting from the beginning, I found the plot and layout fully comprehensible – which is not always the case with these more obscure operatic byways. The origin of the story is to be found in a few lines in Dante’s Divina Commedia and according to some scholars they refer to events in the poet’s own time, taking place in 1297. A poem on the subject had been published in 1822 and in April 1836 a play by Giacinto Bianco was staged in Naples. Donizetti must have known it and been inspired by it. His librettist Salvadore Cammarano was no mean author – no one can deny the dramatic qualities of Lucia di Lammermoor. This drama unfolds with few digressions from the main story in what is certainly a clear-cut libretto.

The plot goes along these lines: Ghino is in love with Pia but she is married to Nello, his cousin, and turns him down. In revenge he informs Nello that Pia is going to have a secret meeting with a lover. Her visitor is however her brother Rodrigo, who has just escaped from captivity. Rodrigo manages to escape Nello’s guards but Pia refuses to tell her husband who the visitor was and is condemned to imprisonment for life in his castle. Ghino visits her there and promises to set her free if she becomes his. She tells him who the visitor was and Ghino decides to tell Nello the truth. On his way he is attacked and mortally wounded. He manages to tell Nello about Pia’s innocence and Nello rushes to the castle to save her, since he has ordered Ubaldo to poison her. He arrives too late but before she dies Pia reconciles her brother to her husband. OK, this may not be a masterpiece of a story or a libretto but there are standard works that are not one iota better.

Secondly the music is fully worthy of the drama. Rarely in Donizetti’s operas is everything perfect. This was his 61st opera in twenty years – if we include often far-reaching revisions of some works. There was little time for him to go back and tidy up details. In most of his works he tends to lapse into clichés. That said, it is remarkable how often he avoids the temptation; how frequently he finds new expressions, new structures. In Pia de’ Tolomei he has long abandoned the recitative-aria-recitative pattern and builds long, continuous scenes – not seamless as later Verdi but still pointing forward to his brilliant successor. He is stuck in the aria-cabaletta pattern, rather along the same lines as middle period Verdi. In addition he far too often builds the cabalettas and other numbers on the almost mechanical rum-ti-tum rhythm with which we are also well acquainted from early and middle Verdi. But it really doesn’t matter as long as it is captivating – and very often with Donizetti it is. The opening chorus of act 2 – the first thing I heard in my reverse-order listening – is one stirring example. Rodrigo, a trouser role, has a rousing cabaletta in the dungeon scene in act 1 and in the same act there is a fine cabaletta duet for tenor and baritone that should be a splendid recital item. More original are Pia’s big solos which make her a close relative to the likewise ill-fated Lucia di Lammermoor. Technically this role requires the same amount of florid singing and sensitive pianissimo singing and it should be an attractive role for any good lyric-dramatic soprano. The leading tenor also has a couple of vocally and dramatically attractive arias. Then there is a beautiful duet for Pia and her brother Rodrigo – for soprano and mezzo-soprano – accompanied by plucked strings.

Thirdly the production is visually pleasing. The sets are of the modern-minimalist kind, with strict geometrical constructions and evocative lighting. Sometimes screens with texts are inserted. The costumes are timelessly-historical, if you can accept the contradiction in terms. The soldiers’ armoury could be anything from late 13th century to the Thirty Years’ War while Pia’s nightdress could be from the latest issue of Vogue. The grouping of the soldiers in the mass-scenes is also decorative though hardly based on dramatic necessity.

Fourthly the singing and acting of the principals is uniformly at the highest level. It has been a long time since I saw a DVD production with such high quality singing even from the comprimarios. Patrizia Ciofi’s Pia is ravishingly sung, deeply felt and convincingly acted. She seems in a state of mental disturbance from the very outset - an innocent victim. Technically speaking she is brilliant with fluent coloratura and the gift of delicate embellishments. Dario Schmunck is a lyrical and ardent Ghino – a singer I eagerly look forward to hearing again. His acting may be rather reticent but is still efficient. Andrew Schroeder is a powerful and dramatic Nello and sings with glowing tone. Laura Polverelli’s Rodrigo is also a character not to be taken lightly. In the smaller parts Carlo Cigni, sporting a magnificent basso cantante, is surely predestined for a grand career. The chorus have a lot to do, especially the male soldiery. They are vivid and powerful but not always the most homogenous of ensembles. The orchestra play well and Paolo Arrivabeni is obviously deeply inspired by this long neglected score.

Is it a forgotten masterpiece? Maybe not but it is far better than some works regularly performed and should not be returned to the archives for the eternal sleep. If it is, the Teatro La Fenice forces have seen to it that it will not be totally forgotten and opera lovers with a taste for the unusual should hasten to acquire this set. Technically this set is fully worthy of the occasion. There is a good booklet and subtitles are available in seven languages.

A work that is far better than its reputation, in an attractive production with splendid singing and acting. Should be snapped up by all opera lovers with a feeling for the unusual.

-- Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International

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Donizetti: Pia De' Tolomei / Arrivabeni, Ciofi, Et Al
Dynamic Jan 2011
DVD
$36.99

Bock liest Bruckner Iil

Gramola Records

$24.99 Jun 20, 2025

Following the first in the Bock reads Bruckner series, which has already been released on CD and was dedicated to the composer's self-image and the Upper Austrian period of his life, and the second evening, which has also already been released, which showed the eternal bachelor as a suitor and shed light on his relationship with the 'fair sex', this is now the third recording of a total of five readings with music. Based on letters and diary entries, this time with distributed roles (Wolfgang Bock, Thomas Thieme), it deals with Anton Bruckner's almost unbridled admiration for Richard Wagner, which - of course - was only met by the latter to a limited extent, the encounters between the two composers, who were so fundamentally different, and Bruckner's regular 'pilgrimages' to Bayreuth. Musically, a little-known aspect of Wagner's oeuvre comes into focus: selected songs and piano pieces make it possible to get to know the great music dramatist as a creator of small-scale chamber music works (Daniel Linton-France, piano; Elisabeth Wimmer, soprano).

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Bock liest Bruckner Iil
Gramola Records Jun 2025
CD
$24.99

J.S. Bach, Schubert & Schumann: Credo

Solo Musica

$20.99 Oct 18, 2024

Music of Johann Sebastian Bach was always fundamental for Aliya Turetayeva. From the first listening of his Mass in B minor in her childhood, his music has accompanied her through her life. Almost every day she starts with the music of Bach in order to be "well-tuned" throughout the day. She always felt connected with eternity through his music and shared many happy and tragic moments during the years listening to his output. Bach's music was always a symbol of faith for the artist - many times in life his music gave Aliya Turetayeva strength to live further and not to give up; it will remain to be a symbol of faith for her, to be her Credo. Aliya Turetayeva was born in 1986 in Almaty, Kazakhstan and received her first piano lesson at the age of five. Aliya moved to Cologne, Germany to continue her studies at the Hochschule fur Musik und Tanz Koln as a student of Professor Pavel Gililov. She was awarded her Masters degree in 2010. As well as her work as a soloist, Aliya Turetayeva is a dedicated chamber musician. She recorded chamber music works by G. Crumb and A. Schnittke for WDR Radio Cologne. She also completed 2013 her postgraduate studies at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg under the tutelage of Professor Gililov with the highest mark.

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J.S. Bach, Schubert & Schumann: Credo
Solo Musica Oct 2024
CD
$20.99

Árnason: Eilífur

PENTATONE

$19.99 Jun 18, 2021

Eilífur (Eternal) is Icelandic contemporary composer Viktor Orri Árnason’s solo debut and first PENTATONE album, on which the prospect of living forever is contemplated. Sparked by the realisation that medical advances will soon eradicate death by natural causes, Eilífur weaves together a lucid, near-future narrative via a combination of abstract Icelandic lyrics and adept musical storytelling. The scope and scale of Eilífur is reflected in the extremes of its sound, which moves seamlessly from intimate strings and sombre voices to grand orchestral gestures and vast drones. Eilífur explores what life will be like in the absence of death’s ticking clock. Staying clear of the morbidity that such themes may imply, Eilífur is above all a celebration of life as we know it, and an ode to the things that make it worth living. Viktor composed, produced and mixed the album at his Berlin studio over the course of two years. The studio was a hub of experimentation with a community of outstanding award-winning composers and musicians, including Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Dustin O'Halloran, Rutger Hoedemaekers, Gunnar Örn Tynes and Yair Elazar Glotman. Eilífur is a statement, a first glimpse of Viktor’s outstanding abilities as a composer, conductor, instrumentalist, producer and mixing engineer; an ambitious album which puts him in the spotlight after many years working behind the scenes.

REVIEW:

Viktor Orri Arnason has collaborated with other composers as a performer, producer, and arranger, notably with Hildur Gudnodottir on her 2019 Oscar-winning score to Joker. "Eilifur" is his first release as a composer. The music recalls his work with Gudnodottir (who is also credited as a producer here): atmospheric but with a cinematic immediacy. Though electronic sounds are rare, the production process is integral to the work itself. Edges are smoothed over and reverberation is amplified. The music itself is soothing and tender yet melancholy. Drones in the low strings give it an earthy expansiveness, from which melodies in the bass and contrabass clarinet bloom and grow. This will have its audience, though the production may be too distracting for many of our readers. I certainly enjoyed it. The notes are rather overbearing: "The album poses questions about the changing significance of time itself and the role that our eventual demise plays in the meaning we assign to our lifetimes." Though thought-provoking, this is superfluous—the music, like much that is composed today, speaks for itself more substantially than the unwieldy thesis statement that precedes it.

-- American Record Guide

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Árnason: Eilífur
PENTATONE Jun 2021
CD
$19.99

Chaconne: Voices of Eternity

Analekta

$15.99 ~~$20.99~~ Save 25% Nov 06, 2015

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the chaconne was generally indistinguishable from the passacaglia, the two musical forms being so similar in nature. In both, the repetition of a single harmonic motif evoked a sense of time stretching far beyond the limits of our physical world, thus creating an illusion of eternity!

This recording collects some of the most beautiful examples from the literally hundreds of such pieces composed during the baroque period. Since the attempt to create the illusion of eternity in music was generally linked to the principle of melodic variations – whether it be variations on a theme or variations over a repeated harmonic motif – two famous examples of Folias composed by Falconiero and Vivaldi are also included.

Ensemble Caprice has made a habit of entering into dialog with composers of the past. For this recording, they have added several short vocal pieces written by the ensemble leader based on poems by the 17th century mystic Angelus Silesius. These brief verses in alexandrine meter are a perfect expression of the dichotomy experienced by the human being torn between life and death, between this world and the invisible world.

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Chaconne: Voices of Eternity
Analekta Nov 2015
CD
~~$20.99~~ $15.99

Ludford: Missa Inclina Cor Meum; Mason: Ave Fuit Prima Salus / Blue Heron

Blue Heron Renaissance Choir

$21.99 Oct 01, 2013

MASON Ave fuit prima salus. ANON Cunctipotens genitor. LUDFORD Missa Inclina cor meum • Scott Metcalfe, cond; Blue Heron • BLUE HERON 1004 (59:58 Text and Translation)

Philip Heseltine (better known his compositional pseudonym of Peter Warlock) once lamented that all the music of England’s Golden Age that still existed had been found, and that there was no more to uncover, or transcribe. But this was towards the end of his short life, while in deep depression. In the more than 80 years that have passed since that time, much additional music has been brought to light. Some of it, too, that was previously damaged to the point where performance was thought impossible, has been painstakingly reconstructed.

This is the case with a subset of the Peterhouse partbooks compiled in a relatively short time, probably in the early 1540s, following Henry VIII’s famous Dissolution of the Monasteries. The king’s death in 1547 led to a series of rulers and policies that set the nation careening across the religious spectrum, with various levels of tolerance towards such delights as sacred choral music. At some point, whether through neglect or deliberate sabotage, the tenor book vanished, and was never recovered. Portions of the treble book also went missing. What made this particular loss severe is that of the 72 pieces included in the Henrician group of partbooks, 39 are unica , while another 12 exist elsewhere only in incomplete versions.

The reconstruction of individual pieces has become the lifework of musicologist Nick Sandon. It’s his editions we hear on this album, with a new version of the missing tenor part in the Mass, and both treble and tenor in the antiphon. These are world premieres of both works in two respects, then—not only first recordings, but also part of a series of first performances since the mid-17th century, at the latest.

John Mason is by far the least-known of the composers on this release, and the only reason we know his music at all is because of four works in these partbooks. The Ave fuit prima salus isn’t based on a cantus firmus . Its interest lies in the brilliant yet subtle variations the composer works on each of his 17 verses that conclude with “Ave Maria.” Mason is a past master at varying textures through the number and color of active parts, but the emphasis tends for the most part towards the contemplative side of the emotional scale, as is appropriate. Sandon is quoted in the liner notes as finding the text “as undistinguished as literature as it is pedestrian in theology,” but it is all turned to gold by the composer.

The Missa Inclina cor meum is the second of two by Ludford that come down to us solely from the Peterhouse partbooks. (The other, Missa Regnum mundi , was recorded on Blue Heron 1003, and reviewed in Fanfare 36:1.) As its cantus firmus is not associated with any specific feast day, Metcalfe has chosen not to include plainchant Propers. The custom of the day in England was to omit writing a through-composed Kyrie, and replace it with a plainsong-based textual trope—which is exactly what we get here with Cunctipotens genitor , instead of leaving a mass minus a movement as many recordings do: well done. Metcalfe points in particular to a passage in the Sanctus where the basses greatly augment the melody as the top voices “spin out melodies high above” as an example of “truly strange passages,” but in its entirety this mass is a boldly imaginative work of great melodic beauty and harmonic sensitivity.

What continues to set apart these recordings of Blue Heron from the majority of choirs recording similar repertoire is the use of expressive devices. To beauty of phrasing, and the careful blending of parts, Scott Metcalfe adds clarity of enunciation, flexible tempos, and both a general and part-related control of dynamics that never approaches stylistic anachronism. As a result, the music doesn’t float in a vacuum, but becomes the carrier when appropriate for an emotional current. When it is sung that with Mary “angels rejoice and archangels exult,” for example, the performance reasonably seconds the music, and the score blazes with the brightness of that eternal moment. There are many more instances of that, all to the good.

The sound is close and resonant, but absolutely clear, with none of the messy lack of focus that comes from cloudy, over-reverberant efforts. The quality of this series remains as high as ever, both for music and performance. Available from blueheronchoir.org and, needless to add, strongly recommended.

FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

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Ludford: Missa Inclina Cor Meum; Mason: Ave Fuit Prima Salus / Blue Heron
Blue Heron Renaissance Choir Oct 2013
CD
$21.99

Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice (Sung in German)
Walhall Eternity Series Jan 2009
CD
$10.99

Janacek: From the House of the Dead / Young, Bavarian Radio Symphony [Blu-ray]

BelAir Classiques

Blu-Ray

$31.99 Feb 14, 2020

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

Also available on standard DVD

Death is never far away in Leoš Janácek’s work: in The Cunning Little Vixen, the main character falls under the fire of a hunter, Katia Kabanova kills herself, Emilia Marty in The Makropulos Case has to deal with the hard consequences of eternal youth. From the House of the Dead makes no exception, especially since the composer knew he was living out his final days when he decided to adapt into an opera Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s eponymous novel, a literary work inspired by the time the novelist spent in a Siberian prison. This painful feeling of ineluctability pervades through his disillusioned and savage score, that recounts the hopeless life of the convicts of a Soviet concentration camp. In this place where life has already drawn out, in this no man’s land forsaken by civilization, Janácek portrays the anonymous and daily sufferings, the abuses, the corporal punishments, but also evokes fragments from the prisoners’ past, bringing them back to life for the duration of a game or of a story. Against this background that contrasts the empathic solidarity of simple men with the horrific brutality of the prison guards, stage director Frank Castorf - who created a memorable Ring Cycle in Bayreuth for the Wagner Bicentennial in 2013 - embraces the aesthetics of grotesque and absurd suggested by Janácek’s score, and chooses to crudely display, with stark realism, the physical and psychological violence at the heart of the opera. In the pit, conducting the house orchestra, Simone Young underlines the power plays and the overwhelming lyricism unleashed by Janácek’s music. As the main protagonists, Peter Rose, Charles Workman and Bo Skhovus, all familiar with Janácek’s subtleties, bring back to life these agonizing anti-heroic characters forsaken by God and men.

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Janacek: From the House of the Dead / Young, Bavarian Radio Symphony [Blu-ray]
BelAir Classiques Feb 2020
Blu-Ray
$31.99

Bridges To Infinity - Works by Enjott Schneider

Solo Musica

$20.99 Apr 18, 2025

The view into "infinity" gives freedom! Man lives in his narrow temporal space and, with his mind focussed only on the supposedly 'real' sensory world, grasps only the outside of his being: he loses himself in the multiplicity of things. A feeling for the cosmic interconnectedness of all beings has been lost. In the prison of materialism, man cannot free himself from such polarity - that is why he is ruled by strife, war, egoism, lust for power and possessiveness. The three musical works on this CD offer a glimpse into the liberating infinity beyond things: In THE BIRDS, the world of birds is evoked - even according to principles of mystical alchemy - which are evolutionarily related to dinosaurs and have always been associated with deities, divination and boundless celestial freedom. In FATAL HARMONIES, the deadly harmonies of the Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo, the exaggerated disruption of a contradictory existence is presented, death and negative energies are diametrically opposed to bold genius - extreme light begets extreme shadow in polarity. THE BELLS traces the archetype of bells, whose sound has been waking people up for thousands of years, leading them to transcendence and infinity. With the end of material thinking, of earthly persistence in polarity, judgement and comparison, PEACE could come - because in the face of eternity and infinity, good-evil or mine-his have lost all meaning. This is why the theme of 'peace' takes centre stage twice on this CD - in the concluding 'Dona nobis Pacem' and in the middle movement 'The Swan - The White' of the violin concerto, because this is based on the peace hymn 'El Can't des Ocells' (Song of the Birds) by the Catalan cellist and humanist Pablo Casal, which he played as an encore to every concert throughout his life.

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Bridges To Infinity - Works by Enjott Schneider
Solo Musica Apr 2025
CD
$20.99

Peer Gynt

Naxos AudioVisual

DVD

$26.99 Oct 09, 2020

70 years after Det Norske Teatret first staged Peer Gynt, Erik Ulfsby and his excellent team have developed a new version, with the role of old Peer congenially filled by Toralv Maurstad. The play’s original chronology has been broken up and fragments of Peer’s life reordered – all observed by an aged spirit who is on the threshold to the other side. Maurstad’s acting is “overwhelmingly great. He carries the role of Peer Gynt on his 92-year-old shoulders. This is pure theatrical magic.” “A Peer Gynt for eternity.” (Aftenposten) “A masterly Maurstad. There is still a roguish rabble-rouser in his old Peer Gynt. Svein Tindberg as the button moulder is perfect casting.” (VG)

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Peer Gynt
Naxos AudioVisual Oct 2020
DVD
$26.99

AMOR ETERNO

HARMONIA MUNDI

$21.99 Dec 12, 2025

Between the passing flirtations of an evening and solemn oaths of eternal love, Gwendoline Blondeel and Quito Gato invite us on a piquant sentimental journey, to the sounds of the theorbo, the baroque guitar and the vihuela, the lute's Aragonese cousin. From Spain to Italy, via France, they animate the map of love with villanelles, madrigals and other love songs of the early Baroque.

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AMOR ETERNO
HARMONIA MUNDI Dec 2025
CD
$21.99

Mix & Match

Whitacre: The Pacific Has No Memory / Anne Akiko Meyers

Avie Records

$8.99 Jan 30, 2026

EVERYTHING CHANGED ON JANUARY 7, 2025 I never imagined we would evacuate our home in the Palisades-a place alive with laughter, music, and the joyful chaos of my husband, our two young daughters, and crazy rescue dog-never to return. So many dear friends lost everything: cherished family heirlooms, photographs, instruments, and music libraries that had taken a lifetime to build-all vanished in moments. That evening, from our hotel window, I watched the fires rage through the beautiful Santa Monica Mountains and sobbed, completely helpless. Yet from the ash and destruction, something profoundly beautiful emerged-much like the glowing fairy at the end of Fantasia, rising from Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. I commissioned Eric Whitacre to write a new work for violin and orchestra, and as the world changed, so did his composition. Little did I know that The Pacific Has No Memory would be born from these epic tragedies. This music has become salve for the soul-a warm, healing embrace for my broken heart. Tender and profound, it radiates love, hope, and renewal. I am eternally grateful to Eric Whitacre for creating this musical prayer and to the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for breathing life into it together. This recording is dedicated to all who were affected by the Los Angeles fires, and to the brave first responders who risked everything to save lives. - Anne Akiko Meyers

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Whitacre: The Pacific Has No Memory / Anne Akiko Meyers
Avie Records Jan 2026
CD
$8.99

Mix & Match

LE POETE DU PIANO

ERATO

$18.99 Nov 06, 2020

Recording is as necessary to me as the air I breathe. One withdraws from the world for a brief while - an eternity -, examines a piece of music and is cross-examined by it in turn, then gives evidence before the microphones. It's as if I've played out my life through my recordings, each one representing a significant, if not seminal, stage in my development as an artist. Thirty years of recording. A discography built from stones of many different, and sometimes clashing, colours, but a discography with a broad and solid structure, a kind of self-portrait. If a good half of this set is taken from Alexandre Tharaud's published discography, the rest is made up by hitherto unreleased music. Some did not make it on to the album they were originally intended for, while others were recorded for fun at studio sessions over the years. When you're recording," the pianist explains, "you're always looking for the perfect take, where everything flows perfectly. But the pressure of the microphone doesn't help... So sometimes, recording a piece unplanned allows you to rediscover that spontaneity".

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LE POETE DU PIANO
ERATO Nov 2020
CD
$18.99

Venables: Requiem, Op. 48 / Partington, Glouchester Cathedral Choir

SOMM Recordings

$20.99 Jul 31, 2020

SOMM Recordings is proud to announce the premiere recording of Ian Venables’ exquisite and moving Requiem with the Choir of Gloucester Cathedral conducted by the Cathedral’s of Music Adrian Partington and Assistant of Music Jonathan Hope playing the organ. Completed in 2018, the Requiem received its first performance in the imposing surroundings of Gloucester Cathedral, where this recording was made in 2019. Widely acclaimed for his songs and chamber music, the Requiem is Ian Venables’ most substantial choral work to date and is a compelling piece full of fine melodies and gorgeous harmonies. Adrian Partington describes the Requiem as “a significant addition to the choral repertoire. The music is eloquent, resourceful and exerts a strong emotional appeal”. Ian Venables comments: “Composing a Requiem is a daunting creative challenge because so many great settings have been written in the past. However, as a composer of songs, words are always crucially important to me and I found that the words of the Mass for the Dead came to appeal to me strongly. I felt an overwhelming desire to set them to music. I am delighted that Adrian Partington, his excellent choir and Jonathan Hope have brought my music so vividly to life.” The album also includes first recordings of Ivor Gurney’s God mastering me (arranged by Venables), John Joubert’s O eternal God and Venables’ O Sing Aloud to God alongside John Sander’s Dedication. SOMM’s long relationship with Ian Venables includes his chamber music (SOMMCD 0101), of which Gramophone declared: “Lovers of the 20th- century English music renaissance will derive much pleasure from this enterprising and rewarding SOMM anthology”.

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Venables: Requiem, Op. 48 / Partington, Glouchester Cathedral Choir
SOMM Recordings Jul 2020
CD
$20.99

Danielpour: Talking to Aphrodite, Symphony for Strings & Kaddish, Rachlevsky, Russian String Orchestra

Naxos

$19.99 Jul 12, 2019

These three recordings cement the bond between the award-winning composer Richard Danielpour and the conductor Misha Rachlevsky, one of the composer’s most dedicated and perceptive interpreters. It was Rachlevsky who gave the American premiere of Symphony for Strings, a transcription of the Sixth String Quartet- a work saturated in farewells, complete with a hymn and variations. Talking to Aphrodite is the result of a collaboration between Danielpour and the writer Erica Jong, while Kaddish addresses the eternal issues of life, death and eventual peace.

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Danielpour: Talking to Aphrodite, Symphony for Strings & Kaddish, Rachlevsky, Russian String Orchestra
Naxos Jul 2019
CD
$19.99

ALL LIFE LONG

IDEOLOGIC ORGAN

$15.70 Feb 09, 2024

Kali Malone's anticipated new album "All Life Long" is a collection of music for pipe organ, choir, and brass quintet composed by Kali Malone, 2020 - 2023. Choral music performed by Macadam Ensemble and conducted by Etienne Ferschaud at Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-L'Immaculee-Conception in Nantes. Brass quintet music performed by Anima Brass at The Bunker Studio in New York City. Organ music performed by Kali Malone and Stephen O'Malley on the historical meantone tempered pipe organs at Eglise Saint-Francois in Lausanne, Orgelpark in Amsterdam, and Malmo Konstmuseum in Sweden. Kali Malone composes with a rare clarity of vision. Her music is patient and focused, built on a foundation of evolving harmonic cycles that draw out latent emotional resonances. Time is a crucial factor: letting go of expectations of duration and breadth offers a chance to find a space of reflection and contemplation. In her hands, experimental reinterpretations of centuries-old polyphonic compositional methods become portals to new ways of perceiving sound, structure, and introspection. Though awe-inspiring in scope, the most remarkable thing about Malone's music is the intimacy stirred by the close listening it encourages. Malone's new album All Life Long, created between 2020 - 2023, presents her first compositions for organ since 2019's breakthrough album The Sacrificial Code alongside interrelated pieces for voice and brass performed by Macadam Ensemble and Anima Brass. Over the course of twelve pieces, harmonic themes and patterns recur, presented in altered forms and for varied instrumentation. They emerge and reemerge like echoes of their former selves, making the familiar uncanny. Propelled by lungs and breath rather than bellows and oscillators, Malone's compositions for choir and brass take on expressive qualities that complicate the austerity that has defined her work, introducing lyricism and the beauty of human fallibility into music that has been driven by mechanical processes. At the same time, the works for organ, performed by Malone with additional accompaniment by Stephen O'Malley on four different organs dating from the 15th to 17th centuries, underscore the mighty, spectral power that those rigorous operations can achieve. All Life Long simmers in an ever-shifting tension between repetition and variation. The pieces for brass, organ, and voice are alternated asymmetrically, providing nearly continuous timbral fluctuation across it's 78-minute runtime even as thematic material reiterates. Each composition's internal framework of fractal pattern permutations has the paradoxical effect of creating anticipated keystone moments of dramatic reverie and lulling the listener into believing in an illusory endlessness. On an even more granular level, the historical meantone tuning systems of each organ used, and the variable intonation of brass and voice, provide further points of emotional excavation within the harmony. The titular composition "All Life Long" appears twice on the album, first as an extended canon for organ and again in the final quarter, compactly arranged for voice. In the latter, Malone pairs the music with "The Crying Water" by Arthur Symons, a poem steeped in language of mourning and eternity. For organ, "All Life Long" moves with a patient stateliness, the drama concentrated in moments when shifting tonalities generate and release dissonance and ecstasy. For voice, each word is saturated with feeling, the singers swooping gracefully downward to capture the melancholy of the narrator's relationship to the timeless tears of the sea. "Passage Through The Spheres," the album's opening piece, contains lyrics in Italian pulled from Giorgio Agamban's essay In Praise of Profanation. In it, Agamban defines profanation as, in part, the act of bringing back to communal, secular use that which has been segregated to the realm of the sacred, a process Malone enacts each time she performs on church organs. This is not music of praise, or of spiritual revelation, but it is an artistic enactment of translating the indescribable. It carries the gravity of liturgical chant, and it's fixation on the infinite, but draws it's weight from the earthly realm of human experience. A music that draws the listener into the present moment where they can discover themselves within the interwoven musical patterns that can come to resemble the passage of days, weeks, years, a lifetime.

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ALL LIFE LONG
IDEOLOGIC ORGAN Feb 2024
CD
$15.70

IN THIS LIFE
SUNNYSIDE Oct 2013
CD
$16.63

Verdi: Aïda (Live)
Walhall Eternity Series Jan 2010
CD
$10.99

In Heaven - Songs for a trip to space

Challenge Classics

$16.99 Jan 23, 2026

The third collaboration between mezzo-soprano Olivia Vermeulen and Jan Philip Schulze (piano/synthesizer), In Heaven follows their earlier themed albums Dirty Minds and Hello Darkness, albums which were highly rated and won, for instance, an Edison Award and a Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. While the first two albums explored earthly themes of eroticism and mortality, this programme turns upward toward the heavens. The concept imagines a cosmic odyssey, blending art song, contemporary music, pop, and psychedelic classics into a voyage through utopian visions, distant planets, and the eternal human fascination with space. Interspersed with NASA sound recordings, the album situates the listener between heaven and earth, fantasy and reality, intoxication and transcendence. The repertoire is strikingly eclectic: David Bowie's Life on Mars opens with real Martian storm sounds, while George Crumb, Brahms, Schubert, and Wolf provide lyrical reflections on stars, dreams, and transcendence. The programme flows seamlessly into Augusta Holmès's exuberant drinking song Le vin, Rebecca Clarke's opium-tinged Lethe, and Grace Slick's psychedelic anthem White Rabbit. French and German masters like Saint-Saëns, Mahler, and Messiaen appear alongside Stockhausen's Tierkreis, Monty Python's satirical Galaxy Song, and Pink Martini's Una notte a Napoli. The album closes with Robert Schumann's radiant Abendlied, underscoring the dialogue between the infinite cosmos and human longing. Together, Vermeulen and Schulze create a soundscape that is at once virtuosic, witty, and deeply imaginative. Supported by percussion and bass in selected tracks, their performances draw on colour, theatricality, and stylistic versatility to transform familiar works into cosmic meditations. In Heaven ultimately reflects on humanity's dreams of escape, intoxication, and utopia while acknowledging the grounding reality of earthbound existence. The result is a kaleidoscopic journey-playful yet profound, rooted in classical artistry yet open to pop culture-that challenges boundaries and offers listeners a musical mission into space.

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In Heaven - Songs for a trip to space
Challenge Classics Jan 2026
CD
$16.99

Mix & Match

El Grial / Magraner, Capella de Ministrers

Capella De Minstrers

$20.99 Jan 11, 2019

This musical presentation by Capella de Ministrers leaps out from its origins in mediaeval myths and literature to give listeners a direct connection with the true meaning of the Grail. It is a journey encompassing the various musical traditions along the path taken by the Grail through the centuries, from the Holy Land to Brittany, from the Pyrenees to San Juan de la Peña until its ultimate arrival at Valencia Cathedral. The Grail is both legendary and mystical, a holy relic that appeared in stories during the middle part of the mediaeval period. It is a precious and mysterious object in the shape of a plate full of Christian symbolism, like the bloody lance which is reminiscent of the lance thrust into the body of Christ on the cross – the mystery of redemption and eternal life. From Crusade songs, chants sung in pilgrimage centers, mediaeval literature reflected in music, to the emblematic symbolism the Grail acquired with Alfonso the Magnanimous. Towards the end of the Middle Ages when the Turks were circling Constantinople, it seems that the ideal of the Crusades disappears like a dream and only a vague memory of the Grail endures, while Alfonso the Magnanimous proudly displays the Perilous Chair as a heraldic device which glorifies his deeds. Virtud apurar no’m fretura sola (My virtue will not falter until I reach my goal). Capella de Ministrers has gathered together music and poetry from the Middle Ages by authors and composers such as Chre´tien de Troyes, Robert de Boron, Wolfram von Eschembach and He´linand de Froidmont. The music and poetry is all linked to the subject of the Grail and encourages us to discover its meaning through our own personal quest, based on our knowledge of the past and through the recreation of the music.

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El Grial / Magraner, Capella de Ministrers
Capella De Minstrers Jan 2019
CD
$20.99

Smyth: Der Wald / Andrews, BBC SIngers, BBC Symphony Orchestra

Resonus Classics

$9.49 ~~$18.99~~ Save 50% Oct 20, 2023

For over 100 years the only opera by a woman to have been performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Der Wald is a taut, brooding drama where the simplicity of village life comes under threat from the uncontrollable desires unleashed by the darkness of the forest. Richly orchestrated, harmonically daring, and demanding a huge expressive range from the cast, the narrative drives relentlessly forward from wedding to tragedy in a single act, observed pitilessly by the eternal spirits of the forest. John Andrews conducts the BBC Singers, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and an international cast in the first ever recording of this work, using Smyth’s English version of the libretto.

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Smyth: Der Wald / Andrews, BBC SIngers, BBC Symphony Orchestra
Resonus Classics Oct 2023
CD
~~$18.99~~ $9.49

Sing, Ye Heavens - Hymns For All Times / Cambridge Singers

Collegium Records

$18.99 Aug 29, 2000

This recording arguably contains the best representation of the Anglican hymn tradition that's possible to include on one 76-minute CD. Yes, there are hundreds of other candidates--a couple of my favorites are "missing"--but for anyone who knows and loves this vast and varied repertoire that's carried congregations and individual souls through centuries of life's trials and triumphs, prayers and celebrations, private moments and public sharing, these 21 selections will please the ear and stir countless emotions. The list is too long to mention all the hymns here, but among them are "O God, our help in ages past", "The King of love my Shepherd is", "When I survey the wondrous Cross", "A mighty fortress is our God", "Christ the Lord is risen today", "Be thou my vision", "Morning has broken", "Amazing grace", "Christ is made the sure Foundation", and my all-time favorite, "Love Divine, all loves excelling". A pleasant surprise is a hymn with words and music by John Rutter himself. Titled "Eternal God", it was composed in 1999 "with the aim of augmenting the meager stock of hymns that make mention of music . . . as gifts of God." It's a beauty, and it should easily find a home in the standard repertoire. In familiar Rutter programming fashion, the hymns are grouped in categories, such as "Hymns from the Psalms", "Invocations", "Passiontide and Easter", "Folk Hymns", and "Evening Hymns". There are several chants--"Pange lingua", "Veni Creator Spiritus", and "Let all mortal flesh keep silence"--and the arrangements by Rutter are imaginative and appropriate to each hymn's message and musical character. Some are a cappella, some use harp, others are accompanied by brass and/or organ, timpani, and percussion. Rutter's acclaimed Cambridge Singers are in top form and the acoustics of the Church of St. Alban the Martyr, Holborn, are generously responsive. Sing ye heavens, indeed. This is heavenly singing--and heavenly music. --David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

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Sing, Ye Heavens - Hymns For All Times / Cambridge Singers
Collegium Records Aug 2000
CD
$18.99