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Chapters - A Double Bass Story / Wagner, Skride

Berlin Classics

$20.99 Mar 17, 2023

Introducing a revolutionary new CD that challenges the stereotypes and prejudices against the double bass. This tribute album showcases the full potential and versatility of the instrument, featuring compositions by renowned composers such as Myroslav Skoryks, John Rutter, Peteris Vasks, and Sergei Rachmaninov. Experience the warm, soft, and welcoming tone of the double bass as it takes center stage in this diverse collection of music. From the spiritual anthem of Ukraine, Melodie by Myroslav Skoryks, to the familiar choral sounds of John Rutter's The Lord Bless You and Keep You, this album is a love letter to the double bass and an invitation to embrace its songful and tuneful credentials.

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Chapters - A Double Bass Story / Wagner, Skride
Berlin Classics Mar 2023
CD
$20.99

Wagner: Das Rheingold / Deyoung, Goerne, Begley, Reid [blu-ray Audio]

Naxos AudioVisual

Blu-Ray

$16.99 Nov 13, 2015

This is an audio-only (i.e., with no video content) Blu-ray disc playable only on Blu-ray players.

It is also available on standard CD.

Taken from two concert performances in January, 2015, this is the first installment of an entire Ring Cycle from the Hong Kong Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden to be recorded by Naxos. It makes you hungry for the rest.

The recording is clean and clear, with no artificial anything. Van Zweden’s approach is closest in memory to Herbert von Karajan’s–intimate and chamber-like, a family drama that happens to be played out in magical, mythological terms. Also like Karajan, van Zweden takes his time (at 2 hours and 33 minutes, this is on the longish side) and offers seamless segues between scenes. When a solo instrument is featured in Wagner’s dense orchestration, it is given a spotlight, and beautiful moments are to be bathed in–the motif after the Rainbow Bridge is created and the singing that follows rarely have sounded so tuneful and lovely. The Hong Kong Philharmonic is not Berlin or Vienna or the Met, but it has nothing to fear–the playing throughout is smooth and handsome. The opening Rhine passage is dark but clear, the piling up of the gold in Scene IV is beautifully built, and the opera’s final moments are indeed the grandest, as they should be–one of the few instances when van Zweden pulls out all the stops.

The storytelling is at the fore; impeccable diction is the order of the day. As revolting as Alberich always is, we can actually hear the flirtatious playfulness in the opera’s opening moments until he realizes that he doesn’t have a chance. And from then on, he’s simply vile–Peter Sidhom sings with an audible sneer and a ringing top to the voice that we rarely get in this role. He’s a baritone with remarkable “face”.

The back and forth between the fine, unexaggerated Fricka of Michelle De Young and the remarkable, surprising Wotan of Matthias Goerne is natural and familiar, and Goerne is the surprise of the performance. His experience and expertise as a Lieder singer comes in very handy in this opera: his interacting with Loge and his cajoling of Mime and Alberich all are textually and dynamically right-on. The bottom of the voice sounds remarkably rich, and while the top notes are brighter than we normally hear, he has authority. One wonders, however, about his Walküre Wotan….

David Cangelosi’s slimy Mime is vivid and actually sung–note for note, and Kim Begley’s Loge is performed with wonderful detachment: he knows he’s smarter than anyone else. Deborah Humble’s Erda could have been darker-hued, but her attention to the text turns her scene into the “event” it should be. Anna Samuil’s Freia is much like every other soprano’s who sings the part: good at complaining and being afraid. Kwangchul Youn’s Fasolt is on a grand scale; Stephen Milling’s Fafner not so much. Froh, small part though it is, deserves a better profile than Charles Reid gives it, and the Donner of Oleksandr Pushniak begins his “Heda…” on an unsteady note but recovers quickly. The Rhinemaidens–Eri Nakamura, Aurhelia Varak, and Hermine Haselböck–are a terrific, articulate, tuneful trio...

First choice among Rheingolds is still the Decca, but Testament’s release of a 1955 Bayreuth performance with Hans Hotter is certainly in the running, and as a non-gimmicky performance, may even be better. But this new set gives a wonderful overall view of this opera, and at a remarkable price.

-- Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

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Wagner: Das Rheingold / Deyoung, Goerne, Begley, Reid [blu-ray Audio]
Naxos AudioVisual Nov 2015
Blu-Ray
$16.99

Bach: Orchestral Suites 2 & 3; Chaconne - Transcribed for Organ / Wolfgang Rübsam

Brilliant Classics

$6.99 ~~$13.99~~ Save 50% Nov 17, 2023

Over the course of more than half a century, Wolfgang Rübsam has consistently brought new insights to bear on the keyboard music of Bach, firstly in sets of the canonic organ music for Philips, then the same for Naxos. In the last few years, his musicianship and understanding of Bach enriched by those decades of experience, he has turned to the harpsichord/piano repertoire for Brilliant Classics. A series of critically acclaimed albums has shed new light on The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Goldberg Variations, the Partitas and Toccatas with Rübsam’s performance of them on a lautenwerk – a ‘lute-harpsichord’ with a distinctive chime and colour which Bach himself would have been familiar with. Rübsam now returns to the organ, with new transcriptions and recordings of two Orchestral Suites and Chaconne from the D minor Partita for solo violin. While the Chaconne has attracted transcribers and arrangers ever since the 19th century, drawn magnetically to its evolving variations on a ground bass which accumulate an emotional power unusual even for Bach, the Orchestral Suites are much less often encountered outside their original garb. Yet we can be sure that Bach himself would have embraced Rübsam’s idea with enthusiasm. The Suites themselves are compilations of dances, probably not all originally designed for their eventual destination as high-class entertainment music for the concert series at Café Zimmermann in Leipzig, and Bach repurposed some of their movements as sinfonias and even choruses for his church cantatas. As in his fairly free transcription of the Chaconne, Rübsam has made full use of the instrument at his disposal, a magnificent Casavant instrument (1998) at the Church of St. Louis, in St. Paul, Minnesota. The booklet includes a full disposition for the organ as well as an essay introducing both the works and Rübsam’s uniquely imaginative approach to them. ‘If the sound of the lute-harpsichord highlights Bach’s debt to French lute music, especially in the First Prelude, the instrument clarifies that homage while Rübsam’s interpretation transcends it.’ (Fanfare, November 2018, The Well-Tempered Clavier, 96750)

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Bach: Orchestral Suites 2 & 3; Chaconne - Transcribed for Organ / Wolfgang Rübsam
Brilliant Classics Nov 2023
CD
~~$13.99~~ $6.99

Godowsky: Transcriptions

Piano Classics

$21.99 Jan 09, 2026

'Only top-flight virtuosos need apply. Emanuele Delucchi is one of them... in a class of his own' (Gramophone). This is Delucchi's fourth album dedicated to the pianistic art of Leopold Godowsky. It's theme is counterpoint, and the possibilities of polyphony at the piano, which Godowsky expanded beyond previously conceived limitations. The album opens with Godowsky's magnificent transcription of the Sonata for Solo Violin BWV1001 by Bach. Counterbalancing the Sonata, the album closes with the serene Andante from the Solo Sonata BWV1003. In 1929, Godowsky composed his own Prelude and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H as one of a series of pieces for the left hand: a formidable demonstration of technical and compositional ingenuity. 'Imagine a real fugue in three voices,' he wrote to his friends, 'inversions, contractions, pedal points and all kind of devices on B-A-C-H for one hand!' Yet the Fugue itself is far from austere but rather upbeat in mood, no less a joyful celebration of the piano and it's possibilities than the rest of the works here. Godowsky based the first of his Symphonic Metamorphoses on themes of Johann Strauss on the Kunstlerleben waltz. This piece competes with his contrapuntal paraphrase on Weber's Invitation to the Dance (dedicated to Busoni, no less) as perhaps the most complex pieces ever written for the piano on dance themes. As on his previous Godowsky albums, all of them eliciting an enthusiastic critical reception, Delucchi has chosen to record these works on a piano from Godowsky's own time, lending both warm colours and a period flavour to his playing. He has chosen a Steinway piano from 1879 with a warm and poetic sound, well fitted to evoke the mood of fin-de-siecle Vienna, and to unfold the intricate polyphony of a piano genius. Delucchi also contributes his own, succinct and informed booklet essay on the history and context of these pieces.

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Godowsky: Transcriptions
Piano Classics Jan 2026
CD
$21.99

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Bach: Arrangements & Transcriptions

Audite Musikproduktion

$20.99 Jun 20, 2025

Jean-Baptiste Dupont performs transcriptions of works by Johann Sebastian Bach on the organ of Saint-Sernin. The layering of composition, transcription, instrument, and interpretation emphasizes the polyphonic depth and dynamic colouring of the pieces. Timeless masterpieces merge with the expressive potential of the Cavaille-Coll organ, itself a masterpiece of the 19th century.

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Bach: Arrangements & Transcriptions
Audite Musikproduktion Jun 2025
CD
$20.99

Busoni: Piano Transcriptions / Holger Groschopp

Capriccio

$27.99 May 26, 2009

This album is, simply, a necessary addition to the Busoni discography, carried off with panache. A studio recording, sound is uncramped, gutsily close, and incisively detailed. Sine qua non for the Busoni aficionado, and enthusiastically recommended to all who care for the literature of the piano.

- Adrian Corleonis Fanfare (From review of Capriccio 10896 which contains the same performances.)

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Busoni: Piano Transcriptions / Holger Groschopp
Capriccio May 2009
CD
$27.99

Nacht und Traume - Transcriptions by Clytus Gottwald, Johann

Carus

$19.99 Jun 12, 2026

Today, it is a beacon in the world of music: a cappella choir culture at the highest technical and musical level. Clytus Gottwald had a decisive influence on this choir culture with his work, arranging solo songs for polyphonic choirs and thus enabling new, breathtaking sound experiences. In 2025, Gottwald would have turned 100 years old. The Stuttgart Chamber Choir, conducted by Frieder Bernius, has taken this anniversary as an opportunity to honor Gottwald's art with a special program. From Franz Schubert's Nacht und Träume (Night and Dreams) to Die Könige (The Kings) by Peter Cornelius to Solveig's Song by Edvard Grieg, the range of songs that Gottwald transformed into a cappella choral sound experiences through his transcriptions is vast. A vocal delight, not only in the anniversary year!

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Nacht und Traume - Transcriptions by Clytus Gottwald, Johann
Carus Jun 2026
CD
$19.99

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Liszt & Wagner: Piano Works / Cooper

Chandos

$21.99 Mar 17, 2017

After a highly successful recordings of works by Brahms, the Schumanns, and Chopin, Imogen Cooper plunges into the world of another great romantic, Franz Liszt, and places him alongside that other giant, Richard Wagner. This is an evocative programme of original compositions and intimate transcriptions, ranging from poetic movements from the Années de Pèlerinage: Italie to dark and deeply elegiac pieces, including Liszt's La lugubre gondola I and Wagner's Elegie. It also features a transcription by Zoltán Kocsis of the intensely passionate prelude to Tristan und Isolde. The famous pianist and conductor died prematurely in November, 2016. It was his work that inspired this recording to begin with, and Imogen Cooper dedicates the album to his memory. Breathtaking music in unique interpretations: romanticism without melodrama, virtuosity without fuss.

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Liszt & Wagner: Piano Works / Cooper
Chandos Mar 2017
CD
$21.99

Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg

Walhall Eternity Series

$13.99 Apr 14, 2015

This Is the first release in any format of a performance of Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg that took place in Milan on 13 Feb 1955, recorded on acetate discs and broadcast over the Rai airwaves. It's unique cast, singing under the direction of Hans Rosbaud, features Many Fine, and some more obscure, singers and/or Wagnerians of this glorious era in Wagnerian Production, including Otto Edelmann, Ludwig Weber, Ira Malaniuk, Gerhard Unger, and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, renowned for her R. Strauss Roles, as Eva.

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Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg
Walhall Eternity Series Apr 2015
CD
$13.99

Wagner Without Words / Llyr Williams

Signum Classics

$27.99 Sep 09, 2014

Pianist Llyr Williams explores Wagner’s rich and evocative sound-world from a less well-known angle. Featuring insightful arrangements of Richard Wagner’s operas by Franz Liszt and Glenn Gould (as well as Williams’ own arrangement of music from 'Parsifal'), at the center of the program is a selection of Wagner’s own piano pieces – many of which were written earlier in his compositional career, hinting at the grand operatic masterworks which were yet to come.

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"Liszt’s transcriptions and fantasies on excerpts from Wagner operas are ingenious works that take you inside the music without the distractions, in a sense, of the orchestra and the voices, or 'Wagner Without Words,' to quote the title of this rewarding album by the splendid Welsh pianist Llyr Williams. Here he plays Liszt’s transcriptions ranging from the short, charming “Spinning Chorus” (from “The Flying Dutchman”) to the mesmerizing “Liebestod” (from “Tristan und Isolde”). Mr. Williams offers several of his own ambitious and impressive transcriptions, including his extended scenes from “Parsifal” and his tweaked version of Glenn Gould’s take on the Prelude to “Die Meistersinger.” There are also some piano pieces by Wagner, including a youthful 26-minute fantasy, a fascinating, if not great, work: you hear the 19-year-old Wagner beholden both to Beethoven and bel canto opera." – Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times

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Wagner Without Words / Llyr Williams
Signum Classics Sep 2014
CD
$27.99

Strauss & Mahler: Transcriptions by Clytus Gottwald; Schoenb

Carus

$20.99 Oct 18, 2024

Clytus Gottwald possessed the special gift of translating the most diverse vocal-soloistic-instrumental compositions into pure, polyphonic choral sound. He was rightly apostrophised by the press as the father of modern choral singing. At the centre of this recording with the Kammerchor Stuttgart under the direction of Frieder Bernius are ten songs by Richard Strauss, to which Gottwald breathes a choral soul with seemingly infinite creativity. The recording is complemented by Gottwald's 16-part transcription of Gustav Mahler's "Adagietto" from the 5th Symphony - a true miracle of sound. And the recording also includes an original composition: Friede auf Erden (Peace on Earth), one of the few choral works of the Second Viennese School, is performed on the 150th anniversary of Arnold Schonberg's birth. With this programme, the Kammerchor Stuttgart once again proves itself to be one of the best ensembles of it's kind.

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Strauss & Mahler: Transcriptions by Clytus Gottwald; Schoenb
Carus Oct 2024
CD
$20.99

The Beecham Collection - Berlioz & Wagner: Orchestral Excerp

SOMM Recordings

$20.99 Jun 19, 2026

SOMM Recordings continues it's much-admired and long-running series The Beecham Collection with it's 35th release of live recordings by Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The recording highlights the operatic side of Beecham with orchestral excerpts from Les Troyens and La Damnation de Faust by Hector Berlioz, and Tannhäuser, Parsifal, Götterdämmerung, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Richard Wagner. Producer and audio engineer Lani Spahr, whose work for SOMM on Elgar from the Archives has been described by Gramophone Magazine as "astounding" and "revelatory," is once again responsible for the audio restoration on this release. The professional debut of Sir Thomas Beecham, Bart., C.H. took place on 6 December 1899 in St Helen's Town Hall when he was twenty years old. He conducted the Hungarian March from La Damnation de Faust by Berlioz with the Hallé Orchestra, and the music of Berlioz was to become one of the cornerstones of his repertoire for the next six decades. This present recording of the Hungarian March is a gloriously uninhibited performance that brought the house down at the end of a 1955 concert at the Royal Festival Hall. That concert also included two excerpts from Les Troyens by Berlioz. The Prelude to The Trojans at Carthage is followed by The Royal Hunt and Storm, with the Oxford Bach Choir providing the brief choral contribution from Nymphs, Sylvans, and Fauns. These performances are remarkable for their atmospheric poetry in the slower sections and the rampaging energy in the faster music. During the same year as his professional debut, a young Beecham made his pilgrimage to Bayreuth, and he became an enthusiastic, instinctual conductor of Wagner's music. The renowned music critic Neville Cardus once noted that, while German conductors tended to take a reflective and philosophical approach in interpreting Wagner, Sir Thomas concentrated on the dramatic and picturesque parts of the music. This concentration on colour and drama makes his conducting of the orchestral extracts included on this release both satisfying and full of character. These four orchestral excerpts were recorded at the Royal Festival Hall on 17 December 1958. The concert opened with the Overture and Venusberg Music from Tannhäuser; for decades one of Beecham's warhorses as a concert opener. Orchestral excerpts from Parsifal appeared regularly on Beecham's concert programmes, and this 1958 concert featured the Good Friday Music. Beecham conducted a number of Ring cycles during his career, and his affinity with the music shines through in this recording of Siegfried's Rhine Journey from Götterdämmerung. This release closes with the Prelude to Act One of Die Meistersinger, about which the review in the Daily Telegraph said, "the thickly overlaid texture of the overture can seldom have been given with such golden clarity."

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The Beecham Collection - Berlioz & Wagner: Orchestral Excerp
SOMM Recordings Jun 2026
CD
$20.99

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WALLER, Fats: Transcriptions (1939)
Naxos Nov 2003
CD
$19.99

Brahms, Schumann & Schubert: Original Transcriptions for Tru

Delos

$15.99 ~~$20.99~~ Save 25% Jan 24, 2025

Trumpet was meant to have a bright future after Handel and Bach, but history decided otherwise. Relegated to a military signal role with timpani, it had to wait until the later Romantic period to flourish once again. A brainchild of Andrew Balio, this album showcases his own transcriptions of works from the golden age of chamber music, inviting trumpeters out of the cold and into the cozy world of Brahms, Schumann, and Schubert. Pianist John Wilson partners Andrew for these new arrangements of Brahms's clarinet sonatas, Schumann's Adagio and Allegro, and Marchenbilder, and Schubert's lied 'Auf dem Strom', in which tenor Nicholas Phan gives voice to the text. Thanks to Andrew, trumpeters and music lovers can now enjoy an expanded repertoire which invites us into an entirely new soundworld.

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Brahms, Schumann & Schubert: Original Transcriptions for Tru
Delos Jan 2025
CD
~~$20.99~~ $15.99

Transfigured Mozart - Transcriptions By Reger, Etc / Malan

Haenssler Classic

$5.99 Mar 01, 2006

When Mozart died, he was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. Had he lived, he might well have regained the commercial success and public acclaim he enjoyed in the early 1780s, for no sooner had he passed, his fame rose like a meteor. In the 19th century, Mozart's popularity eclipsed that of nearly all other 18th-century composers. This recording is about the perception of Mozart after his death. The transcriptions and free fantasies that Petronel Malan has selected trace Mozart reincarnated - transfigured - through the ears, technique, and compositional gifts of seven composers. Chronologically, they range from Hummel, a Mozart pupil, to Friedman, a 20th-century keyboard virtuoso who survived World War II. Stylistically the range is equally wide.

Petronel Malan - South African pianist Petronel Malan now makes her home in the United States. Her debut recording with hänssler classic, "Transfigured Bach: The Complete Bach Transcriptions of Bartok, Lipatti and Friedman," was nominated for three Grammy® awards, including "Best Instrumental Solo Album 2004." This album is her second recording in a series with hänssler Classic. As a Blüthner Artist, Ms. Malan uses Blüthner pianos exclusively for her recordings.

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Transfigured Mozart - Transcriptions By Reger, Etc / Malan
Haenssler Classic Mar 2006
CD
$5.99

Grieg: The Cello Works - Transcriptions & Songs / Müller-Schott, Schuch

Orfeo

$20.99 Sep 02, 2022

Edvard Grieg, arguably the most popular composer ever to emerge from the Scandinavian peninsula, made substantial contributions to the chamber music canon with his violin sonatas rather than with his works for cello: only one sonata for cello and piano (Op. 36) was written for this line-up. Daniel Müller-Schott, always driven to expand the musical repertoire for his instrument and with a keen sense of transcriptions, for this all-Grieg album – which is his 20th album on the label Orfeo – hence transcribed and recorded for the first time the violin sonata in C minor, Op. 45, No. 3, for the cello. Accompanied by his long-standing duo-partner Herbert Schuch on piano, the short Intermezzo in A minor (EG 115) guides us to the second part of the album, where the duo presents selected songs of various characters transcribed for cello and piano.

REVIEWS:

Cello originals and borrowings played with great allure… The instrument’s cantabile qualities ensure that the selection of Grieg song transcriptions works equally well, with Müller-Schott presenting a nicely wide-ranging choice.

-- The Strad

Edvard Grieg’s cello sonata ekes out a shadowy existence in his oeuvre. Daniel Müller-Schott and Herbert Schuch enter the music with the Allegro agitato in such a furious and energetic way that one is carried away by this inner fire and its power. Even in the Andante, for all its lyricism, there remains much nervousness. The finale is buoyant and dance-like, all nervousness has gone, but the energy remains.

Grieg himself considered the violin sonatas his most important works. Daniel Müller-Schott has rewritten the third for cello. Müller-Schott and Schuch play with the greatest expressivity, very full of contrasts, and thus create a tension even through the second movement that does not even dissolve in the Allegro animato.

Also in the smaller pieces, there are two Agitatos, so that even this part of the CD is not characterized by charm throughout. And so there is one thing we probably retain from this release: the exceptional energy and intensity with which the performers play their Grieg. I think even the composer would have been amazed.

-- Pizzicato

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Grieg: The Cello Works - Transcriptions & Songs / Müller-Schott, Schuch
Orfeo Sep 2022
CD
$20.99

The Bruckner Symphonies, Vol. 10 - Organ Transcriptions

Oehms Classics

$19.99 Feb 14, 2025

This series to mark the 200th birthday of Anton Bruckner in 2024 is dedicated to his symphonic works. Hansjorg Albrecht will perform all of Bruckner's symphonies in many new transcriptions for organ at important locations such as Zurich, Leipzig, Linz, Vienna and London. Bruckner's works are framed by contemporary compositions that deal with Bruckner's work in the "Bruckner Windows". Hansjorg Albrecht concludes the extensive project to commemorate Anton Bruckner with the last recording of the Study Symphony.

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The Bruckner Symphonies, Vol. 10 - Organ Transcriptions
Oehms Classics Feb 2025
CD
$19.99

Bach: Transcriptions for Trumpet and Organ

DUX

$21.99 Jun 07, 2019

The Organ of the St. Lawrence Church in Wroclów (1715-1717) comes from a workshop of one of the greatest Silesian constructors, Adam Horatio Casparini. The contemporary disposition, slightly modified in the 19th century, does not differ much from the Casparini concept. The instrument still meets the requirements of very orthodox Baroque literature, including the works by Johann Sebastian Bach. Hence it is perfect for the role that Professors Igor Cecocho and Piotr Rojek, associated with the Wroclaw Academy of Music, have assigned to it. The musicians undertook a task to examine and synthesize differentia specifica of the creative individuality of Johann Sebastian Bach, seen from the perspective of instrumentalists aware of the baggage of experience and the multifaceted inspiration of the cantor of Leipzig. They reached for works from the most famous Bach collections and performed their creative reinterpretation using transcriptions of these pieces and the possibilities of the trumpet and the unique instrument from Wroclów.

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Bach: Transcriptions for Trumpet and Organ
DUX Jun 2019
CD
$21.99

Wagner: Der Frankfurter Ring

Oehms Classics

$75.99 Oct 29, 2013

Following the release of the DVD box in the spring, OehmsClassics now issues the complete Ring from Frankfurt in the well-known design on 14 CDs. This complete version comprises the individual issues of the four operas with the Frankfurt Opera, produced and released during the years 2010-2012. This release is accompanied by a single CD with orchestral music from the Ring.

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Wagner: Der Frankfurter Ring
Oehms Classics Oct 2013
CD
$75.99

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Transcriptions for Two Pianists - Stravinsky, Debussy, Bartok / Bavouzet, Guy
Chandos Jun 2015
CD
~~$21.99~~ $10.99

Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg (Bayreuth, 1958)

Andromeda

$21.99 Jul 08, 2014

In addition to the less-often heard at Bayreuth production of Lohengrin in 1958, French conductor André Cluytens also led this Die Meisteringer at the same year’s festival. + This newly re-mastered recording features noted Wagnerian Austrian-born baritone Otto Weiner (1911-2000) as Hans Sachs, Elisabeth Grümmer as Eva, and legendary bass-baritone Hans Hotter as Pogner.

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Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg (Bayreuth, 1958)
Andromeda Jul 2014
CD
$21.99

Weber: Euryanthe / Wagner, Reinhardt, Trinks, Vienna Radio Symphony [Blu-ray]

Naxos AudioVisual

Blu-Ray

$24.99 ~~$34.99~~ Save 30% 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

Weber’s ‘great heroic-romantic’ opera Euryanthe premiered in Vienna in 1823. It concerns the wronged Euryanthe, victim of a plot to establish her unfaithfulness, but her love imbues her with colossal strength which Weber characterizes with acute psychological insight. Through-composed and dispensing with spoken dialogue, its chivalric plot provides opportunities for a series of arias, ariosos, duets, cavatinas and choruses that contain some of his greatest operatic music. This production employs the opera’s original version with a few, very minor cuts.

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Weber: Euryanthe / Wagner, Reinhardt, Trinks, Vienna Radio Symphony [Blu-ray]
Naxos AudioVisual Feb 2020
Blu-Ray
~~$34.99~~ $24.99

Bach: Transcriptions / Stefano Molardi

Brilliant Classics

$12.99 ~~$16.99~~ Save 25% Jul 22, 2022

Transcription has always been a widespread musical practice, following the desire to arrange pieces originally written for an instrumental and/or vocal ensemble for an instrument like the organ or harpsichord or, later, the piano. The eighteenth century was a very fertile period for transcriptions, reaching its pinnacle among Johann Sebastian Bach’s circle. The transcriptions Bach (1685-1750) made during his time in Weimar both for organ (three concertos by Vivaldi and two by Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar) and an astonishing 14 for harpsichord (by various Italian composers) are of great artistic value. However, Bach also adapted his own works originally written for instruments or voices, ‘appropriating’ them for the keyboard. These included the first movement of his Trio Sonata No. 4, taken from the sinfonia from the cantata Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes BWV 76 (for oboe d’amore, viola da gamba and basso continuo) and the Schübler chorales, which started off life as arias in various cantatas.

The aim of this recording is to offer a series of transcriptions that were originally written for instruments other than the organ. The transcribers include Bach himself, contemporaries of him, two 19th century composers: Alexandre Guilmant and Robert Schaab, a pupil of Mendelssohn, ending with the present organist, Stefano Molardi himself.

Stefano Molardi is a “renaissance man”, organist, harpsichordist, scholar, historian and writer. He recorded extensively: the complete organ works by J.S. Bach, organ works by Bach family members, complete organ works by Kuhnau and other repertoire. His playing is clear, crisp, free and rhythmically vibrant. His recordings received 5 star reviews in the international classical magazines. Played on the Johann Nepomuk Holzhey (1797) organ at the Neresheim Abbey, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, the specifications of which are included in the booklet.

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Bach: Transcriptions / Stefano Molardi
Brilliant Classics Jul 2022
CD
~~$16.99~~ $12.99

Act III

Ars Produktion

$19.99 Apr 17, 2026

Less is more: true to this motto, nine orchestra musicians who were friends founded the Ensemble Minui in 2016. Active in renowned orchestras such as the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra, the Slovenian National Opera, and the Vienna State Opera, they devote themselves here to exquisite minimalism with elegance and sophistication. Homogeneous and balanced, the five string players and four wind players offer previously unheard, sonically differentiated perspectives on large-scale operas such as Wagner's Die Walküre, Puccini's Manon Lescaut, and Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten.

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Act III
Ars Produktion Apr 2026
CD
$19.99

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Stokowski Transcriptions / Serebrier, Bournemouth Symphony

Naxos

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Apr 08, 2016

One of the 20th century’s great conductors, Leopold Stokowski was also a prolific transcriber of music for the symphony orchestra, creating a unique repertoire by bringing masterpieces to the concert hall that were often unfamiliar to audiences of the time. José Serebrier was Stokowski’s associate conductor in New York, and drawing on memories of his special quality of orchestral sound has revived and revised the best of these sumptuous arrangements. These include a GRAMMY nominated Mussorgsky recording and Stokowski’s signature piece, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, immortalized as part of the soundtrack to Walt Disney’s film Fantasia.

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REVIEW:

Anyone who doubts the sustained power of Stokowski’s most famous transcription, Bach’s mighty Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, should experience Serebrier’s enthralling performance.

– Fanfare

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Stokowski Transcriptions / Serebrier, Bournemouth Symphony
Naxos Apr 2016
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99