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Amalia Classics on Portuguese Guitar / Castelo

ARC Music

$20.99 Jan 24, 2020

CUSTÓDIO CASTELO is the world’s leading player of the Portuguese fado guitar, the instrument that helped make fado music Portugal’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO). Like Carlos Paredes, Custódio Castelo creates groundbreaking new sounds that have promoted the Portuguese Guitar to a concert instrument that can be played solo or as accompaniment. His unique Portuguese guitar, handmade from an oak root by master Oscar Cardoso, is capable of fine nuances of emotion, and he uses them well, especially for melancholy, but also for a sense of jubilation. On this release Custódio Castelo plays fados made famous by the Queen of Fado, Amália Rodrigues. “Custódio Castelo is the world’s leading exponent of the Guitarra Portuguesa, the instrument that gives the country’s fado music its poignant song.” (Allmusic)

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Amalia Classics on Portuguese Guitar / Castelo
ARC Music Jan 2020
CD
$20.99

Mambos y Fanfarria!

Genuin

$20.99 Jan 29, 2013

This symphonic wind ensemble is a product of the "El Sistema" system, the Venezuelan music education project of José Antonio Abreu. This CD testifies to the versatility and unbridled joy in playing of the 100 plus young wind instrumentalists. Valdemar Rodríguez, founder of Banda Sinfónica, and young Víctor Mendoza are featured as soloists.

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Mambos y Fanfarria!
Genuin Jan 2013
CD
$20.99

Cervantes: Danzas Cubanas / Cendoya

Naxos

$19.99 Dec 13, 2011

Ignacio Cervantes is a key figure of Latin American piano music. As the cultural and national identity of his native Cuba gained strength through the 19th century, the genres of danza and contradanza became a fixture of the island’s dance and concert halls, providing a bridge between different sections of society. Cervantes’s pieces, which display a similar swing and verve to Scott Joplin’s ubiquitous Rags, synthesize Cuban local humour and colour with the Romantic aesthetic of Chopin. Their titles range from the poignant Adiós a Cuba, to the laughter of La carcajada.

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Cervantes: Danzas Cubanas / Cendoya
Naxos Dec 2011
CD
$19.99

Rojotango / Erwin Schrott

Sony Masterworks

$11.98 Apr 19, 2011

The music of South America, steeped in sultry passion, irresistible dance rhythms and melancholic reflection is a unique challenge for the vocal and interpretive abilities of a great singer. Rojotango promises to reveal new facets of Erwin’s sensuously dark, chocolaty voice.

The imaginative and intriguing repertoire features a varied and exciting selection of passionate tangos by Astor Piazzolla, Pablo Ziegler and Juan Carlos Cobian as well as a number of evocative Argentinean and Brazilian folk songs.

"Magnificently devilish, charming and irresistible." - The New York Times

"He sang and acted rings around everyone else, showing a gorgeous, dark, versatile bass. Young, hyperkinetic and hunky, he is a boring singer’s nightmare." - Opera News

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Rojotango / Erwin Schrott
Sony Masterworks Apr 2011
CD
$11.98

BACH: GOLDBERG VARIATIONS

ERATO

Vinyl

$51.99 Dec 19, 2025

Thibaut Garcia is one of the most acclaimed classical guitarists of his generation, praised for a playing style that combines virtuosity and poetic sensitivity. Born from a deep artistic friendship with guitarist Antoine Morinere, this album offers a fresh take on Bach's masterpiece Goldberg Variations, now reimagined for two guitars. The arrangement, from Garcia and Moriniere themselves, is the result of a full year of work during which, quoting the artists, they focused on "how to adapt the keyboard work for two guitars, while preserving the illusion of a single performer". Twin guitars helped in their artistic endeavour: the album is recorded on two guitars cut from the same tree, and realized especially for the project by French luthier Hugo Cuvillier.

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BACH: GOLDBERG VARIATIONS
ERATO Dec 2025
Vinyl
$51.99

Brahms: Serenade No. 1 in D Major Op. 11 - Variations on a T

Challenge Classics

SACD

$10.49 ~~$20.99~~ Save 50% Oct 14, 2016

In today's world, one often perceives a division between art and academia, and composers and musicologists generally don't have much to say to one another. But that division has not always existed. Brahms himself was surrounded by a circle of academics who for him were also a source of animated comradeship. With some of them, Brahms would go on long walks outside Vienna and even on summer holidays.+ The men enjoyed long and sometimes loud, discussions about their shared obsessions, discoveries and findings. Brahms had these very discussions to thank for his lifelong interest in "early music". He even collaborated intensively on the critical editions of Couperin, Handel and Bach's sons and received interesting and useful advice form his friends. Since adopting a new artistic profile, The Hague Philharmonic is demonstrating more than ever that symphonic music can still be meaningful to large and diverse audiences in the 21st century. The ensemble performs regularly at various major concert halls around the world. Their ambitions are spreaheaded by a proactive education policy and are the driving force behind music education in the region.

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Brahms: Serenade No. 1 in D Major Op. 11 - Variations on a T
Challenge Classics Oct 2016
SACD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Falla: El Amor Brujo (1915 Version) / Gil-Ordonez, Perspectives Ensemble

Naxos

$19.99 May 10, 2019

There have been a couple of recordings of El amor brujo in its original, two-act chamber version of 1915, but this one is as fine as any and just might be the best around. Conductor Angel Gil-Ordóñez chooses ideal tempos, the members of the Perspectives Ensemble play beautifully, and everyone seems genuinely involved in projecting Falla’s characterful instrumental parts with just the right combination of precision and warmth. Cantaora (singer) Esperanza Fernández sings with fervor and her voice, while raw and “popular,” at least remains in tune. She lacks the artistry and sensitivity of more professionally trained singers such as the incomparable Nati Mistrál on Decca, but in these surroundings it hardly matters.

The original version really is a different work: longer, with a slightly different plot that need not concern us, and despite using much of the same music often quite different in sound and texture. You can compare the two in the sound clips below. The revised version for full orchestra sounds more mysterious, more “impressionistic” if you will, while the original is leaner in outline but also definitely more rhythmically persistent and sinister. The only disadvantage to the original, in my opinion, is the generous amount of spoken dialog, which must be irritating even to native speakers when the music is so beautiful. You wish Fernández would offer less talk and more music.

Speaking of talk, Master Peter’s Puppet Show has a plot straight from Cervantes’ Don Quixote, and consists of wonderful musical bits connected by long stretches of recitative narration. The scoring is extremely imaginative, with the chamber ensemble featuring a harpsichord (played by Wanda Landowska at the premiere), and colorful parts for brass and percussion. What singing there is comes off quite well, with Jennifer Zetlan doing her best with the ungrateful part of the narrator. The plot, in case you don’t already know the original, is simplicity itself. At a roadside inn Master Peter puts on a puppet show set in the time of Charlemagne about the rescue of a damsel in distress. Don Quixote becomes thoroughly confused and takes the whole thing rather too seriously. Chaos ensues. That’s it.

Once again the performance is excellent from all concerned, and both pieces are very well recorded. Provided you have time to sit down and follow both not-terribly-long works booklet in hand, in this case thoughtfully containing texts and English translations, this release earns an easy and well-deserved recommendation.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

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Falla: El Amor Brujo (1915 Version) / Gil-Ordonez, Perspectives Ensemble
Naxos May 2019
CD
$19.99

Spanish Classics - Falla: Piano Music Vol 1/ Daniel Ligorio
Naxos Jan 2007
CD
$19.99

NUEVOS MUNDOS
Lindoro May 2014
CD
$13.99

BACH: GOLDBERG VARIATIONS
WARNER CLASSICS Jan 2023
CD
$17.49

Pablo: Los Novisimos & Vendaval
Stradivarius Jun 2010
CD
$18.99

The Spanish Harpsichord / Igor Kipnis

Sony Masterworks

$17.99 Dec 29, 2011

[This] record has a considerable extra in Falla's Harpsichord Concerto. This dry but oddly attractive work is admirably played by Kipnis with leading members of the NYPO. Their performance is excellent. Boulez understands this sort of work completely and directs an admirable performance.

-- Gramophone [8/1976]
reviewing the original LP release of the Falla Concerto

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The Spanish Harpsichord / Igor Kipnis
Sony Masterworks Dec 2011
CD
$17.99

BACH & TELEMANN VARIATIONS
Globe Records Aug 2002
CD
$18.99

GOLDBERG VARIATIONEN
Querstand Mar 2005
CD
$20.99

Spanish Classics - Manuel Blasco De Nebra: Complete Keyboard Sonatas Vol 1 / Pedro Casals

Naxos

$19.99 Aug 25, 2009

BLASCO DE NEBRA Keyboard Sonatas: Nos. 1– 5; 107–112; in d; in G • Pedro Casals (pn) • NAXOS 8.572068 (76:16)

This is the first of a projected set of three CDs devoted to the extant piano sonatas of Manuel Blasco de Nebra (1750–1784) by pianist and musicologist Pedro Casals. During his short life, Blasco de Nebra is said to have composed some 170 works, though we don’t know in what form nor for what media he wrote. According to Casals’s interesting and informative notes, only 26 keyboard sonatas and six pastorellas are known to survive. Six of the sonatas were apparently published as op. 1, a copy of which is in the Library of Congress. The remainder are known from manuscripts from the Monastery of Montserrat (Catalonia), Encarnación Monastery of Osuna (near Seville), and the Santa Clara Convent (Seville.) Blasco de Nebra was born and died in Seville and, except for two years in Madrid, where his uncle, the zarzuela composer José de Nebra had connections at court, his entire life was spent in the Andalusian city. It may be straddling the fence to call these pieces “keyboard sonatas”: the prominence of Alberti bass figuration alone would seem to argue in favor of the piano. It’s worth noting that one of the more prominent Iberian piano makers, Francisco Pérez Mirabal, flourished in Seville contemporaneously with Blasco de Nebra. Two of Mirabal’s pianos survive. He, like other Iberian makers, had the advantage of basing their instruments on the imported Florentine pianos of Cristofori and Ferrini, unlike Silbermann in Germany, who was forced to experiment on the basis of simplistic published diagrams of the Cristofori action. In any case, it’s obvious from the persuasive performances by Casals (albeit on the modern piano) that Blasco de Nebra’s sonatas are well crafted, often quite beautiful, and never less than effective.

Without being derivative, these pieces bring to mind the Catalan composer, Antonio Soler. Certainly the sonatas of Soler’s master, Domenico Scarlatti, seem a constant point of reference. This recording presents Blasco de Nebra’s sonatas chronologically. The earliest (Nos. 107–112, deriving from the Osuna Encarnación and Santa Clara manuscripts) are cast in single-movement, binary form, like Scarlatti’s. The latest recorded here (Nos. 1–5, from the Montserrat Abbey manuscript) preface each Allegro movement with an extended Adagio. Most of the sonatas unfold in two-part textures; their inventive motivic structure is often triadic and highly ornamented. Blasco de Nebra was active among several organists who played at the cathedral in Seville. It’s not surprising that, in the couple of sonatas that seem to effectively employ tone-painting, church bells are evoked: festal peals in Sonata No. 111, for instance, and in the Adagio of Sonata No 2, somber chimes. Casals brings a rhythmic vitality and crisp touch to his performances, appropriately achieving his varied affects with scarcely any pedal. Given his decision to present the sonatas in the order written, it will be interesting to observe Blasco de Nebra’s stylistic evolution in future releases.

The piano sound (in this case an instrument that could have used a touch-up during the recording) leaves something to be desired, possibly due to overly close microphone placement and a less than resonant space. But the playing is so good and the music so interesting that one quickly forgets the less-than-optimal technical aspects of the recording. Casals’s performances, authoritative and imbued with a love of the music, will no doubt attract greater attention to this little-known but obviously gifted composer. Recommended.

FANFARE: Patrick Rucker

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Spanish Classics - Manuel Blasco De Nebra: Complete Keyboard Sonatas Vol 1 / Pedro Casals
Naxos Aug 2009
CD
$19.99

Spanish Classics - Halffter: Orchestral Works Vol 1
Naxos Jan 2005
CD
$19.99

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

Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

Genuin

$20.99 Jun 10, 2016

The Goldberg Variations are one of the greatest works of piano literature, and a test of virtuosity for any concert pianist. Marie Rosa Gunter has chosen these works for her debut album, presented here. Marie Rosa Gunter has already won first prize in multiple competitions, and this release marks the start of what will surely be a remarkable career.

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Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
Genuin Jun 2016
CD
$20.99

Great 20th-Century Spanish Pianists (Live)

Marchvivo

$20.99 Jun 05, 2026

In 1975, coinciding with the inauguration of their new headquarters in Madrid, the Fundacion Juan March launched their Young Performers recitals, a series of presenter-led concerts for secondary-school students, performed by leading Spanish artists. In their first season, five outstanding Spanish pianists-all former fellows of the Fundacion-guided young listeners on a journey through the European piano tradition, from Mozart to Debussy. This remastering brings back to life the historical recordings of several performances from that first season. The selection included on the original 1976 LP, released under the title Conciertos para jovenes. Recital de piano romantico, constitutes a valuable documentary record of Spanish pianism, now returned to circulation following a meticulous remastering process.

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Great 20th-Century Spanish Pianists (Live)
Marchvivo Jun 2026
CD
$20.99

Mix & Match

Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations

Ramee

$20.99 Apr 29, 2016

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg variations were published in 1741 and named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who was possibly the first performers of the work. The work consists of an aria and a set of thirty variations. It is seen even today as one of the most significant examples of variation form. Harpsichordist and historical music interpreter Pascal Dubreuil performs these works for this recording.

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Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations
Ramee Apr 2016
CD
$20.99

American Classics - Riley: Cantos Desiertos / Hawley, McFadden

Naxos

$19.99 Jun 01, 2003

Alexandra Hawley and Jeffrey McFadden offer a wonderfully eclectic program for flute and guitar. If you haven't heard this combination of instruments before, on the evidence presented here you'll very likely agree that it's a most musically rewarding pairing. The flute's smooth timbre ideally complements the guitar's non-legato and softly percussive tone quality--aspects put to good use in Robert Beaser's Mountain Songs, where McFadden's rustic, folksy picking and strumming is tempered by Hawley's serenely floating melodies. Joan Tower's quasi-impressionistic Snow Dreams initially conjures up idyllic, pastoral images before the composer's spiky harmonic style slightly sharpens the music's edges. Likewise, Lowell Liebermann's Sonata for Flute opens with a blissfully ruminative Nocturne, an atmosphere that dissipates immediately with the start of the nervously dancing Allegro finale.

Based on Mexican folk tunes, Terry Riley's Cantos Desiertos features delightfully stirring dances rendered with the aid of percussion. Finally, Peter Schickele's Windows offers a neo-Renaissance Pavane and a songful Cantilena before charging into an all-out strum-fest for the closing Refrain. Hawley and McFadden play beautifully, sounding convincingly at home in all of the varying styles and modes presented by this unusual mix of composers. Naxos' engineering gives listeners a realistic sense of the recording venue. This is one of those discs you just put in your player and totally enjoy.
--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

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American Classics - Riley: Cantos Desiertos / Hawley, McFadden
Naxos Jun 2003
CD
$19.99

CLASSICS FOR SOLO GUITAR
ALTO Nov 2013
CD
$11.01

Bach: Goldberg Variations / Tzimon Barto

Capriccio

$21.99 May 12, 2015

The Goldberg Variations' alternation of connection and freedom, fantasy and strict form, was able to lead in a hitherto unknown way to a higher unity, raising them to the rank of a real compendium of the art of variation, strongly influencing Beethoven, Brahms and Reger. Tzimon Barto's international breakthrough came in the mid-1980s, when he appeared at the Vienna Musikverein and the Salzburg Festival at the invitation of Herbert von Karajan. Tzimon Barto has since performed with nearly every major international orchestra. “…a pianist who particularly cares about poetry." (Piano News)

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Bach: Goldberg Variations / Tzimon Barto
Capriccio May 2015
CD
$21.99

Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations; Works for Cello & Orchestra

Naxos

$19.99 May 08, 2026

Tchaikovsky composed the Variations on a Rococo Theme for cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, who re-ordered the variations, infuriating the composer. The cello part for the virtuosic Pezzo capriccioso was also altered by it's dedicatee, Anatoly Brandukov. In the performances heard here, Tchaikovsky's original intentions are restored. To accompany these pieces, Gabriel Schwabe has provided two of his own arrangements - the Canzonetta from the Violin Concerto and Valse sentimentale from the Six Morceaux. The album ends with the second version - never before recorded - of the romantic fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet.

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Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations; Works for Cello & Orchestra
Naxos May 2026
CD
$19.99

Mix & Match

Miranda: Piano Concerto; Concertino; Horizontes; Variacoes T

Naxos

$19.99 Mar 28, 2025

Ronaldo Miranda is a multi-award-winning Brazilian composer with works commissioned by leading artists and institutions. His music is regularly performed in prestigious venues in Brazil and around the world. Miranda's Piano Concerto is an exciting virtuoso blend of atonality alongside hints of Bartok, contrasting with the flowing scales and delicate patterns found in the Concertino. The prize-winning Horizontes is a symphonic poem that tells the story of Christopher Columbus's voyage to the New World, while Variacoes Temporais (Beethoven Revisitado) is an inventive set of variations on some of Beethoven's most famous motifs and themes.

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Miranda: Piano Concerto; Concertino; Horizontes; Variacoes T
Naxos Mar 2025
CD
$19.99