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Yunchan Lim is the one of the most talked-about classical artists on the planet. In 2024 he presents his debut studio album on Decca Classics – the Chopin Études, Op.10 & Op.25. “To me, Chopin is a composer who yearned for the past. I wanted the album cover to feel like solitude and nostalgia, and to look like you have come across an old photo.” – Yunchan Lim

Yunchan Lim - Chopin Etudes
$13.95
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He transformed and redefined the sound of music in TV and films over a half-century, and now the Emmy®- and Grammy®-winning American composer and musical man-for-all-seasons Mike Post has realized his own creative challenge in Message from the Mountains & Echoes of the Delta, a unique new recording from Sony Masterworks.

The album features a pair of original works by Post that combine the pure sounds of bluegrass (Message from the Mountains) and the blues (Echoes of the Delta) – joined by “dream teams” of soloists who are longtime friends and colleagues – with the expressive power and range of a full orchestra. Post’s musical signatures for The Rockford Files, The A-Team, Magnum P.I., NYPD Blue, L.A. Law, Hill Street Blues and other TV classics – not to mention the Law & Order family of dramas (including the landmark, two-note “stinger” effect he created) – are in the DNA of contemporary television culture.

In nine multifaceted movements, Message from the Mountains uses the sounds of bluegrass to celebrate the mingling of tradition and diverse cultural experience in American music. Collaborators in realizing the work are the soloists – Herb Pedersen (5-string banjo); Gabe Witcher (fiddle); Mike Witcher (dobro); Patrick Sauber (acoustic guitar/mandolin); and Amy Keys (orator).

 Echoes from the Delta reflects and explores the exuberant joy and the well of anguish that forged the blues in 14 short, expressive movements. Joining Post and the orchestra as soloists are Sonny Landreth (slide guitar); Eric Gales (electric guitar); Abe Laboriel Sr. (bass); Abe Laboriel Jr. (drums); Robert Turner (organ/piano); Jon O’Hara (keyboards); and Amy Keys (vocalist).

The way Mike Post firmly describes himself – “I am an American musician” – is as grateful and respectful as it is limitless in its compass and its ambition. Message from the Mountains & Echoes of the Delta emerged as his own celebration of the American experience that made him who he is.

Mike Post - Message from the Mountains & Echoes of the Delta [CD]
$13.96
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Scriabin – Scarlatti creates a dreamlike meditation in which the boundaries between pieces, eras and states of mind fade away. Julius Asal’s full performance of the Sonata is framed by a selection of Scriabin’s etudes and preludes, six sonatas by Scarlatti and two improvisatory Transitions by the pianist himself.

Julius Asal - Scriabin - Scarlatti [CD]
$13.95
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PERCUSSION CONCERTO

Percussion has always been an important part of my life. Beginning in my travels though West Africa when I was 18 years old, when I began collecting and learning to play ‘balafons’ (kind of like the African version of a marimba), and through my years of playing in metal-based Indonesian Gamalan ensembles in my twenties, as well as building my own strange metal and wood percussion ensembles in my early theatrical performance years, it has always been a lifelong obsession. 

Shortly after we premiered my first violin concerto, I had a chance meeting with percussionist Colin Currie in London. We decided it could be great fun to create a piece together. I was excited to plunge into the challenge of another concerto while at the same time to really go back to my roots with wood and metal, mallets and sticks and hands. I also knew Colin was an extraordinary musician who would be great to collaborate with.  

And I was aware that there were far fewer concertos for percussion then the more obvious piano, violin, cello, etc, and that meant there were far fewer models to guide me which made the idea of a percussion concerto far more enticing.  

 

Wunderkammer

 

It was just before the pandemic when I was in London working on a film score, and my publisher suggested I meet the NYOGB (The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain)  as they had expressed interest in the possibility of doing a commission. At first I was skeptical about the idea of a youth orchestra, but I decided to attend a performance they were giving. I was, to say the least, blown away by how good they were. I decided on the spot that I would indeed find a way to write a piece for them.  

So I jumped into the composition that’s now called Wunderkammer. My original intentions was to create something that was very challenging for them, as I knew they were up for that, and something that would also be fun and exciting for them to dig into which might feature different instrument sections throughout to give everyone a moment to shine. 

A Wunderkammer (or “wonder room”) is a cabinet of curiosities or even a room of mystery and oddities which can be fun, or scary, intriguing or instructive, but never boring! And that’s just what I was hoping to bring to the NYOGB with Wunderkammer. 

ARE YOU LOST? 

 

My first concerto was written for violinist Sandy Cameron. She had been besieging me for ages to write a duet for violin and voice. I finally relented on the condition that we add a piano and make it a trio. While talking about the project with two composer friends we all decided to write for the same trio for a collaborative project which will be called, appropriately, “Trio”. When I began discussing the possibility of recording the concerto and Wunderkammer with Sony Classical they suggested that I include something that had never been performed. It was then I decided to take one of the 4 moments I’d written for “Trio” and to both expand and  adapt it for choir and full orchestra. Thus, the origins of “Are You Lost?” 

Danny Elfman - Percussion Concerto & Wunderkammer [CD]
$13.96
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Joe Hisaishi In Vienna presents two world premiere recordings from the world-famous composer and conductor: his Symphony No.2, captured live at the Musikverein with the Wiener Symphoniker, and Viola Saga, featuring soloist Antoine Tamestit.
Joe Hisaishi  / Wiener Symphoniker - Joe Hisaishi In Vienna: Symphony No. 2; Viola Saga
$18.98
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Commemorating the 1924 premiere of Rhapsody in Blue, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet collabs with Michael Feinstein, the ‘one-man encyclopaedia of the Great American Songbook’ to release Gershwin Rhapsody. The two also perform a Gershwin-esque setting of Vincent Youman’s classic tune, ‘Tea for Two’ and the programme rounds off with ‘Jasbo Brown Blues’ from Porgy & Bess.
Jean-Yves Thibaudet / Michael Feinstein - Gershwin Rhapsody
$13.95
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Italian composer Luca D’Alberto reveals the last chapter “Tomorrow” with the release of his new album “In our Hearts” : a chapter on hope symbolized by electronic influenced tracks.

Luca D'Alberto - In Our Hearts [LP]
$25.98
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With the album, Amour fou, soprano Myriam Leblanc and Ensemble Mirabilia take us on a journey of love via arias and songs spanning more than 800 years. From Fauré's poetic, “Au bord de l'eau,” to Jacques Brel's heartrending, “Ne me quitte pas,” and Barbara's, “Dis quand reviendras-tu?” Leblanc has gathered a bouquet of music depicting the most human of all sentiments. Amour fou also includes an aria from Vivaldi's cantata Amor hai vento, several old English songs by Thomas Campion and more.
Myriam Leblanc/Ensemble Mirabilia - Amour fou
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With her latest recording, Origami, pianist Louise Bessette unveils a few pages from the musical journal of Montréal composer Anthony Rozankovic. His “origami music” or “score sculptures” are alternately dissonant, syncopated, consonant, lyrical, or chaotic – according to film producer Carl Leblanc, author of the album’s liner notes. 11 of the 16 pieces on Origami started out as film music, with the composer conveying intense emotions. Among the other works are four concert pieces.
Louise Bessette - Origami
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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’Immaculée-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 Église Saint-François in Lausanne, Orgelpark in Amsterdam, and Malmö 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 its 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 its fixation on the infinite, but draws its 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.

Kali Malone - All Life Long [2LP]
$35.98
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Natural horn player Louis-Pierre Bergeron and pianist Meagan Milatz look to Beethoven as the point of departure for their new album, Le cor di bravura. The composer’s Sonata Op. 17, a masterpiece, is the first true sonata for horn and piano in the history of music.
Louis Pierre Bergeron/Meagan Milatz - Bravura
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Of the 14 piano sonatas composed by the Russian composer Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951), Canadian pianist Benjamin Bertin has selected the last three sonatas for his ATMA Classique debut album. These sonatas represent a contrasting and fascinating portrait of the mature composer at the peak of his powers. In terms of ingenuity of form, diversity of mood and character, and overall mastery of craft, these final works are akin to those of Beethoven, who inspired Medtner throughout his life.
Benjamin Bertin - Nikolaï Medtner: les trois dernières sonates pour piano
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Lang Lang presents with this album a treasure trove of musical discoveries. Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2 was recorded with a stellar cast, the Gewandhausorchester and Andris Nelsons and is for Lang Lang a true romantic masterpiece that rivals the greats like Rachmaninoff or Tchaikovsky.

Lang Lang/Gina Alice/Andris Nelsons/Gewandhausorchester - Saint-Saëns [2 CD]
$18.98
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Celebrating the 10th Anniversary Edition of Olafur Arnalds For Now I Am Winter, the album has been remastered for vinyl and pressed in a limited edition clear color with exclusive art prints inside.

 

Olafur Arnalds - For Now I Am Winter: 10th Anniversary Edition [Clear LP]
$39.98
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What happens when the illustrious brass sections of the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic come together? The answer is The Philharmonic Brass. This debut album is conducted by Tugan Sokhiev and includes virtuoso arrangements of some of the best-known overtures including Verdi’s La Forza del Destino and Gershwin’s Cuban Overture.

The Philharmonic Brass - Overture!
$13.95
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The viola is front-and-center in Destins tragiques, a new album by violist Elvira Misbakhova with I Musici de Montréal conducted by Jean-François Rivest. Destins tragiques presents works that were originally composed in the 1930s based on tragic figures from Shakespeare (Romeo, Juliet) and Leskov (Lady Macbeth.)
I Musici de Montréal - Destins tragiques
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Grammy-nominated composer Carlos Simon demonstrates his versatility as he composes, improvises, conducts, curates and performs on this intimate studio album. “Being a composer can be a very lonely profession, so I set out bring my closest friends and collaborators to enjoy the practice of music making. It is a coming together after being separated for so long. It is a coming together to share new ideas and experiences through music. It is a coming together to heal and to help others. It is a coming together to sharpen one another.” – Carlos Simon
Carlos Simon - Together
$13.95
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The vinyl cut at Abbey Road Studios is the first LP release of the secret recording of Britten's rehearsals for the War Requiem since the sole pressing gifted by Decca to Britten on his 50th birthday in November 1963. The expansive booklet includes excerpts from John Culshaw's autobiography Putting the Record Straight; reminiscences from three of the original 1963 Decca recording crew; technical notes; detailed essays on the War Requiem; and rare and new photographs.
London Symphony Orchestra / Benjamin Britten - Britten: War Requiem [3 LP]
$149.98
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For his first album as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, 2021 International Chopin Competition winner Bruce Liu has compiled an enthralling survey of 200 years of French keyboard music, from Baroque to modern. The phenomenal young Canadian pianist has subtly adjusted the action of his instrument to highlight the differing musical styles. The album’s title WAVES alludes not only to the nature theme that runs throughout the program, but also to the sheer spontaneity of Liu’s music-making.

Bruce Liu - WAVES: Music by Rameau, Ravel, Alkan [2 LP]
$35.98
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The French spirit of the “Grand Siècle des Lumières” shines through this new album with Arion Orchestre Baroque, conducted by Mathieu Lussier. Taking its name from a work composed by Michel-Richard Delalande, Les Soupers du Roy features works by French baroque composers including André Cardinal Destouches, François Colin de Blamont, Jean-Philippe Rameau and François Francoeur.
Arion Orchestre Baroque/Mathieu Lussier - Les Soupers du Roy
$13.98
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To mark the 10th anniversary of the release, this Special Edition 3 LP set features all 14 tracks from the original album, plus 12 bonus tracks. Bonus material includes 5 tracks only ever released on iTunes and all 7 official remixes – including “Experience (Starkey Remix),” which was used in a global British Airways campaign and “Circles,” a vocal version of “Experience” featuring Greta Svabo Bech.
Ludovico Einaudi - In A Time Lapse [Special Edition 3 LP]
$75.98
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Marking the debut orchestral recording of legendary Lang Lang’s illustrious career, this Telarc classic includes the pianist’s performance of Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra from Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in 2001, as well as his solo performance of a variety of Scriabin’s Etudes. Mastered from the original Soundstream tapes by Paul Blakemore, cut by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound, and pressed on 180-gram LP pressed at Optimal.

Lang Lang, Yuri Temirkanov, & St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra - Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto: No. 3 / Scriabin: Etudes [2LP]
$37.99
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Hailed as “one of the best recordings Telarc has ever done” by Stereophile, the 1980 recording of Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, performed by The Cleveland Orchestra and conducted by the legendary Lorin Maazel, cemented Telarc’s status as the preeminent classical audiophile recording label. This reissue was mastered from the original Soundstream tapes by Paul Blakemore, cut by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound, and pressed on 180-gram LP pressed at Optimal.
Lorin Maazel & The Cleveland Orchestra - Mussorgsky: Pictures At An Exhibition / Night On Bald Mountain [LP]
$29.98
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Def Leppard - Drastic Symphonies CD - Strap yourselves in for the sonic ride of your life. Rock and classical royalty unite on brand new album Drastic Symphonies. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, Def Leppard have drastically deconstructed and reimagined some of their biggest hits, collaborating with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. This bold new approach to the orchestral hits formula sees new vocal and guitar recordings from the band. 180-gram Vinyl LP
Def Leppard / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Drastic Symphonies [2 LP]
$37.99 Video
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3 LP clamshell. Mythologies is Thomas Bangalter's first composition for orchestra, conceived upon request of choreographer Angelin Preljocaj for the ballet of the same name. Performed by the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine under the direction of Romain Dumas, it is a large and lyrical work in which Bangalter, co-founder of Daft Punk, reinvents his relationship to composition.
Thomas Bangalter - Mythologies [3LP]
$69.98
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Rob Grant will release his debut album, Lost At Sea, on June 9, 2023. An accidental recording artist, Grant has never had a lesson on any instrument in his life, but when he sits down at a piano, something magical happens. Father of international icon Lana Del Rey, he enlisted an array of talent to contribute to the making of the album. Features and writing credits include Lana Del Rey, while production credits include Jack Antonoff, Luke Howard, Laura Sisk and Zach Dawes.

Rob Grant - Lost At Sea [LP]
$32.99
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Does Spring Hide It's Joy is an immersive piece by composer Kali Malone featuring Stephen O'Malley on electric guitar, Lucy Railton on cello, and Malone herself on tuned sine wave oscillators. The music is a study in harmonics and non-linear composition with a heightened focus on just intonation and beating interference patterns. Malone's experience with pipe organ tuning, harmonic theory, and long durational composition provide prominent points of departure for this work. Her nuanced minimalism unfolds an astonishing depth of focus and opens up contemplative spaces in the listener's attention.
Kali Malone - Does Spring Hide Its Joy [3LP]
$47.98
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The Blue Hour is a song cycle written collaboratively by the composers Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider with the chamber orchestra A Far Cry (Shara Nova also is featured as vocal soloist).  Set to excerpts from Carolyn Forché’s epic poem On Earth, the music follows one woman’s journey through the space between life and death via thousands of hallucinatory and non-linear images. Exploring memories of childhood, of war, of love, and of loss, The Blue Houramplifies the beauty, pain, and fragility of human life from a collective female perspective.

A Far Cry, Shara Nova, Rachel Grimes, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Angélica Negrón, Caroline Shaw - The Blue Hour
$16.98
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Everybody loves a party, and who better to serve as the master of ceremonies than global superstar cellist HAUSER.

With the Dedicated Tour marking the end of a remarkable 10-year run for 2CELLOS, HAUSER is ushering a new era as a solo artist and visual concept creator on his new album THE PLAYER, accompanied by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Steven Mercurio, released on September 16, 2022 on Sony Music Masterworks.

Whether it is captivating reimaginations of timeless world music classics such as “Bésame Mucho,” “Quizás, Quizás, Quizás” and “Historia de un Amor,” or his take on modern-day hits such as Ricky Martin’s Latin Pop smash “Livin’ la Vida Loca,” Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita,” Camila Cabello’s “Señorita,” and Shakira’s 2010 Official 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Song “Waka Waka,” HAUSER traverses from genre to genre with ease, inviting fans of all ages and backgrounds to join him for a global dance party extravaganza.

HAUSER uses his irresistible charisma and musical stylings to take listeners on a whirlwind adventure of romance and excitement, a trademark for HAUSER that has made him an international star.  The success of HAUSER himself extends far beyond his many, many millions of social media followers with a devoted, international fan base that continues to grow. With more than a billion audio streams across the globe and more than 4 billion video views, the Croatian cellist is a phenomenon that is one part virtuoso and the other, that of sheer, animal magnetism. For HAUSER’s fans, perhaps it is simply his ability to unify generations of music lovers.

HAUSER. He is a magician of the cello…and this is only the beginning.

Hauser - The Player
$11.96
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Bob Marley with the Chineke! Orchestra reimagines some of Bob Marley’s most recognized and listened to songs with contemporary classical orchestration. The Chineke! Orchestra provides opportunities to a diverse range of up-and-coming and internationally respected classical musicians.

Bob Marley - Bob Marley With The Chineke! Orchestra [LP]
$29.99 Video
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This is a follow up to the astoundlingly successful Album "Black Swans: Earliest African-American Classical Stars". Produced by Leslie Gerber with painstaking re-mastering from Steve Smolian, this 2 CD set follows the canon through to the early 1960s.
Robert Mcferrin  / Anderson,Marian / Warfield - Black Swans: Mid Century
$16.98
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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".
David Fray - Bach: Goldberg Variations
$18.98
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Teunis van der Zwart and Alexander Melnikov have chosen to pay tribute to Giovanni Punto, now unknown to most music lovers, even though he truly established the cor basse (horn focused on the low register) by devoting no less than sixteen concertos to it. It was he who inspired Beethoven's famous Sonata Op.17, and the pieces by Danzi and Ries also bear the mark of his legacy. This recording provides an opportunity to discover the unique sound of this instrument in four emblematic works.
Teunis Van Der Zwart - Horn And Piano: A Cor Basse Recital
$19.98
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A precursor in this field as in so many others, Telemann gave the viola it's very first masterpieces, immediately establishing it as a solo instrument in it's own right. Alongside Sabine Fehlandt and the musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Antoine Tamestit pays splendid tribute to this pioneering music, which blends melodic charm and contrapuntal rigor into an organic whole.
Antoine Tamestit - Telemann: Viola Concertos Overtures & Fantasias
$19.98
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A celebration from The Orlando Consort of the musical and literary worlds of Florence's golden age under the Medici, in a selection of works which includes a number of first recordings.
Orlando Consort - Florentine Renaissance
$19.98
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Howard Shelley's survey of the piano music is an undoubted highlight of the Mendelssohn revival. In this, the final instalment of the series, he focuses on late works and posthumous publications.
Howard Shelley - Mendelssohn: The Complete Solo Piano Music Vol.6
$19.98

        
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