Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Neeme Järvi – Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, Op. 71 – Ballet féerique in Two Acts (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:24:32 minutes | 1,39 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
This is the concluding recording in Neeme Järvi’s series with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra devoted to Tchaikovsky’s three great ballets. This complete, uncut version of The Nutcracker follows The Sleeping Beauty (CHSA 5113(2)) and Swan Lake (CHSA 5124 (2)), both of which have been much awarded.
The Nutcracker draws its influences from both Hoffmann’s and Dumas’s tales of the same name, and makes delightful use of ‘le joli’, i.e. ‘the pretty’, in music – vivacious themes decked out in ingenious orchestration – already mastered by Léo Delibes in Coppélia.
Read moreDenis Matsuev, Mariinsky Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Tchaikovsky: Piano Concertos Nos.1 & 2 (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:32 minutes | 1,42 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mariinsky
Since winning the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998, Denis Matsuev has established a reputation as one of Russia’s leading pianists. His début release on the Mariinsky label featuring Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3 and Paganini Variations, received widespread acclaim. His second Mariinsky release featured piano concerts by Shostakovich and Shchedrin, which was awarded Clef du Mois by ResMusica and ***** by Audiophile Audition. For his third release, Matsuev turns to the music of Tchaikovsky, with the two Piano Concertos. His first Piano Concerto is one of his most popular works: Tchaikovsky balances core motivic elements with a sense of lyrical spontaneity to create a technically challenging but instantly appealing work.
The Piano Concerto No.2 was dedicated to pianist Nikolai Rubinstein, with whom the composer had a close working relationship. Tchaikovsky wrote, “I want to dedicate it to N. G. Rubinstein in recognition of his magnificent playing of my First Concerto and of my Sonata, which left me in utter rapture after he performed it for me in Moscow.” After a tremendous piano cadenza in the first movement, Tchaikovsky allows other instruments to shine, with prominent solos for violin and cello in the second movement.
Other Tchaikovsky recordings on the Mariinsky label include a DVD/Bluray release of his last three symphonies, and 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition winner Daniil Trifonov’s interpretation of the first Piano Concerto on SACD.
In March and April Denis Matsuev joins the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev for a European tour, with concerts in London, Paris and Turin.
Read moreTorun Eriksen & Kjetil Dalland – Luxury and Waste (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 35:42 minutes | 310 MB | Genre: Jazz, Vocal Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jazzland Recordings
Torun Eriksen’s ‘Luxury and Waste’, her sixth solo album, explores familiar territory in an utterly unfamiliar way. Where her previous album ‘Grand White Silk’ flirted with arrangements of grandeur, she turns now in the opposite direction and gives us new songs in an uncompromising, stripped back sound, shifting between cool, drifting moods and driving pulsating rhythms. Bassist Kjetil Dalland is her sole companion here, and his subtle yet distinctive style is the perfect complement to Torun’s voice, as she invites us into ‘Luxury and Waste’, her most intimate album yet. You will find Jazz, pop and soul, singer/songwriter and blues, all combined in Eriksen’s unique and surprising blend. “I love how music can burst with references, and still have a distinct sound of its own. And I wanted this album to be like that. I have been searching for the core of my songs. We cut everything to the bone, were left with the raw and unpolished and tried to bring this very special light only to be found in the sketches, onto our final versions of the songs.”
Read moreHamburg Radio Symphony Orchestra – Dvořák: Slavonic Dances, Op. 46; Brahms: Hungarian Dances (1953/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 39:59 minutes | 348 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd.
The two stereo Beethoven cycles, those of the Symphonies (1965–70) and the Piano Concertos (with Wilhelm Backhaus, 1958–59), form the core of this edition of the complete Decca recordings of Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt (1900–1973). It is distinguished by the Wiener Philharmoniker’s unique transparency of sound allied to a firm pulse and rhythmic drive which characterized Schmidt-Isserstedt’s conducting. Several of the recordings were produced by Erik Smith, the conductor’s son.
Read moreTaeguk Mun & Chi-Ho – Songs of the Cello (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:02 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
This debut album opens with cellist Taeguk Mun – winner of the 2014 Pablo Casals International Cello Competition and the 2016 János Starker Foundation Award – playing Bach’s Suite for Solo Cello No 1.
He is then joined by the pianist Chi Ho Han, another multi-award-winning musician from South Korea, for Beethoven’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in A Major and short pieces by Schumann, Schubert, Rubinstein and Pablo Casals.
Read moreHallé Orchestra, Delyana Lazarova, Guy Johnston & Maxim Rysanov – Dobrinka Tabakova (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:19:56 minutes | 700 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Halle Concerts Society
This album marks the culmination of two special Hallé collaborations and includes four major pieces from one of the most distinctive of current British compositional voices.
Delyana Lazarova (Hallé Assistant Conductor 2020-23) and composer Dobrinka Tabakova (Hallé Artist in Residence 2022-23) were both born in the historic city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Working together for the first time during their time with the orchestra they formed a strong musical connection in which the Hallé musicians displayed a close understanding of the intricacies and dialect of Tabakova’s musical language.
Read moreTad Robinson – Real Street (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 47:35 minutes | 959 MB | Genre: Blues, Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Severn Records
For the recording of Real Street, singer/harmonica player Tad Robinson traveled to the birthplace of Southern soul: Memphis, Tennessee. There he teamed up with Memphis music legends, organist, Charles Hodges; bassist, Leroy Hodges; and the drummer, Howard Grimes, collectively known as the Hi Rhythm Section at Scott Bomar’s, Electraphonic Recording. The results are ten glorious tracks of blues-infused and passionate soul music. Throughout six originals and four reimagined covers, Robinson’s singing has never been so focused and fluent in the language of the blues and his subtle harmonica playing adds just the right spice to the mix.
Read moreTabea Debus – Ohrwurm (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:10:25 minutes | 667 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Delphian Records
Melodies that emerge from musical folk memory or jump off the printed page to lodge themselves in the listener’s mind: such ‘earworms’ are the raison d’être of this inventive album, effervescent and haunting by turn.
Rising talent Tabea Debus makes an immediate impression as she joins the roster of Delphian house artists, coaxing an astonishing spectrum of moods and timbres from an array of Renaissance and Baroque recorders. Equally astounding is the tightness and responsiveness of her interaction with gamba player Jonathan Rees and lutenist Alex McCartney, while solos for recorder alone bookend the programme chronologically with music from the fourteenth century and the twenty-first.
Read moreTayla Parx – We Need To Talk (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 36:49 minutes | 409 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Atlantic Records
Most people nowadays might recognize Tayla Parx as one of Ariana Grande’s lucky seven best friends who received a diamond ring from Tiffany’s. As we all know, Ariana made a trap-inspired pop smash from Thank U, Next about the luxury gift-giving experience, called “7 Rings.” But did you know that Parx’s name is in the writing credits? (In fact, she applied her pen to five other Thank U, Next tracks, including its massive title track).
Read moreTassis Christoyannis & Jeff Cohen – Charles Gounod: Mélodies (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:20:35 minutes | 1,30 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
Remembering Gounod as just a masterful composer of great French operas, it’s easy to forget that he also wrote, among many various pieces of work, close to one hundred and fifty melodies throughout is long and rich career. Surprisingly, almost one third of these pages were written in English (during his years in London, between 1870 and 1874), about fifteen of them are in Italian, as well as a few in Spanish and German. Most of them of course are in French, among which Tassis Christoyannis and Jeff Cohen selected twenty-four gems, a comprehensive array ranging from his very first published melody – his Où voulez-vous aller from 1839, the year of his Prix de Rome! – to his À une jeune Grecque of the utmost maturity, in 1884. The composer explored all of the styles he held dear, with all the eclecticism he’s famous for: French romanticism, German Lied, orientalism, old-fashioned archaic writing… Gounod was particularly sensitive to the words’ meaning as much as their sound, the back and forth of verses and the variety of periods, and excelled in finding a melodic movement to perfectly fit the inflexions of pronunciation, the expressive flow of speech and setting the perfect phrasing for an eloquent result. With him, unlike his illustrious elder Berlioz, music served the words, carried them and elevated them if possible. Let’s discover this beautiful pearl rosary, made of works we would love to hear in recital more often.
Read moreTasmin Little, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra & Sir Andrew Davis – Goossens: Orchestral Works, Vol. 3 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:22 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
Sir Andrew Davis and his Melbourne forces turn to Goossens’s Second Symphony and the Phantasy Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, featuring Tasmin Little as soloist.
Read moreTodd Rundgren – A Wizard, A True Star (1973) [Reissue 2018]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 56:12 minutes | Scans included | 2,26 GB
or FLAC (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 1,26 GB
A Wizard, a True Star is the fourth album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released on March 2, 1973. Its music was a significant departure from his previous album Something/Anything? (1972), which consisted largely of straightforward ballads. This LP featured in “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”. This 45th Anniversary Reissue, never before available on SACD, is the definitive sounding reissue of this landmark album.
Read moreToby Keith – Shock’n Y’all (2003)
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 51:12 minutes | Artwork | 3,97 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | 50:22 mins | Art | 996 MB
Since Toby Keith not only can come across as a loudmouth redneck but seems to enjoy being a loudmouth redneck, it’s easy for some listeners to dismiss him as a backwoods right-wing crank — particularly when he succumbs to such easy impulses as mocking Dixie Chick Natalie Maines in concert and naming his 2003 album Shock’n Y’All, not so cleverly spinning the military catch phrase from the second Iraq war into a bad pun. Those listeners aren’t entirely wrong, since he can succumb to reactionary politics, as on swill like “Beer for My Horses,” but Keith isn’t coming from a didactic right-wing standpoint. He’s an old-fashioned, cantankerous outlaw who’s eager to be as oversized and larger than life as legends like Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, and Willie Nelson, who bucked conventions and spoke their minds. Sure, Keith enjoys pandering to the Fox News Republicans “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” won him, and his jingoistic ventures don’t have the humanity and humor of Haggard’s protest songs (although to Keith’s credit they display far more humanity than Sean Hannity and are much more genuine than Steve Earle’s post-9/11 songs), but that doesn’t mean Keith doesn’t have a big, warm heart. In fact, on every album prior to Shock’n Y’All he’s displayed a taste for mawkish sentiment, but what makes this album work is that he’s turned that sentiment into warmth while making the record into the hardest, toughest set of songs he’s yet made. Unleashed gave him the clout to make any kind of music he wanted, and left to his own devices, he’s lonesome, on’ry, and mean, a cheerful advocate of redneck libertarianism with a sly sense of humor. All of which wouldn’t mean much if he wasn’t a strong songwriter, and more than any of his previous works, Shock’n Y’All proves that he’s a steady-handed journeyman, crafting songs in the tradition of classic outlaw country. It’s a deliberately hard-driving, hard-drinking, gutsy country album, yet it doesn’t shy away from modernism, best illustrated on “Sweet,” with its funky rhythms and use of “babelicious” (which rhymes with “delicious,” btw). Even with these modern flourishes, the album is firmly within the hard country tradition, with lots of barroom humor, propulsive rhythms, hearty humor, and a humanity that contradicts the rabble-rousing of Unleashed. And if Keith is more of a party-hearty hound than a profound singer — even when he imagines “If I Was Jesus,” it’s only so he can turn water into wine at parties — that’s now an attribute, not a deficiency, since it gives him focus and sensibility. Keith is happy to be a dirty old SOB, cracking jokes, drinking beer, and flirting with the ladies, and that makes Shock’n Y’All a fun, rough, rowdy album that wins you over despite your better impulses. It’s not polite, but Shock’n Y’All is pure Toby Keith, and the best album he’s done to date.
Read moreT. Rex – Electric Warrior (1971) [MFSL 2020]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 39:17 minutes | Scans included | 1,69 GB
or FLAC (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Full Scans included | 0,98 GB
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab # UDSACD 2209
Electric Warrior is a 1971 album by Marc Bolan’s band T. Rex, their sixth since their debut as Tyrannosaurus Rex in 1968, and their second under the name T. Rex. The album marked a turning point in the band’s sound, dispensing with the folk-oriented music of the group’s previous albums and pioneering a flamboyant, pop-friendly take on electric rock and roll known as glam rock. The album reached number 1 on the UK charts and became the best selling album of 1971. Electric Warrior has since received acclaim as a pivotal release of the glam rock movement.
Read moreT. Rex – Electric Warrior (1971) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2011 # UIGY-9502] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC
T. Rex – Electric Warrior (1971) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2011 # UIGY-9502]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 39:32 minutes | Scans included | 1,59 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 785 MB
Although it features the beautiful recorder of Leslie Penny and the Chieftains’ Paddy Maloney playing the uilean pipe, Ommadawn didn’t gain Mike Oldfield the success he was looking for – The album was released in the same year as the David Bedford-arranged Orchestral Tubular Bells and nine months after Oldfield picked up a Grammy award for the original Tubular Bells album – The most pleasing attribute of Ommadawn is its incorporation of both African and Irish music in its symphonic rock & roll mainframe – Boosted by a hearty amount of different horns, piano, cello, trumpet, and synthesizer, the album has its moments of rising action, but the whole of Ommadawn fails to keep its lovely segments around long enough, and there are some rather lengthy instances that include bland runs of unvaried music – Another plus is Oldfield’s use of a choir, giving the album a soft, humanistic feel when contrasted against the keyboards or synthesizer – While it does include flashes of Mike Oldfield’s brilliance, the entire album may seem a little anticlimactic when compared to some of his other releases.
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