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Ravel – Bolero; Debussy – La Mer; Mussorgsky – Pictures At An Exhibition – Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan (1966/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:49 minutes | 1,43 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Source: Q0buz | @ Deutsche Grammophon
Recorded: 1965/1966 at Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin, Germany

„Here are examples of ‘The Karajan Effect’ at its most positive, and sounding, in these new transfers, fractionally more open, focused and fresh than before, with the billowing bass moderated and the dynamic range extended. Along with Karajan’s own imaginative deployment of orchestral colour (to take one example: the extra gong with barely damped striker at the end of Pictures), the Berlin Jesus-Christus Kirche acoustics of these 1964-6 recordings add their own wonderful coloration and atmosphere (dark and cavernous at appropriate moments in Pictures). The 1980s Berlin Philharmonic DG remakes (in their remastered ‘Karajan Gold’ format) offer something closer to concert-hall reality (a cleaner more neutral sound) but, on the whole, the imaginative daring and the excited discovery of new realms of creative and technical possibility are missing; certainly the 1980s performances are less given to spontaneous ignition.

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Giacomo Puccini – Turandot – Andrea Bocelli, Jennifer Wilson, Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, Zubin Mehta (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:56:50 minutes | 2,29 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Source: highresaudio.com | @ Decca
Recording Location: Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia

Following last year’s release of Manon Lescaut, Andrea Bocelli stays with Puccini for an emotionally charged account of the composer’s magnificent Turandot. This new complete opera recording, featuring the world-renowned aria “Nessun dorma” (“None shall sleep”), will be warmly welcomed by Bocelli’s army of ardent fans. It is conducted by Zubin Mehta, who has made a speciality of this first-class Puccini opera ever since his landmark 1972 Decca recording, here drawing a stirring orchestral performance from the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana.
Bocelli takes the lead role of Calaf – the unknown prince – and his powerful tenor tells a compelling story of riddles answered, triumph secured, honour displayed and love deeply felt.
The key role of the ice-cold riddler princess, Turandot, is sung by American soprano Jennifer Wilson.
Completing an impressive cast are Jessica Nuccio as Liù, Alexander Tsymbalyuk as Timur, Pablo García López as Pong and Germán Olvera and Valentino Buzza as Ping and the Gran Cancelliere, the last two coming from Plácido Domingo’s training centre, the Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo at Valencia’s Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía.
The soprano who created the role of Turandot in Puccini’s final, unfinished masterpiece, Rosa Raisa, described the first night to a biographer: “It was an electrified atmosphere, with the greatest musicians and critics in the world gathered for this world premiere and listening religiously to Puccini’s last creation. At the end of the Third Act [first scene], while the dead Liù is accompanied by Timur, with Ping, Pang and Pong following, and as the chorus continues to intone the motif of the last aria that she sang, until the whole stage is emptied, Toscanini laid down his baton, and in a voice choking with emotion announced that this is where Puccini left off: ‘Here is where the maestro died.’”
Bocelli’s deep-rooted commitment to opera shines through in his moving rendition of “Nessun dorma,” perhaps the best-known and most-loved tenor aria of all time. As the legendary reviewer Edward Greenfield has written, “Bocelli’s great natural gift is a powerful tenor of very distinctive timbre, not conventionally rounded in a Pavarotti-like way but above all virile with a baritonal tinge.”
With sales of more than 80 million records worldwide, Bocelli is the world’s biggest- selling classical artist. Turandotmarks his latest journey into the great Italian master’s operatic canon.

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Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel – Piano Concertos – Martha Argerich, Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado (1967/75/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 1:10:51 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Source: HDTracks | @ Deutsche Grammophon
Recorded: #1-6: June 1967, Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin, Germany; #7-9: November 1974, Studio Lankwitz, Berlin, Germany

This is the original Prokofiev/Ravel concerto coupling as it appeared on LP; the Prokofiev has also been coupled with the Tchaikovsky First Concerto. I prefer this edition since superb performances of the Ravel are less common. The young (1967) Martha Argerich plays the Prokofiev for maximum brilliance but leavens the Ravel with the composer’s ironic lyricism. It’s very effective. The bonus is one of the greatest performances of the Ravel piano suite ever recorded, but it leaves me wondering what will happen to the remainder of the original LP. All those solo Ravel pieces should be in the catalog; as Argerich plays them, they offer a primer on what keyboard color is all about.

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Piotr Anderszewski – Bach. English Suites Nos.1,3,5 (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 66:46 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Source: Qobuz | @ Warner Classics

With this recording, Piotr Anderszewski returns to Bach’s English Suites after more than 10 years. In 2002, when Virgin Classics (now Warner Classics/Erato) released his interpretations of Suites 1, 3 and 6, The Sunday Times spoke of “Bach playing of the highest order,” enthusing that: “His playing throughout is wonderful, laying out Bach’s contrapuntal writing with a clarity and subtlety of touch that removes these works far from the realms of technical exercises. His fingers dance in the Courantes and Allemandes, and positively sing the melodies of the sublime Sarabandes”. (more…)