Camille Saint-Saens – Helene; Nuit persane – Orchestra Victoria, Guillaume Tourniaire (2008)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:31:31 minutes | 1,61 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: melbarecordings.com.au | Digital Booklet | © Melba Recordings
Recorded: Melbourne Town Hall, 2007

Historic world-premiere recordings of two Saint-Saëns lost masterpieces, recently rediscovered, herald Melba Recordings’ major release schedule this autumn. Hélène is a one hour, one act poème lyrique written for Dame Nellie Melba in 1904, it features the thrilling international tenor based in Europe, Steve Davislim.
Saint-Saëns depicts one of history’s greatest love affairs in music that is characterised by soaring lyricism and shot through with sumptuous melodies. Hélène is coupled with another world premiere recording, the orchestral version of Saint-Saëns’ hypnotic cycle for tenor, alto, chorus, narrator and orchestra, Nuit Persane – a memorable account showcasing Steve Davislim and alto Zan McKendree-Wright. Both works exemplify Saint-Saëns at his best.
The album marks the debut on Melba Recordings of Guillaume Tourniaire, one of the most exhilarating conductors of our time. Tourniaire is Artistic Director of the State Opera, Prague.
2 disc set within luxury 100-page accompanying book, which includes essays, illustrations and translations, with full libretto and song texts in French and English. The book also contains articles by Bettany Hughes, noted Helen of Troy specialist, and Professor Hugh McDonald, distinguished Berlioz biographer and musicologist.

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Franz Schubert – Piano Quintet ‘The Trout’; String Quartet ‘Death And The Maiden’ – Emil Gilels, Amadeus Quartet (1959/1975/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:32 minutes | 1,61 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: Q0buz | Digital booklet | © Deutsche Grammophon
Recorded: (#1-5) September 1975, Concert Hall, Turku, Finland; (#6-9) April 1959, Beethovensaal, Hannover, Germany

In the last few years before he died of syphilis at the age of 31, Franz Schubert experienced one of the most prolific periods of creative genius humankind has ever seen. This quartet is one of the fruits of that period. In the first movement, Schubert develops a simple descending-scale motif into an intense outpouring of grief. The quartet takes its name from the theme of the second movement, a song which Schubert wrote when he was twenty. In its quartet incarnation, Schubert takes the simple melody through a whole range of moods, building to an impassioned frenzy and then relaxing.

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Sergei Rachmaninov – Vespers, Op.37 – St Petersburg Chamber Choir, Nikolai Korniev (2003)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:22 minutes | 819 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: Q0buz | Digital booklet | © Pentatone Music B.V.
Recorded: Elburg, The Netherlands, 12/2002

Although in western Europe it is virtually taken for granted that a composer who is well-versed in all genres also writes church music, thereby enriching the Catholic or Protestant religions with this sacred music composed for all different ensembles, Russian composers did not discover sacred music until relatively recently. The main reason for this lay in the Russian-Orthodox liturgy, as this did not permit any kind of instruments to embellish the religion. Only singing characterized the development of the liturgical events – and that only when preaching the word of God. As an indispensable part of the orthodox religion, its main task consisted of increasing the vividness of church dogmas and imprinting them in the minds of the believers.

For a long time, the accompanying melodies were as sacrosanct as the words themselves. In the course of the Christianization process, the Russians, as of the year 988, took over both the liturgy – in the Church Slavonic translation – and its musical accompaniment together with the rules of the orthodox church. Not until Russia became more important on the whole, following the fall of Constantinople in 1453, was Russian church music able to develop independently. Diverse regional schools for singing were then established, characterized by the vocal virtuosity of outstanding vocalists.

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Gioachino Rossini – Overtures – Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:09:50 minutes | 843 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: Q0buz | Digital booklet | © Warner Classics
Recorded: Sala Santa Cecilia, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome

Continuing their series of Rossini recordings, Antonio Pappano and the Rome-based Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia follow three substantial works – the monumental Stabat Mater, the grandly scaled Guillaume Tell and the Petite Messe Solennelle (famously not as small as it names suggests) – with an appetising array of musical antipasti: seven operatic overtures and an enchanting chamber-scale ‘Andante e tema con variazioni’. “There is nothing quite like Rossini played by Italian musicians, as Pappano’s Santa Cecilia Stabat Mater demonstrated,“ wrote the Sunday Times, and – in Antonio Pappano’s eyes – composers do not come more typically Italian than the Pesaro-born genius who wrote dozens of comic and serious operas, famed for their vocal, technical and theatrical virtuosity: “There’s something about Rossini,” he told the Telegraph, “that gives you a sense of the ideal Italian character type – his measured elegance, his modishess, his exhibitionism…though of course nowadays most of these qualities are on display in the work of clothes designers, not musicians…I try to get the players [of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia] to flaunt their italianità, which means basically a singing tone and warmth. I do think their sound is quite special, and of course I feel very at home with it. I didn’t grow up in Italy but my parents were very Italian, so there are certain things that just go without saying. We naturally phrase the same way.”

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Johan Helmich Roman – The 12 Flute Sonatas Nos. 1-5 – Dan Laurin, Paradiso Musicale (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:04 minutes | 1,33 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: eClassical.com | Digital Booklet | © BIS Records
Recorded: October 2013 (Sonatas I, II, IV & V); December 2013 (Sonata III) at Petruskyrkan, Stocksund, Sweden

In Stockholm during Johan Helmich Roman’s lifetime, the recorder was the most common wind instrument, used throughout the social spectrum – including the Royal music establishment for which the composer was responsible. The transverse flute, on the other hand, was generally the preserve of the upper classes – the nobility and bourgeosie. Possibly this higher status contributed to Roman’s choice of instrument for the set of XII Sonate a flauto traverso, violone e cembalo that he presented to Queen Ulrika Eleonora the Younger on her birthday in 1727. But that hasn’t stopped the celebrated recorder player Dan Laurin to take up his countryman’s sonatas on his own instrument. In a text included in the CD booklet, Laurin explains his fascination with Roman’s music: ‘complex emotional contexts are contrasted with folk music forms such as the villanella or piva – the music is asymmetrical, irregular and full of unexpected twists, sudden pauses and cadences.’ In it, Laurin hears the influence of the Italian musicians that Roman met in London during his stay there 1715-1721. Especially striking he finds Roman’s affinity with the music of Naples – a music that challenged the stylistic ideals of the baroque. With his fellow musicians in Paradiso Musicale, Laurin therefore opts for an Italianate slant – different continuo settings, ranging from harpsichord alone to the full complement including baroque guitar, provide great variety in realizations characterized by bold and striking harmonizations.

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Various Artists – Love For Levon (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 2:22:08 minutes | 1,83 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks  | Artwork: Digital Booklet | © Time/Life Star Vista

Dozens of luminaries from rock, country, and soul gathered at the Meadowlands’ Izod Center on October 3, 2012, to pay their collective respects in an unforgettable final tribute to Levon Helm. This incredible night was filled with one-of-a-kind performances by greats including Gregg Allman, Mavis Staples, Allen Toussaint, John Prine, Joan Osborne, Ray LaMontagne, John Mayer, Joe Walsh, Dierks Bentley and many others. The iconic artists performed songs associated with Levon Helm and The Band including “Up on Cripple Creek,” “Life Is a Carnival,” “Ophelia,” “The Weight,” “Rag Mama Rag,” “Ain’t Got No Home” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”.

Star-studded tribute to great Levon Helm shows how much good music flies under the commercial radar. – New York Daily News (more…)

Takács Quartet – Franz Schubert: String Quintet D956 & String Quartet D703 (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 63:41 minutes | 1,10 GB
Official Digital Download – Source: hyperion-records.co.uk | Digital Booklet

The matchless Takács Quartet return to Schubert. Their first disc on Hyperion—his ‘Death and the Maiden’ and ‘Rosamunde’ quartets—received unprecedently lavish critical acclaim, acknowledging a new modern benchmark for these works. Now they turn to perhaps the most hauntingly beautiful of all Schubert’s chamber works, the String Quintet—completed six weeks before the composer’s death. Schubert included a second cello in the texture, creating a sumptuously warm sound, a cradling intimacy. Here the Takács players are joined by cellist Ralph Kirshbaum. Also recorded here is the ‘Quartettsatz’: a fragment—of the highest quality—of a String Quartet in C minor abandoned by the composer. (more…)