Schumann Quartett – Chiaroscuro (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:10:06 minutes | 718 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Berlin Classics
We are standing in a picture gallery of music. All around us we can hear snippets of the great works for string quartets, along with unfamiliar things to delight the ear; it is truly a music-lover’s paradise. “Chiaroscuro” forms the conclusion of a rather special trilogy of albums by the Schumann Quartet and at the same time marks a journey’s end. After the quartet searched their own roots with their first album “Landscapes” and engaged with their namesake Robert Schumann on the follow-up album “Intermezzo”, they are now completing their journey with the new album “Chiaroscuro”. As of today there is a second foretaste of the upcoming album: Shostakovich’s “Elegy” from string quartet 15. The piece can be heard from today on all common platforms.
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Eric Le Sage – Robert Schumann: Complete Chamber Music With Piano (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 07:18:16 minutes | 5,89 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
With the participation of: Denis Pascal, François Leleux, Victor Julien-Laferrière, Gordan Nikolitch, Lise Berthaud, Paul Meyer, Christophe Coin, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Frank Braley, François Salque, Bruno Schneider, Daishin Kashimoto, Antoine Tamestit
Schumann’s chamber compositions are undoubtedly among the most important European works of the nineteenth century. Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was the archetypal Romantic composer, a man with unbounded imagination, who mastered almost every genre of his time. His chamber music, which may be regarded as an extension of his piano music, enabled him to explore the construction of his works.
This new box-set from ALPHA (seven CDs) presents for the first time Schumann’s complete chamber music with piano, played by one of the great Schumann interpreters, who has been exploring this world with great success since 2005: Eric Le Sage. The pianist is joined here by outstanding musicians Paul Meyer, Francois Salque, Franck Braley, Antoine Tamesit and others, who enable the listener to appreciate to the full these masterful works, written by genius of German Romanticism.
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Eric Le Sage – Robert Schumann: Complete Chamber Music With Piano (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 07:18:16 minutes | 5,89 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
With the participation of: Denis Pascal, François Leleux, Victor Julien-Laferrière, Gordan Nikolitch, Lise Berthaud, Paul Meyer, Christophe Coin, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Frank Braley, François Salque, Bruno Schneider, Daishin Kashimoto, Antoine Tamestit
Schumann’s chamber compositions are undoubtedly among the most important European works of the nineteenth century. Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was the archetypal Romantic composer, a man with unbounded imagination, who mastered almost every genre of his time. His chamber music, which may be regarded as an extension of his piano music, enabled him to explore the construction of his works.
This new box-set from ALPHA (seven CDs) presents for the first time Schumann’s complete chamber music with piano, played by one of the great Schumann interpreters, who has been exploring this world with great success since 2005: Eric Le Sage. The pianist is joined here by outstanding musicians Paul Meyer, Francois Salque, Franck Braley, Antoine Tamesit and others, who enable the listener to appreciate to the full these masterful works, written by genius of German Romanticism.
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WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Heinz Holliger – Schumann: Complete Symphonic Works, Vol. III (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 52:56 minutes | 485 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © audite Musikproduktion
Featuring the Cello Concerto and the second version of the D minor Symphony, this CD presents two major works that Schumann composed and revised during his time as music director in Düsseldorf. In both works, the movements of the classical model merge into one another without interruption. By transforming themes and musical codes he creates a stream of thought and coherence akin to the course of a narration or abstract theatre. His original version of the D minor Symphony of 1841 was pioneering in its literarisation of musical form. When he began revising it in 1851, the first Symphonic Poems of Franz Liszt had been performed: they aspired to a greater fusion of music and literature. In his revision of the D minor Symphony, Schumann discreetly reinforced the traditional symphonic elements of the work. The obvious references to Mendelssohn in his Cello Concerto suggest that he regarded multi-part forms as “narrations without words”, or as “bigger siblings” of the “songs without words”. According to Schumann, neither genre required explanation via a literary programme.
The original version of the D minor Symphony is included in the first volume of this series. Both versions, whose relationship remains an object of divisive discussion to the present day, can therefore be compared to one another.
Holliger’s interpretations draw on a life-long study of Schumann’s oeuvre, thought, personality and fate. Holliger’s approach imparts lightness and lucidity to these opulent scores thanks to a hierarchical balance of parts, delicately graded dynamics and invigorating tempi. The widespread image of this romantic composer as a weak orchestrator is thus refreshingly rectified.
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WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Heinz Holliger – Schumann: Complete Symphonic Works, Vol. II (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:06:48 minutes | 674 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © audite Musikproduktion
With this CD, audite is presenting the second volume of the complete recording of Robert Schumann’s orchestral works. The series includes all the symphonies (with both versions of the Fourth) as well as all the overtures and concertos.
The Second and Third Symphonies, according to the usual numbering, passed through contrasting histories of reception. Whereas the ‘Rhenish’ remained relatively popular, the C major Symphony was received by contemporaries as trend-setting, but receded into the background from the late nineteenth century onwards. At this time, criticism was primarily levelled at its instrumentation, which had still been praised after its premiere. Heinz Holliger and the WDR Symphony Orchestra have recorded the works with an orchestra of the same size that was available to Schumann. In so doing, they not only uncover the sonic ideal of the composer, but also its consistent and convincing realisation.
Holliger’s performances draw on a lifetime study of Schumann’s music, thought, personality and fate. His approach imparts lightness and lucidity to these opulent scores through a hierarchical balance of parts, delicately gradated dynamics and invigorating tempos. The widespread image of this romantic composer as a weak orchestrator receives a refreshing and well-grounded correction.
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WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Heinz Holliger – Schumann: Complete Symphonic Works, Vol. I (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:12:07 minutes | 704 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © audite Musikproduktion
This CD launches a complete series of recordings of Robert Schumann’s orchestral works, performed by the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Heinz Holliger. The series will contain all the symphonies (including both versions of the Fourth) as well as all the overtures and concertos. Holliger’s performances draw on a lifetime study of Schumann’s music, thought, personality and fate. His approach imparts lightness and lucidity to these opulent scores through a hierarchical balance of parts, delicately gradated dynamics and invigorating tempos. The widespread image of this romantic composer as a weak orchestrator receives a refreshing and well-grounded correction.
Volume 1 of the series presents the First Symphony in B-flat major (Op. 38), Overture, Scherzo and Finale (Op. 52) and the original 1841 version of the Fourth Symphony in D minor (Op. 120).
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Quatuor Ébène, Gautier Capuçon, Matthias Goerne, Laurène Durantel – Schubert: Quintet and Lieder (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:12:04 minutes | 1,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
In a characteristically imaginative move, the Quatuor Ebène complements Schubert’s sublime Quintet for two violins, viola and two cellos (Gautier Capuçon joins the ensemble) with a group of his songs – sensitively arranged by the quartet’s cellist, Raphaël Merlin, and sung by German baritone Matthias Goerne, one of the world’s great interpreters of lieder.
In 2014 Erato released Schubert’s glorious ‘Trout’ Quintet, recorded live at Paris’s Salle Pleyel by members of Quatuor Ebène with nonagerian pianist Menahem Pressler. The French quartet – with a new viola-player, 24-year-old Adrien Boisseau and a distinguished guest cellist, Gautier Capuçon – now turns to another Schubert quintet, his final chamber work and one of his sublime masterpieces: the Quintet for two violins, viola and two cellos in C major D956, often known simply as the Schubert Quintet. Its slow movement in particular, in which time seems to stands still, is a favourite with music-lovers.
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Santiago del Nuevo Extremo – Leuda (2011/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 46:44 minutes | 557 MB | Genre: Jazz Fusion, Jazz Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Trompe
On Friday August 14th our 2011 LEUDA album will be available for the first time on all digital platforms. Released in December 2011, it is the fifth studio album by Santiago del Nuevo Extremo. It includes topics that contain a strong ancestral burden and others that are directly chronic and denounced. There are also urban and surreal inspiration, others who express lucid disenchantment and criticism of the modes of representation of reality.
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François Chaplin – Schubert: Impromptus D 899 & D 935 (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:12:35 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
“The way into Schubert’s world is full of twists and turns… A lengthy progress towards what I’ve always thought to be the ultimate expression of the lightness of being … For me, playing Schubert is the culmination of a voyage of self-discovery … You’re plunged into the same self-doubt, experience the same joy he did. I can find my self in this intimate exchange.
Each one of his eight Impromptus is, in its own way, a microcosm of the Schubertian world, an echo of the Vienna that was so dear to him. For me, they are an inner-journey that consumes every waking hour, strips my soul bare and fuses all those hopes and uncertainties into one. I lose myself in them and can see myself more clearly as a result.
To me, that’s the very essence of the impromptus: an act of abandonment that calls life itself into question and gives proof to the brilliance of Schubert’s genius in all its intricate and astonishing complexity.” –François Chaplin
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Julia Fischer, Martin Helmchen – Schubert: Complete Works for Violin and Piano, Volume 2 (2010)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:02 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
This album together with volume 2 completes the collaboration between Julia Fischer and Pentatone. Since all works which Schubert wrote for Violin and Piano, Volume 2 will show Julia Fischer as pianist as well (in the 4-hands piece: Fantasie in F minor D 940/op. 103).
Schubert’s complete works for violin and piano consist of three “sonatinas” Op. 137 Nos. 1-3 (D. 384, 385 and 408), Rondo Brillant D. 895, the Duo D. 574, and the amazing late Fantasia in D major D. 934. Because these do not quite fill two CDs, Volume 2 includes the Fantasia in F minor for piano duet, with Julia Fischer taking the second piano part. She’s obviously a tremendously gifted artist as the performance is an excellent one in every respect, and you’d never guess that one of the players is not a professional pianist.
That said, it’s the violin and piano works that constitute the principal attraction, and I include both discs together because I can’t imagine anyone interested in one not wanting the other as well. The three sonatinas are not, in fact, all that small, especially the latter two, which have four substantial movements apiece. Like everything Schubert wrote they are melodically generous and lovely from beginning to end. The D. 574 is more ambitious still, and by the time we get to the Fantasia we are talking about miracles. These performances are stupendous: perfectly balanced dialogs between two vibrant young personalities, ideally recorded in a warm acoustic space. There’s no need to say more: just get these discs. –David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
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Julia Fischer, Martin Helmchen – Schubert: Complete Works for Violin and Piano, Volume 1 (2009)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:29 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
“It is particularly refreshing that Julia Fischer, one of the younger generation of world’s most promising string players, has not only taken these works to heart, providing a scintillating account of the Rondo Brilliant by way of an encore, but also given them the best possible new lease of life by making a persuasive and invigorating case for their continued promotion and enjoyment among violinists and audiences alike. She is aided in no small measure by the young pianist martin helmchen, who is enjoying a flourishing career as a soloist and also, on the evidence of this new PentaTone release, as an accompanist of stature…..If the second volume in this series is as good, it will be worth the wait.” –Richard Evans, International Record Review
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Asasello-Quartett, Eva Resch – Insights – Arnold Schönberg: The String Quartets (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 02:22:53 minutes | 1,32 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Genuin
This double album from the exciting, award-winning and unconventional Asasello Quartet features Arnold Schoenberg’s amazingly diverse oeuvre for string quartet. The ensemble proves to be an eloquent advocate for these rarely performed milestones of the repertoire: from the fringes of tonality to free-flowing 12 tone language, the recording showcases an electrifying quartet sound played at a staggering level. Soprano Eva Resch joins the group on the String Quartet No. 2.
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Schola Solensis – Psallat Ecclesia – Sequences from Medieval Norway (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 46:51 minutes | 1,64 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 2L
What we call Gregorian chant is old music. By the 13th century most of it was already composed. It is the church’s oldest musical treasure, and is the word of God spoken, and prayers prayed, in a language where the word is lifted and born on wings of exquisite beauty. It is not just a language of words, but a meeting of words and melody in an expression of extraordinary power. Gregorian chant developed over a long period of oral transmission from generation to generation. If there is an evolutionary theory for artistic expression, a sort of “survival of the fittest”, it can certainly be used about Gregorian chant. Many of these melodies are so unbelievably beautiful; it is as if we sense divine participation in their creation. There is an air of mysticism in this music, which more and more people are seeking as a setting for meditation and prayer.
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Schola Cantorum, Tone Bianca Sparre Dahl & Nordic Voices – AUDIENS (2009)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 56:35 minutes | 1,93 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 2L
What is the music of the Nordic light? Let yourself be transported to a new world of sound as the chamber choir Schola Cantorum and conductor Tone Bianca Dahl, with guest musicians Are Sandbakken and Nordic Voices, grant you an AUDIENCE. Hear one of Norway’s leading choirs in premier recordings and modern classics.
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