Aki Takase Trio – Song for Hope (1982/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 43:00 minutes | 464 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BBE Music
BBE Music welcomes pianist Aki Takase to the J Jazz Masterclass reissue series, with her 1982 live album ‘Song for Hope’.
A musician of poise and precision who has been a noted composer, performer and recording artist for over 40 years, Takase’s ‘Song for Hope’ continues BBE Music’s exploration of Japanese modern jazz from a golden period spanning the late 1960s to the mid-1980s.
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Abbey Simon, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Heribert Beissel – Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2, Rondo à la Krakowiak & Variations on “Là ci darem la mano” (Remastered 2024) (1973/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 59:51 minutes | 2,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Vox
Fryderyk Chopin was admired by Liszt for his individuality and revolutionary daring, and Schumann was wildly enthusiastic about the F minor Piano Concerto, one of Chopin’s earliest works. Despite the concerto’s youthful origins this is a novel and brilliant piece, its melodic elegance, harmonic richness and magical Adagio being a match for most of his later compositions. Chopin’s other pieces for piano and orchestra were composed to launch his career as a virtuoso, the Krakowiak being a vigorous Polish country dance, and Là ci darem a famously infectious tune from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The Elite Recordings for VOX by legendary producers Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be amongst the finest sounding examples of orchestral recordings.
Read more![Peter van Heyghen, Les Muffatti, Hasnaa Bennani - Handel: Arie per la Cuzzoni (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/15/dhpljpm2zousc_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Peter van Heyghen, Les Muffatti, Hasnaa Bennani – Handel: Arie per la Cuzzoni (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:09:25 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Ramée
When one looks at the biographies of famous prima donnas, the suspicion sometimes arises that opera is not really an art form but a way of life. At any rate, for many of its protagonists, the theatrics, the scheming and the scandalmongering of the stage appear to flow seamlessly into real life. And the situation in the eighteenth century was no different from today. Among the most famous and also the most notorious stars of European opera houses was the Italian diva Francesca Cuzzoni, whose extravagance must have been as phenomenal as her singing talent. Had there already been a gutter press in her time, La Cuzzoni would certainly have been one of the most reliable suppliers of headlines. But, even without tabloids, news of La Cuzzonis affairs got around quickly, and indeed seem to have played no small part in the fascination she exercised over her audience. Her early success, her fairytale fame and eventually her dramatic fall caught the imagination of the musical world. This CD features some of the most beautiful and breathtaking arias, composed for the diva by Handel.
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![Philippe Rombi - Astérix: Le secret de la potion magique (Original Motion Picture Soundrack) (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/16/nmv1u603nb39a_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Philippe Rombi – Astérix: Le secret de la potion magique (Original Motion Picture Soundrack) (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 48:18 minutes | 505 MB | Genre: Soundtrack
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © B Original
Philippe Rombi is a French film score composer. His score for Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis was nominated for best original score for a comedy film at the fifth International Film Music Critics Association (IFCMA) Awards for Excellence in 2008.
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![Phantasm - Jenkins: Four-Part Consorts (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/03/14/z59zah3z3ap3b_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Phantasm – Jenkins: Four-Part Consorts (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:13 minutes | 1,46 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Linn Records
In his Four-Part Consorts, John Jenkins (1592–1678) parades his much-vaunted contrapuntal prowess that is marked by a fanatical devotion to the equality of four independent parts. Frequently turbulent and given to frenetic activity, this music charts the interactions of a band of like-minded spirits obsessed with lively struggle and restless soul-searching. The incessant peregrinations of Jenkins’s roving harmonies are heady stuff and make moments of calm and valediction all the more deserved and poignant.
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![Pharaoh - The Powers That Be (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/16/p70bymr7dqlya_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Pharaoh – The Powers That Be (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 44:32 minutes | 542 MB | Genre: Metal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Cruz Del Sur Music
Long-running American metallers Pharaoh emerge with The Powers That Be, a nine-song offering of challenging melodic metal featuring a guest solo from Voivod’s Daniel Chewy Mongrain!
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![Philharmonia Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali - Prokofiev: Symphony No.5 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/16/s2ojfohb53ena_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Philharmonia Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali – Prokofiev: Symphony No.5 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:21 minutes | 806 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Signum Records
Following an acclaimed debut recording of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake with the Philharmonia in 2020, Santtu-Matias Rouvali returns with a recording of Sergei Prokofiev’s iconic Symphony No. 5.
Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 was first performed in 1944, 14 years after his previous symphony. Prokofiev described his Fifth Symphony as a “hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit,” explaining that, “I cannot say that I deliberately chose this theme. It was born in me and clamoured for expression. The music matured within me. It filled my soul.”
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![Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Christian Lindberg - Allan Pettersson: Symphony No. 9 (1970) (Gehrmans) (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/15/e44xowtx3wqlb_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Christian Lindberg – Allan Pettersson: Symphony No. 9 (1970) (Gehrmans) (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:11 minutes | 1,18 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS
Allan Pettersson composed his Ninth Symphony in 1970, two years after the Seventh had been given a triumphant première conducted by Antal Dorati. This had brought him greater recognition than ever before, but at the same time his health was deteriorating even further, and shortly after completing the Ninth Pettersson was hospitalized for a period of nine months. It is striking that he at such a time should have chosen to compose what is the longest of all his works – in the score Pettersson himself estimated the duration to ‘65–70 minutes’, and the first recording of the work actually lasted for more than 80 minutes. As so many of the symphonies, the work is in one single movement which may be described as an extended struggle in which harmony is the ultimate winner. As Pettersson himself had said about an earlier work: ‘If one fights one’s way through a symphony one needs to achieve consonance and harmony even if it takes twenty hours to do so.’ In the case of the Ninth, this harmony is summed up more concisely than ever before or after, in the final two chords which form a plagal or ‘Amen’ cadence in F major. Completing a cycle for BIS of Pettersson’s symphonies, Christian Lindberg and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra have been receiving great critical acclaim for previous instalments – most recently a Sixth described in International Record Review as ‘a release that could well be the ideal introduction to Pettersson’s singular musical vision’. About the same disc, the reviewer in Gramophone wrote: ‘Lindberg’s empathy for Pettersson’s music is once again shown in the Sixth, where he catches its dark atmosphere to perfection, pacing its progress through the succession of climaxes superbly well.’
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![Peter Rowan - Calling You From My Mountain (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/08/19/j795fuxde2exa_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Peter Rowan – Calling You From My Mountain (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 47:01 minutes | 505 MB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rebel Records Llc
For over six decades, GRAMMY-award winning artist Peter Rowan has been at the forefront of acoustic American music, inspiring generations of new musicians and working creatively with the roots of bluegrass, newgrass, Americana, country rock, jazz, even reggae, Hawaiian, and Tejano music.
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![Philamore Lincoln - The North Wind Blew South (1970/2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/16/exkafgt1ormtc_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Philamore Lincoln – The North Wind Blew South (1970/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 32:08 minutes | 694 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Epic – Legacy
Philamore Lincoln has always been something of a shadowy figure in the psych pop universe, even among hardcore collectors. His lone album, originally released by Epic in 1970, never saw a legitimate CD reissue until 2010, and he seemed to have been swallowed up by the earth shortly after its initial unveiling. Helping to make the legend more tantalizing over the years were the rumors of Yardbirds members’ involvement, partly spurred by Yardbirds bassist Chris Dreja’s photo credit, but as it turns out, Jimmy Page did indeed add some guitar to the sessions. Given its release date, The North Wind Blew South sounds like it could have been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years, as the wispy, Donovan-like psych pop that takes up much of the album feels more like 1968 than 1970. The album is heavily front-loaded, opening with the dreamy but majestic title track before moving into the bouncy, orchestral psych pop of “You’re the One” (with some tasty Page licks) and the good-timey, Small Faces-like “Lazy Good for Nothin’.” Despite the anomalous greasy rocker “County Jail Band,” North Wind stays largely on the soft side of psych pop, with “Early Sherwood” sounding like a Sunshine Superman outtake and “Temma Harbour” (later a British hit for Mary Hopkin) even dipping into a mellow bossa nova feel. The album ends on a curious note with the somewhat throwaway-sounding brassy blues instrumental “Blew Through,” but overall, Lincoln’s gentle vocals and breezy delivery perfectly suit his songwriting (he penned every tune here himself) and producer James Wilder finds just the right arrangement for each track, making this a bit of a lost classic of the U.K. soft-psych world. ~ J. Allen
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![Philippe Cassard, Natalie Dessay, Cedric Pescia, Orchestre National de Bretagne - Mozart à l'opéra (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/12/17/jyeomqisop1rb_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Philippe Cassard, Natalie Dessay, Cedric Pescia, Orchestre National de Bretagne – Mozart à l’opéra (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:40 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © La Dolce Volta
The voice! The voice which, even if absent from the score, insinuates itself between the two hands of a pianist playing Mozart. In this music, all is dialogue, mingled avowals and passions, on the threshold of the opera house. All Mozart’s forms are nurtured by the same source, that of vocal melody. “I like an aria to be as precisely tailored to a singer as a well-cut suit”, he declared when he composed an aria. And what an aria this one is! Ch’io mi scordi di te! The keyboard enters into dialogue with the soloist. And then we leave the world of the aria for that of the concerto, unless it be an imaginary sonata…
Directed from the piano by Philippe Cassard, the Concerto No. 22 borrows the same “suit”. Here is a piece of “wordless theatre”, composed at the period of Le nozze di Figaro, which portrays first drama, then meditation, and finally carefree joy. The divine spectacle continues with the Fantasia, KV 475, which foreshadows the worlds of Beethoven and Schubert, with their cries and whispers and things unsaid.
Let us complete these imaginary dialogues with the finest of the sonatas for piano four hands, KV 497. Two voices in unison, enamoured of beauty.
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![Philharmonic String Quartet Berlin - Suk & Dvorak (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/04/13/zfntnv422cxcc_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Philharmonic String Quartet Berlin – Suk & Dvorak (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:07:53 minutes | 1,03 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © decurio
The Philharmonic String Quartet Berlin presents works by Josef Suk and Antonín Dvořák with gripping precision and exciting colours. Although contrasting, the two pieces are still closely connected: Dvořák’s cheerful and dazzling String Quartet No. 13 composed during a period full of joy and carelessness, and the String Quartet No. 2 by Suk – Dvořák’s son-in-law, who premiered both of the recorded quartets himself – which was written after a deep crisis and depicts full, rich and heavy harmonies.
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![Philip Catherine - September Man (1974/2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/16/0190295791100_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Philip Catherine – September Man (1974/2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:02 minutes | 913 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner (France)
Philip Catherine is a Belgian jazz guitarist. He has been on the forefront of the European jazz scene since the sixties. His lond career includes work with many great artists like Chet Baker, Stéphane Grappelli, Charles Mingus, Dexter Gordon, Larry Coryell, Tom Harrell; his unique approach and sound, his dedication to music have been important and influential. “September Man” is his second solo album, released in 1974 via Atlantic label.
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![Philippe Guilhon-Herbert - Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov & Stravinsky: L'esprit des ballets russes (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/16/3775000078546_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Philippe Guilhon-Herbert – Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov & Stravinsky: L’esprit des ballets russes (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:13:20 minutes | 542 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © ARTALINNA
If the Russian Sergei Diaghilev was the founding father of Les Ballets Russes, then Paris was its birthplace and the theatre of the company’s immense success. The Ballets Russes would adopt the French capital as its special residence even when its influence was spreading over many countries: the company, under the masterful guidance of Diaghilev, included the best dancers of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint-Petersburg, and inaugurated its first season at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on May 19th 1909. It was an immediate success.
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![Peter Matz - Quadraphonic Spectacular (1972/2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/12/17/lrfjrwm9ameua_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Peter Matz – Quadraphonic Spectacular (1972/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 37:36 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia – Legacy
From the jacket notes (the lengthily explanation of “quad-sound” by producer, John McClure) this set would appear to be an early entry into the “four channel” market for Columbia. Good 70s light arrangements designed to give the buyer an introduction to a wide spectrum of quadraphonic pop sounds.
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