Alina Ibragimova – Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos & The Hebrides (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:20 minutes | 1018 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
The young violinist Alina Ibragimova is already established as an admired recording artist, standing alongside great artists of the past and present with her versions of Bach and Beethoven’s violin works. She appears on this latest release with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Vladimir Jurowski (in his Hyperion premiere) in a programme which includes a classic of the concerto repertoire: Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op 64. Ibragimova’s is a glittering, knife-edge performance, her playing a portrayal in itself of the music’s passion held in control through exquisite craft. The Violin Concerto in D minor—an unusual and welcome pairing—is an early work, written when the composer was only thirteen. As with Mendelssohn’s other juvenile works it is extraordinarily accomplished and exceedingly charming.
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Menahem Pressler, Magdeburg Philharmonic – Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 23 & 27 (Live) (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:17:54 minutes | 765 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music
“…..Pressler has played Mozart’s piano concertos with such frequency that they can be reckoned among the works that have occupied him the most in his life. Fortunately, a wish that Pressler and the musicians of the Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra had been having for many years finally came true: in May and December 2016, Pressler performed as a soloist in his home town. In May he performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto in B Flat Major K595, and in December he played the Piano Concerto in A Major K488. On the subject of Mozart, he remarks: “In Mozart there are no ‘empty’ passages. Musicians often just ‘play through’ a passage because they can play it well, and they are satisfied with that. However, if the interpretation of a passage has no content, I become adamant. I know it’s hard to phrase everything correctly. But I am still as critical as I ever was. First of all toward myself, then toward my co-performers.” Fortunately these concert performances in May and December 2016 were recorded. For a performer who had then reached the age of 92 (and who celebrated his 93rd birthday on the occasion of the second Magdeburg concert on 16 December 2016), one can hear that those aforementioned daily hours of practice have truly been worth the effort. Pressler, the experienced musician, phrases the piano part with unmatched nuance. In the framework of moderately chosen tempi he masters every technical hurdle in each of these two masterpieces. Most of all, one can immediately tell that we are dealing with a pianist who not only knows very note of these concertos, but who has made each of them his own. Although Pressler has recently made several recordings on CD, these Mozart concerto recordings might be the last recorded testimony of one of the great performers of our time……”
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Menahem Pressler – Mozart: Piano Sonatas Nos. 11, 17 & 18 (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:33 minutes | 938 MB | Genre: Classical, Piano
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © La Dolce Volta
This is the pianist Menahem Pressler’s second disc for La Dolce Volta, recorded at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in September 2014. Here we meet a Mozart bathed in total serenity, as if freed from all earthly contingencies and tensions, gently singing of his state of grace, with a wonderfully tender touch. An interpretation deeply moving in its very simplicity, its sheer tranquil poetry, brimming with love and affection. Here is a miraculous disc by a humble servant of music at the peak of his inspiration.
Menahem Pressler, founding member and pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio, has established himself among the world’s most distinguished and honored musicians, with a career that spans almost six decades. Now, at 91 years old, he continues to captivate audiences throughout the world as performer and pedagogue, performing solo and chamber music recitals to great critical acclaim while maintaining a dedicated and robust teaching career.
“It’s a genuine mission to fulfil the task of recording the complete Mozart sonatas. A mission that constantly has me asking questions of myself, and which sometimes has me feeling quite dizzy: can I do it? Am I right to? And yet I feel a literal attraction for these sonatas. They’re an unending source of wonder to me. It’s a joy to record them, and even an inner necessity.”
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Menahem Pressler – Menahem Pressler Performs Mozart (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:16:41 minutes | 623 MB | Genre: Classical, Piano
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © La Dolce Volta
In this second volume of his Mozart cycle, Menahem Pressler invests the music with a serenity and tenderness rarely attained in this repertory. He allows himself time to breathe, immersing himself in his sonority and giving priority to variety of colour, underlining changes of harmony, and the shaping of each phrase.
He sweeps us away on an exhilarating journey, nurtured by a lifetime devoted to seeking the essence of music.
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Menahem Pressler – Clair de lune (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:35 minutes | 1003 MB | Genre: Classical, Piano
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Born 16 December 1923, today Menahem Pressler is, without a shadow of a doubt, the king of pianists, just as Mieczysław Horszowski was in the 1980s. Founder of the Beaux-Arts Trio, great and much-overlooked performer of French music, in his thirties he laid down some of the greatest recordings of Debussy (La Boîte à joujoux, Estampes, Suite bergamasque, Arabesques, La plus que lente, Rêverie) of the 1950s, for the American label MGM Records (but he also made several LPs dedicated to Prokofiev which are now completely forgotten, and the Histoires by Jacques Ibert…). Today, for Deutsche Grammophon, he has cast his mind back to that time when, standing on American soil, everything still lay ahead of him; and he has written a beautiful programme, largely centred around Debussy with the composer’s greatest hits (Arabesques, Clair de lunefrom the Suite bergamasque, several Préludes from Livre I such as La fille aux cheveux de lin), finishing with Fauré (Barcarolle No. 6) and finally Ravel ( Pavane pour une infante défunte, Oiseaux tristes). Pressler is keeping alive another piano tradition, with his sound, his sense of style, and quite simply his spirit. His Clair de lune is full of this spirit, without ever falling into mawkishness, or losing its tone of softly-spoken confidence. But for pity’s sake, Universal Music: re-release all of Pressler’s solo pieces for MGM Records. Bringing back this inestimable and now-completely-inaccessible legacy would be a truly fitting tribute to this great artist.
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Menahan Street Band – The Exciting Sounds of Menahan Street Band (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 37:55 minutes | 792 MB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Daptone Records
Menahan Street Band, a veritable supergroup of some of today’s most prolific songwriters, arrangers, and producers return with this beat-forward, cinematic masterpiece. If you have spent any time hanging out in bars, cafes, or casually tuning into NPR in the last 10 years you should be well versed in MSB’s catalog. Their unique brand of instrumental soul has not only been the foundation for some of modern hip-hop’s most successful beats, it has also become the perennial soundtrack and veritable vibe-generator for countless parties, art shows, and restaurants throughout NYC and abroad. While this album carries the aesthetic torch that MSB has skillfully woven into the tapestry of their DNA, it also delves deeper into the experimental, exotic sounds that fill many of the coveted Sound Library and Soundtrack LPs of the late sixties and early seventies – an amalgamation of moog synths, electric pianos, drum machines, and a bevy of analog instrumentation, that ebb and flow in lush swells of Morriconian grandeur.
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Menagerie – Many Worlds (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 48:52 minutes | 556 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Freestyle Records
Australian 9-piece Spiritual Jazz group Menagerie announce their highly anticipated third album ‘Many Worlds’, released 15th January 2021 on esteemed U.K label Freestyle Records.
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Memphis Slim – Memphis Blues (1974/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 33:40 minutes | 522 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Olympic Records
American blues master Memphis Slim is joined by Roosevelt Sykes on this collaborative masterpiece! This legacy recording is presented in stunning modern clarity with audiophile quality digital transfer.
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Memphis Minnie – Beale Street Blues (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:21:53 minutes | 533 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Music Manager
Lizzie Douglas (June 3, 1897 – August 6, 1973), known as Memphis Minnie, was a blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter whose recording career lasted for over three decades. She recorded around 200 songs, some of the best known being “Bumble Bee”, “Nothing in Rambling”, and “Me and My Chauffeur Blues”.
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Memphis Jug Band – American Epic: The Best Of Memphis Jug Band (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 45:02 minutes | 452 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia/Legacy
The Memphis Jug Band, most active from 1926 into the 1950s, revolved around guitarist, harmonica player and singer Will Shade and featured a wide variety of instrumentation including harmonica, kazoo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar, piano, washboard and, of course, jug. They recorded more songs than any pre-war jug band and as a result, were key in developing the jug band tradition and format.
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Melvyn Tan – Miroirs (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:17:48 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PM Classics Ltd.
Melvyn Tan embraces three centuries keyboard style tracing the inspirations for Ravel’s ground-breaking works for piano. By exploring new pianistic territory, Ravel mirrored Scarlatti and Liszt in experimenting and expanding the possibilities of the keyboard, now setting it free in highly coloured, impressionistic washes of sound which evoke situations, landscapes and characters.
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Melvins – Working With God (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 37:45 minutes | 508 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ipecac Recordings
As the years turned into decades, grunge forecasters the Melvins became more and more mercurial in their overall concept of where the band began and ended. Prolifically released albums took the form of wild collaborations with outside guests or lineup switches denoted by variations to their name, like “Melvins Lite” or “Los Melvins.” Los Melvins were an incarnation including founding Melvin King Buzzo, longtime mainstay Dale Crover, and original drummer Mike Dillard. Working with God reunites this lineup (also sometimes referred to as “Melvins 1983” due to Dillard and Buzzo’s 1983 formation of the band) for an album that includes returns to the band’s early, sludgy power as well as some of the goofy juvenilia and lighthearted freakery of their 2010s output. Goofiness kicks things off as the album starts with a foul-mouthed parody of the Beach Boys’ oldie “I Get Around,” rewritten as “I Fuck Around.” Despite the Melvins replacing the original lyrics with F-bombs whenever remotely possible, it’s a pretty faithful cover, complete with better-than-expected falsetto background vocals. There are more acid-damaged moments of weirdness, like the demented introduction to “Brian, The Horse-Faced Goon,” and the hard rock guitar antics on speedy songs like “Hund” and “Bouncing Rick.” The best moments on Working with God are the ones where the Melvins lean into the syrupy, nauseous, downtuned proto-grunge they perfected on albums like Ozma and Bullhead. The slow tempos and simmering tension on tracks like “Caddy Daddy” and the lurking dread on “The Great Good Place” are classic throwback Melvins, but the album is padded out with riled-up outbursts like “Fuck You” and the truly bizarre choice to end with an a cappella cover of the barbershop quartet standard “Goodnight Sweet-Heart.” As they approach 40 years of existence, the Melvins are still the masters of their own depraved domain. On Working with God, they flippantly experiment with ridiculous ideas only to effortlessly lay down some songs as heavy as the ones they were making before Nirvana left Sub Pop. With nothing to prove and never having seemed too concerned about impressing anyone, the Melvins continue to take their wild-eyed chaos anywhere they choose — Working with God goes to some places that are strange and unforeseen even for them. – Fred Thomas
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Melvins – Five Legged Dog (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:29:50 minutes | 1,86 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ipecac Recordings
Melvins will reinterpret their own catalog and showcase some new covers on the grunge giant’s massive new Five Legged Dog, a 36-track LP that doubles as the group’s first-ever acoustic album.
“I knew I wanted to do something ridiculously big. Thirty-six songs reimagined by us acoustically is certainly ridiculous but it works! The magic of the songs is still there regardless of it being acoustic,” Buzz Osbourne said in a statement of the pandemic-recorded album.
“Since we weren’t touring we had the time to do something of this size. I’m very excited about this record. Dale [Crover] and Steven [McDonald] did a fantastic job on this. I think it’s a very special record. I can’t think of anyone else who’s done something like this.”
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Melvins – A Walk With Love and Death (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:21:40 minutes | 885 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ipecac Recordings
2017 release from US sludge-rock legends! Disc one is a ‘proper’ album & disc two is the score to a short film of the same name, directed by Jesse Nieminen. Featuring guest stars such as Joey Santiago, Teri Gender Bender and Anna Waronker, A Walk With Love and Death is like a one-stop shop of everything to love, hate and feel infuriated by about Melvins.
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Melvin Lee Davis – Passion (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 43:26 minutes | 527 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bassment Productions
“I love communicating to the spirit of the listener and getting a response. There’s nothing better. I think success is being able to communicate through music, and touch, and affect lives. I think you have to be really passionate about it in order to be successful in this business.”
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