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Louis Lortie – Louis Lortie plays Chopin Volume 3 (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:36 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
Louis Lortie here gives us the third volume in his ongoing Chopin project. Throughout the series his guiding principle has been to emulate the recital practice of the great romantic pianists, who might play a short improvisation before a major work in order to set the audience in the right frame of mind. On this disc Lortie plays the four Impromptus and the Piano Sonata in B minor, introducing each with a Chopin Nocturne (typically of an improvisatory character) in the same or a related key.
Of all the Impromptus, the first and most famous was actually withdrawn from the public during Chopin’s lifetime. Published posthumously as Fantaisie- Impromptu, it set the mould for the unpretentious pieces that followed, all striving more toward casual entertainment than high artistic expression. The third and last of Chopin’s Piano Sonatas, Op. 58 in B minor was composed in 1845. While its four-movement design reflects a traditional approach, the appearance of imitative counterpoint, chromatic harmonies, and heightened rhythmic tension mark it as an inspired masterwork of Chopin’s late creative period.
Lortie’s previous two volumes have received extremely high praise, the magazine Pianist claiming of Vol. 2 that ‘his selected nocturnes are probably not bettered by any living pianist’.
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Louis Lortie – Louis Lortie plays Chopin Volume 2 (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:15 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
Recording exclusively for Chandos, Lortie is recognised as one of the finest interpreters of Chopin today. He first recorded Chopin’s Etudes for Chandos more than twenty years ago; the disc was named as one of the ’50 great performances by superlative pianists’ by BBC Music. Volume 1 of his current Chopin series also has received excellent reviews: the magazine Pianist wrote: ‘He is a pianist of our time when it comes to speed, energy and an unfussy approach to Chopin. His way of playing is like a sharply cut steel sculpture, super elegant and with not one single smudge.’ And in the words of International Piano: ‘These are full-blooded and eloquent performances, an auspicious start to what looks likely to become one of the finest of Chopin surveys.’
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Louis Lortie – Louis Lortie plays Chopin Volume 1 (2010)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:28 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
In the era of the great romantic pianists, it used to be the fashion at piano recitals to offer an improvisation in the same key as that of the piece that was scheduled to follow, in order to get the audience ‘in the mood’. To compensate for this lost art, I have thought of always playing one of the nocturnes before a major piano composition by Chopin. It makes these nocturnes appear more like an improvisation, to serve as counterweight to the very dense content of the Ballades, Scherzos, and Sonatas. This practice transfers smoothly the logic of a piano recital to a CD and makes more sense by allowing the listener to enjoy the contents in one stretch’ writes Louis Lortie on his concept for the album.
The immensely respected French-Canadian virtuoso Louis Lortie celebrates the Chopin anniversary with an album of Nocturnes and Scherzos for solo piano. These works stretch the pianist’s technique in every possible way. This Canadian pianist has long had an association with Chandos, and is recognised as one of the finest interpreters of Chopin. He first recorded Chopin’s Études for Chandos more than 20 years ago; it was named as one of the ‘50 great performances by superlative pianists’ by BBC Music Magazine. Since then he’s enjoyed an exceptionally rich performing and recording career. He won First Prize in the Busoni Competition in 1984. He was also a prize-winner at the Leeds Competition. He’s been named an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a Knight of the National Order of Quebec.
A recent performance at Carnegie Hall elicited the following review, ‘Those who bought a ticket to hear Louis Lortie play on Saturday night must have been extremely glad they did so. The pianist from Montreal gave a recital at Carnegie Hall that was filled with beauty, brains, and virtuosity.’
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Louis Lortie, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner – Szymanowski: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4 & Concert Overture (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:10:57 minutes | 1,14 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
This recording of orchestral works by Karol Szymanowski form part of the Polish Music series on Chandos, and is performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Edward Gardner. These performers have impressed in their Lutoslawski survey, which is part of the same series; in a review of volume 1, Gramophone described them as a veritable ‘dream team’.
Symphony No. 2 by Szymanowski is a work of great power and ingenuity, with many passionate and varied contrasts in its use of solo instruments. Composed in 1909 – 10, it is widely considered the greatest orchestral work of the composer’s early period, not to mention one of the most important Polish symphonic compositions to date. Szymanowski himself thought very highly of it, and in August 1911 wrote in a letter to his fellow Polish composer Zdzislaw Jachimecki: ‘How happy I am that this Symphony impressed you as I had wanted. I will frankly admit that I feel somewhat proud about its value. In some miraculous way I have managed during my work on it to resist all those garish phantoms which seduce “young and inexperienced” artists and to produce pure and uncompromising beauty in the way I personally understand it.’
The internationally acclaimed pianist Louis Lortie joins the orchestra and conductor in Symphony No. 4 of 1932, which the composer subtitled ‘Symphonie concertante’ in recognition of the near-soloistic role played by the pianist. Whereas Szymanowski’s early and middle works clearly reflect Wagner, Strauss, and Scriabin, this work is strongly influenced by Prokofiev, particularly in the finale, an agitated and daring movement reminiscent of the Russian composer’s Piano Concerto No. 3, composed about a decade earlier.
Written in 1904 – 05 in a style recalling Wagner and Strauss, the Concert Overture is characterised by enormous expressiveness and gusto in the way it handles the expanding themes. Szymanowski inscribed the original score with part of the poem Witez Wlast by his friend Tadeusz Micinski: ‘I will not play you sad songs, O Shades! but will give you a triumph proud and fierce…’. This vivid imagery is perfectly in keeping with the music’s exuberant and vivacious character.
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Louis Lortie – Saint-Saëns : Piano Concertos Nos. 1, 2 & 4 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:58 minutes | 1,19 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
Having already mastered such French concertos as Poulenc’s on record, the French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie and Edward Gardner now explore with the BBC Philharmonic the vigorous and progressive world of Camille Saint-Saëns, offering the first of two volumes to contain his complete piano concertos.
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Louis Lortie – In paradisum: A Fauré Recital, Vol. 2 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:54 minutes | 1,19 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
The Canadian pianist Louis Lortie returns with the second volume of his overview of the solo piano works of Gabriel Fauré. The two major works in this recital are the Ballade, Op. 19 and the Thème et variations, Op. 73. The earlier Ballade shows Fauré’s debt to Liszt, whilst the Thème et variations was modelled on Schumann’s Études symphoniques. The rest of the programme consists of shorter Nocturnes and Barcarolles, and is book-ended by the Pie Jesu and In paradisum from the Requiem – Fauré’s bestknown work – in transcriptions by Louis Lortie himself.
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Louis Lortie – Chopin: Piano Works, Vol. 6 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:23:35 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
For the sixth volume of his Chopin project, the Canadian pianist and exclusive Chandos Artist Louis Lortie has built a programme that includes works from the earliest to the latest periods in the composer’s life, all of which have connection with or focus on Chopin’s Polish identity.
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Louis Jordan – That’s Rock’n’Roll! (1992/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:12 minutes | 495 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla
Twenty-one-track French import that contains the best of Jordan’s 1956-1957 stay at Mercury. Here are the rockin’ remakes of his timeless hits, cut with a New York mob including Sam “The Man” Taylor on tenor sax and guitarist Mickey Baker, as well as fresh nuggets like “Big Bess,” “Cat Scratchin’,” and “Rock Doc.” “The JAMF” is a scorching jazz showcase for Jordan’s alto, and he does a nice easy-swinging job on “Got My Mojo Working.”
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Louis Hayes – Serenade for Horace (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:00 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Blue Note Records
Legendary drummer Louis Hayes makes his Blue Note debut with this loving tribute to his mentor and friend, the great pianist, composer and bandleader Horace Silver. Hayes was 19 years old when he moved to New York City in 1956 and joined Silver’s quintet, putting his stamp on several timeless Blue Note recordings. Co-produced by Don Was and bassist Dezron Douglas with the eminent Maxine Gordon acting as executive producer, Serenade for Horace presents Hayes leading an ensemble that revisits 10 Silver classics in addition to the Hayes original Hastings Street, a dedication to his hometown of Detroit. The album’s first single Song for My Father features Grammy-winning vocalist Gregory Porter.
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Louis Hayes – Crisis (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 55:57 minutes | 1,08 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Savant
The amazing versatile drummer Hayes has been drumming behind some of jazz’s biggest names for well over 60 years and still still going strong and as innovative as always. Louis chose some battle tested sidemen to accompany him for this fine collection of standards, jazz covers and 1 original composition. David Hazeltine is the pianist, Steve Nelson-vibes Dezron Douglas-bass, Abraham Burton-tenor sax and Camille Thurman is the special guest on vocals for 2 tracks.. All killer-diller tracks, no filler!
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Louis Hayes – At Onkel Pö’s Carnegie Hall, Hamburg 1976 (Live) (1976/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:55:03 minutes | 1,41 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jazzline
In 1976, when At Onkel Po’s Carnegie Hall was recorded, hard bop was viewed as nostalgia-based heritage music by the young lions of American jazz. But for drummer Louis Hayes, tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, trumpeter Woody Shaw, pianist Ronnie Matthews, and bassist Stafford James—whose paths had crossed and recrossed in bands led by Horace Silver, Art Blakey, and Cannonball Adderley—hard bop was still the staff of life.
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Louis Frémaux – Louis Frémaux: The Complete CBSO Years (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 14:12:02 minutes | 15,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
This 12-CD set joins Warner Classics’ Icon series, which pays homage to some of the greatest recording artists of the recent past. The box is devoted to the French conductor Louis Frmaux, who, from 1969 to 1978, preceded Simon Rattle as Principal Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. For the first time, it assembles all the recordings that Frmaux and the CBSO made for EMI. Over the course of the 1970s their discography played a substantial role in building the orchestra’s international reputation before the arrival of Rattle as its Principal Conductor in 1980. Indeed, such was the orchestra’s prowess in the French music favoured by Frmaux that, in 1978, Rattle described the CBSO as “the best French orchestra in the world”.
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Louis Bertignac – Origines (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 54:22 minutes | 632 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Verycords
Pour son dernier album qui sort ce 16 novembre, Louis Bertignac a choisi d’adapter en français des classiques du rock : Rolling Stones, Beatles, Who, Dylan, Clapton, Police… Un exercice réussi qui donne une nouvelle couleur aux morceaux, qu’il a lui même réécrits et enregistrés seul, à la maison, comme un adolescent dans sa chambre. Il nous a raconté ce retour à ses influences, à ses origines. / For his last album, released on November 16, Louis Bertignac has chosen to adapt French rock classics : Rolling Stones, Beatles, Who, Dylan, Clapton, Police… A successful exercise that gives a new color to the pieces, which he himself rewritten and recorded alone, at home, as a teenager in his room. He told us about this return to his influences, to his origins. …
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Louis Armstrong, All Stars – Louis Armstrong: Live at the Orpheum Theater, Los Angeles (2021 Remaster) (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:06:28 minutes | 739 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © JPK Musik
Louis Daniel Armstrong was an American trumpeter, composer, vocalist, and actor who was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and different eras in the history of jazz.
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Louis Armstrong and His All Stars – Satch Plays Fats: A Tribute to the Immortal Fats Waller by Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars (1955/1986)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 38:21 minutes | 693 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia
In 1955, Louis Armstrong, along with vocalist Velma Middleton, got into the studio to pay tribute to the late Fats Waller. All the standards are here: “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Squeeze Me,” “Ain’t Misbehavin,” rendered in fine and mellow but gently, genially swinging fashion. Armstrong’s trumpet is superb and his voice carries the good-time spirit of Waller’s music.
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