Coleman Hawkins – The Best of Swing Jazz – Tenor Sax (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 49:24 minutes | 515 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jazz Essential
Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed “Hawk” and sometimes “Bean”, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. One of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument, as Joachim E. Berendt explained: “there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn”. Hawkins biographer John Chilton described the prevalent styles of tenor saxophone solos prior to Hawkins as “mooing” and “rubbery belches.” Hawkins cited as influences Happy Caldwell, Stump Evans, and Prince Robinson, although he was the first to tailor his method of improvisation to the saxophone rather than imitate the techniques of the clarinet. Hawkins’ virtuosic, arpeggiated approach to improvisation, with his characteristic rich, emotional, and vibrato-laden tonal style, was the main influence on a generation of tenor players that included Chu Berry, Charlie Barnet, Tex Beneke, Ben Webster, Vido Musso, Herschel Evans, Buddy Tate, and Don Byas, and through them the later tenormen, Arnett Cobb, Illinois Jacquet, Flip Phillips, Ike Quebec, Al Sears, Paul Gonsalves, and Lucky Thompson. While Hawkins became known with swing music during the big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s.
Read more
Clio K – Jasmine in November (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 48:24 minutes | 466 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ankh Jazz
Creating a bridge of two different worlds, the Greek-French harpist experiments and redefines the role of the classical harp in contemporary musical trends, presenting a sound and a way of playing completely fresh.
Read more
Clélia Iruzun, I Musicanti, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Nimrod Borenstein – Nimrod Borenstein: Concerto for Piano & Orchestra, Op. 91, Light and Darkness, Op. 80 & Shirim, Op. 94 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:10:56 minutes | 2,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © SOMM Recordings
SOMM RECORDINGS is pleased to announce the label debut of composer and conductor Nimrod Borenstein with premiere recordings of three works centering on the piano in various forms: his Piano Concerto, the Piano Quintet Light and Darkness, and Shirim for solo piano.
Read more
Claudio Arrau – Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73 “Emperor” & Piano Sonata No. 22, Op. 54 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 51:26 minutes | 2,00 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
Legendary Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau is backed by the Philharmonia Orchestra headed by Italian conductor Alceo Galliera in this programme of Beethoven works, transferred from original analog sources to high-fidelity digital formats by Warner Classics!
Read more
Claudia Schellenberger – Bach, Beethoven & Others: Piano Fantasies (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:00:46 minutes | 519 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Kaleidos Musikeditionen
Der Begriff „Fantasie“ klingt in der Welt der Musik eher unverbindlich. Es ist eine Kompositionsform, die ihr Leben vor 500 Jahren auf der zarten Laute begann und sich stetig entwickelte. „Fantasie“ dient als Titel für ein Stück, das sich nicht so recht einordnen lassen will in Kategorien, anders als eine „Sonate“ oder „Fuge“. Und man assoziiert spontan vielleicht auch den Geist der Romantik, stellt sich KünstlerInnen vor, die ihren musikalischen Gedanken freien Lauf lassen und das Ergebnis als „Fantasie“ bezeichnen.
Auf ihrer aktuellen Solo-CD präsentiert Claudia Schellenberger eher weniger bekannte Vertreter der Gattung „Fantasie“ aus Barock, Klassik und Romantik und damit aus drei Epochen, die für ihr Instrument, das Klavier besonders wichtig sind. Eine „fantastische“ Reise! Claudia Schellenberger konzertiert erfolgreich im In- und Ausland und wurde Preisträgerin verschiedener Klavierwettbewerbe.
Als Fünfzehnjährige wurde sie Schülerin von Prof. Karl-Heinz Kämmerling und studierte nach dem Abitur an den Musikhochschulen Hannover, Wien und Frankfurt. Ihre CDs wurden u. a. mit dem „Supersonic-Award“ ausgezeichnet.
Read more
Claudia Nascimento – Santoro: Fantasias Sul América & Sonata for Solo Violin (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 58:12 minutes | 591 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Claudio Santoro was one of Brazil’s leading composers, having written a considerable amount of solo, chamber and orchestral music, including arguably the most important symphonic cycle ever written in that country. The fifteen Fantasias Sul América, composed as competition pieces for individual instruments, represent fascinating syntheses of his style heard in compressed form. Freely atonal and highly virtuosic, these pieces are now standard repertoire for Brazilian soloists, and were even used later by Santoro as material for his Symphony No. 12 (Naxos 8.574406). The youthful Sonata for Solo Violin is a work of extraordinary density and experimentation that reveals an aesthetically consistent dialogue with the much later Fantasias.
Read more
Clamb – Glittering Watermelon Oracle (Live at the Midway Cafe, July 19, 2021) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:00 minutes | 525 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mint 400 Records
The Boston-based psych/krautrock band CLAMB are releasing their newest live record “Glittering Watermelon Oracle” on January 13, 2023. Clamb are known throughout the Boston and Northeast experimental rock community for their dynamic live energy, with its members constantly reinterpreting their former material and engaging in to-the-minute interplay between all the instruments. The performance that comprises Glittering Watermelon Oracle was captured on July 19, 2021 at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts and represents a particularly thoughtful night of reinterpreted tunes from the band’s debut LP Earth Mother Grapefruit (2021, Mint 400 Records) as well as documenting the moment of creation of three new improvised pieces that have remained in the Clamb live repertoire ever since. The improvised title track revolves around a single stuttering chord while Joshua Merhar’s polymetric drums and Jameson Stewart’s fretless bass build a web of rhythm around an unchanging center point. Triangular Fÿord, the meditative fan-favorite from the debut album, enters into a doom-adjacent midsection when Peter Danilchuk’s moaning synthesizer chords suddenly give way to roaring power chords. Plutonian Auspex, another of the evening’s free improvisations, opens with a bed of heavily delayed piano-like synthesizer notes and a mournful Moog lead, with fretless bass offering counterpoints and punctuating the synthesizers’ phrases., before the drums join in with a wide feel that gives each instrument room to fill or not fill the space afforded to it. Each instrument simmers with a restrained sense of purpose, only bursting out of its role when it has something to say, and otherwise remaining as part of the greater texture between three personalities, encased in amber, connecting with their audiences.
Read more
Circa Waves – Never Going Under (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 34:37 minutes | 449 MB | Genre: Indie Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Lower Third
Never Going Under is the band’s highly anticipated fifth record, and the encapsulation of a continued upward trajectory for Circa Waves over the last decade. Becoming one of Britain’s most influential and adored guitar bands, the four piece’s dedication to constantly developing their sound has seen them secure increasingly high positions in the Official Album Charts, as well as amassing an army of dedicated fans. Speaking about Never Going Under, frontman Kieran Shudall says: “Never Going under speaks to that uniquely modern phenomenon of genuinely not knowing what type of world our kids are going to find themselves in in 30 years. Physically, environmentally, politically we are completely in the unknown. That scares us all but ultimately we know we can never give up on the future because how can you? The songs on the album are written differently from the previous work we’ve put out. They are written from the perspective of my son and also from my own current experience of the climate today.
Read more
Christopher Palameta – Berlioz’s Lost Oboe: Early French Romantic Music for Oboe and Piano (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 55:39 minutes | 1,91 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ramée
“It is simply a badge of historical injustice that oboists must wear”. Leon Goosens lamented the generally accepted view that the 19th century was a time of crisis in the history of the oboe. The prejudice that the oboe has been forgotten, as it is incompatible with the aesthetics of romantic expression, has been passed down through the generations. This recording brings to light some impressive compositions from the France of the early 19th century, and thus makes it possible to re-evaluate this generally widespread view. All works are first recordings and belong to a great treasure of unknown chamber music for oboe and fortepiano of the 19th century. They bear witness to a lively, dynamic wind tradition in France. Played on a French oboe with ten keys by Guillaume Adler (Paris, c. 1835) and a pianoforte by Erard (Paris, 1840), these soulful and lyrical rarities wonderfully bring out the unique timbres and playing characteristics of these rare original models.
Read more
Christopher Jung – Linien des Lebens (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:47 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PASCHENrecords
Klare Diktion und sensibles Textverständnis sind die herausragenden Qualitäten des Baritons Christopher Jung, heißt es in einer Rezension des Online-Magazins “Klassik heute” zu seiner bemerkenswerten ersten Liederaufnahme, die vor drei Jahren auf einem Album des Rostocker Labels PASCHENrecords erschien. In diesem Konzert, bei dem er von dem Organisten Simon Reichert begleitet wird, steht der Liederzyklus “Wo läufst du hin” des 1962 geborenen Komponisten Jan Roelof Wolthuis auf dem Programm, der sich nun auch als hervorragender Begleiter profilieren kann.
Read more
Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques – Psyché (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:24:24 minutes | 2,74 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Château de Versailles Spectacles
Vénus, irritée par la jeune mortelle Psyché dont la beauté irradie le monde, envoie l’Amour pour lui imposer mille épreuves, que la jeune victime surmonte jusqu’à devenir immortelle. Dans cette fable mythologique qui est sa sixième tragédie lyrique (1678), Lully déploie son immense talent, et se venge de Molière pour lequel il avait écrit en 1671 la musique d’une Psyché monumentale, qui causa leur rupture. Fin connaisseur de Lully, Christophe Rousset dirige une distribution somptueuse qui donne à sa Psyché tout le lustre des grands opéras français !
Read more
Christian-Pierre La Marca – Legacy (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:59 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve
The cellist Christian-Pierre La Marca always has something to surprise us with: hybrid programs mixing genres and pushing toward musical frontiers, guests who add to an already rich repertoire, and a keen, passionate vision of both music and the world. The title and the composers of his new album may appear “classical”, but his recording, effectively rooted in eighteenth century Vienna, nevertheless once again broadens the horizons and encourages us to see things differently. “I wanted this program to introduce new ways of listening to Haydn’s concertos,” he explains. “Legacy focuses on passing down rather than inheriting – the benevolence of one generation for the next, encounters between musicians who are also enablers, the progression of the instrument in the music.”
Read more
Chickasaw Mudd Puppies – 8-Track Stomp (1991/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 36:05 minutes | 782 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mercury Records
The Chickasaw Mudd Puppies originally from Athens Georgia made their mark in the late 80’s and early 90’s with two recordings White Dirt and this current re-release, 8 Track, Stomp produced by Michael Stipe and Willie Dixon. Despite their famous producers, who also backed up the duo in the studio, Chickasaw Mudd Puppies received little popular attention outside of Athens. Their use of traditional and “invented” percussion instruments, including the stomp board (invented), washboard, cowbells, and even cans, combined with the occasional dobro and lap steel guitars, gave their music an Americana sound.
Read more![Gewandhausorchester - Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 5 / Wagner: Tristan und Isolde: Prelude & Liebestod (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/03/10/h6uyk5r6g7hmb_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Gewandhausorchester – Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 5 / Wagner: Tristan und Isolde: Prelude & Liebestod (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:27:18 minutes | 2,43 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig continue their award-winning Bruckner cycle. This time the Symphonies are coupled with the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. There’s a consistently superb playing from all sections of the orchestra, but it’s the transparency of the strings that gives the textures such buoyancy; nothing is too emphatic or insistent.” – The Guardian
(more…)
![Geneva Brass - Swiss Faces (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/03/10/bgfykpvl3rpea_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Geneva Brass – Swiss Faces (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:08:04 minutes | 1,77 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Claves Records
For this record, we wanted to highlight Swiss creations by recording only original pieces for brass quintet by Swiss composers. So let the composers present their work to us.
Just like the famous Swiss army knife, the Geneva Brass chamber music ensemble is multi-purpose and multi-talented. Its warm distinctive sound shines while sharply interpreting a Bach fugue, sweetly whispering a Cosma ballad or gently humming a traditional Alphorn melody. The ensemble can be powerful when playing alongside an organ or a big band but can also be soft and tender when accompanying a choir, panpipes or even a harp.
(more…)