Search Results for "Placido Domingo"

Pedro Lavirgen – EMILIO ARRIETA: MARINA, 1968 Historical live recording, Pedro Lavirgen (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 23, 2023 · Comments off

Pedro Lavirgen – EMILIO ARRIETA: MARINA, 1968 Historical live recording, Pedro Lavirgen (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:43:12 minutes | 3,59 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © HD Remastered

Famous Opera Arias—Pedro Lavirgen, tenor Recorded ‘live’ in various unspecified venues, 1967 – 1978.

Aside from a much-circulated live recording of Verdi’s Aida prized by collectors because of a rare performance of the title rôle by Jessye Norman, a near-unknown recording of a thrilling Barcelona performance of Montemezzi’s L’amore dei tre re, a Buenos Aires Vespri siciliani opposite Martina Arroyo, and a few zarzuela recordings never widely available in North America, the career of Spanish tenor Pedro Lavirgen is little documented on records. Born in Córdoba in 1930, Mr. Lavirgen launched his career, as have many Spanish singers, with performances of zarzuela, Spain’s unique género chico, though it was in Emilio Arrieta’s opera Marina that he made his professional début as a singer. In addition to great stars of the genre like Leda Barclay who enjoyed little recognition beyond Spain’s borders, the great zarzuela recordings of the 1950s and 1960s were populated by some of the greatest singers of the 20th Century, recorded at the dawns of their careers: Teresa Berganza, Montserrat Caballé, and Pilar Lorengar, in particular. Among the tenors heard in many zarzuela recordings, there were Mr. Lavirgen and the incomparable Alfredo Kraus. Despite the power of his singing and an especially firm, vibrant upper register, Mr. Lavirgen never enjoyed the opportunities in the recording studio that benefited the careers of his countrymen, among whose ranks Plácido Domingo and José Carreras should also be included. Like sopranos whose recording careers could never take flight in the vacuum created by the dominance of the major record labels by Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, and Dame Joan Sutherland, it was Mr. Lavirgen’s lot to sing in a time in which, even in its ‘Golden Age,’ the Classical recording industry could promote and sustain only a limited number of ‘star’ tenors, and del Monaco, Bergonzi, Corelli, and, later, Pavarotti were already the darlings of the opera-buying public. Fortunately, tapes were rolling when Mr. Lavirgen gave some of the finest performances of his career, and sixteen selections from those tapes are here compiled and reintroduced to the public by Madrid-based EMEC Distribución.

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NES – Ahlam (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 21, 2023 · Comments off

NES can’t be tied down to a specific location. Their music is between traditional Arabic and world music, jazz and pop. These three superb musicians originally met in Valencia in Spain. Percussionist David Gadea is from the region, and was already touring with Flamenco greats such as Ximo Tébar and Josemi Carmona; Matthieu Saglio is a French cellist “with a thousand tone colours” who has performed in more than 30 countries; the singer/cellist Nesrine Belmokh had worked with legendary conductors such as Lorin Maazel and Daniel Barenboim, and performed with Cirque du Soleil on international tours. Placido Domingo has called Nesrine “an exceptional artist, a wonderful voice.”

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Janacek Philharmonic Ostrava – Michael J. Evans: A Fine Agitation – An Opera for the People (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 16, 2023 · Comments off

The Janáček Philharmonic is a world-class symphony orchestra based in Ostrava, Czech Republic and an emerging figure on the international performance scene. With over 100 top-level musicians, the orchestra aims to introduce unique, quality repertoire while showcasing their own recognizable sound.
Around the same time that Ostrava was being frequented by composers like Paul Hindemith, Leoš Janáček, Sergei Prokofiev, and Igor Stravinsky, a Radio Orchestra was formed in the city. In 1954, this ensemble was established as the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, and began touring two years later. The orchestra has appeared over its history with notable names such as Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Diana Ross, and Joseph Calleja to name a few, and it has remained one of the most notable orchestras in the Czech Republic.

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Mariinsky Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Massenet: Don Quichotte (2012) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · June 26, 2023 · Comments off

Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto is one of the most sought-after interpreters of French, Italian and Russian repertoire. Here he joins Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky orchestra for a sumptuous recording of Massenet’s final great opera. Gergiev is no stranger to conducting Massenet, having recorded an outstanding performance of ‘Hérodiade’ in 1995 with Renée Fleming and Placido Domingo.

‘Don Quichotte’, Massenet’s comédie-héroïque, is a tale of heroism, adventure and unrequited love. The plot relates only indirectly to the great novel by Miguel de Cervantes and more likely refers to the play Le chevalier de la longue figure, by the poet Jacques Le Lorrain. Massenet, nearing the end of his career, probably identified with the character of Don Quichotte, and fell in love with the mezzo-soprano Lucy Arbell, who played Dulcinée in the first performance of the work.

Praised for his vast range, thundering vocal power, and exceptional acting ability, Ferruccio Furlanetto has performed at the world’s leading opera houses, including La Scala, the Royal Opera House, the New York Metropolitan Opera and the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. His 2011-12 season is dominated by performances of ‘Boris Godunov’ with the Chicago Lyric Opera, Vienna Staatsoper and the Teatro Massimo (Palermo). Furlanetto will also sing Méphistophélès in Gounod’s ‘Faust’, Don Basilio in ‘Il Barbiere di Siviglia’ and Silva in ‘Ernani’ at the Met.

Mezzo-soprano Anna Kiknadze is a principal soloist of the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg. Highlights of her early career include being a finalist at the 2001 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, 2002 Placido Domingo Operalia Competition in Paris and the International Rimsky-Korsakov Competition in St. Petersburg.

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Mocedades – Esencial Mocedades (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · June 5, 2023 · Comments off

Spanish vocal group Mocedades was formed in 1967 by four young students from Bilbao. Inspired by folk music and songs by the Beatles, they started a band called Voces y Guitarras, later named Mocedades. When producer Juan Carlos Calderon listened to their first demo, he was instantly convinced about the chance they would have to become a major act in the local scene. Mocedades started making history in 1973 when the band came in second place at Eurovisión’s Festival with its song “Eres Tú,” followed soon after by a second smash hit called “Tómame o Déjame.” In 1980, Mocedades signed up to CBS and started working with producer Oscar Gómez. While the group started going through a period of important changes, its remaining members were able to start all over again, without giving any chance to a final breakup. Songs such as “Amor de Hombre” and “Maitechu Mia,” recorded along with Plácido Domingo, climbed on popular music charts. Swapping out different singers throughout its career didn’t change Mocedades’ sound, which retained a solid prestige strengthened by followers all around the world.

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Lise Davidsen, Philharmonia Orchestra & Esa-Pekka Salonen – Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs / Wagner: Arias from Tannhäuser (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · May 27, 2023 · Comments off

Lise Davidsen, Philharmonia Orchestra & Esa-Pekka Salonen – Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs / Wagner: Arias from Tannhäuser (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:54 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Music Group Ltd.

A selection of Richard Strauss’s most-loved lieder and songs, and Elisabeth’s arias from Wagner’s Tannhäuser, the role in which Lise Davidsen will make her debut at Bayreuth Festival. Plus Ariadne’s aria from Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos: her 2017 Glyndebourne debut in the title role was named “one of those ‘I was there’ moments” (The Times).

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Luciano Pavarotti – Ti Adoro (2003) MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

SACD / DSD By admin · May 19, 2023 · Comments off

Luciano Pavarotti has long avoided doing the kind of solo crossover release often proffered by his Three Tenors comrades Plácido Domingo and José Carreras; indeed, in his liner introduction he claims that he was initially “very skeptical” of this project. He came around, though, and the result marks his first solo album of any kind in years. Catty opera cognoscenti hoping for an embarrassment may be gratified by a few booklet photos (keep that shirt on, Luciano!), but otherwise they’re out of luck. The music is actual modern Italian pop rather than the sort of international sentimental style that seems to have been dreamed up in a marketing department, not a music studio. The songs included are mostly originals (several by producer Michele Centonze), and though they vary in quality they don’t rely on the kind of flabby familiarity that can doom a crossover project artistically. (An adaptation of Nino Rota’s old Love Theme From Romeo and Juliet will please Three Tenors fans.) The style is vocally oriented and suits Pavarotti well; electronic accompaniments are quiet and rarely compete with his voice. The singer even has fun with the quasi-rock & roll title track and with a portrait of the aging Caruso, featuring Jeff Beck on guitar. His age is clearly audible, but he’s still got it. Some have suggested that Ti adoro represents an attempt on the part of Pavarotti’s label Decca to compete with the current crop of teen-classical crossover divas. If so, the attempt is misconceived and proves little – except that he could teach them a thing or three. On its own terms, however, it works just fine. You might even wish he’d done it ten years ago, but even so you won’t find another 68-year-old who can sing with this kind of verve.

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Chico Pinheiro, Romero Lubambo – Two Brothers (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · May 17, 2023 · Comments off

The art of Brazilian guitar playing has almost become a musical genre unto itself. The gorgeous music written by composers like Antônio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto echoes differently on six strings. Guitarists Romero Lubambo and Chico Pinheiro have spent their lives absorbing and refracting Brazilian music through the lens of the guitar. On their new recording, Two Brothers, the pair meets for a groundbreaking duo album of their favorite pieces, showing their true mastery of both the Brazilian and Jazz guitar styles.

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Jackie Evancho – Someday at Christmas (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · April 4, 2023 · Comments off

Jackie Evancho - Someday at Christmas (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

Someday at Christmas is a new collection of Christmas songs from platinum selling teenage singing sensation Jackie Evancho. The album includes classic Christmas and popular holiday songs along with two newly recorded songs, “Someday at Christmas” and “The Little Drummer Boy.” Someday at Christmas features special guest artists YouTube sensation Peter Hollens, Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo, and the legendary Plácido Domingo. Jackie will be performing her new track “Someday at Christmas” on America’s Got Talent holiday show later this year.
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Yanni – Inspirato (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 26, 2023 · Comments off

The undisputed king of new age follows 2011’s Truth of Touch with this special album on which he teams up with some of the biggest names in vocal classical music. The likes of Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, Russell Watson, Vittorio Grigolo, Rolando Villazón, and Katherine Jenkins add operatic vocals to a selection of re-recordings of classic inspirational tracks from Yanni’s back catalog.

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Itzhak Perlman – The Complete Warner Recordings 1972 -1980 (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 18, 2023 · Comments off

To celebrate Perlman’s landmark birthday, in September 2015 Warner Classics is releasing Itzhak Perlman — The Complete Warner Recordings, a fifty-nine-album set which contains all the recordings he made for EMI Classics (his principal label) and also for Teldec — including some previously unreleased recordings. The Deluxe Edition covers every aspect of Perlman’s art, containing concertos — both the “essential” concertos and a number of more rarely-heard works, including Perlman’s own commissions from living composers — other pieces for violin and orchestra, chamber music, recital and crossover repertoire (including jazz, ragtime and klezmer), and even a disc that focuses on Perlman as narrator and (briefly) opera singer.

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Gianandrea Noseda, Filarmonica Teatro Regio Torino – Rimsky-Korsakov: Sheherazade, Version 2 (2015/2019) DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

SACD / DSD By admin · February 28, 2023 · Comments off

Gianandrea Noseda, Filarmonica Teatro Regio Torino – Rimsky-Korsakov: Sheherazade, Version 2 (2015/2019)
DSD64 (.dsf) 1 bit/2,8 MHz | Time – 44:30 minutes | 1,75 GB
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 44:30 minutes | 911 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Digital booklet

Gianandrea Noseda is widely recognized as one of the Leading conductors of his generation. He is Musical America’s 2015 Conductor of the Year. On “Scheherazade” by Nikolaj Rimsky-Korsakov, Noseda proves as sensitive playwright who manages to still have energy for the next highlight in store at all dramatic outbursts of sumptuous work, and easily take back to the quiet and introspective moments sound violence and mood – and the handset so inevitably to captivate. This release (marked as Version 2) is the exact same same orchestra, same conductor, same interpretation and same location as the originally released version. The difference is that in the previous version – the recording has been made with three couples of valve microphones, all ancient and original Neumann U47, U48 and M49. This special edition has been made with only two microphones Neumann U47, capturing more acoustics of the theatre.

The lush occupied Orchestra (all in triplicate occupied woodwinds, strings, twelve brass and a gigantic array on percussion instruments) have been adopted in this recording from 2015 with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Teatro Regio Torino. Giulio Cesare Ricci took this magnificent interpretation purely analog in Teatro Regio with the unbeatable Neumann tube microphones on – no better way to hear this! A real must-have. With some characteristic leitmotifs and themes, leitmotifs treated instrumentation and an enormous sense of dramaturgy and dramatic Rimsky-Korsakov leads with more accurate narrative magic through the fairytale world of the East, can Sinbad ship gliding through stormy seas, a young prince and princess fall in love, opulent feasts in romanticized Baghdad arise in the mind’s eye – and through the four movements of the work repeatedly leads the delicate voice of the storyteller Scheherazade, represented by the cantabile solo violin.

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Gianandrea Noseda, Filarmonica Teatro Regio Torino – Rimsky-Korsakov: Sheherazade (2015) DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

SACD / DSD By admin · February 28, 2023 · Comments off

Gianandrea Noseda, Filarmonica Teatro Regio Torino – Rimsky-Korsakov: Sheherazade (2015)
DSD64 (.dsf) 1 bit/2,8 MHz | Time – 44:30 minutes | 1,75 GB
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 44:30 minutes | 995 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Digital booklet

Gianandrea Noseda is widely recognized as one of the Leading conductors of his generation. He is Musical America’s 2015 Conductor of the Year. On “Scheherazade” by Nikolaj Rimsky-Korsakov, Noseda proves as sensitive playwright who manages to still have energy for the next highlight in store at all dramatic outbursts of sumptuous work, and easily take back to the quiet and introspective moments sound violence and mood – and the handset so inevitably to captivate. The lush occupied Orchestra (all in triplicate occupied woodwinds, strings, twelve brass and a gigantic array on percussion instruments) have been adopted in this recording from 2015 with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Teatro Regio Torino. Giulio Cesare Ricci took this magnificent interpretation purely analog in Teatro Regio with the unbeatable Neumann tube microphones on – no better way to hear this! A real must-have.

… With some characteristic leitmotifs and themes, leitmotifs treated instrumentation and an enormous sense of dramaturgy and dramatic Rimsky-Korsakov leads with more accurate narrative magic through the fairytale world of the East, can Sinbad ship gliding through stormy seas, a young prince and princess fall in love, opulent feasts in romanticized Baghdad arise in the mind’s eye – and through the four movements of the work repeatedly leads the delicate voice of the storyteller Scheherazade, represented by the cantabile solo violin.

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Mariinsky Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Massenet: Don Quichotte (2012) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · February 15, 2023 · Comments off

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Fantasies, Rhapsodies and Daydreams by Arabella Steinbacher (2016) DSF DSD64

SACD / DSD By admin · January 29, 2023 · Comments off

Less than a century ago it was still very common that great violinists like Heifetz, Kreisler, Menuhin etc. played virtuosic pieces in their concerts, very often also their own transcriptions. Nowadays these pieces are unfortunately rarely played in concert halls, sometimes with the reason that this kind of repertoire is “not serious enough”, which I find is really a pity and also not true. Usually violinists study this repertoire at a young age to expand their technical ability on the instrument but afterwards, they tend to focus more on Concertos and Sonatas. I have to admit that the last time I myself played this repertoire was before I was even a teenager, and I had almost forgotten about it.

However, every time I work together with Larry Foster, he is full of stories about Jasha Heifetz from their time together in the 1960s and it is like being taken to another world. Then suddenly the idea came to us; why not make a recording full of these pieces like in the “old days”?

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