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Viktoria Tolstoy feat. Iiro Rantala – Meet Me at the Movies (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 48:43 minutes | 999 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ACT Music
When Viktoria Tolstoy invites you to meet her at the movies, the emotions will run high, and it will be a pleasure and a privilege to accept.
Viktoria Tolstoy’s voice has an intriguing, bittersweet, melting quality. And there’s her unique way of lingering tantalizingly between drama and melodrama. And there’s the way she simultaneously reveals both her Swedish heart and her Russian soul. But there’s something more: it’s her vivid way of scene-setting, the pictorial clarity she brings when she sings. Perhaps it is not that surprising: “I’ve been a massive film fan all my life,” she admits. “With the children around these days, I don’t get to the movies quite so often. So I really enjoy it when I can get to watch films on Netflix or HBO in a hotel on tour”.
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Viktoria Tolstoy – Stations (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 50:27 minutes | 1021 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ACT Music
When Viktoria Tolstoy sings, it is her personal background, the things that have made her who she is, that resonate above all. Her choice of songs is rooted in her own experience, whether it be a deep attachment to her native country (“My Swedish Heart”), the quest for her Russian heritage – she is the great-great-granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy – (“My Russian Soul”), a desire to pay an affectionate tribute to Herbie Hancock (“Letters To Herbie”), or to interpret great film songs (“Meet Me At The Movies”). These thematic threads give Viktoria Tolstoy a way of singing songs which is hers and hers alone. And her voice has something truly special and individual too: there might be a hint of melodrama, or perhaps a certain sadness which is nonetheless underpinned with joy, or happiness, yet with an urgent and dramatic undertone. This innate sense of how to establish an emotional connection also helps to explain why Tolstoy has become one of the most successful singers in jazz from Scandinavia.
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Viktoria Mullova and Alasdair Beatson – Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 4, 5 & 7 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:43 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PM Classics Ltd.
Viktoria Mullova’s first album of Beethoven Violin Sonatas, Nos 3 & 9’Kreutzer’ with Kristian Bezuidenhout, was reviewed enthusiastically by Gramophone magazine. ‘ The sound, in these familiar pieces has a startling clarity’; it went on to say that the period instruments ‘relocate these two works in a darkly Romantic sound world’. For the next volume in a complete cycle, Viktoria is partnered by Alasdair Beatson in the strange and gnomic 4th sonata, the popular 5th ‘Spring’ sonata and the dramatic 7th – Beethoven in C Minor mood – always exciting and turbulent!
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Viktoria Mullova – ARVO PÄRT (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 59:00 minutes | 586 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Onyx Classics
Nearly all the pieces on this album were first performed and widely promoted by the Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer, one of them – Tabula rasa (1977) – being specifically written with his artistry in mind. They are also all products of what Arvo Pärt himself describes as a ‘tintinnabuli’ style, developed by the composer in the 1970s through studying medieval church music. As Pärt has explained: “I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me. I work with very few elements – with one voice, two voices. I build with primitive materials – with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of a triad are like bells and that is why I call it tintinnabulation.” Tabula rasa and Fratres, both composed in 1977, effectively established Pärt’s international reputation. Tabula rasa is effectively a concerto for two violins with string orchestra and a prepared piano, the latter instrument creating explicitly bell-like sonorities in the work’s slow second movement. Fratres, since its first performance by the Estonian ensemble of early music, Hortus Musicus, has been arranged for various instrumental combinations. The version heard here is the composer’s own, written in 1991 for solo violin, strings and percussion (involving claves and bass drum or tom-tom). Bach has long been an important influence in Pärt’s music, as is evident in his Passacaglia, composed in 2003, and in Darf ich… (May I…) originally composed in 1995 and dedicated to Yehudi Menuhin; Pärt subsequently revised the work in 1999, Kremer giving the premiere of this revised version with his ensemble, Kremerata Baltica. Spiegel im Spiegel, composed in 1978, is one of Pärt’s simplest compositions, a violin unhurriedly playing a mostly stepwise melody over a steadily arpeggiating piano part.
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Viktor Töpelmann, Daniela Niedhammer – Harmonice Mundi (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:11:59 minutes | 2,71 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Carpe Diem Records
This album explores music for viola da Gamba and organ from 17th-century Austria, played by Viktor Toepelmann and organist Daniela Niedhammer on original instruments from that time. The recording took place in a small village church in Austria, which houses an original church organ from 1662. The viola da gamba used for this recording is a bass viol built by Hans Khögl in 1674. Together with the special acoustics of this beautiful church, the two musicians dive deep into the emotional and intimate music of that era, creating a meditative and most pleasant listening experience.
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Viktor Orri Árnason – Viktor Orri Árnason: Eilífur (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 43:37 minutes | 424 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
Musical contemplation of living forever. “Eilífur” (“Eternal”) is Icelandic contemporary composer Viktor Orri Árnason’s solo debut and first Pentatone album, on which the prospect of living forever is contemplated. Sparked by the realisation that medical advances will soon eradicate death by natural causes, “Eilífur” weaves together a lucid, near-future narrative via a combination of abstract Icelandic lyrics and adept musical storytelling. The scope and scale of “Eilífur” is reflected in the extremes of its sound, which moves seamlessly from intimate strings and sombre voices to grand orchestral gestures and vast drones. “Eilífur” explores what life will be like in the absence of death’s ticking clock. Staying clear of the morbidity that such themes may imply, “Eilífur” is above all a celebration of life as we know it, and an ode to the things that make it worth living.
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Viktor Lazlo – Suds (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 56:42 minutes | 938 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Continuo Jazz
A stylish and sensual singer, Sonia Dronier became Viktor Lazlo when Belgian producer Francis Depryck discovered her and put together a package inspired by strong sexuality and black-and-white film. Born in Lorient, France, Dronier spent her college years studying and modeling in Brussels, Belgium. After she spent some time singing backup vocals in Depryck’s band Lou & the Hollywood Bananas, the producer rounded up a set of nostalgic and noir-flavored songs and renamed her after a character in the Humphrey Bogart classic Casablanca. The stylish full-length She began her career in 1985 with a mix of songs sung in French, English, and Spanish. A French-language cover of Julie London’s “Cry Me a River” (“Pleurer des Rivières”) became a big hit across Europe a year later. In 1987 she hosted the televised broadcast of the Eurovision contest, which was held in Belgium that year. That same year she had another Euro hit with “Breathless,” a duet with American singer James Ingram. After a move back to France in 1989 she released a series of successful albums before the ambitious Verso appeared in 1996 with funk and dub influences and a guest appearance from the classic reggae rhythm section of Sly & Robbie. Critical response to the album was so overwhelmingly positive that Dronier claimed interviews promoting the release had focused on her music instead of her clothes for the first time in her career. – David Jeffries
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Víkingur Ólafsson – Reflections Pt. 3 / RWKS (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 17:01 minutes | 281 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson releases the third volume in the Debussy • Rameau Reflections series, featuring reworks by Víkingur Ólafsson and other groundbreaking artists including Icelandic singer-songwriter Helgi Jónsson, genre-defying Icelandic duo Hugar, Texas-based post-rock minimalist ensemble Balmorhea and Christian Badzura, Vice President A&R New Repertoire at Deutsche Grammophon.
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Víkingur Ólafsson – Reflections Pt. 2 / Debussy: Canope (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 16:30 minutes | 271 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Following the release of Reflections Pt 1, which focused on the music of the two revolutionary French composers, Debussy and Rameau, pianist Víkingur Ólafsson prepares for the second instalment in the series with the release of this single.
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Víkingur Ólafsson – Reflections Pt. 1 / Debussy: Bruyères (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 12:45 minutes | 201 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Víkingur Ólafsson’s new project “Reflections” is now available for pre-order. This project will showcase contemporary reworks of the music of the two revolutionary French composers, Debussy and Rameau, that Ólafsson released earlier this year. Ólafsson says: “I wanted to explore certain works from fresh perspectives, to reimagine them and invite other composers to rework elements of these extraordinary pieces. I’m delighted that Deutsche Grammophon agreed with me on continuing this creative conversation with Debussy, Rameau and some of today’s most imaginative musicians.”
This first EP Reflections Part 1 will be followed by the release of three more EPs, in January, February and March respectively, while the full album will be released on CD and LP on 12 March 2021.
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Víkingur Ólafsson – Reflections (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:08 minutes | 1,08 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
This album is something of an offshoot of pianist Vikingur Ólafsson’s album Debussy/Rameau, which offered a deep and well-received dive into the relationship between those two composers. Here, Ólafsson offers manipulated performances of mostly Debussy, with a couple of works by Rameau and one Debussy improvisation by Ólafsson himself. Most of these manipulations are by electronic musicians, taking Ólafsson’s own performances as a point of departure, but there are also low-fidelity recordings Ólafsson made at home during the coronavirus pandemic. These contain pedal and breathing noises that are substantial enough that the effect is beyond simply that of homemade recording. Ólafsson seems to be trying to create a kind of acoustic counterpart to electronic distortion and to weave it into the general mood he creates. Fans of Ólafsson’s generally experimental approach will be interested in his latest explorations, which contain innovations in the interaction between classical performance and contemporary electronics, and the commercial success of this release suggests a continuing appetite for those explorations. Others, though, might start somewhere else with Ólafsson, who is undeniably a fresh voice. The home recordings for many will simply come off as sloppy and self-indulgent, and the electronics, while interesting, don’t seem to make a coherent statement. This recording may be regarded as a footnote in the career of an artist who has genuinely new ideas that don’t need the veneer of self-conscious experimentalism. – James Manheim
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Víkingur Ólafsson – Johann Sebastian Bach (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:26 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
For his new Deutsche Grammophon album, Icelandic pianist Vkingur lafsson explores the wellspring of Johann Sebastian Bach’s keyboard music, delivering experimental, innovative and timeless performances: Vkingur lafsson is a musical free spirit with a mission. He first made the classical world sit up and listen in early 2017 with his recording of solo piano works by Philip Glass — a fascinating journey through the time and space of their minimalist structures. Glass is now followed by Bach. Set for release in September, lafsson’s second Deutsche Grammophon album, the pithily entitled Bach, contains a mixture of original works and transcriptions, which the pianist has woven together in intriguing style.
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Víkingur Ólafsson – Debussy – Rameau (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:19:10 minutes | 2,59 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as an artist who “creates unique aural landscapes,” Icelandic pianist V¡kingur Olafsson continues his acclaimed recording partnership with Deutsche Grammophon with the release of Debussy ú Rameau. Following two albums featured in NPR Music’s Top 10 Classical Albums (Glass in 2017 and Bach in 2018), Olafsson`s third album pairs works by two French composers separated by well over a century: Jean-Philippe Rameau and Claude Debussy.
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Víkingur Ólafsson – Bach Reworks (Pt. 2) (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 21:49 minutes | 189 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Ólafsson’s second Deutsche Grammophon album, the pithily entitled Bach, contains a mixture of original works and transcriptions, which the pianist has woven together in intriguing style.
The album will bring together atmospheric reworkings of music by composers such as Hans- Joachim Roedelius, Ben Frost, Peter Gregson and Valgeir Sigurðsson – reimaginings that artfully defragment the creations of Bach.
It will also feature a moving and intimate new work Ólafsson has written in memory of his late friend and colleague Jóhann Jóhannsson.
“Everything is there in Johann Sebastian’s music: architectural perfection and profound emotion,” says Ólafsson. In his hands, the universe that is Bach shines with new light.
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Víkingur Ólafsson – Bach Reworks (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 23:10 minutes | 229 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
“…Through its inherent openness, Bach’s keyboard music has become something of a musical mirror for different generations of pianists in the modern age, clearly reflecting the tastes and values of each time. While some works go in and out of vogue, others enjoy a stable popularity but undergo radical changes in the way they are understood and interpreted. Bach today generally sounds quite different from Bach 30 years ago, and still more different than Bach 50 years ago. In that sense his music is contemporary rather than classical. It has the potential to feel more or less as new today as it did 300 years ago…” (Víkingur Ólafsson)
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