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Akasha – Akasha: Elements Suite (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 17:04 minutes | 212 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © KPM Shorts
Akasha are a UK-based electronic music duo, comprising Charlie Casey and Damian Hand. They were originally signed to the Wall of Sound record label, but now are releasing through Ra Recordings.
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Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor and Justin Doyle – Haydn: Missa Cellensis, Hob. XXII:5 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:41 minutes | 659 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
It was when the young Haydn was appointed Kapellmeister to Prince Nikolaus Esterházy that he composed his Missa Cellensis, a work of vast proportions, whose popularity is demonstrated by the many surviving copies.
In this interpretation full of vivid contrasts, the RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik confirm their extraordinary ability to reveal every subtlety of a composition that possesses almost operatic energy.
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Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit – J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:27:35 minutes | 3,38 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Johann Sebastian Bach and the Akademie f”ur Alte Musik Berlin go back a long way together! This recording, made with the welcome participation of Isabelle Faust and Antoine Tamestit, follows the complete violin concertos (2019), which left a lasting impression. Returning regularly to the inexhaustible source of the Brandenburgs ever since a memorable first recording in the late 1990s, the Berlin musicians have achieved a sovereign mastery of what is not a single work, but six, which, under their fingers, are successive episodes of a piece of musical theatre in love with dance, transparent sound and freedom. An exhilarating experience!
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Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Bernarda Fink & Anna Prohaska – Pergolesi: Stabat Mater (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 35:17 minutes | 335 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Pergolesi completed his Stabat Mater a few days before his death, on 17 March 1736, prompting comparisons with another mythical figure, Mozart composing his Requiem. It is framed here by three more masterpieces of the pianto genre in a similar spirit of bittersweet sadness. Born in Buenos Aires to Slovenian parents, Bernarda Fink studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón. Today her repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the twentieth century, and she appears regularly with such great international orchestras as the Vienna Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic and with celebrated Baroque ensembles. Among the conductors with whom she works are Nikolaus Harnoncourt, René Jacobs, Mariss Jansons and Riccardo Muti. Since the start of her career, Bernarda Fink has been applauded in the leading concert halls of Europe and Argentina. She was recently heard in the role of Irene (Theodora) under the direction of Ivor Bolton at the Salzburg Festival and as Idamante in Luc Bondy’s production of Idomeneo conducted by Jesús López-Cobos at the Teatro Real in Madrid; she has also recorded the latter role for harmonia mundi with René Jacobs. She gives song recitals in the principal European and American musical centres. Bernarda Fink has taken part in more than 50 recordings.
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Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin & Xenia Löffler – C.P.E. Bach: Oboe Concertos (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:10 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
The Berlin public of the mid-Eighteenth Century was fascinated by the ‘original genius’ of C. P. E. Bach and never tired of listening to his concertos.
These works call for a talented soloist capable of mastering the multiple facets of an original and finely worked musical texture: a challenge taken up with panache (and on a period instrument) by the oboist Xenia Löffler, surrounded by her distinguished colleagues of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.
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Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs – Pergolesi: Septem verba a Christo (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:20:28 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Now attributed to Pergolesi on the basis of recent research, the ‘Seven Words of Christ’ has been regarded as ‘one of the most heartfelt works of art, full of profound tenderness and an all-conquering sense of beauty’ [Hermann Scherchen, on its discovery in 1930]. However, his judgment has remained unheeded and only the discovery of two more manuscripts in the abbeys of Kremsmünster and Aldersbach, by the musicologist Reinhard Fehling, prompted the firm of Breitkopf & Härtel to publish a critical edition.
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Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin & Justin Doyle – Handel: Messiah, HWV 56 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:14:25 minutes | 1,41 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
The RIAS Kammerchor Berlin and its chief conductor Justin Doyle present Handel’s Messiah, together with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and an all-British quartet of outstanding soloists, consisting of Julia Doyle (soprano), Tim Mead (countertenor), Thomas Hobbs (tenor) and Roderick Williams (bass). Messiah (1742) is not only Handel’s most famous work, but equally one of the cornerstones of British choral culture. Over the years, a tradition of mass performances full of pomp and circumstance took root, with the Hallelujah as a showstopper. This new period-instruments recording, however, aims to bring the piece back to the size and intimacy of the earliest performances.
The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin has a substantial PENTATONE discography, including Handel’s Concerti grossi Op. 6 and Op. 3, (released in 2019 and 2020), Telemann’s opera Miriways (2019) and CANTATA with Bejun Mehta (2018). The RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, Justin Doyle, Julia Doyle, Tim Mead, Thomas Hobbs and Roderick Williams all make their PENTATONE debut.
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Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Bernhard Forck – Handel: Concerti grossi, Op. 6 Nos. 1-6 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:53 minutes | 1,37 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
The Akademie für Alte Musik reveals its performance of Handel’s first six concertos from Opus 6 in true chamber music spirit, which sometimes brings Handel’s universe closer to that of his continental counterpart, Georg Philipp Telemann, whose work has often been played and recorded by the Berlin ensemble musicians (including several indispensable albums for the French label Harmonia Mundi). For this magnificently recorded first part of their Handel trilogy, which includes the two opuses 3 and 6, recorded in the Nikodemuskirche in Berlin between September 2018 and February 2019, the Akademie für Alte Musik paints rich, striking colours (already showcased in their album Water Music) while remaining attentive to polyphonies and phrasing. This record is a real pleasure throughout, and perhaps even more compelling than their recent album Water Music. – Pierre-Yves Lascar
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Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin & Bernhard Forck – Händel: 12 Concerti grossi, Op. 6 Nos. 7-12 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:20:13 minutes | 1,50 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
This second volume of Handel’s Concerti grossi from Opus 6 was recorded by the Akademie für Alte Musik in Berlin under the direction of Bernhard Frock, completing the first part published in July 2019. Once again, the sound recording is magnificently natural, brilliantly capturing the venue’s spatiality and the instruments’ full-bodied timbres.
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Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and Bernhard Forck – Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 ‘Pastoral’ (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:12 minutes | 1,15 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
The almost encyclopedic undertaking that French label harmonia mundi has embarked on to celebrate the double anniversary of the birth and death of Beethoven between 2020 and 2027 has already proven itself to be captivating with its emphasis on contemporary works from the start of the 19th century. It also presents us with a version of Beethoven in direct contact with the works of his own era, a step away from the usual romanticised image of the solitary genius in his ivory tower.
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Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin – Mozart: Gran Partita – Wind Serenades K. 361 & 375 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:45 minutes | 1,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
When Mozart took up the popular genre of the serenade, it was to transcend it and lend it new lustre. A festive masterpiece of simplicity and emotion, his Gran Partita quickly became a genuine ‘hit’! Thanks to the distinctive, spellbinding timbres of their period instruments, the members of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin give a unique flavour to these two extraordinary serenades, over which there blows – as it were – a tremendous wind of freedom.
Blazers van de Akademie für Alte Musik hebben Mozarts serenades nr 10 (KV361) beter bekend als “Gran Partita” en nr. 11 (K.375) opgenomen. Beide werken worden uitgevoerd op authentieke instrumenten. Met name de luchtige “Gran Partita” werd in Mozarts tijd een ware hit. Zelfs tot op de dag van vandaag is dit werk nog steeds geliefd is én is het regelmatig op verschillende podia te horen.
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Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Sophie Karthäuser – Bach: Dialogkantaten, BWV 32, 49 & 57 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:36 minutes | 1,19 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Exquisite dialogue The church cantata very quickly came to occupy a privileged place in Bach’s output, but it was in his Leipzig period that he explored new stylistic possibilities for the genre in several cycles. The third of these, mostly scored for relatively small forces, features in these Dialogkantaten three fine examples of the ‘madrigalian’ type: in their arias, recitatives and chorales, the composer deploys a poetry that does not exclude audacity and an eloquence worthy of opera. These fervent musical conversations are here conducted con brio thanks to the rapport between two singers as moving as they are inspired.
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Aka Moon – Opus 111 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:12:59 minutes | 813 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Outhere
In addition to being one of Beethovens most emblematic works, the Piano Sonata no.32 op.111 (1821-22) is a manifesto of radical modernity. It begins the process of disintegration of sonata form, a formal pillar for any composer of the preceding century, and introduces in its second movement a new method of constructing the musical phrase, to such an extent that some commentators regard it as marking the first stirrings of jazz. The innovations it presented, particularly in the field of rhythm, left most of the composers contemporaries perplexed. Here is an ideal space for the Aka Moon trio to occupy. It has called on three strong musical personalities for the occasion: the singer Fredy Massamba, who contributes his expressive power as an African storyteller; the rising star of the Portuguese accordion João Barradas, who adds a flavor of urban modernity with the added feature of playing both acoustic and electronic instruments; and the pianist Fabian Fiorini, a longstanding partner of the trio, who acts as the mirror musician for Beethovens sonata. It is through this nexus of meanings with multiple resonances that Fabrizio Cassol approaches Beethovens sonata, synchronizing emotional spaces that rise above periods, cultures and social or aesthetic viewpoints.
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Aka Moon, Fabrizio Cassol, Michel Hatzigeorgiou, Stéphane Galland – Now (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 51:54 minutes | 606 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Outhere
Since the group was founded 25 years ago, the career of Aka Moon has been punctuated by a myriad of original musical encounters. After their initiatory journey with the Aka Pygmies in 1992, an unappeased desire has always nourished the research of the three accomplices: the wish to share the knowledge, experience and secrets of other musicians from all backgrounds. Today, the necessity of the original trio is again expressed in NOW with the exceptional playing quality that has been acquired and refned over the course of numerous concerts. For although Aka Moon was undeniably born with a unique sound, the group has always made it evolve, absorbing, in particular, rhythms from the Orient, Africa or India.
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AJR – Neotheater (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 44:25 minutes | 515 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Black Butter
AJR is an American indie pop band composed of multi-instrumentalist brothers Adam, Jack and Ryan Met. The band is a DIY pop group who write, produce and mix their own material in the living room of their Chelsea apartment. Their top 5 successful songs include “Weak”, “Turning Out”, “100 Bad Days”, “Burn the House Down” and “Sober Up”. Their music style has been described as “electric”, combining elements of pop, doo-wop, electronic, and dubstep.The band name “AJR” comes from the first initials of the three brothers, Adam, Jack, and Ryan.
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