Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Pique Dame – Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Mariss Jansons (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 02:48:30 minutes | 1.51 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: Q0buz | @ BRmedia Service GmbH
Recorded: München, Philharmonie im Gasteig, 04.-13.10.2014

Mariss Jansons leads the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunkson on this live triple-album set, recorded in October 2014 in Munich at a semi-staged performance of Tchaikovsky’s late masterpiece Pique Dame (“The Queen of Spades”), a crime novel set to music. Jansons maintains the orchestra’s long tradition of presenting operas and assembled a group of singers for this performance, sung in the original Russian, who are all native speakers of the language and very familiar with the work.

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Giuseppe Verdi – Aida – Jonas Kaufmann, Anja Harteros, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 2:25:46  minutes | 2.39 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: highresaudio.com | @ Warner Classics
Recorded at the Sala Santa Cecilia, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, II.2015

This magnificent recording of Aida, made in Rome, rises to all the musical and dramatic challenges presented by Verdi’s richly-coloured Egyptian epic. Antonio Pappano, once again proving his mastery of Italian opera, moves between sumptuous grandeur and touching intimacy. The responses of the Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia are both immediate and vibrant, while the singers – Anja Harteros, Jonas Kaufmann, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Ludovic Tézier and Erwin Schrott – do justice to every facet of their roles.

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Antonio Vivaldi – Les Quatre saisons – Theo Bleckmann, Uri Caine, Aitor Hevia, Forma Antiqva, Aaron Zapico (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 00:52:57 minutes | 1.06 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: Q0buz | @ Winter & Winter

Aaron Zapico et Forma Antiqua interprètent les Quatre Saisons de Vivaldi avec une approche entièrement neuve, excitante, sensuelle, qui revivifie la partition et l’enrichit d’impressions nouvelles. Zapico et ses musiciens de l’ensemble baroque Forma Antiqua invitent à redécouvrir les éléments caractéristiques (éclairs, le soleil brûlant ou le bourgeonnement printanier…) que dépeint cette oeuvre si célèbre. Theo Bleckmann et Uri Caine rejoignent l’ensemble en parallèle pour donner le premier enregistrement mondial des Sonnets des Quatre Saisons, pendant de l’oeuvre de Vivaldi sous forme de film sonore fécond. Le peintre Marcel van Eeden a créé 8 nouveaux dessins correspondant à chacun de ces épisodes.

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Robert Schumann – Frauenliebe und Leben, Liederkreis – Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Geoffrey Parsons (1974/2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 45:18 minutes | 788 MB  | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download  | Source: e-onkyo | @ EMI Classics
Recorded: April 1974, Berlin

The daughter of a teacher, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf began to study voice in 1934 at the Berliner Musikhochschule with Lula Mysz-Gmeiner and with Maria Ivogun. She also studied lieder interpretation with Michael Raucheisen, Ivogun’s husband. In 1938, Schwarzkopf debuted in Berlin as a Flower Maid in Parsifal. She remained in Berlin until 1944 when she joined the Vienna State Opera making her debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. Her first international appearances were in 1947 at London with the Vienna State Opera on tour as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Marzelline in Fidelio. She became a regular guest at Covent Garden. That same year she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival and she appeared there nearly every year until 1964. At Salzburg she was best known for her Mozart roles of Donna Elvira, Countess in Le nozze di Figaro and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, but also had great success as Alice Ford in Falstaff and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. Her recitals with Gerald Moore as accompanist at Salzburg were always highly regarded, but in 1953 the great conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler accompanied her in an all Wolf recital. Her Teatro alla Scala debut in 1949 as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro was a great success and she sang there until 1964 in a variety of roles including Melisande, Carmina burana, Catulli Carmina, and Il Trionfo of Orff, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Elsa in Lohengrin, Anne in The Rake’s Progress, Iole in Handel’s Hercules, as well as her Mozart and Strauss roles. She made her San Francisco Opera debut in 1955, but did not sing at the Metropolitan Opera until 1964. Her belated debut there is attributed to her ties to the National Socialist regime in Germany and Austria.

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Franz Schubert – Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8 – Wiener Symphoniker, Philippe Jordan (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:57 minutes | 1,13 GB  | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download  | Source: e-onkyo | @ Wiener Symphoniker
Recorded: Vienna, Musikverein 15/16 November 2014 (Unfinished), 11/12 April 2015 (The Great)

New on Wiener Symphoniker this release comprises Schubert’s two greatest and much loved symphonies: Nos 8 and 9. It is worth pointing out that the cover of this release describes the symphonies as No. 7 Unfinished and No. 8 The Great using the numbering of the revised Deutsch catalogue and the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe (New Schubert Edition) complete catalogue of works mainly used today in Austria and Germany.

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Franz Schubert – Song Recital – Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Edwin Fischer (1952/2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 42:49 minutes | 404 MB  | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download  | Source: e-onkyo | @ EMI Classics
Recorded: 4-7/10/1952, Abbey Road Studio No. 1A, London, UK

The daughter of a teacher, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf began to study voice in 1934 at the Berliner Musikhochschule with Lula Mysz-Gmeiner and with Maria Ivogun. She also studied lieder interpretation with Michael Raucheisen, Ivogun’s husband. In 1938, Schwarzkopf debuted in Berlin as a Flower Maid in Parsifal. She remained in Berlin until 1944 when she joined the Vienna State Opera making her debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. Her first international appearances were in 1947 at London with the Vienna State Opera on tour as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Marzelline in Fidelio. She became a regular guest at Covent Garden. That same year she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival and she appeared there nearly every year until 1964. At Salzburg she was best known for her Mozart roles of Donna Elvira, Countess in Le nozze di Figaro and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, but also had great success as Alice Ford in Falstaff and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. Her recitals with Gerald Moore as accompanist at Salzburg were always highly regarded, but in 1953 the great conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler accompanied her in an all Wolf recital. Her Teatro alla Scala debut in 1949 as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro was a great success and she sang there until 1964 in a variety of roles including Melisande, Carmina burana, Catulli Carmina, and Il Trionfo of Orff, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Elsa in Lohengrin, Anne in The Rake’s Progress, Iole in Handel’s Hercules, as well as her Mozart and Strauss roles. She made her San Francisco Opera debut in 1955, but did not sing at the Metropolitan Opera until 1964. Her belated debut there is attributed to her ties to the National Socialist regime in Germany and Austria.

(more…)