Los Angeles Philharmonic, John Adams – John Adams: Girls of the Golden West (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:06:47 minutes | 2,55 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch
‘Girls of the Golden West’ is a California opera, telling the story of the Gold Rush not through familiar time-worn myth, but in the words and deeds of real people: in the words of Mark Twain, ‘the strangest population, the finest population… who ever trooped down the startled solitudes of an unpeopled land’.
Read more
Loïc Mallie – Messiaen: Livre du Saint Sacrement (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:57:15 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © HORTUS
For his opera Messiaen turned to Saint Francis, the saint sharing the most traits with the figure of Christ. He then chose for his last grand organ cycle the mystery of the Eucharist, in which all the mysteries connected with his faith in Christ are summed up. The improvisation that follows the work is in a sense an homage to “Messiaen as improviser”, considering how crucial this aspect of his career as a composer/organist was. Loïc Mallié, a former student of Olivier Messiaen, performs here at the Master’s organ.
Read more
Leonore Piano Trio, Orchestra Nova, George Vass – Watkins: Chamber Music and Works for String Orchestra (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:11:25 minutes | 2,50 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Resonus Classics
Widely recognised as the leading Welsh composer of his generation, Huw Watkins is an increasingly prolific writer of works for chamber ensembles, alongside his distinguished career as a pianist. Composed between 2009 and 2022, the five works featured on this disc take the listener on a fascinating journey through Watkins’s recent musical evolution. The acclaimed Leonore Piano Trio begin with the earliest of these works – the 2009 Piano Trio No. 1 – whilst conductor George Vass’s Orchestra Nova brings us the Little Symphony for strings and exquisite Concertino for violin and strings, performed here by trio violinist Benjamin Nabarro.
The trio is joined by violist Rachel Roberts for Watkins’ luminous Piano Quartet, while the programme concludes with the 2022 Piano Trio No. 2 – written for the fortieth anniversary of the Presteigne Festival and premiered there by the Leonore Piano Trio.
Read more
Jordan Bak & Richard Uttley – Cantabile: Anthems for Viola (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:19 minutes | 1,03 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Delphian Records
The Jamaican–American violist Jordan Bak has already achieved international acclaim for his radiant stage presence, dynamic interpretations and fearless power.
In his Delphian debut,joined by the outstanding pianist Richard Uttley, he offers powerful readings of two substantial twentieth-century works – Arnold Bax’s Sonata for Viola and Piano and Benjamin Britten’s Lachrymae: Reflections on a song of John Dowland, written respectively for Lionel Tertis and William Primrose – and sets them alongside more recent music for solo viola by Jonathan Harvey and Bright Sheng.
The viola’s capacity for deeply felt, wordless song is further explored in Augusta Read Thomas’s Song without Words, receiving its premiere recording in a version specially composed for Bak and Uttley.
Read more
Ian Shaw & Tony Kofi – An Adventurous Dream – the Music of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:06:49 minutes | 742 MB | Genre: Vocal Jazz, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PX Records
An Adventurous Dream – the Music of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington At PizzaExpress Live in London is a recording made by Ian Shaw (vocals), Tony Kofi (alto saxophone), Barry Green (piano) and Dave Green (bass) for PX Records, PizzaExpress’ own label dedicated to fine live recordings from London venues in Soho, Holborn and Chelsea.
Read more
Daniel Johannsen, Samantha Gaul, Klaus Simon – Wolff: Complete Songs, Vol. 1 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:17 minutes | 1,08 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Erich J. Wolff’s name will be unfamiliar to many but in the 1920s an authoritative reference book on popular art song ranked his compositions fourth, behind Hugo Wolf, Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. The first volume in this series of Wolff’s Complete Songs introduces a composer of astonishing gifts whose Romanticism is as daring as his formal sophistication. Wolff’s songs are lyrical, serene and full of melodic beauty, coupled with piano writing that is both virtuosic and atmospheric.
Read more
Claudio Cruz – Corbani: Tarde de Outono & Other Songs (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 37:52 minutes | 938 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Azul Music
he began his musical career studying with his parents, luthier João Cruz and Janette Sanchez Cruz at the age of 8, having as his first instrument of study: the piano. At the age of 10 he began to learn to play the violin. He studied violin in Brazil with Erich Lenninger and Maria Vichnia. Subsequently, he participated in master classes and classes with Kenneth Goldsmith (USA), Chaim Taub (Israel) and with Joseph Gingold (USA). He studied theory, harmony, counterpoint and conducting with Prof. Dr. George Olivier Toni.
Read more
Céu – Novela (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 38:30 minutes | 424 MB | Genre: MPB, MPB, Soul, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Urban Jungle records
Through no fault of her own, many English-language listeners first encountered the São Paulo singer and songwriter Céu and her music in the ‘00s while waiting in line for their morning coffee. Among the first artists to earn international sales through the power of Starbucks’ point-of-sale CD kiosks, Céu’s early work through Six Degrees Records—heavy post-trip-hop Brazilian beat music built for the dance floor—became a ubiquitous soundtrack for the morning routine, whether in Asbury Park, Finsbury Park or greater Tuscaloosa.
Read more
Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko – Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 35:55 minutes | 629 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings
The music of Rachmaninoff is of “enormous significance” to Kirill Petrenko. In it, he finds his “musical home”. His third edition together with the Berliner Philharmoniker is dedicated to the Russian composer, the 150th anniversary of whose birth was celebrated in 2023. It presents four key works: the Second Symphony, the Piano Concerto No. 2 and The Isle of the Dead – Rachmaninoff regularly performed them together until his emigration in 1917 – and the Symphonic Dances, which the composer wrote shortly before his death. As a tribute to Rachmaninoff, the recordings are released on 2 CDs and Blu-ray in a hardcover box with an accompanying book designed by photo artist Thomas Struth, and in-depth introductory texts.
Read more
Ben Sidran – Rainmaker (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 42:51 minutes | 853 MB | Genre: Vocal Jazz, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bonsaï Music
The original idea for Rainmaker was to throw a party in a Paris recording studio in honor of my 80th birthday. I saw it as a way to celebrate the survival of so many things, including myself, a life without borders, and my friendship with so many musicians abroad.
I imagined that it would be a blues record, so I began by writing some original blues songs and revisiting some of my favorite classic blues too. But as often happens, what we discover is not necessarily what we were looking for, and in this case I found myself writing songs that felt dystopian, not all of them traditional blues forms, and not what you might imagine as “party music”.
But by the time we finished recording at Studio de Meudon with new and old friends from America and France, the record had found its own sound. Somewhere between tragic and celebratory, shaggy and polished, broken and healed, I guess you could say that Rainmaker really is all about surviving in the modern world.
Read more
Ben Goldberg – Plague Diary Selections, Vol. 4 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:21:42 minutes | 417 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BAG Production Records
Ben Goldberg is an American clarinet player and composer. In the early 1990s, Ben Goldberg performed alongside electric bassist Dan Seamans and percussionist Kenny Wollesen as the New Klezmer Trio. They went on to produce three albums and the free improvisation on “Masks and Faces” was described as having “kicked open the door for radical experiments with Ashkenazi roots music.” Goldberg’s musicality has influenced and inspired local musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Goldberg is also the founder of the music label BAG Production.
Read more
Bart Bryant – Backstage II (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 49:52 minutes | 571 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © HMG Recordings
Guitarist/vocalist Bart Bryant delivers reliably on inspired-sounding renditions of gems such as Little Johnny Taylor’s “If You Love Me Like You Say” and the Willie Dixon-penned, Otis Rush-popularized “I Can’t Quit You Baby”. The Connecticut-based Mr. B adds creative ballast to his current offering with impressive song crafting of his own, particularly the slow blues “Past the Pain” and a disarming ballad side-trip, “Out of This Blue”. The horn charts add consistent punch and spice to the rock-solid backup present. Good, good stuff.
Read more
Andy Milne, Unison – Time Will Tell (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:38 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sunnyside
Pianist and composer, Andy Milne is thrilled to present Time Will Tell, a new album recorded with his trio Unison dropping April 26, 2024, on Sunnyside Records. Milne’s latest collaboration with bassist John Hébert and drummer Clarence Penn is a sparkling exploration of identity and destiny, showcasing Milne’s ever- evolving craft. It follows the trio’s The ReMission (2020), winner of Jazz Album of the Year: Group at the 2021 Juno Awards.
Read more