Greg Chako – Christmas Time (Live In Izu Nagaoka) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:01:50 minutes | 716 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mint 400 Records
In a pro career spanning 40 years and five countries, USA guitarist Greg Chako has released 14 albums and been the subject of a documentary called, “An American Cat in the Lion City.” He lived in the Far East for 17 years, where he evolved into a masterful, expressive composer with rich story telling abilities. His style merges Mainstream, Hard Bop, Latin & World music.
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Florian Ziemen – Gustave Adolphe Kerker: The Belle of New York (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:06:39 minutes | 2,28 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CPO
The most difficult thing about an operetta is finding an effective title, Gustave Adolphe Kerker once claimed. Although this was not meant seriously, it is not so far-fetched – after all, anyone who has to struggle to invent melodies has no business in the light genre. born in Herford in Westphalia in 1854, taken to the USA by his parents at the age of ten and rising to become one of Broadway’s most famous personalities, Kerker was indeed a paragon of ideas that only needed to be combined with a turbulent plot. Take: The Belle of New York (1897), which got off to a very slow start there, conquered London’s West End with almost 700 performances, became a model of “musical comedy” and has remained so to this day. The Theater für Niedersachsen, which became Broadway with “The Belle of New York”, always receives rapturous applause.
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Fernando De Luca – Dufour: Pièces de Clavecin (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 02:26:38 minutes | 1,57 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Brilliant Classics
The Pièces de Clavecin by Pierre-Thomas Dufour (ca. 1721-1786) are a remarkable collection of keyboard music from the Baroque period. Composed in the 18th century, the works bear witness to Dufour’s exceptional talent as a harpsichordist and composer. The collection consists of a number of captivating works, including dances (including court dances) and works with titles such as La Majestueuse, La Triomphante and Les Scithes, which epitomize the elegance and complexity of French Baroque music. Dufour’s Pièces de Clavecin are characterized by their ornate embellishments, graceful melodies and intricate counterpoint. With their delicate phrasing and ornamentation, which lend nuances and expression to the music, they bear witness to the cultivated musical taste of the time. The soloist is Fernando De Luca, one of Italy’s most important harpsichordists, who has released the complete recordings of the piano works by Graupner (BC 96131) and Moyreau (BC 96285) on Brilliant Classics to great acclaim. His recording of the works of Jollage (BC 96773) received 5 stars in the French magazine Diapason.
TRACKLIST
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Fay Claassen – Christmas Time Is Here (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 43:32 minutes | 417 MB | Genre: Vocal Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © JazzJazz
A Christmas album full of wonderful classics interpreted by the two top Dutch artists Fay Claassen and Cor Bakker, as a CD in a digipack with a 12-page booklet on JazzJazz. Christmas, the time of festivity, hope and warmth in the company of loved ones. A time for family and togetherness, when intimacy and contemplation are important.
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Dominik Schürmann Ensemble – The Seagull’s Serenade (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 49:13 minutes | 600 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © iMusician | Dominik Schürmann
Dominik Schurmann has referenced a lot of jazz history. There’s swing, bebop, the cool school, jazz/funk, latin, and the jazz ballad. It’s all there in The Seagull’s Serenade.
Having released seven co-produced albums under his own name in the last three years alone, prolific Swiss bassist Dominik Schürmann’s discography is a testament to his passion and skill for jazz. His large ensemble debut ‘The Seagull’s Serenade’ is set to release on the 1st of December.
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Dmitry Yablonsky – Casals, Cassadó & Mompou: Catalan Cello Works (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 19:23 minutes | 359 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
The cello was a vital part of Catalan musical expression in the first half of the 20th century. Pablo Casals as composer and cello virtuoso was its revolutionary force, and his student Gaspar Cassadó joined him in writing superb transcriptions and expressive original works with a strong sense of tradition and national melodic flavour.
Read moreCyrille Dubois, Anne Le Bozec – Schubert: Winterreise (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]
Cyrille Dubois, Anne Le Bozec – Schubert: Winterreise (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:13 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © NoMadMusic
Schubert’s Winterreise, an absolute masterpiece of the lieder repertoire, is brought to life here by tenor Cyrille Dubois and pianist Anne Le Bozec, two performers at the height of their powers. This album, recorded under the special conditions of a harsh winter (during the Corona pandemic in 2021), brings back the painful introspection of the wanderer, all about inwardness and solitude.
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Carlo Vistoli – Cavalli: Xerse (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:32:31 minutes | 3,00 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Francesco Cavalli succeeded Monteverdi as the most influential composer of the new genre of opera that emerged in mid-17th-century Venice. Il Xerse is a fictitious dramma per musica that tells of Persian King Xerxes’ love for Romilda, who in turn is in love with his brother Arsamene. The plot is an entertaining and extremely intricate human comedy of crossed loves, court intrigues and disguises – the work’s popularity saw it staged in Paris at the wedding of Louis XIV and Maria Theresa of Spain. Since overshadowed by Handel’s later Xerxes, this Martina Franca production is the first in modern times.
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Anne Vanschothorst – That I Did Always Love: An Ode to Emily Dickinson for Harp in a Soundscape (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 50:23 minutes | 814 MB | Genre: Classical, Poetry, Spoken Word
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Big Round Records
Composer and Harpist Anne Vanschothorst’s music has been described as innovative, minimal, lyrical, cinematic, and touching yet intense. The same rings true in THAT I DID ALWAYS LOVE, the artist’s musical ode to the great American poet Emily Dickinson. Featuring seven of the poet’s works set to music, Vanschothorst fosters an intimate listening space where two art forms reach a soothing synthesis, amplifying the elegance of Dickinson’s texts with the graceful nature of the harp, a perfect pairing.
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Vincent Kennedy, RTÉ Concert Orchestra with Mark Redmond – Vincent Kennedy: Music of People and Place (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:23:47 minutes | 865 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Navona
Composer Vincent Kennedy and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra bring MUSIC OF PEOPLE AND PLACE to Navona Records. Selected from some of his most beloved works and inspired by the people, mysticism, mythology, history, and landscapes of his native Ireland, this album is a rich collection of 19 stories, each appealing to the human spirit with sublime performances by the superb musicians of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
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Vaclav Smetacek, Prague Philharmonic Choir & Prague Symphony Orchestra – Dvořák: Saint Ludmila, Op. 71 by Václav Smetáček (Remastered) (1963/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:17:04 minutes | 2,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alexandre Bak – Classical Music Reference Recording
Antonín Dvořák composed his oratorio Saint Ludmila for soloists, choir and orchestra, between September 1885 and May 1886. The oratorio (Op. 71, B. 144) was written to a text by the leading Czech poet and writer Jaroslav Vrchlický. Saint Ludmila is Dvořák’s third oratorio, and is considered one of his foremost works.
Read moreThe Verona Quartet – Ligeti: Complete String Quartets (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]
The Verona Quartet – Ligeti: Complete String Quartets (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 57:19 minutes | 926 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Dynamic
This album presents the complete works Ligeti composed for string quartet between 1950 and 1968. The two numbered string quartets are predated by a lyrical early Andante and Allegretto, the folk-music inflections of which pre-echo the hints of Bartok in the first quartet, Metamorphoses nocturnes. The calculated anarchy, dynamic extremes and sublime atmospheres of the Second Quartet present Ligeti at his most distinctive. These spectacular works are performed here by the Verona Quartet, firmly established as one of the most distinguished ensembles on the chamber music scene today.
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Takahiro Yoshikawa – Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 “Appassionata” (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 23:47 minutes | 408 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ypsilon International
Takahiro Yoshikawa (吉川 隆弘, Yoshikawa Takahiro) is a Japanese classical pianist. He is a regular piano soloist at La Scala, Italy’s leading opera house.
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 (colloquially known as the Appassionata, meaning “passionate” in Italian) is among the three famous piano sonatas of his middle period (the others being the Waldstein, Op. 53 and Les Adieux, Op. 81a); it was composed during 1804 and 1805, and perhaps 1806, and was dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick. The first edition was published in February 1807 in Vienna.
Unlike the early Sonata No. 8, Pathétique, the Appassionata was not named during the composer’s lifetime, but was so labelled in 1838 by the publisher of a four-hand arrangement of the work. Instead, Beethoven’s autograph manuscript of the sonata has “La Passionata” written on the cover, in Beethoven’s hand.
One of his greatest and most technically challenging piano sonatas, the Appassionata was considered by Beethoven to be his most tempestuous piano sonata until the twenty-ninth piano sonata (known as the Hammerklavier). 1803 was the year Beethoven came to grips with the irreversibility of his progressively deteriorating hearing.
An average performance of the entire Appassionata sonata lasts about twenty-five minutes.
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Svante Söderqvist, Calle Rasmusson, Adam Forkelid, Tuulikki Bartosik – The Rocket (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:14 minutes | 835 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Caprice
Much of the disturbing and terrible things that happen in the world are a starting point for Svante Söderqvist and his fellow musicians. The war in Ukraine, the climate crisis and the increasing polarization in society form a kind of relief in which music becomes an active counterforce. It is striking with what joy of playing the musicians take on the original compositions on the disc.
A trio consisting of Svante Söderqvist on double bass and cello, Adam Forkelid on piano and Calle Rasmusson on drums and percussion forms the backbone of the record. On some songs Tuulikki Bartosik is heard on accordion and Klas Lindquist on clarinet respectively. The bandmaster has succeeded in getting everyone to play at their best, it is a pleasure to take part in all the delicate and lustful efforts.
There is a feeling that everyone plays as if it were about life in the livelier songs as well as in the calmer ones. Melodious and captivating jazz on one of the year’s finest records.
Read moreRoman Babik & Atom String Quartet – Might Be Spring (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]
Roman Babik & Atom String Quartet – Might Be Spring (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 57:45 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Frutex Tracks
It is not new that jazz people sometimes make a foray into chamber music. Solo piano plus string quartet doesn’t really happen that often. What is the appeal of this connection? Let’s look at it this way: When the saxophonist or trumpeter plays their solo in a jazz quartet, the piano gives them a safe, inspiring sound chamber in which they can develop freely. And what does the pianist do if he wants to play in such a sound chamber? The best thing he can do is go on a journey with a string quartet. But, correctly, in this case it is the pianist who went on the journey. Roman Babik traveled to Warsaw with his Bully and was in the studio there for two days with the Atom String Quartet. The result is finally available in this great and very special album.
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