banner image
Home page
11/02/08 Gianni Raimondi, the great Italian tenor, died on Sunday October 19, at the age of 85. In the 1950s and 60s, he was one of the leading singers at La Scala, where he shared many operatic roles with the likes of Maria Callas and other leading opera stars of that period. He left us with few recordings, but one of the more famous ones is the Traviata, featuring Scotto and Bastianini on DG, from 1962. {Gramophone}

11/02/08 Hyperion Records have just issued their brand new 2009 full-colour printed catalogue, which lists all the available Hyperion and Helios recordings, with detailed info and cover graphics of each and every title. It is available now at all fine classical music retail outlets, and you can also request a free copy via the Hyperion website. {Sentinel}

11/02/08 The complete string quartets of Sir Michael Tippett will be available on CD and as downloads from the Naxos record label. Recorded by the Tippett Quartet and collected into two volumes, volume 1, which includes the 1st, 2nd and 4th quartet, is available now whilst volume two has a planned released date in the second half of 2009.

Tippett’s five sting quartets span his entire career. No. 1, which was composed in 1935 and revised in 1944, marked the beginning of his creative maturity whilst his 5th string quartet, which was completed in 1991, was one of his final works. {Schott News}

11/02/08 The celebrated pianist Van Cliburn achieved legendary status overnight after winning the First International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958. A landmark DVD series marks the first time that Cliburn’s performances on Russian television have been made available to the international public. Volume 4 is the first to present Cliburn in solo recital, featuring three works that figured largely in his repertoire: Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Handel, Op. 24, Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82, and Rachmaninoff’s Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 36 (the original 1913 version). Performances from 1960 and 1972. This Volume 4 has just recently hit store shelves, but all 4 volumes are now available in retail outlets and online. {Sentinel}

11/02/08 Florent Schmitt's Piano Quintet is considered, in some circles, to be one of the best examples or French chamber music of the 20th century. It is a large scale work, recognized for its difficulties and, textual and textural richness. Timpani Records are releasing a new recording of this important work in November, with Christian Ivaldi and the Stanislas Quartet. {Sentinel}

11/02/08 Reference Recordings' Technical Director Keith O. Johnson was presented a Silver Medal by the Audio Engineering Society at the 125th AES convention in San Francisco, California. The award is "For outstanding contributions sustained over 40 years, to the advancement of audio quality of recordings through innovation in the areas of analog and digital recording technology, transducers and music recording techniques." Congratulations to "Prof." Johnson for this lifetime achievement award! {Reference}

09/20/08 EMI Classics have just announced a new 5 year contract renewal with Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, which means they have extended their mutual recording relationship and partnership until at least the end of 2013. All parties involved in the deal were pleased to know that they could now look forward to more of the highest standards of music making and recording that everyone had been producing since the beginning. In March 2009, Ravel's "L'enfant et les sortileges", will be the first new release from this extended partnership. {Sentinel}

Top of page

09/20/08 Johannes Brahms's cycle on Soli Deo Gloria will begin with the first release in October 2008.

SDG is proud to be releasing the first disc in a new series that sees John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique explore the music of Johannes Brahms.

The recordings from this series are drawn from Gardiner's two-year Brahms and his Antecedents project which is in two parts. The first segment of the project, featuring the first two symphonies and the German Requiem, began in October 2007 and included two concerts at the newly reopened Royal Festival Hall. The second part of the project featuring the 3rd and 4th symphonies - also in a historical and vocal context - will take place in September/October 2008.

This exciting new recording combines the large-scale vigour, drama and passion of Brahms with the expert musicianship and authentic approach that has come to be expected of John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir and his superb Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique.

Unique to this recording is the way in which Brahms' Symphony is set within its historical and vocal context. As Gardiner explains:

"When we approach Brahms nowadays the temptation is to concentrate exclusively on his orchestral output - the overtures, concertos and symphonies - and replicate a safe 'meat-and-two-veg' approach. But the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that a worthwhile approach would be to juxtapose his symphonies with vocal music - music which Brahms himself cherished (studied, edited and conducted) - and so to set them in a historical Brahms-specific context rather presenting an encyclopaedic survey of all his orchestral output".

For this project, Gardiner not only explores Brahms musical origins but he attempts to reveal the very sounds which inspired him. Such authenticity has been sought by using instruments favoured by the composer. Valveless natural horns, for instance, give exactly the right flavour to the haunting, valley-resounding alphorn theme in the finale of the First Symphony.

This series is an important milestone for SDG heralding the development of the label beyond the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and the Renaissance choral repertoire which have so far dominated its catalogue.

Inside the same elegant packaging used for the Bach Cantatas CDs, the liner notes feature an in-depth conversation between John Eliot Gardiner and composer Hugh Wood. {Soli Deo Gloria - London}

09/20/08 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart it seems, is still releasing new music. A never before seen work of his was recently found in the library archives in the town of Nantes. It was then scrutinized by the International Mozarteum Foundation and found to be authentic, due to Mozart's unique handwriting. It is an incomplete piece of music, with only the melodic line seemingly finished, but with no instrumentation or harmony jotted down. Even so, auctioneers expect it might fetch upwards of $100,000.00 from serious collectors. {Sentinel}

09/20/08 Mauricio Kagel, the Argentinian avant-garde composer, passed away on September 18, 2008.

Kagel arrived in Cologne from his native Buenos Aires in 1957, and his Argentine heritage gave him a unique vantage point. Not for him unyielding respect for the serial principles being discussed like a new religion: Kagel had left Argentina to escape the post-Perón regime and wasn't about to snare himself in the middle of another mind-controlling system. In an early work like Transición II (1958-59), he deployed techniques that turned serial dogma against itself, shaking the system with randomly ordered pages and real-time recorded snippets that were then dropped back into the emerging montage.

As he matured, Kagel piled on jokes and satire with pointed intent; in doing so he alienated some earlier admirers who relished his subversive darkness, but perhaps felt uncomfortable about what Kagel's humour revealed about them. In our interview, Kagel stressed the sincerity of his humour: "If somebody tells me they want to produce boring music as a philosophical point of view I accept it - but the boringness must be interesting. In music there are many people who use seriousness only to stress how important they are as a composer or a conductor. However, with humour it becomes possible to express a wide spectrum of ideas."

Mauricio Kagel : Born December 24, 1931; Died : September 18, 2008. {Philip Clark - Gramophone}

09/15/08 The Michael Tilson Thomas Mahler cycle is coming closer and closer to completion. In October we will see the release of Das Lied von der Erde, which will leave only Symphony No. 8 to finish the series. Released on the San Francisco Symphony's own label, it has proven to be an impressive cycle right from the start, and hopefully will end with a flourish. {Sentinel}

Top of page

09/15/08 EMI and Virgin Classics present the following fall releases.

October sees the return of Emmanuel Pahud with a double-album of the Bach sonatas for flute and harpsichord together with Trevor Pinnock, Karl Jenkins with an album of concertos, playfully entitled "Quirk", a delightful recital disc from Chinese Soprano Liping Zhang, Quatuor Ebene with a programme of French string quartets, an album of Handel mad scenes by Joyce DiDonato with Christophe Rousset, Angela Gheorghiu with a collection of her greatest Puccini recordings, 10 new Gemini reissues, and box sets of the collected recordings of Rostropovich, Messiaen, 20th Century Masterpieces and Composers in Person.

In November and December the offerings are Bach Cantatas with Natalie Dessay and Emmanuelle Haim, David Fray with Bach Concertos, Diana Damrau Mozart Concert and Opera arias, Vivaldi Cello Concertos from Han-Na Chang, Tristan und Isolde from Barenboim on DVD, 10 more American Classics, 5 Barbara Hendricks reissues, The Art of the Countertenor, a Simon Rattle Porgy and Bess 20th Anniversary Edition and a Best of Libera album containing some new and rare tracks. {EMI}

09/15/08 Onyx Records have enlisted Stephen Kovacevich who has recorded Beethoven's Diabelli Variations and Bach's Partita no 4 for release in January 2009, while Nikolai Demidenko recorded Chopin's 24 Preludes and Sonata no 3 for release in October. ONYX is delighted to welcome these two master pianists to its fast-growing roster. {Onyx}

09/14/08 Alia Vox have announced a new series named "Heritage", which will include part of the Astrée-Auvidis catalogue that Jordi Savall and Montserrat Figueras recorded from the 1970s to the end of the 1990s with Hespèrion XX and La Capella Reial de Catalunya. The series will include about 70 titles, all re-mastered in SACD, and planned for release during the next few months.

The titles selected for this first Heritage series are sure to be a hit with all Savall enthusiasts, as they were no longer part of the catalogue and had become almost impossible to find. Savall fans and early music enthusiasts will no doubt be tempted not only by the sumptuous presentation of these re-releases, but also and more particularly by the re-mastering of the original tapes, the freshness, naturalness, sonority, depth and realism of which are perfectly captured in these SACD versions - qualities which were not always fully reflected in the earlier CDs.

The re-issues will cover composers like Morales, Monteverdi, Handel, Marais, Mozart and Couperin to name but a few, and of course famous performances of music from Medieval times like El Cant de la Sibil-la. {Alia Vox}

09/14/08 Analekta, the Quebec based label, are celebrating 20 years this year, and to celebrate that important milestone, have just released a limited-edition series of 20 of their best recordings. The series is simply titled Analekta - 20 Years, and all titles sport brightly colored covers and a lower selling price. Some of the highlights of the series are, for example, the James Ehnes-Bach Sonatas and Partitas, the Alain Lefèvre-Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition and the Marie-Nicole Lemieux-Brahms Lieder disc to name but a handful. {Analekta}

Top of page

09/14/08 Gimell Records' website, www.gimell.com, the specialist recording label for The Tallis Scholars, now offers Surround Sound Downloads in both the FLAC and WMA 24-bit Lossless formats. The Gimell website has enjoyed considerable success since launching a 'better-than-CD' Download service for Stereo recordings in 2007.

There are already a number of ways to listen to Surround Sound Downloads. The new breed of network-connected Hi-fi units, such as Denon's AVR-3808 Receiver, will stream these Downloads from your PC. If you own a DVD-Audio player and have a DVD Burner on your computer then you can use these Downloads to burn your own DVD-Audio discs. Many computers have a 5.1 Soundcard and will play Gimell's Surround Sound WMA Downloads using Windows Media Player.

The first Download available in this format is Gimell's stunning 2007 release of Allegri's Miserere and Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli. {Gimell}

09/14/08 Vernon Handley, one of the best-loved and most respected of British conductors, has died. Throughout his life he was a devoted champion of British repertoire, making some of the most intuitive and masterful recordings of works by Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Holst. It was also through Handley's tireless - and most importantly, convincing - advocacy that many will have first developed a love of composers such as Bliss, Finzi, Howells, Rubbra and Bridge. In fact, of Handley's 160 recordings, over 90 were of British music, including 87 works which had not been recorded before. His discography includes all the symphonies of Bax, Vaughan Williams, Stanford, Malcolm Arnold and Robert Simpson, and all the major works of Elgar. {Gramophone}

As a matter of fact, you have probably noticed that one of his more recent recordings, the Granville Bantock epic work Omar Khayyam is posted in the Throne room of this website.

Vernon Handley : Born November 11, 1930; Died September 10, 2008.

09/14/08 Paul Lewis, the young British pianist whose recordings are amongst Harmonia Mundi's best sellers, is one of only ten artists who have been shortlisted for Artist of the Year in this year's Gramophone Awards. In the August issue, Gramophone describes his Beethoven Piano Sonatas cycle as "one of the most highly prized recording marathons of recent years", and all four volumes in the series have received the accolade of Editor's Choice. The New York Times calls Mr. Lewis's playing in Volume 4, currently on Billboard's Top Classical Chart, "insightful and engrossing as ever." The now completed series has become a benchmark not to be missed. {Harmonia Mundi}

09/14/08 Dunedin Consort is continuing to receive recognition for their version of JS Bach's 'Matthew Passion (Bach's last performing version, c.1742)'. The Luxembourgian publication Pizzicato has presented the recording with a 'Supersonic Award'. Commenting on the authentic approach the Dunedins director John Butt takes they compliment the perfect balance between soloists, chorus and orchestra. This fantastic achievement adds to the numerous five-star and 'Disc of the Week' reviews which the group received upon the release of 'Matthew Passion'.

The opportune timing of this award inspires confidence in the next Dunedin Consort recording of Handel's 'Acis and Galatea' which is due for release in November 2008. Their second Handel recording - following their hugely successful Gramophone Award-winning version of 'Messiah' - promises to be a fantastic addition to their repertoire of recordings. {Linn Records}

09/14/08 Doctor Atomic, the much-anticipated DVD of the John Adams opera, will be released by Opus Arte on September 30/08. Directed by Peter Sellars and recorded live, the cast includes canadian baritone Gerald Finley as J. Robert Oppenheimer and soprano Jessica Rivera as Kitty Oppenheimer. Doctor Atomic is John Adams' and Peter Sellars' fifth work together in almost 20 years of collaboration. {Naxos}

Top of page