Editor's ChoicePrices shown exclude VAT. (UK tax is not payable for deliveries to United States.)
See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Breitkopf Edition, edited by J. Rifkin
“The ensemble is nigh perfect… the freshness with which they sing radiates joy throughout the entire score." Classic FM Magazine "The Dunedin Consort's exemplary singers produce virtuoso choruses that are theatrically charged, splendidly poised and exquisitely blended.” Gramophone The Dunedin Consort’s recording of Bach’s Mass in B Minor revisits the spectacular individual virtuosity that made the Messiah recording so successful. This is the premiere recording of the work in the new Breitkopf edition, edited by Joshua Rifkin, a leading thinker in authentic period performance, who fully endorses John Butt’s interpretation. Bach’s Mass capitalizes on the very essence of the group’s skills: skilled virtuosic choral performance coupled with outstanding, characterful solo singing. Bach’s Mass in B Minor is undoubtedly his most spectacular choral work and the Dunedin Consort’s single-voice performance enables a level of clarity and expression that is not traditionally a feature of modern choral performance. This recording features several soloists from the acclaimed recording of Bach’s Matthew Passion, which was named the BBC Music Magazine’s Benchmark. “[The] constantly changing texture makes us listen afresh to the beauty of Bach's astonishing vocal writing. It's a joy to hear the principal singers...working together as a chorus, moving like a precision machine, each line clear and uncluttered under John Butt's meticulous direction. A definitive recording.” The Observer, 23rd May 2010 “Butt opts for 10 solo voices, his liner notes justifying when lines should be sung by two voices and when by just the one...His performance is powerful and beautifully shaped” Sunday Times, 20th June 2010 *** “The Dunedin Consort's premiere recording of Joshua Rifkin's scholarly edition of Bach's B-minor Mass has many attractive features: the emphatic "k" that launches the first Kyrie (the orchestra sounding on the vowel), closely dovetailed counterpoint...and a calm but purposeful sense of narrative.” The Independent, 13th June 2010 “Surely no other recording of Bach’s B Minor Mass bounces along with such joy as this...Lots of clarity, too, partly thanks to the slimmed-down forces, featuring only ten voices ...no clouds cover the instrumental finesse in an interpretation that eschews weighty grandeur for light and smiling exultation.” The Times, 12th June 2010 **** “...the Dunedin Consort and Players are never perfunctory or merely dogmatic...Butt's insightful direction and scholarship, integrated with the Dundin's extremely accomplished instrumental playing and consort singing, amount to an enthralling and revelatory collective interpretation” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010 “Butt's players generate a lively sense of forward motion...No performance could better justify small-scale Bach than this convincing marriage of scholarship and inspiration.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 ***** “It's a performance full of air and lightness; the instrumental textures have a springing, dancing vitality, the voices are perfectly focused, and agile...overall this is a fascinating and hugely rewarding account of one of the imperishable masterpieces of the western musical tradition.” The Guardian, 22nd July 2010 **** “Butt’s direction is generally sound, sometimes inspired. The initial Kyrie deftly combines a measured, serious tread with vital buoyancy and momentum; the lively Cum Sancto Spiritu has terrific flair...The chief benefits of the one-to-a-part choir are agility and clarity, particularly welcome in the fiendishly complex fugues.” Graham Rogers, bbc.co.uk, 26th May 2010 | | | (also available to download from $21.00) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Volume 1
First of three individual releases which will incorporate the complete sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven (next releases likely to be in February and September 2011). Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien met whilst members of the BBC New Generation Artists scheme, immediately establishing a rapport which has brought them invitations from the world's leading recital halls, including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall and, especially, the Wigmore Hall. Writing about the duo in The Times, Geoff Brown stated that "these players have the potential to conquer the world”. Alina and Cedric played several of Beethoven’s violin sonatas together during the time when they were both participants in BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme, but it wasn’t until the beginning of October 2009 that they tackled the complete cycle. Thanks to a residency at Aldeburgh, they were able to concentrate on rehearsing these central pillars of the violin-andpiano repertoire for an entire week – ‘playing, talking, thinking, morning until evening, feeling the connections, the moods, the links between each sonata, each key’, Tiberghien explains. “The partnership here of Ibragimova and Tiberghien is a rare meeting of minds. Both understand that each has an equal part to play in this music. Both make sounds that are unfailingly beautiful and, equally important, clean and clear.” Sunday Times, 25th April 2010 **** “Spontaneous, impulsive, young and fresh, the violinist Ibragimova and the pianist Tiberghien make an electrifying partnership...the pair’s creativity in ducking and weaving, shaping phrases, surging with lyricism, brings multiple pleasures.” The Times, 8th May 2010 **** “This is very special...For all the thought that has clearly gone into [Ibragimova's] interpretations, nothing sounds contrived or overcultivated. Cédric Tiberghien is an ideal partner...his alert responsiveness to the finer nuances of Ibragimova's playing is one of the features that makes these performances so magnificently alive.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2010 ***** “These performances are brimful of life; there's a sense of joy and freedom...[Ibragimova and Tiberghien] have clearly thought about every phrase, every expression mark, with such detailed individuality as to banish routine performance...the sense of occasion, of living the music as it unfolds, is very strong.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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The first release in Valery Gergiev’s Rachmaninov Symphony cycle features a magnificent performance of the Second Symphony, recorded in September 2008 at the Barbican. Rachmaninov’s vast Second Symphony was composed when he was at the pinnacle of his careers as composer, pianist and conductor. Filled with emotion and brimming with beautiful melodies, it is a masterpiece and the epitome of the Romantic symphony. This recording will be followed by the First and Third Symphonies as well as the Symphonic Dances. Forthcoming releases include Stravinksy’s Oedipus Rex and Les Noces on the Mariinsky label. Later in the year Gergiev conducts music by Debussy and Ravel on LSO Live and Wagner’s Parsifal also on Mariinsky. Gergiev conducts a Stravinsky festival with the New York Philharmonic in late April, before conducting the LSO in London, Dublin and Germany during May. Concert reviews: “performance of edge-of-the-seat exhilaration ... This time it was Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 2 that brought out Gergiev’s magisterial best” The Guardian “The LSO’s sound had apt richness, depth and bloom ... a rare blend of freedom, momentum and underlying restless energy” Daily Telegraph “Gergiev is a man who works by instinct. Music that thrives on heart and soul - above all the Russian romantics - brings out the best in him” Financial Times “Gergiev has the sensibility to put on the pressure and to foster flexibility as the natural contours of the music demand...[He] has a feel for the romantic urgency of the music as well as its lyrical impulse and the LSO responds as if its life depends on it.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | You Cannot Start Without Me: Valery Gergiev - MaestroA Film directed by Allan Miller
Directed by academy award winner Allan Miller, 'You cannot start without me' offers viewers an intimate look into the demanding life of Valery Gergiev, widely acclaimed as one of the leading conductors of our time. This rich musical film offers rare insight into the talent training and concentration required of a great conductor and reveals how Gergiev combines an impossible international conducting schedule with his job as director of the legendary Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. The film includes scenes with London Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, Gergiev’s boyhood home in the Caucasus mountains, Moscow, cities along the Volga river and performances by Yefim Bronfman, Renée Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Leonidas Kovakos, Uliana Lopatkina and Anna Netrebko. This film presents a penetrating portrait of Gergiev the man and artist. Format 16:9, NTSC PCM stereo, Dolby 5.1 Subtitles: Eng, Fr, Ger, Jap, Russ, Spa Bonus: interview, concerts excerpts, 87+ 69” “gives us enough of Valery Gergiev in rehearsal to validate the words bandied about so often by the man and his musicians: 'magic', 'magnet', 'atmosphere', 'human', 'beauty'. They're all here, reinforced by the material in the extras.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2010 **** “This documentary peers briefly down the corridors of Gergiev's life as impresario, conductor and family man, roughly in that order of prominence. We are promised 'an intimate look into the demanding life of Valery Gergiev'; and I think that's what we get...enjoy, especially, the 'extra' sequence of rehearsal and performance” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010 | | | This item is currently out of stock at the UK distributor. You may order it now but please be aware that it may be six weeks or more before it can be despatched. |
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| |  | Kodály - Cello Sonata& other works
The wonderful young cellist Natalie Clein has been a familiar name since winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 1994. Since then, she has pursued a distinguished career performing with the most celebrated orchestras and conductors around the world. She has also made a number of recordings—generally concentrating on the most popular cello repertoire. For her Hyperion debut she turns to a composer who is extremely close to her heart, the great Hungarian national composer Zoltán Kodály, who by his discovery and creative use of his folk-music heritage forged the standard by which twentieth-century Hungarian music should be judged. Kodály made a decision to concentrate on instrumental and chamber music in his composing career, and he seemed to achieve more powerful results the fewer instruments he dealt with. He displayed elegant formal grasp and structural sophistication in his two string quartets and sheer passion and epic sweep in the violin-cello Duo (1914). But above all towers the amazing, ardent, pugnacious Sonata for Solo Cello (1915), the greatest utterance in this most demanding of genres since J S Bach’s solo cello suites. Calum MacDonald writes that ‘Had he written nothing else apart from this magnificent sonata, Kodály would still deserve to be accounted one of the greatest musical geniuses that Hungary has ever produced’. Natalie Clein’s performance of this highly emotional monologue is a passionate, coruscating tour-de-force. Also included are a delightful selection of Kodály’s other works for cello; performed here with Hyperion regular and Natalie’s frequent duo partner, Julius Drake. “[The solo sonata is] extremely impressive, both in the impassioned rhapsodies of the first two movements, and in the array of folk tunes that are paraded in the ferociously challenging finale.” The Guardian, 27th May 2010 **** “Magically deft, soaringly passionate, without any trace of self-indulgence, Clein conjures a full orchestra of colours and textures from her precious Guadagnini cello...Julius Drake’s piano accompaniments are expectedly delicate and caring. Hyperion’s warm recording is another joy.” The Times, 12th May 2010 **** “...the compelling reason for acquiring this disc...is Clein's magnificent account of the Solo Sonata, Op. 8...Clein's depth of tone makes an immediate impact on this well-engineered recording...A must-have disc.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2010 ***** “Kodály’s Sonata for Solo Cello represents one of those daunting summits that
cellists feel ineluctably drawn to conquer, and Natalie Clein does so here with terrific passion, piquancy and technical accomplishment...Altogether, an imaginatively planned disc, and one played compellingly.” The Telegraph, 25th June 2010 ***** “[Clein] produces an astonishing range of colours and evokes the widest variety of expressive styles. I find it admirable, too, how she's able, in the recording studio, to maintain so much of the excitement and directness of live performance...Julius Drake's expressive playing is a fine match for Clein's outgoing manner.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010 “Her greatest achievement is the 1915 Sonata...Pianist Julius Drake shades the introduction to the 1922 Sonatina exquisitely. A bold recital in which Clein embraces a darker, wilder sound.” The Independent, 11th July 2010 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Emerson String Quartet: Old World – New World
The Emerson String Quartet’s long cherished dream to record their favourite Dvorák string quartets is realized with their tender-hearted and infatuated readings of the Czech genius’s middle and late quartets. A bonanza of romantic melody, not a note on this 3-CD release has ever before been recorded by the Emersons. Dvorák’s youthful and infrequently performed song cycle on the subject of love, Cypresses, provides a compelling thematic trove for several of these enamouring quartets. Dvorák’s quintet reveals most of all the heart of Dvorák’s musical nature, both its Bohemian roots and the bracingly fresh air of his Iowa summer experience. He later explained, “I should never have written . . . ‘just so’ if I hadn’t seen America.” “...big-boned, high-gloss sound...Cypresses (B.152) has some stunning moments, though the finest readings are of the valedictory Thirteenth and Fourteenth Quartets, the last strongly Brahmsian.” The Independent, 2nd May 2010 “The American group play with a wonderfully suave style, but the gutsy spirit needed for Dvorák keeps poking through...The mellow Cypresses, a transcribed song cycle, offers a welcome change of pace in this pleasing set.” The Times, 5th June 2010 *** “[The Emersons] capture to perfection the native folksiness of the tunes Dvorak assimilated in the works written during his New York sojourn. These are technically immaculate readings by an elite quartet, equal to all the virtuoso challenges of the Brahmsian C major quartet” Sunday Times, 13th June 2010 *** “...this is really beautiful quartet playing, with inner parts that are both transparent and well integrated, and that gives the essential impression of four superb musicians sharing matters of vital import, albeit from the standpoint of camaraderie and understanding.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010 “The Emersons have thought very deeply about this repertoire and their affection and profound experience of this music is evident everywhere...these are interpretations which demand to be heard with their striking attention to detail.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2010 ***** “All the playing is full of detail...not a note out of place, and every texture perfectly balanced” The Guardian, 2nd September 2010 ***  BBC Music Magazine
Chamber Choice - September 2010 |
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| |  | Beethoven - Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6
The previous recording on Sony Classical with the Chamber Orchestra of Basel under the direction of Giovanni Antonini, the founder of Il Giardino Armonico, has shown that the orchestra is capable of fine Beethoven interpretations. The orchestra and conductor were awarded the Echo Klassik prize in 2008 for their readings of the 3rd and 4th symphonies (88697192522) and are reunited here for this recording of symphonies 5 and 6. As with the previous recordings, preparation has been meticulous down to the last detail, including numerous concerts and rehearsals. These are studio recordings of the highest quality where Antonini’s sparkling musical energy and the highly-motivated orchestra combine forces to ensure an exciting journey through Beethoven’s sound world. “Intriguingly, Antonini’s Baselers emphasise lyricism in the Fifth and elemental drama in the Pastoral — a thrilling storm with thunderous, thwacking timpani rolls — but everything sounds new-minted here, with pristine period textures. Even if you know these works well, there is plenty to delight.” Sunday Times, 9th May 2010 “Giovanni Antonini is not the first early music exponent to venture into the Classical era and this pairing of Beethoven symphonies is notable for crispness and momentum.” The Telegraph, 4th June 2010 ** “Especially impressive is Antonini's sense of rhythm. These performances really swing...There is something of a pantheistic celebration about both these performances that offers and commands not just respect but rather a thrilling demand for your attention.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010 “Antonini's Beethoven is predictably lithe and tangy, its uniqueness discernable. To the standard euphoria and exhilaration, he adds wonderment and gratitude.” The Independent, 15th August 2010 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Elgar - Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2
The Philharmonia Orchestra’s second release of 2010 sees them reunited with the celebrated interpreter of Elgar’s work, Sir Andrew Davis and follows the critically praised recording of Elgar’s Enigma Variations with Andrew, released last year. “there is plenty to admire, especially in Davis's account of the First Symphony. His approach to Elgar seems more reflective than before, wistful almost now, and that quality suffuses his account of the First in a haunting way” The Guardian, 1st April 2010 **** “They are superb performances, with plenty of electricity and sense of occasion, well deserving the enthusiastic audience applause. The sublime and tragic Larghetto of No. 2 in particular is wonderfully well-paced...[Froissart] receives a sterling performance.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2010 **** | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Dvorák - Violin Concerto
Dvorák began to compose his Violin Concerto in 1879 and dedicated it to the great violinist Joseph Joachim. While waiting to finalise the concerto Dvorák composed Legends, a cycle of ten pieces for two pianos, which he shortly afterwards orchestrated. Performing these two works are the acclaimed Australian violinist Richard Tognetti, as soloist in the concerto, and the Nordic Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Christian Lindberg. The same players have teamed up before on disc, namely on Nordic Showcase, an anthology of works for chamber orchestra. In the reviews of that disc, Tognetti’s performance was described by the reviewer in International Record Review as ‘music-making at a truly exalted level … the most enraptured and heartfelt rendering of the inexplicably neglected Svendsen Romance that I have ever heard.’ “Tognetti's tone is clean, rather than fruity with vibrato. His reading of the first movement...is marked by a clean attack to bring out the freshness of imagination so typical of Dvorak...The Slavonic dance of the finale is done with exceptional lightness and sparkle with beautifully sprung rhythms” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | David Briggs - Mass for Notre Dame
David Briggs studied with Jean Langlais in Paris and was profoundly influenced by the playing of Pierre Cochereau, Organist Titulaire at Notre Dame Cathedral (1955-1984), from an early age. Briggs was the first British winner of the Tournemire Prize at the St Alban’s International Organ Improvisation Competition. He is Organist Emeritus of Gloucester Cathedral, where he directed the music for eight years. He is renowned worldwide for his brilliant improvisations and is also a prolific composer. This disc includes Briggs’ Messe Pour Notre Dame, and features four movements of David Briggs’ own improvisations— the Introit, Offertorium, Élévation and Sortie. Very much aligned with French liturgical practice, this is Briggs captured in the heat of the improvised, unedited moment. These improvisations display a masterful range of mood and colour. There is delicacy, reflection and repose, alongside mighty bombast and truly gothic ‘shock and awe’. Listening to them is an uniquely thrilling musical experience. Also included are some of Briggs’ much more Anglophone anthems. The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, who have been winning increasing praise for their Hyperion recordings, perform with their inspirational director Stephen Layton, and the composer, of course, at the organ. “I can confidently say that this recording is one of the finest CDs of sacred choral and organ music you'll ever hear. I'm not ashamed to say I had tears in my eyes; listeners who are church-goers and non-believers alike will find this disc a profoundly moving experience.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010 “Briggs [draws] sounds of roaring, surging eloquence and grandeur from the splendid instrument at Gloucester Cathedral. It helps, too, that the Trinity College Choir have such a 'live', untrammelled attack under Stephen Layton's vigorous direction...The Mass itself is an outstanding work, gripping and unashamedly rhetorical in its gestures.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 ***** “There's only one word for this. Spectacular...Stephen Layton has inspired his singers to heights of magnificence, relishing Briggs's penchant for rich, sumptuous harmonies and ravishing melodic lines, but at the same time moving beyond mere effect and rooting out the genuine musical intensity behind these finely crafted works.” International Record Review, July/August 2010  CD Review
Critics' Disc of the Year - December 2010 |
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Leoncavallo: La Nuit De Mai - 1. Sostenuto Assai
BBC Music Magazine Awards 2011