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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Massimo Mercelli performs Philip Glass
Virtuoso flutist Massimo Mercelli teams up with Virtuosi Italiani and pianist Carlo Boccadoro to present this recital of works by Philip Glass. This recording features two world premieres including Chaotic Harmony and Taoist Sacred Dance. The rest of the program is dedicated to Glass classics: Facades in two different versions, and String Quartet No. 3 Mishima. Widely known in Europe, Mercelli is artistic director and founder of the Emilia Romagna Festival and tours regularly as a soloist, including two tours with I Virtuosi Italiani. The pianist, conductor, and composer is a long-time champion of new music and has released prominent recordings by Philip Glass and Michael Nyman among others. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Americana
Sono Luminus presents this uniquely engaging collection of music that embodies the American spirit in Americana, the latest release by Modern Mandolin Quartet. The package will be a 2-disc set, containing a Blu-ray™ Surround Sound disc as well as a standard CD. Expressing their opinion on their choices of musical selections for this album, the quartet writes, “This music attracted us because of the wonderful way it sounds on our instruments, particularly the Dvorák. Since the musical character of the pieces is based on various forms of American music, it lends itself extremely well to the mandolin. While many selections for piano and string music rely on idioms and techniques that may not transpose well to the mandolin, the pieces included on this disc were chosen for their vitality and the way they jumped right off the page.” Fanfare Magazine exclaims, “MMQ play dead-straight, spot-on, and packed with freshness and vitality of a kind that is rare in material of this type. These are not down-scaled, make-em-easy, just-for-kicks charts either - they are a Major Thing. TRIPLE MUST!” The Modern Mandolin Quartet was formed in 1985 to give a new voice to that most American of musical instruments, the mandolin. Following the tradition of the mandolin orchestras and chamber groups from the early twentieth century, the MMQ uses the instruments of the mandolin family which correspond to the conventional string quartet (two mandolins, mandola, and mandocello). To date the Quartet has arranged and performed over 90 works originally written for orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano, guitar, and string quartet. | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Glass & Nyman: Works for Saxophone Quartet
sonic.art Saxophone Quartet sonic.art is one of the finest saxophone quartets. Winners of many competitions, the four young musicians’ musicality radiates from their performance. A great coupling, they perform Glass’ Saxophone Quartet and String Quartet No.3 and Nyman’s Songs for Tony. | |
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| |  | Brooklyn Rider plays Philip Glass
The New York based string quartet Brooklyn Rider performs the complete Philip Glass string quartets together with a world premiere recording of Glass’s score to the 1997 film BENT. The quartets include his scores to Beckett’s play Company and a film on the life of writer Yukio Mishima. “these performances have been meticulously prepared, as you'd expect from the recording division of Glass's own published company.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Glass - String Quartets Nos. 1-4
Although Philip Glass came late to the string quartet, his contribution to the genre has since become a significant one. This disc features the first four of his five quartets, ranging from the uncharacteristic yet fascinating sound-world of the First, through the compact dimensions of the subsequent two (themselves derived from theatre and film scores). The more expansive manner of his Fourth Quartet makes allusions to the formidable string quartet heritage, in particular those of Schubert and Dvorák. “...the Carducci String Quartet were stunning...they are clearly musicians of high intelligence.” The Times “By performing these works with an intense and focused detachment, the Carduccis allow the music simply to speak for itself. They also get it right on the only work which demands a degree of emotional intensity - the early, proto-minimalist String Quartet No. 1” Gramophone Magazine, September 2010 “...this CD has some beautiful and moving inventions...The soft dissonant tracery of the early First Quartet is an intriguing surprise...The Carducci Quartet’s performances are a marvel of sensitivity, and the recorded sound has a lovely soft glow.” Sunday Telegraph, 4th July 2010 **** “Stripped of Glass's familiar thudding keyboards and ethereal voices, yet inhabiting that same oscillating sound world, these quartets have their own beguiling power...Admirably played by the Carduccis and at budget price.” The Observer, 20th June 2010 | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Glass - Complete String Quartets
The complete string quartets of Philip Glass played by the Smith Quartet, recorded last year for the composer's 70th birthday.There
are 5 string quartets in total and they don't fit on one CD so this will be two discs in a slim line double but charged as if it were just
one CD - what a bargain. “The Smith Quartet's thoughtful and measured performance allows subtle metric, linear and textural features to rise unassumingly to the surface, enhanced on this recording by a clear, balanced stereo image, and played with characteristic precision and projection by the ensemble.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2008 “If success was measured according to output and sales units alone, Glass would be head and shoulders above his contemporaries. His compositions for conventional combinations, including the five string quartets included on this disc, have already appeared on recordings by the Kronos and Duke quartets, but the Smith Quartet have been the first to release the complete cycle.
Quartets Nos 2 to 5, written between 1983 and 1991, form a neat and consistent set, from the enigmatic, introspective Second, via the expressive Third and quirkily bitonal Fourth, to the neo-romantic, almost Tchaikovskian opening gesture of the Fifth. The Smith Quartet's thoughtful and measured performance allows subtle metric, linear and textural features to rise unassumingly to the surface, enhanced on this recording by a clear, balanced stereo image, and played with characteristic precision and projection by the ensemble.
The First Quartet is something of an anomaly, however. Written soon after Glass's studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris during the mid-1960s, it has been viewed either as a transitional work of marginal interest or a potent symbol of Glass's emerging minimalist style. What connects this work with later Glass – at least more than the Cageian silence – is the work's obsessive preoccupation with cyclical repetition, although the accompanying atonally charged atmosphere seems light years away from the lush harmonies of the Fifth Quartet.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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