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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Debussy & Mahler: Mélodies de jeunesse
Julie Fuchs (soprano) & Alphonse Cemin (piano) Julie Fuchs, the 26-year-old soprano from Avignon, has just won a Victoire de la Musique Classique in the 'Lyrical Revelation of the Year' category, after being hailed a Classical Revelation by the perfomers’ rights society, ADAMI and carrying off the Gabriel Dessurget prize at the 2011 Aix-en-Provence Festival. Today, roles such as Susanna in 'Figaro' or Urgande in 'Amadis de Gaule' correspond perfectly to the quality of her voice, as did the title role in 'Acis et Galatée' which she took in July 2011 for the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Over the coming decade, that voice and that stage presence will see her moving towards weightier roles, with the title role of La Traviata beckoning. She’s at the start of a big career: one to watch. “Fuchs’ bright soprano radiates character and sensitivity. An enchanting disc.” Financial Times, 16th March 2013 **** | 
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| |  | Mahler & Zemlinsky: Songs
Alma Mahler was greatly admired by many gentlemen of intellectual circles during the late nineteenth-century. This disc portrays songs set by Alma Mahler, Alexander Zemlinsky and Gustav Mahler. Ruth Ziesak easily portrays the joy and sorrow in each of these lieder, skillfully accompanied by Gerold Huber. |
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| |  | Der Himmlische LebenLiszt and Mahler
The great German dramatic soprano Anne Schwanewilms makes her debut on ONYX with a recital of lieder by Liszt and Mahler. Schwanewilms is renowned internationally for her interpretations of Strauss and Wagner. An eminent lieder singer, Anne Schwanewilms works closely with leading lieder accompanists of our time – Charles Spencer, Roger Vignoles and Malcolm Martineau – with whom she has appeared in international concert halls in Barcelona (Gran Teatro del Liceu), Strasbourg, Madrid, Amsterdam, London (Wigmore Hall) and Washington (Kennedy Center). With Roger Vignoles, she has recorded a selection of songs by Richard Strauss, which was nominated by BBC Music Magazine as Vocal Recording of the Year 2008. “Schwanewilms's voice is an acquired taste; those who crave full-bodied Italianate lushness of tone will not 'get' the singing of this gifted German jugendlich dramatisch soprano...The words invariably come across in a refreshingly direct, unfussy manner...this is a highly pleasurable programme that can be warmly welcomed by those who crave beautifully vocalized, unusually thoughtful Lieder performances.” International Record Review, February 2013 “Evidence of her artistry is everywhere apparent. Her phrasing is seamless, with none of the audible words-versus-music negotiations noticeable even in fine singers. Her vocal quality is not merely pure but powerful, though in her case that powers stays mostly in reserve until summoned by the music...Schwanewilms coaxes the listener into her realm with the subtlety of a whisper.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2013 “Schwanewilms's interpretations are regularly imaginative, her singing musicianly, though not all of her vocalism matches her good intentions. There's sometimes...an edge to her tone that combines with a lack of vocal substance higher up...Elsewhere her wide-ranging instrument is used with artistic insight...she brings depth and command to Mahler's 'Das himmlische Leben', nicely capturing its blend of innocence and sophistication.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2013 *** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Wolfgang Holzmair is one of the great word-painters of our time and one of the foremost interpreters of Mahler’s songs. He is embarking on an international tour of this repertoire, which has been a central part of his career, to mark his 60th birthday. His interpretation of this music draws upon many years of experience and brings a deep insight to these wonderful songs. Mahler composed his settings of poems by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim in 1892. The piano-writing is remarkable for its almost orchestral complexity and imitation of orchestral effects. Mahler would eventually score 12 of the 'Wunderhorn' songs for orchestra. The poems’ appeal to Mahler is easy to understand: nature, yearning, love, farewells, night, death, spectral goings-on, boisterous youth, high spirits and wry, crisp humour all combined with the agitated imagination and personality of the composer to produce some of the greatest songs by any composer. They also formed the fertile ground from which several of the symphonies grew. “this is a unique sequence, showing that most of the earliest settings which sit alongside the more familiar numbers, usually linked by theme, are just as finely-wrought and no less typical of Mahler's most haunting preoccupations.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2012 **** “His word-painting is superb, replacing sheer vocal firepower wityh more Lieder-friendly qualities of agility , precision and nuance. Poetic narrative is everywhere apparent...Holzmair seems to make the case for Mahler inheriting the Lieder mantle from Schumann...for nearly 80 minutes you can listen to Mahler's melodies and barely recall that they exist in an orchestral version” Gramophone Magazine, December 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Berio: Orchestral realisations of Schubert, Brahms & Mahler
Berio had an abiding fascination with reconciling the past and the present, which can be seen in his orchestral realisations of works by Mahler and Brahms, and most notably, in Rendering (1990), his typically creative completion of unfinished symphonic sketches by Schubert. In Rendering, Berio – in his own words – sets himself the target of ‘following those modern restoration criteria that aim at reviving the old colours without, however, trying to disguise the damage that time has caused, often leaving inevitable empty patches in the composition’. In the ‘restoration’, Schubert’s sketches have been beautifully orchestrated in period style, and the ‘empty patches’ have been filled with music composed by Berio himself, in his own voice – thereby successfully combining the musical worlds of the early nineteenth and late twentieth centuries into one convincing whole. The Clarinet Sonata by Brahms embodies the composer’s taut and concentrated compositional style. In transcribing the work, Berio felt that, when experienced in the less intimate surroundings of today’s concert halls, the extreme compression of Brahms’s late chamber music style was in need of some additional support, and his version, recorded here, includes a fourteen-bar orchestral introduction to the first movement, leading into Brahms’s own, much shorter opening phrase, as well as five additional bars at the beginning of the second movement. Berio completed his orchestration of six early songs by Gustav Mahler in 1987, and conducted the first performance with the Toscanini Orchestra on 7 December that year, with Thomas Hampson the baritone soloist. The six songs in this orchestrated set are ‘Hans und Grete’, ‘Phantasie’, ‘Scheiden und Meiden’, ‘Erinnerung’, ‘Frühlingsmorgen’, and ‘Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald’. The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Edward Gardner, with Roderick Williams the baritone soloist in the songs by Mahler and Michael Collins the soloist in Brahms’s Clarinet Sonata. “Gardner shapes it all beautifully, and his soloists – Michael Collins in the Sonata, baritone Roderick Williams in the songs – are suave and refined.” The Guardian, 2nd February 2012 **** “In a joyfully discombobulating programme, Luciano Berio's mischief-making orchestration of Mahler's "Six Early Songs" uses the Mahlerian paintbox in an almost anti-Mahlerian, jaunty fashion...Gardner conducts with élan, highlighting the clean attack of the Bergen strings.” The Independent, 12th February 2012 **** “Gardner's phrasing of the central movement [is] a cousin to Brian Newbould's completion, and thus Rendering's periodic, unpredictable descent into twilit oblivion becomes all the more touching...Leaving balance issues to the engineers, Roderick Williams takes a relaxed, confiding approach, never less than suave even against the galloping rhythms of 'Scheiden und Meiden'.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2012 “[Berio's] versions of the Mahler songs are straightforward and affectionately sung by Roderick Williams...Berio himself looms larger in Rendering...The sound of the celesta, alien to Schubert, signals these departures into a dream world, which Gardner captures atmospherically. His assured sense of style in Schubert's material is compelling.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2012 **** | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Mahler - Lieder
2009 BBC Music Magazine Award-winning baritone Christian Gerhaher returns with another exceptional recital recording, again accompanied by Gerold Huber. Gerhaher will be appearing at the Wigmore Hall in December 2009 in a recital to include Mahler Lieder. “Christian Gerhaher has always seemed an exceptionally profound and understanding singer and he proves that with this remarkable exploration of Mahler's songs...never over-emoting but keeping a beautiful, even line afloat often on the tiniest wisps of sound.” The Observer, 13th December 2009 “Gerhaher is today’s Lieder interpreter par excellence. The German baritone’s range of colour, velvet timbre and natural intelligence recall a golden age of artistry.” Financial Times, 12th December 2009 **** “Christian Gerhaher has always seemed an exceptionally profound and understanding singer and he proves that with this remarkable exploration of Mahler's songs...never over-emoting but keeping a beautiful, even line afloat…” The Guardian, 13th December 2009 “With every disc he makes, the German baritone Christian Gerhaher emerges more and more clearly as the true heir to the Lieder-singing legacy of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau...Every song is explored with a perfect mixture of musical tact and illumination” The Guardian, 14th January 2010 ***** “[Gerhaher's] finest achievement to date — indeed, one of the greatest programmes of this composer’s lieder ever committed to disc...Gerold Huber is an equal partner, painting the piano parts in a rich palette of instrumental colours. For once, one hardly misses Mahler’s orchestrations. Utterly memorable.” Sunday Times, 31st January 2010 ***** “…outstandingly imaginative piano playing of Gerold Huber. He counterpoints voice and piano with the subtext within the settings, often with revelatory results. Both Gerhaher and Huber pace the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen perfectly, balancing the songs' emotional lights and deep shadows, their sense of wonder and of yearning. A glinting and newly honed knife-blade pierces the soul in the third song, colouring it with an Expressionist angst.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2010 ***** “Gerhaher and Huber immerse you so successfully in their interior world that you barely register the orchestra’s absence...Huber achieves pianistic miracles of colour and timing, and to call this a mature partnership barely begins to address the depth of their mutual understanding...might I humbly suggest that this could be the finest Mahler you’ll hear all year? Absolutely essential.” Andrew McGregor, bbc.co.uk, 25th March 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Mahler - Songs of My Youth
“The performance are radiant and deeply understanding from both singer and pianist, well caught in atmospheric recording. A heart-warming record.” Penguin Guide, 2010 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Schumann: Kerner Lieder Op. 35plus songs by Wolf, Korngold & Mahler
Described by Opera magazine as ‘Britain’s best baritone’, London-born Roderick Williams and leading pianist Helmut Deutsch perform an atmospheric Liederabend, featuring some of the most inspiring German songs of the 19th century. Immersing himself in the great range of moods portrayed through his programme, from the celebratory outpouring of praise in Wolf’s ‘Gesegnet sei, durch den die Welt entstund’ to the sorrowful resignation to heartbreak in Schumann’s ‘Alte Leute’, Williams’s dramatic narrations are emotionally engaging throughout. Complemented by Deutsch’s superlative pianism, this recording is unforgettably poignant – a ‘must have’ for lovers of Lieder. “you can tell that he’s taken considerable trouble to study the poetry and to understand it so that he puts it across to his audience with exceptional intelligence. He also characterises the texts very well indeed..throughout this recital Roderick Williams’s use of his top register is quite superb...This is a marvellous, deeply satisfying lieder recital and we should be thankful that it’s been preserved on disc for a wide audience to savour.” MusicWeb International, December 2012 “the sense of a wondering fragile sensibility is communicated to us through his characteristic loving attention to words - and to the presence of his audience. This intimacy of communication and word-liveliness also makes bright vignettes of six love songs, sacred and profane, from Hugo Wolf's Italian Songbook...Williams and Deutsch are alert to every quicksilver mood-change.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 **** “Williams gives consistent pleasure with his rounded high baritone and unexaggerated response to mood and character...Fading into reverie, the Kerner songs are a brave choice to end a recital. But Williams vindicates it with his blanched pianissimo, a wounded, disenchanted spirit withdrawing from the world.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Mahler: Lieder
Bo Skovus is considered to be one of the top Lieder interpreters of his generation. This Danish baritone is a star of the Vienna State Opera. He performs with the leading opera houses and orchestras in Europe, America and Japan. “Skovhus is an experienced practitioner of the art of Lieder recital and is renowned for taking risks with his interpretations. He has plenty of voice when he so chooses, even if a certain throatiness is creeping in these days...
Vladar’s pianism... is a real tour de force: rich in tone, subtle in dynamics and wonderfully vivid” MusicWeb International, August 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | The Welte-Mignon Mystery Volume 15
Mahler, Reinecke and Grieg play all their 1905/1906 interpretations of their own and other works. The Mahler compositions on this CD are performed both by Mahler and Hans Haass. | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Gramophone Magazine
Gramophone Awards 2010
Penguin Guide