Prices shown exclude VAT. (UK tax is not payable for deliveries to United States.)
See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Le Jardin FéeriqueMusic for Two Harps
Duo Bilitis: Ekaterina Levental & Eva Tebbe (harps) | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Verbier Festival Highlights 2007
Bartók: | Violin Sonata No. 1, BB 84, Sz. 75 Renaud Capuçon & Martha Argerich | Debussy: | Children's Corner Nelson Freire (piano) | Lutoslawski: | Variations on a Theme by Paganini, for two pianos Martha Argerich & Gabriela Montero | Schubert: | Klavierstück in C major, D946 No. 3 Lars Vogt (piano) | Schumann: | Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44 Hélène Grimaud, Renaud Capuçon, Sayaka Shoji, Lars Anders Tomter & Mischa Maisky Hör' ich das Liedchen klingen (No. 10 from Dichterliebe, Op. 48) Thomas Quasthoff (bass-baritone), Hélène Grimaud (piano) Ein Jungling liebt ein Mädchen (No. 11 from Dichterliebe, Op. 48) Thomas Quasthoff (bass-baritone), Hélène Grimaud (piano) Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen (No. 12 from Dichterliebe, Op. 48) Thomas Quasthoff (bass-baritone), Hélène Grimaud (piano) |
The Verbier Festival, created in 1994, rapidly acquired a reputation for artistic excellence and is now considered to be among the major European music festivals. During a fortnight each July, the greatest stars of the classical music world come together against the magical backdrop of the Swiss Alps. The Verbier Festival gives musicians the opportunity to perform original programmes with fellow musicians they admire, but with whom they may never have performed before.These world première performances produce innovative and exciting results, as much for artists as for audiences. Through the Academy, the Verbier Festival invests in the talents of young artists, while creating, and promoting excellence in the performing arts. “Whatever the reason, Verbier attracts great artists and inspires them to new heights, helped by the canny casting of the festival founder and artistic director Martin Engstroem. Martha Argerich… is absolutely astounding in the finale of Bartók's Sonata for Violin and Piano No 1 with a demonically driven Renaud Capuçon. ...Nelson Freire, offers a tender, one might say avuncular, view of Debussy's Children's Corner, a contrast to the glacial Hélène Grimaud in Schumann and Ravel, and Evgeny Kissin's Liebesträume No 3 where love is clearly a cross to be borne (though his Bizet-Horowitz Variations justifiably raise the roof). Rounding off proceedings is a fired-up Joshua Bell in the finale of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. Visually, the camerawork is efficient and nothing more.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2008 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  |
| | | Usually despatched in 8 - 10 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Debussy: Orchestral Works Volume 1
Debussy was one of the most important and influential composers of the early twentieth century. This recording features two of Debussy’s most harmonically innovative and imaginatively orchestrated works. Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) evokes a pagan world, as the faun of the title takes his ease in the afternoon shade on a summer day. The three symphonic sketches that constitute La mer (The Sea), inspired partly by Katsushika Hokusai’s famous colour woodcut The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, offer subtly nuanced evocations of the sea from dawn to midday, of the waves and of the dialogue of wind and sea. “The Prélude à l'Après-Midi opens with a beautifully shaped flute solo, but then becomes too generalised, without enough stabs of drama to lift its general mood of indolence, while La Mer motors along rather complacently and Jeux totally lacks the quicksilver wit and colouristic imagination that makes it one of the most elusive and potent of Debussy's late works. Whether it's more obvious delight in the luxuriance of the textures, or a sharper analytical insight into the way in which the pieces are constructed, it needs more character; what we get instead is elegant, undemanding background music.” The Guardian, 30th May 2008 ** “Debussy ushered in the modern age with breezy whole-tone scales and mere impressions of keys, which the musicians under Märkl paint with delicious colour. Märkl moves the phrases of La Mer like plump, urgent waves, or smoothes them like the deceptive calm ready to surge at any moment. A sense of lurking danger might have been more apparent, however. The Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune paints beautifully the dancing sunlight but lacks that haunting hollowness in the flute that evokes the pagan past. Jeux is both playful and as tense as a tennis racket. But Children's Corner is a little overpowering for the nursery, the jauntiness now rather grotesque in expanded form.” The Times, 24th May 2008 *** “…this is bewitching music-making that should on no account be missed… One of the finest discs Naxos has ever released.” Classic FM Magazine Orchestral Disc of the Month “Markl and his players acquit themselves admirably, and as one-stop shopping for some of Debussy's most engaging orchestral works it's hard to beat.” American Record Guide | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
|
|
| |  | Debussy - Impressions
Although he never envisioned a career as a virtuoso performer, Debussy was a highly accomplished pianist having studied at the Paris Conservatoire from the age of 10. His piano pieces are some of the most sublime in the repertoire and the collection on this release are some of his most popular. Japanese pianist Momo Kodama studied with Murray Perahia and Andreas Schiff. These are fine and accomplished performances form this young and extremely talented artiste. | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
|
|
| |  | A French Piano Recital
“Cultivated player...clean transparent sound...her Debussy and Ravel had a certain Gallic charm.” New York Times “With their [Ongaku's] high-tech 20-bit sonics in tow, Okada plays one of the finest recitals of Basic French piano music available today. No -- really, it's very close to perfection” In Tune “This surefire collection is an attractively played, beautifully recorded introduction to a fine young artist...Her brilliant, carefully balanced sound is a neat match with these masterpieces from the core of the great French solo piano repertoire. Anyone seeking a sampler of this grand tradition would be well served by this disc.” Fanfare | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
|
|
| | | |  | Mieczyslaw Horszowski
Recorded: Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh Festival, 13 June 1983 “If I was to single out only one disc from BBC Legends’ buried treasure, it would surely be this recital by Mieczyslaw Horszowski (BBCL 4203-2)…The Mozart B flat Sonata’s finale is unforgettably perky and buoyant and it is no exaggeration to say that every bar of this miraculous work seems illuminated by some indefinable but unmistakable light from within…this disc is beyond price and should be heard by all lovers of musical greatness.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2007 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
|
|
| |  | Debussy: Piano Music
Francois-Joel Thiollier (piano) | |
|
| |  | An introduction to Claude Debussy
What a glorious instrument the Ulster Orchestra is in Tortelier’s hands – eloquent principals in every section and supple consummate ensemble in this most subtle and flexible of repertoire… (American Record Guide) | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
|
|
| |
|
