Hi-Res Highlights,
Hi-Res Highlights - August 2016
It's been two years since we launched our Hi-Res download offering - and our catalogue now includes over six thousand albums, both old and new. You can browse through our full Hi-Res selection here.
However, six thousand is quite a lot - so in July we started putting together a monthly roundup offering some of our thoughts on the best of the best!
Here's this month's selection…
Hi-Res New Releases
The pick of this month's newly-released Hi-Res recordings.
Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra explore the genre of the rhapsody, with imaginative, expressive and varied works by Liszt, Enescu, Chabrier and Ravel - all topped off with Denis Matsuev's lively interpretation of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The eagerly-awaited culmination of Osmo Vänskä's Sibelius set with the Minnesota Orchestra - the classically-influenced No. 3, the restrained No. 6 and the imposing No. 7. Nobody knows Sibelius's music better than Vänskä.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
To most people, the late John Tavener's music can seem simple and ritualistic - but this disc, performed by the choir of Wells Cathedral, shows a more luminous and harmonically adventurous side of his writing, though the profound sense of faith is just as present. All these works deserve to become as popular as Tavener's well-known favourites.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Violinist Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt have formed a very successful chamber partnership over the years - two musicians who play almost as if they were one individual. Their latest release, the complete violin sonatas of Brahms, shows the depth of their musical collaboration.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Recent Hi-Res Re-issues
The greatest performances of yesteryear, newly remastered and re-released in Hi-Res.
The vivid and grotesque colours of Liszt's Faust Symphony, in Bernstein's sensitive and passionate reading with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, are given new sharpness by this remastering.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
China's fiery piano star Lang Lang most often appears as a soloist, either alone or in concerti - but he's no less at home in chamber music, as this first-ever chamber recording by him shows. His musical collaborators - violinist Vadim Repin and cellist Mischa Maisky - are peerless, making for benchmark performances of the two Russian trios on this album.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Marking the centenary of Ginastera's birth this year, Sony have released this remastered version of his opera Bomarzo, based on the true story of an Italian duke whose romantic woes lead to a series of increasingly surreal and tragic events.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
A groundbreaking performance from 1979 of a work from the dawn of opera - Raymond Leppard produced his own edition of Il ritorno in order to conduct it at Glyndebourne. Of course it's not what we'd consider an 'authentic' performance today, but it's full of expression and grace - now restored to its full sonic glory.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Hi-Res Library Essentials
The best performances of the core repertoire you simply can't do without - now in higher quality than ever before.
Thrilling performances of Elgar's Introduction and Allegro and ever-popular Enigma Variations, with Colin Davis at the helm of the LSO - both captured live from London's Barbican Centre.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
David Smith - Head of Digital
