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Italian Violin Sonatas / Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante

Posted By : royse | Date : 27 Oct 2009 18:55:28 | Comments : 3

Italian Violin Sonatas / Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante
Classical | Easy CD-DA | FLAC, CUE, No Log | 1 CD, Cover LQ | 384 Mb
Date CD: July 8, 2003 | Virgin Veritas

“This is a lovely program that will be of interest to all listeners with even a passing interest in music of this genre and period. In addition to the rarely-heard Locatelli sonata, Baroque fiddler extraordinaire Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante offer very welcome CD premieres by equally renowned contemporaries Geminiani, Veracini, Tartini--and to a slightly lesser extent (though no less accomplished), Mascitti.
As its title suggests, the opening Sonata Prima by Veracini is a grand work both stylistically and, given the composer's reputation as one of the foremost virtuosos of his day, technically challenging. Biondi maneuvers through the widely diverse first movement "Overtura" with great panache, subtlety, and versatility, his phrasing remarkably keen and convincing, heightened with numerous inventive accents and skillful ornamentation. Likewise, Biondi's negotiation of the rapid-fire staccatos in the third movement "Paesana" and the often-severe rhythmic delineations of line featured in the final "Giga del Postiglione" are a marvel. 		”
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Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks - Concerti a Due Cori

Posted By : royse | Date : 26 Oct 2009 18:56:06 | Comments : 2

Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks - Concerti a Due Cori
Classical | Easy CD-DA | FLAC tracks, CUE, No Log | 1 CD, Cover LQ | 337 Mb
Date CD: January 20, 1998 | Sony

“It hasn’t been done before, but it makes excellent sense to devote a CD to the three Concerti a due cori and the Music for the Royal Fireworks – the four pieces of large-scale entertainment music from Handel’s late years. Here the Fireworks Music is done in the form, with strings as well as wind, that Handel preferred. The less familiar Concerti a due cori were composed in the late 1740s for use in the intervals of oratorio performances – their usual title is something of a misnomer, as they are really for three groups, a string band and two choirs of wind instruments (oboes, bassoon and horns in Nos. 2 and 3, just oboes and bassoon in No. 1). They borrow freely from other works – in particular Messiah (at the time scarcely known to London audiences) and Belshazzar – and some of the movements seem a little odd in shape because the structure is dictated, in the originals, by the texts; but they are cheerful, outgoing pieces and make very attractive listening, undemanding but, typically, touching here and there on deeper feeling.”
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The John Dowland Collection

Posted By : royse | Date : 26 Oct 2009 13:21:51 | Comments : 6

The John Dowland Collection
Classical | Easy CD-DA | APE, CUE, No Log | 2 CDs, Cover LQ | 527 Mb
Date CD: April 10, 2007 | Deutsche Grammophon

“John Dowland (1563 – buried 20 February 1626) was an English composer, singer, and lutenist. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as "Come, heavy sleep" (the basis for Benjamin Britten's Nocturnal), "Come again", "Flow my tears", "I saw my Lady weepe" and "In darkness let me dwell", but his instrumental music has undergone a major revival, and has been a source of repertoire for classical guitarists during the twentieth century.”
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Elgar - Enigma Variations - Menuhin

Posted By : royse | Date : 25 Oct 2009 20:41:50 | Comments : 1

Elgar - Enigma Variations - Menuhin
Classical | Easy CD-DA | APE, CUE, No Log | 1 CD, Cover HQ | 274 Mb
Date CD: May, 2003 | RGS Music

“Variations on an Original Theme for orchestra, Op. 36 ("Enigma"), commonly referred to as the Enigma Variations, is a set of a theme and its fourteen variations written for orchestra by Edward Elgar in 1898–1899. It is Elgar's best-known large-scale composition, for both the music itself and the enigmas behind it. Elgar dedicated the piece to "my friends pictured within", each variation being an affectionate portrayal of one of his circle of close acquaintances.”
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Mozart: Piano Concertos No 22 & 27 / Brendel, Mackerras

Posted By : royse | Date : 24 Oct 2009 21:53:33 | Comments : 1

Mozart: Piano Concertos No 22 & 27 / Brendel, Mackerras
Classical | Easy CD-DA | APE, CUE, No Log | 1 CD, Cover HQ | 261 Mb
Date CD: May 1, 2001 | Philips

“Exceptional performances, not just for the strength and vitality of Brendel's pianism, but also for the fertility of intellect that underlies these startlingly youthful and provocative interpretations.
Among the new issues from Philips honoring the 70th birthday of Alfred Brendel comes this new recording of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat K. 482, paired with No. 27 in B-flat K. 595. The big E-flat concerto's astounding and magisterial opening ritornello gets regal treatment from Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (an ensemble Brendel clearly enjoys working with), and the drama and nobility are deftly and powerfully matched by Brendel himself. A special and unique point of interest concerns the two cadenzas, both Brendel's own, which seem to show him as an ever more acerbic and provocative innovator. The cunning juxtapositioning of first and second subject themes from the opening allegro is gripping. Like Perahia (Sony), but especially Géza Anda (DG), whose account of K. 482 closely mirrors Brendel's view of the andante, the classical proportions and divertimento-like feel of those passages in which the soloist supports the winds is movingly intimate. The finale, too, is magnificently and spaciously done, and again Brendel's cadenza is ingenious.		”
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Maurice Ravel: Ma Mere l'Oye

Posted By : royse | Date : 23 Oct 2009 13:29:16 | Comments : 2

Maurice Ravel: Ma Mere l'Oye
Classical | Easy CD-DA | APE, CUE, No Log | 1 CD, Cover LQ | 249 Mb
Date CD: January 18, 2005 | Et'Cetera

“an unusually tender, beautifully shaped and atmospheric Mother Goose in its complete ballet form. It is a performance that I have turned to innumerable times and, most especially, whose Laideronette, Impératrice des Pagodes section, with its delectable far-eastern sounds ”
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Musique à la Cité des Rois - Torrejon y Velasco

Posted By : royse | Date : 22 Oct 2009 14:17:18 | Comments : 0

Musique à la Cité des Rois - Torrejon y Velasco
Classical | EAC RIP | APE, CUE, Log | 1 CD, Cover LQ | 210 Mb
Date CD: Oct 01, 1993 | K 617

“In an incomparably poetic atmosphere, Gabriel Garrido leads us to discover the processional dances and villancicos of this astonishing master of Peruvian baroque. The sumptuous psalm Dixit Dominus, the Mass for six voices and a noble Good Friday lamentation complete a programme worthy of the splendours of the 'City of Kings'..”
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Narcisso Speculando - Madrigaux de Paolo da Firenze

Posted By : royse | Date : 22 Oct 2009 12:37:28 | Comments : 4

Narcisso Speculando - Madrigaux de Paolo da Firenze
Classical | Easy CD-DA | FLAC tracks, No CUE, No Log | 1 CD, Cover HQ
265 Mb | Date CD: April 9, 2002 | Harmonia Mundi Fr.

“Flutist Pedro Memelsdorff's Mala Punica ("Pomegranates") ensemble explores interesting if somewhat rarefied territory: Italian music of the Trecento (13th century) and the Ars Subtilior (a.k.a. Mannerist) period of the late 14th century. For its first Harmonia Mundi recording the group focuses on the music of the Most Reverend Don Paolo di Marco (Paolo da Firenze), an abbot, diplomat, tenorista, and composer who lived from 1390-1425. His compositions are quite lovely and subtly colored, as evidenced by the eight secular madrigals performed here.”
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Verdi - Messa Da Requiem - Irina Arkhipova

Posted By : royse | Date : 20 Oct 2009 17:07:00 | Comments : 0

Verdi - Messa Da Requiem - Irina Arkhipova
Classical | Easy CD-DA | APE, CUE, No Log | 1 CD, Cover Pdf
237 Mb | Date CD: 1997 | MEL

“The Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi is a musical setting of the Roman Catholic funeral Mass (called the Requiem from the first word of the text, which begins Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, meaning, "Grant them eternal rest, O Lord"—see the entry at "Dies Irae"). It was first performed on 22 May 1874 to mark the first anniversary of the death of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and novelist much admired by Verdi. The piece is also sometimes referred to as the Manzoni Requiem.[1] A typical performance takes around 85–90 minutes.”
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Lutz Kirchhof - Musical Miracles

Posted By : royse | Date : 20 Oct 2009 13:50:05 | Comments : 1

Lutz Kirchhof - Musical Miracles
Classical | Easy CD-DA | APE, CUE, No Log | 1 CD, Cover HQ
366 Mb | Date CD: Mar 24 2009 | DHM

“Lutz Kirchhof is a German lutenist, born in Frankfurt am Main in 1953.
In 1996 he founded the Deutsche Lautengesellschaft (German Association for Lute). He performs in festivals all over the world, giving about a hundred concerts a year since 2002.
He performs regularly with vocalists such as Max van Egmond and Derek Lee Ragin, and numerous instrumentalists.		”
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Rossini: Stabat Mater - London Symphony Orchestra

Posted By : royse | Date : 20 Oct 2009 13:48:27 | Comments : 2

Rossini: Stabat Mater - London Symphony Orchestra
Classical | Easy CD-DA | APE, CUE, No Log | 1 CD, Cover LQ
237 Mb | Date CD: 08/25/1988 | Decca

“Stabat Mater is a thirteenth century Roman Catholic sequence variously attributed to Innocent III[1] and Jacopone da Todi.[2] Its title is an abbreviation of the first line, Stabat mater dolorosa ("The sorrowful mother stood"). The hymn, one of the most powerful and immediate of extant medieval poems, meditates on the suffering of Mary, Jesus Christ's mother, during his crucifixion. It is sung at the liturgy on the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows.
It has been set to music by many composers, with the most famous settings being those by Palestrina, Pergolesi, Joseph Haydn and Gioacchino Rossini.		”
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Vivaldi: L'Estro Armonico, Op. 3, Nos.1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11

Posted By : royse | Date : 17 Oct 2009 09:53:19 | Comments : 2

Vivaldi: L'Estro Armonico, Op. 3, Nos.1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11
Classical | Easy CD-DA | FLAC, CUE, No Log | 1 CD, Cover LQ
329 Mb | Date CD: 15 Oct 1988 | Naxos

“The twelve concertos for strings and basso continuo published in Amsterdam in 1711 under the title L'estro armonico were to exert a wide influence over musical taste. Vivaldi dedicated the collection to Ferdinand of Tuscany, heir to the Grand Duke Cosimo III and patron of Handel and the Scarlattis among others. The choice of the Amsterdam publisher Etienne Roger ensured sales in northern Europe, as well as in Italy, where Vivaldi's style was less of a novelty, and provided players with a clear text, more legible than the sonatas of Opus I and Opus II that had been first brought out in Venice.”
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Haendel, Complete Recorder Sonatas

Posted By : royse | Date : 09 Oct 2009 14:02:11 | Comments : 0

Haendel, Complete Recorder Sonatas
Classical | Easy CD-DA | FLAC tracks, No CUE, No Log | 1 CD, Covers HQ
391 Mb | Date CD: Novembre 1995 | Camerata Records

“George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-English Baroque composer, who is famous for his operas, oratorios, and concerti grossi. His life and music may justly be described as "cosmopolitan": he was born in Germany, trained in Italy, and spent most of his life in England. Born in Halle in the Duchy of Magdeburg, he settled in England in 1712, becoming a naturalized subject of the British crown on 22 January 1727.[1] His works include Messiah, Water Music, and Music for the Royal Fireworks. Strongly influenced by the techniques of the great composers of the Italian Baroque era, as well as the English composer Henry Purcell, Handel's music became well-known to many composers, including Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.”
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Mozart - Sonates pour pianoforte et violon

Posted By : royse | Date : 08 Oct 2009 14:18:41 | Comments : 4

Mozart - Sonates pour pianoforte et violon
Classical | Easy CD-DA | APE tracks, No CUE, No Log | 2 CDs, Covers LQ
491 Mb | Date CD: 26 septembre 2002 | Zig Zag Territoires

“En 2 CD et sur un superbe piano forte Clarke d'après Walter, Jos van Immerseel accompagne Midori C. Seiler dans Sept Sonates pour violon et piano de Mozart. Le livret décante ainsi le travail musicologique qu'il a fallu entreprendre pour revenir aux sources du phrasé, de l'inspiration de ces pages, si délicates à traduire. Face à l'immense concurrence des versions passées sur instruments modernes, d'Haskil et Grumiaux jusqu'à Barenboïm et Perlman, il faut ici remettre en cause nos certitudes quant au phrasé et au rubato. Jos van Immerseel et Midori C. Seiler nous convient à un fantastique retour dans l'univers mozartien ; on y perçoit la fragilité de ces pages, le génie d'une inspiration qui libère dans des traits d'une simplicité confondante l'esprit d'un genre musical. Un disque d'expérimentation pure qu'il faut tenter pour prendre le recul vis-à-vis de traditions qui de sont amoncelées depuis trois siècles. --Étienne Bertoli ”
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Flotow: Alessandro Stradella

Posted By : royse | Date : 02 Oct 2009 16:01:34 | Comments : 2

Flotow: Alessandro Stradella
Classical | Easy CD-DA | APE, CUE, No Log | 2 CD, Covers LQ
400 Mb | Date CD: March 30, 2004 | Gala

“This production, dating from 1977 (Bayerische Rundfunk), features some fine singing by Werner Hollweg in the title roll, and Helen Donath as Leonore. The easy arias, ensembles, and choruses fall nicely on the ear---much of the music is quite hummable, and indeed, Alessandro's famous aria, "Jungfrau Maria," continues to be a favorite of lyric tenors. Right now, I must confess, I can't get it out of my mind!”
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