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– Back to Front Live in Prague 10.10.2013 (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:20:09 minutes | 2,96 GB | Genre: Progressive Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Peter Gabriel Ltd.

You may call it yet another sensation: Peter Gabriel will hit the road again this fall to celebrate the 25th anniversary of So. He will reunite most members of the old line-up. Every show is available as an official soundboard recording. Unlike the 2012 Encores, the new series is available directly from Peter Gabriel’s website.
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– Reger – Complete String Trios & Piano Quartet, Op.133 (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:23:29 minutes | 1,48 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © audite Musikproduktion

The violinist Franziska Pietsch and her Trio Lirico present their debut album on audite.

In between the poles of preserving tradition and striving towards fin de siècle modernism, Max Reger composed three works between 1904 and 1914/15 featuring a particular sense of clarity which the composer associated with Mozart. Even at their premieres, the two String Trios and the late Piano Quartet each caused a sensation, not least as their compositional complexity, for which Reger was (in)famous, mostly runs underneath the surface, creating an easier listening experience. These tuneful and harmonically rich works which, at times, enter into direct dialogue with works of the past, are rarely heard, even though they represent important cornerstones of their respective genres.

The Trio Lirico was founded in 2014 and soon established itself on the concert scene. The ensemble’s varied repertoire ranges from classicism through to contemporary music. The three performers are brought together by their passion for chamber music; in addition, all three also enjoy solo careers. It is this soloistic influence within a chamber music formation that constitutes the trademark of the ensemble: the chamber music dialogue is conducted with soloistic passion without neglecting the ensemble’s homogeneity. The result is a unique combination of enthusiastic and spirited music-making and attractive suspense. The Munich-based pianist Detlev Eisinger joins the ensemble for the Piano Quartet.

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– Live from Milan (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:10:04 minutes | 818 MB | Genre: Hard Rock, Melodic Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Frontiers Music s.r.l

When I first saw the ‘Forever Young’ video back in 1991, I knew that Tyketto would become one of my all time favorite AOR bands – especially after hearing the rest of their stunning debut in “Don’t Come Easy”! Now, some 26 years later, the stirring passion of that release is captured on this superb live album filmed at the Frontiers Rock Festival IV this year. Recorded back to front with 3 extra songs in ‘Rescue Me’ (from sophomore “Strength In Numbers” in 1994), ‘Dig In Deep’ (from “Dig In Deep” in 2012) and ‘Reach’ (taken from the latest 2016 release), this stunning performance captures all the greatness of Tyketto – along with a new found fire in their kick ass cowboy rock! Still with founders vocalist / guitarist Danny Vaughn and Michael Clayton on drums – both of whom are incidentally smoking here – the newer members in bassist Chris Childs, along with guitar wizard Chris Green and keyboardist Ged Rylands put out a show stopping set that brings back the glory of my personal favorites like the kicking ‘Seasons’ or the heart breaking ballad ‘Standing Alone’, reflecting both contrast yet outstanding catchiness inherent in both these songs that I still listen to to this day. Of course, the international crowd flocking to Milan here seem to also share that view (judging by their rapture) which in turn fires the band to belt out these numbers in precision style and passion of their own! Of course, the best (or first) is kept till last in the anthemic emotion of ‘Burning Down Inside’ with the crowd singing along to Vaughn’s own soulful highs as well as those heavenly guitars and by the time the band hit ‘Forever Young’ I am in tears, with memories and joy flooding through uncontrollably. Given the primo sound quality, “Live From Milan 2017” is an absolute must for any Tyketto fan along with any AOR lover seeking a top notch live release this year – it’s simply impossible not to recommend.

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– Brahms: The Symphonies (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:35:41 minutes | 2,49 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Claves Records

The Musikkollegium Winterthur rounded off its 2018/19 concert season with a six-day Brahms Festival, during which – besides numerous other works by Johannes Brahms – the composer’s four symphonies were performed under Principal Conductor Thomas Zehetmair. Steeped in tradition and boasting a proud history dating back to 1629, the Swiss orchestra thus commemorated the years when Brahms was a frequent visitor to Winterthur and his compositions were released by the Winterthur music publisher Jakob Melchior Rieter-Biedermann. Eldest son of the successful Winterthur machinery manufacturer Heinrich Rieter, Rieter-Biedermann opened his publishing house in 1849 and the first two compositions appeared in 1856: Theodor Kirchner’s Albumblätter op. 9 and Hector Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été.

Kirchner, who had been employed as Winterthur’s full-time city organist since 1843, met Johannes Brahms for the first time that same year at the Lower Rhenish Music Festival in Düsseldorf and suggested the Winterthur music publisher to him. Brahms displayed an interest and as early as August 1856 embarked on the first of a total of 14 trips to Switzerland. The journey led to his first face-to-face encounter with Rieter-Biedermann, who first published a work by Brahms two years later – Volks-Kinderlieder mit hinzugefügter Clavierbegleitung, Den Kindern Robert u. Clara Schumann’s gewidmet (Children’s Folk Songs with additional piano accompaniment, dedicated to the children of Robert and Clara Schumann). Kirchner reported how Brahms soon became the talk of the town in Winterthur: “All of us, each in his own way, now revolve around Brahms, whom I am learning to appreciate more and more. Quite apart from his musical talent, the man has an abundance of wisdom and a hardworking attitude that I have rarely seen.”

Brahms was a frequent guest at the Haus zum Schanzengarten, where Rieter-Biedermann lived with his family. There would often be music-making, and both daughters of the house were highly accomplished pianists. Brahms enjoyed the fact that Rieter-Biedermann’s wife Louise took care of his well-being and kept his wardrobe in order: “Every morning, I feel grateful for how amiably and entirely maternally you have ensured that I feel at ease – not in my own skin – but very much so in my own clothes.” Mother Louise and daughter Ida also helped the famous composer, who was occupied with the German Requiem, to find appropriate passages from the Bible to set to music. They became close. Clara Schumann claimed to have sensed that Ida would have been a suitable wife for Brahms during her first visit to the Rieter- Biedermann household. Her observation to that effect was probably unnecessary. Brahms liked the “honoured and dear Fräulein,” as he addressed her in his only surviving letter to her: “What did I think I should have to say about how I found people like us to be so especially entitled and qualified for it – and how superfluous everything is in view of this happy event.” Superfluous due to Ida’s engagement that had just taken place – presumably anything but a “happy event” for Brahms himself …

Between 1858 and 1873, Brahms had a total of 22 compositions published by Rieter-Biedermann in Winterthur. These include such major works as the first Piano Concerto, the song cycle entitled Die schöne Magelone (The Fair Magelone), the Piano Quintet op. 34, the Paganini Variations op. 35 as well as A German Requiem. During these 15 years, Brahms wrote 165 letters to his publisher. Almost all of them are preserved today in the Musikkollegium Winterthur’s archives – valuable reminders of an important period in Winterthur’s history.

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– ANIMA (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 47:48 minutes | 515 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © XL Recordings

After the surprise release of his 2014 album Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, Thom Yorke has released his third solo studio album (not counting the soundtrack of Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 film Suspiria) the more conventional way. Under XL Recordings, Animabrings us another dose of “electronic Radiohead”. Thom Yorke first showed us that he could successfully dabble in electro music as early as 2006 with his first album The Eraser, and even ten years earlier with OK Computer and the band’s various remixes. His vocals work tremendously well with technoid beats and he’s not afraid to alter them either, sometimes reducing them to a sample which can be cut, repeated and layered, like on the album’s opener Traffic.

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The Oscar Peterson Trio – Night Train (1963/2010)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 44:35 minutes | 975 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Verve Reissues

Oscar Peterson has thoroughly assimilated not just every piano style that preceded him buy every ensemble idiom as well: swinging big bands, gospel, European classical, and, of course, the blues. Having mastered all of this, Peterson found the standard piano trio the perfect vehicle for exploring all of these types of music. In this classic album, the crowning achievement in his greatest year, Peterson doesn’t just explore these styles — he conquers them.

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– Supremes A’ Go-Go (1966/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 31:49 minutes | 1,34 GB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Motown

Supremes A’ Go-Go was the group’s first number one pop album, propelled to that place with help from a chart-topping single (“You Can’t Hurry Love”) and a marketing ploy that generated an irresistible song lineup. And along with The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland, Supremes A’ Go-Go has held its value better than almost any of the trio’s most successful albums (which excludes We Remember Sam Cooke) – in fact, back in the days when vinyl was the only game in town, used copies of this record sold faster and better than any of their other common ’60s LPs, and for good reason. Various hits compilations had skimmed the most familiar songs off of Where Did Our Love Go, I Hear a Symphony, etc., but the very concept behind Supremes A’ Go-Go – getting the group to cover some of the top hits of other (mostly Motown) acts – dictated that every song on this album was familiar in name, and only “You Can’t Hurry Love” was culled for any hits packages. There was a lot to recommend it musically, including the trio soaring rendition of “Shake Me, Wake Me” and a version of “Get Ready,” which, even if it was no threat to the Temptations, still could have been a hit. Similarly, “Baby I Need Your Lovin'” and “I Can’t Help Myself” will always belong to the Four Tops, but Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard throw themselves into both (in a less weighty version of the former) with enough spirit to make them work as album cuts; “Money” is diverting if less successful, and “Come and Get These Memories” is worth checking out just to hear Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson step forward. And even the non-Motown covers, like “These Boot Are Made for Walkin'” and “Hang on Sloopy,” make worthwhile listening, with Ross turning in a surprisingly strong, passionate performance on the latter. A number one album in its time on the pop and R&B charts, Supremes A’ Go-Go also benefited from the fact that there were no pop standards or slow ballads here, just solid R&B dance numbers.
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– Blue Neighbourhood (Deluxe) (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 58:58 minutes | 732 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © EMI Recorded Music Australia Pty Ltd

„Blue Neighbourhood“ is a musical trip full of twists and turns, cutting-edge production, sparse booming beats, majestic flourishes and beautiful modern poetry. Troye Sivan has built an intoxicating mini-universe of high emotion, exuberance and fragility. It’s a gleaming statement in state-of-the-art pop, an international soundtrack for today.
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– More Chosen Tunes (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:14:40 minutes | 2,20 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Gothic

The former principal organist of Grace Cathedral, Susan Jane Matthews presents her second recording on the landmark Aeolian-Skinner organ of Grace Cathedral. Recorded with DXD technology, Susan Jane Matthews reveals the extraordinary tonal resources of this historic instrument, set in an acoustic with power bass and long reverberation.

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Stevie Wonder – In Square Circle (1985/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 45:56 minutes | 1,03 GB | Genre: R&B
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © UNI – MOTOWN

Although it went platinum, nothing stands as better evidence of how cyclical the pop experience is than the response to In Square Circle. Wonder actually wrote some superb songs, and several, like “Overjoyed” and “I Love You Too Much,” were superior to the hit single “Part-Time Lover.” But that one zoomed to the top spot and became the album’s definitive tune in the minds of many.

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– Liszt: 12 Études d’exécution transcendante, S. 139 & 2 Études de concert, S. 145 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:29 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ATMA Classique

For his debut album at ATMA Classique, pianist Sheng Cai tackles Franz Liszt’s Etudes d’exécution transcendante, pieces that represent a pinnacle of the piano repertoire. The composer began drafting these études in 1824, when he was only 13 years old, and continued to revise them until the definitive version was published in 1852. Recently described as “the most electrifying soloist of the 2017 season” by South Coast Today, Canadian pianist Sheng Cai has embraced the romantic virtuoso keyboard tradition. His performances of major piano repertoire have touched audiences and won the praise of critics on three continents. In North American solo recitals, Sheng Cai has been heard in many prestigious venues, such as Steinway Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, the Cleveland Play House, the Modern Art Museum in Forth Worth, and other distinguished venues in Stratford, Elora, Montreal, and Winnipeg.

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– In The Moonlight (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 57:00 minutes | 1,14 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © eOne Music

In the Moonlight, Milman’s fourth album, finds the artist creating her most sophisticated and accomplished work to date, drawing upon her sublime interpretive skills and unique personal history to deliver a deeply compelling set of jazz and pop standards that showcases the subtle emotional shadings of her singing.

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