Eiji Oue, Minnesota Orchestra – Respighi: Belkis, Queen of Sheba Suite – Dance of the Gnomes – Pines of Rome (Ottorino Respighi) (2001)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:02:31 minutes | 998 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reference Recordings
“Dazzling orchestral colors,” is one one way to describe the music of Ottorino Respighi. “Belkis, Queen of Sheba” was conceived as an evening-long ballet with singing whose lavishness has kept it from view since its La Scala premiere. This is only the second recording of a suite prepared by the composer ” for the first time with the tenor solo (sung by Chad Shelton), and with the movements in the correct order. The music’s oriental perfumes and barbaric splendor guarantee the enthusiasm of anyone who hears it. “Dance of the Gnomes” is a little-known but characteristically dramatic and colorful (some might say “lurid”) tone poem. “Prof.” Johnson’s stunning HDCD sonics make Respighi’s greatest hit “The Pines of Rome” (with extra brasses and organ!) a dazzling conclusion to this unusual, inventive program.
Read more– Hitchhiker (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 33:41 minutes | 1,33 GB | Genre: Folk Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise
Neil Young will open his archive and release Hitchhiker, an unreleased new studio album. The 10-track acoustic solo album was recorded in Malibu, CA at Indigo Studio in 1976. The original session was produced by Young’s long-time studio collaborator David Briggs.
Recorded between Zuma and American Stars and Bars as a solo album in a single session, the resultant performances are truly breathtaking and passionate. The simplicity of a single voice and guitar captured here is as pure and powerful as it gets, with only Young, Briggs and actor Dean Stockwell in the room at the time of recording. A few of the songs would not appear on vinyl until years later. Some have never been heard, included in the original sessions for Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Dume, another unreleased record of original sessions that yielded the classic album, Zuma. When the Hitchhiker album was recorded, none of the included songs had ever been released and many of the performances of the songs were the first ever.
This is truly an album of original performances.
Read more– New York Reunion (1991)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:37 minutes | 1,58 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chesky Records
An instantly classic jazz album, and not so incidentally, the best jazz audiophile album ever made. This is one profoundly natural-sounding presentation of an acoustic jazz quartet. New York Reunion is the finest album in years liy both Tyner and Henderson, and it’s Chesky’s most important work to date.
Read more– Hundreds of Days (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 48:01 minutes | 551 MB | Genre: Ambient
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ghostly International
Memories — places, vacancies, allusions — are fundamental characters in Mary Lattimore’s evocative craft. Inside her music, wordless narratives, indefinite travelogues, and braided events skew into something enchantingly new. The Los Angeles-based harpist recorded her breakout 2016 album, At The Dam, during stops along a road trip across America, letting the serene landscapes of Joshua Tree and Marfa, Texas color her compositions. In 2017, she presented Collected Pieces, a tape compiling sounds from her past life in Philadelphia: odes to the east coast, burning motels, and beach town convenience stores. In 2018, from a restorative station — a redwood barn, nestled in the hills above San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge — emanates Hundreds of Days, her second full-length LP with Ghostly International. The record sojourns between silences and speech, between microcosmic daily scenes and macrocosmic universal understandings, between being alien in promising new places and feeling torn from old native havens. It’s an expansive new chapter in Lattimore’s story, and an expression of mystified gratitude. A study in how ordinary components helix together to create an extraordinary world.
Read more– Sur Mars (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 39:20 minutes | 442 MB | Genre: French Pop, Chanson, Indie
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Un Plan Simple
Le 25 janvier 2019, Marvin Jouno dévoilera son deuxième album “Sur Mars”. Après le titre du même nom, le chanteur français lâche prise pour le clip aérien du deuxième extrait, intitulé “Danse!”. A découvrir sur Pure Charts !
Vendredi dernier dans Taratata, Marvin Jouno accompagnait Zazie pour une relecture frissonnante de “Ton héritage” de Benjamin Biolay. L’occasion pour le chanteur et sa « fée » d’affirmer leur respect mutuel et de révéler les circonstances dans lesquelles ils se sont rencontrés. C’était il y a trois ans au moment de la sortie du premier single du musicien, “Quitte à me quitter”. Alors qu’elle cherchait un artiste pour assurer les premières parties de sa tournée, Zazie entendit ce titre à la radio. Elle entra alors en contact avec le jeune artiste… sans se douter que celui-ci avait, en parallèle, proposé sa candidature ! « Il y a eu un chassé-croisé. J’ai postulé mais Zazie ne le savait pas » a expliqué Marvin Jouno à Nagui. Les deux artistes finiront par faire une dizaine de dates ensemble, dont un concert chargé en émotion au Bataclan. « J’aime bien sa voix, j’aime bien ses textes, j’aime bien son univers » avoue Zazie, heureuse de partager avec lui une plume sensible.
Read more– The Complete Songs of Poulenc, Vol. 4 (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:09:25 minutes | 621 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
Composing over 150 works for piano and voice over a period of 44 years, the songs of Francis Poulenc remain consistently popular to concert audiences the world over. Varying in their individual style and character in a way that defies generalization, Poulenc set music to a wide range of different French poetry – both ancient and modern, and from the serious to the surreal. This is the fourth release in our series that will build to encompass the complete songs of Francis Poulenc – performed by some of the greatest singers of the day and accompanied by the exceptional Malcolm Martineau.
Read moreLiving Guitars – Guitar Man (1968/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 23:23 minutes | 903 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA – Legacy
Collective name given to musicians for a series of budget-price guitar-sound cover-versions of classic songs and hits by RCA Camden
Read more – GarciaLive Volume Two: August 5th, 1990 Greek Theatre (Live) (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/176,4 kHz | Time – 01:59:04 minutes | 3,88 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Round Records
This second release of the newly initiated GarciaLive series captures the classic latter-era lineup of the Jerry Garcia Band in the very familiar surroundings of the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA. This performance at The Greek features a guest appearance by banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck to kick off the second set with a fiery rendition of “Midnight Moonlight” and an otherworldly adventure on the Jimmy Cliff classic, “The Harder They Come.” Other highlights include JGB classics like “Stop That Train”, “Run For The Roses”, and “Tangled Up In Blue”, this show is essential slow burner for time spent on the back porch this summer.
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Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam – Jean Sibelius: Kullervo (2008)
SACD ISO: 3,78 GB (Stereo + MCH DSD) | FLAC @ 24bit/88.2kHz: 1,30 GB | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: Ondine # ODE 1122-5 | Country/Year: Finland 2008
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic
Review by James Leonard
Every recording released of Kullervo proves Sibelius’ aesthetic judgment was wrong when he forbid performances of the work during his long lifetime. A five-movement symphony-cum-symphonic poem-cum-oratorio-cum-opera, Kullervo may have seemed unwieldy in its time, but starting with Paavo Berglund’s premiere recording in 1985, the work has taken its rightful place in the canon as the progenitor of Sibelius’ mature style and as a valid and affecting work in its own right. This 2008 Ondine release with Leif Segerstam leading the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the YL Male Voice Choir not only ranks with the best of recent memory — Osmo Vänskä and the Jukka-Pekka Saraste’s recordings — but Segerstam finds something new to say about the piece. By blending the epic-symphonic and the lyric-dramatic elements of the score into a cogent musical whole, Segerstam makes the best case for the work. With the powerful, colorful, and deeply committed playing of the Helsinki Philharmonic, the outer movements have the heft and control of symphonic arguments. And with the brawny but expressive baritone Tommi Hakala in the title role and the pure but passionate soprano Soile Isokoski as his sister, the central movement sounds more than ever like a scene from an opera. Captured in super audio sound that envelops the listener in the performances, this recording deserves to be heard by anyone who relishes Sibelius. allmusicguide
Houston Symphony, Nicole Heaston, Toby Spence & Peter Rose, – Haydn: The Creation (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:39:27 minutes | 1,72 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
Haydn’s stupendous, joyous and uplifting oratorio Die Schöpfung (The Creation) is thrillingly brought to life in this recording with Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducting the Houston Symphony, with the Houston Symphony Chorus and the acclaimed operatic soloists Nicole Heaston, Toby Spence and Peter Rose. With its startling dramatic gestures, bold orchestral colours and sublimely beautiful word painting, Haydn’s astonishing depiction of the Genesis creation story remains his supreme masterpiece and one of the best-loved works in the entire choral repertoire. In a vivid series of tableaux, from the creation of light to Adam and Eve’s love duet, Haydn brings to life the birds, beasts and angels which all rejoice in soaring, life-affirming music.
Read moreGuido Balestracci, Les Basses Réunies & Bruno Cocset – Captain Tobias Hume : “Harke, Harke !” Lyra Violls Humors & Delights (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:25 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
With this new recording, Bruno Cocset’s Les Basses Réunies propose a journey back to 17th-century England, centring on the work of Tobias Hume, an emblematic musician of the viola da gamba and, more precisely, the lyra violl. This exploration in terms of music as much as of sound, presents three instruments that have just come from the hands of instrument-maker Charles Riché (seconded by Friederike Dangel). A distinguished guest, the talented Italian gambist Guido Balestracci, plays a selection of solo pieces by the famous soldier composer. The Lyra violl is also accompanist for pieces composed for a dessus and Lyra violl, in which case Bruno Cocset plays his little ‘bastarda alto’ viol. The continuo, subtle and lush, brings together Bertrand Cuiller on the two harpsichords (one strung with brass wire, the other with gut strings), and Richard Myron on the large bass in G.
Read moreGeorge Harrison – All Things Must Pass (40th Anniversary Edition) (1970/2010)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:45:47 minutes | 1,97 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Dark Horse
“All Things Must Pass 40th Anniversary edition in audiophile quality digital format, 96Khz/24 bit. Audio mastered at Abbey Road Studios from the original analogue master tapes…”
Read moreGaku Nakagawa – Telemann: 6 Ouvertüres, TWV 32:5-10 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:17 minutes | 1,38 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Telemann was among the most admired and prolific of composers and his compositions encompass virtually all genres and instrumentations known in his lifetime. The ‘Six Ouvertures,’ strangely neglected for many years, reveal his inventive and imaginative writing for solo harpsichord. They contain elements that suggest an amalgam of French and Italianate influences, whether ‘ouverture-suite’ or three-movement concerto or sonata. Also evident, in the central movements, is Telemann’s preference for Polish folk music, of whose ‘true barbaric beauty’ he was an ardent admirer. Gaku Nakagawa was born in 1993 in Japan. He began playing piano at the age of four, and in 2012 entered the University of Tokyo to study philosophy. Without ever having a harpsichord lesson, he became the first prize winner of the 27th YAMANASHI, Japan, international competition for early music in 2014.
Read more – Close To You (Remastered) (1957/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 43:33 minutes | 1,03 GB | Genre: Jazz, Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAPITOL CATALOG MKT (C92)
An ambitious album from Frank Sinatra that took eight months to record over five different recording sessions in 1956 and was finally released in 1957. Sinatra is backed up by the Hollywood String Quartet, arranged and conducted by longtime Sinatra associate Nelson Riddle. With more intimate arrangements than his swinging sessions, the material puts the spotlight more than ever on Sinatra’s voice. This album is included in the Capitol Records Entertainer Of The Century series.
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Madonna – You Can Dance (Single Edits) (1987/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 30:18 minutes | 408 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Records
In the 1980s, remixes were still a new concept and technology, and the vocal phrases performed could be endlessly copied, repeated, cut off, shifted up or down, give them echo, reverberation, add high tones or low bass. Madonna became interested in the concept and noticed that she hated remixes of others on her songs, but wanted to do them herself.
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