Robert Mitchell – A Vigil For Justice A vigil For Peace (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:04:55 minutes | 701 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Depth Of Field
Pianist/composer Robert Mitchell has produced one of his finest albums to date with the release of “A vigil for justice, a vigil for peace”. Having emerged as a musician with much promise through his involvement with Tomorrow’s Warriors, he has gone on to work with Courtney Pine, Steve Coleman, Iain Bellamy, Norma Winstone, Greg Osby, and Omar Puente among others, developing a formidable reputation along the way as a gifted pianist and composer. Undoubtedly one of the highlights of 2017, this is an album that has so much going for it that it really is a “must-have” for any jazz enthusiast’s collection.
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Robert Mehlhart, Vokalkapelle der Theatinerkirche München – Selva morale e spirituale (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 31:40 minutes | 599 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Resonando
Aufgenommen wurde die Debüt-CD unter der musikalischen Leitung von Pater Robert Mehlhart OP in der erhebenden Atmosphäre der Theatinerkirche. Am 9. März 2018 erscheint „Selva morale e spirituale“ beim Label „resonando“.
Am Ende seines Lebens stellte Monteverdi eine Sammlung von Werken zusammen die er „Selva morale e spirituale“ nannte. Die „Selva“ spiegelt die unterschiedlichen Stile, in denen der Künstler für den Markusdom schrieb und repräsentiert das geistliche und musikalische Vermächtnis des 74-jährigen Monteverdi. Der berühmteste Komponist seiner Zeit blickt am Ende seines Lebens auf sein Wirken zurück und übergibt der Nachwelt, was ihm wesentlich erscheint. Aus dieser außerge-wöhnlichen Kollektion stammen die beiden Werke der CD: Das fast überirdisch anmutende „Magnificat“, welches sich aus der gregorianischen Psalmodie stets neu emporhebt sowie die „Messa a4 da Capella“, in der Monteverdi das polyphone Vorbild Palestrinas mit impulsivem Kontrastreichtum verbindet.
„Viele kennen Monteverdi, dessen Geburtstag sich im Jahr 2017 zum 450sten Mal jährte, als den Komponisten der ersten Oper.“ erläutert Pater Robert. „Er war jedoch auch eine tief geistliche Persönlichkeit, ein betender Mensch. Diesen Monteverdi wollten wir erklingen lassen.“ Gemäß der venezianischen Tradition wird das zwölfköpfige Vokalensemble von einer Continuogruppe begleitet, hier einer Theorbe und einer Truhenorgel. „Monteverdi ist anspruchsvoll zu singen, denn Sopran und Tenor liegen entweder sehr hoch oder sehr tief.“ erklärt Pater Robert. „Zudem war der Stimmton bei Monteverdi in Venedig etwas höher als bei uns heute. Die Herausforderung war, die Musik dennoch homogen und entspannt fließen zu lassen und ein schlüssiges Klangerlebnis zu kreieren.“ Weitere Aufnahmen der Vokalkapelle sind geplant und in den Interpretationen sollen Musik und Spiritualität zusammenfinden. Auch sollen sie wieder in der ganz besonderen Atmosphäre der Theatinerkirche aufgenommen werden, um deren Geist sowie das kreative Schaffen, Wirken und Gestalten der Vokalkapelle einer breiten Öffentlichkeit zugänglich zu machen.
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Robert McCormick, McCormick Percussion Group – Tyler Kline, Michael Standard & Others: Chamber Works (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:15:07 minutes | 894 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ravello Records
Soli for Tuba, Zheng, Horn with Percussion is percussionist Robert McCormicks tenth album with PARMA Recordings. On their latest album, the Robert McCormick Percussion Group performs five compositions from four distinct composers, each of whom contributes striking works that range from personal to global inspiration. The album opens with Loam, a concerto for tuba and percussion ensemble composed by Tyler Kline. Much of the concerto is texture-based in order to convey the idea of loam, or soil, with some parts of the music reflecting the sound of the earth being tilled. The general arc of the concerto is cyclical, a metaphor for being born from the earth and returning to the earth after death. Chihchun Chi-sun Lees Double Concerto for Tuba, Zheng and Percussion Orchestra is a unique amalgam featuring zheng, tuba, and percussion. The first movement creates a unifying sense of color, timbre, and gesture. Movement II mainly focuses on the tuba and zheng, while Movement III displays the sound of the tuba, zheng, and percussion in perfect balance. Written by Michael Standard, Stamina for percussion quartet and horn soloist is comprised of three parts: Fracture, Rehabilitation, and Capacity. Fracture sees a breaking apart in every element of the music. Rehabilitation strings together the previously fractured pitch material in a new way using glissandos. The final stage, Capacity, uses this new pitch organization to fill the spaces with notes. Following this piece, composer Matthew Kennedy and his In Pursuit of Ghosts explores the journey from one chapter of life to the next through the structure of the three-part concerto. Soli for Tuba, Zheng, Horn with Percussion closes with Zusammenflusses (Confluences), another work by Lee, that captures the differences and similarities of the zheng with the vibraphone and cymbal. Zusammenflusses aptly concludes this new addition to the McCormick Percussion Groups oeuvre, and the album as a whole inspires listeners to explore new and unexpected combinations of sounds to create innovative music.
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Robert Lockwood, Jr. – Delta Crossroads (2000/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:01:17 minutes | 2,80 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Telarc
Robert Lockwood Jr. is a blues treasure. Blues credibility doesn’t get any deeper or more real than Robert Lockwood Jr. On Delta Crossroads, the 85-year-old Delta bluesman lays out a heartfelt homage to the immortal Robert Johnson, his guitar teacher, close friend, role model and possibly step-father. Playing the acoustic 12-string guitar and singing with uncommon authority, Lockwood delivers unaccompanied, bone-chilling renditions of Johnson classics like “32-20 Blues,” “Stop Breakin’ Down Blues,” “Mr. Downchild,” “Love In Vain Blues” and “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom,” along with authentically earthy readings of Leroy Carr’s “Mean Mistreater Mama” and “In the Evening,” Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “C.C. Rider” and “Key to the Highway,” which Lockwood says was written by Jazz Gillum and not Big Bill Broonzy, who usually gets credit. I guess he would know. This purely acoustic offering is a rich tribute and a must for Delta fanatics.
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Steven Isserlis, Robert Levin – Ludwig van Beethoven: Cello Sonatas (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:38:55 minutes | 2,72 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
In this new chamber recording, Steven Isserlis together with his regular collaborator, fortepianist Robert Levin, presents a magisterial and long-awaited compendium of Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano, including Beethoven’s arrangement of his Op 17 Horn Sonata. The use of the fortepiano opens up a wealth of sonic possibilities for these works.
Read moreRobert Levin – J.S. Bach: Six Partitas, BWV 825-830 (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]
Robert Levin – J.S. Bach: Six Partitas, BWV 825-830 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 02:19:09 minutes | 2,14 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Le Palais des Dégustateurs
Robert Levin’s view of music is multiple. It is at the same time that of a performer, but also of a researcher, a teacher and a composer. He invites us to rediscover Bach’s Partitas.
Levin’s recording of Bach’s Six Partitas is way of perfect, yet at the same time old fashioned. Levin’s performances are intellectual and rigorous, form and structure being more important than rhetoric and emotions.
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Robert Len – iLenKa (2012/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 44:42 minutes | 903 MB | Genre: World
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 2xHD
iLenKa is an ensemble of varying dimensions (2 to 6 musicians) playing the music of composer and multi-instrumentalist Robert Len united with the screenings and scenarios created by violinist Carole Meneghel.
iLenKa’s entrancing music is the fusion of world music with lounge and jazz influences. Sometimes smooth, sometimes intense, sometimes cinematographic, sometimes virtuoso, the melodies and performances are characterized by their subtlety and wide range of emotions, combining the violin’s warmth with a multitude of surprising instruments from around the globe such as Tibetan bowls, Armenian duduk, Australian didgeridoo, Native American, Irish and Romanian flutes, Argentinian moseño, Peruvian and Cuban cajón, traditional flugelhorn, trumpet, cymbals, and more.
iLenKa is a very original new world music experience. Give it a listen.
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Robert Len – Robert Len, Help (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 41:14 minutes | 2,70 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 2xHD
Composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Robert Len releases his new project Help!. Producer André Perry’s musical collaboration makes this album a tour de force where each color selected is totally essential and everything has its place; an admirable example of Count Basie’s motto ‘Less is more’.
Mastered in 2xHD’s proprietary new Fusion Mastering process, the recording further benefits from the process’s quality of integrating the properties of analog and digital technologies for an innovative, enveloping listening experience
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Robert King, The King’s Consort – Luigi Boccherini, Emanuele d’Astorga: Stabat Mater (1999)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:13:34 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
Boccherini wrote very little vocal music; however he left two settings of the Stabat mater. It was first set in 1781 for solo soprano and strings and then in 1800 for two sopranos and tenor, obviously influenced by the hugely-popular Pergolesi Stabat mater of 1736. There are many similarities in the notation and harmony – even the same key of F minor is used. The writing is of extraordinary individuality and seems to come straight from the heart. This unjustly neglected piece is surely one of the most remarkable sacred compostions of the era.
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Robert Keßler Trio – Bloodline (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 41:30 minutes | 456 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © EDITION COLLAGE
Bloodline – that means something like family tree. Every artist must honestly decide for himself to whom he feels obliged and why. To himself and thus to those who can identify with his statements, or to external factors such as media expectations, zeitgeist or a canon. Guitarist Robert Keßler has made a very clear decision, and his album Bloodline bears witness to this step. Bloodline is not a concept album, and yet the CD follows a very clear concept. This concept is called life. Not some imaginary life or life itself, but Robert Keßler’s very personal balance sheet of the last ten years. His role as a family father, patient friend and selfless coach for countless young musicians as well as all the other factors that put his own musical ambitions on the back burner for long stretches. It wasn’t a matter of just focusing on myself, Keßler holds. That’s rather difficult for me. That’s why this record comes ten years after the last one. In the past years, it was not my turn, but that of children, students and other people. He is a quiet as well as alert observer of his surroundings and also of his own reflection. In the end, we come face to face with a musician with the rare gift of knowing himself. Robert Keßler does not define himself by his conflicts, but is – at least outwardly – a pragmatist of everyday poetry. Amusement and pensiveness are the essential personal ingredients with which he gives his pieces their special flair.
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Ensemble Emigré – Robert Kahn: Leaves from the tree of life (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:43 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RUBICON
Robert Kahn was born in Mannheim in 1865 and died in Biddenden, Kent in 1951. How did a composer who impressed Brahms, and who the older composer offered to give lessons to end up in the UK in a small village? Kahn became an influential professor of music at the Berlin Hochschule, and before that had his works performed by the Joachim Quartet, and the Berlin Philharmonic under Hans von Bülow. Kahn was a friend of Joachim, von Bülow, Adolf Busch and Richard Mühlfeld. His compositional style was along the lines of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms, he was an admirer of Reger, whose contrapuntalism no doubt had an influence upon Kahn. He avoided large scale romantic forms, and became famed for his songs, choral works, chamber music and the huge Tagebuch in Tönen, (Music from the Tree of Life) a collection of solo piano works, suites for piano and lieder that run to over 1100 pieces.
Things started to go wrong for Kahn with the rise of the Nazis. Branded ‘degenerate’ by the National Socialists, he was thrown out of his teaching positions, and in 1937 left for the UK, settling in Kent and composing right up to his death. This album is a fascinating introduction to a composer that political extremism and hatred tried and failed to erase.
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Robert Kaddouch and Gary Peacock – 53rd Street (2016/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:00:18 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Odradek
Recorded as a duo with Gary Peacock, “53rd Street” reflects techniques developed over many years by Robert Kaddouch in his attempts to embrace, capture and convey musical worlds which are close to his heart and relate to meaningful events in his life. His interpretation is linked to the authenticity of this approach which mixes jazz, children’s songs, Yiddish themes and his own compositions. Their encounter in July 2015 in New York’s Avatar Studios brought them on a common journey, alternating these traditional themes with standards arranged by Robert Kaddouch, as well as two of his recent compositions (“53rd Street” and “Agile”). The team intertwines on a hip ‘What Is This Thing Called Love’ while going impressionistic on a liquid ‘Lover Man’…. the piano and bass sigh and weave with thoughtful elegance.
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Robert Kaddouch – High Line (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:11 minutes | 726 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Odradek Records
Here is a constellation of compositions that pierces the sky and seems to tell the two musicians that this moment belongs only to them. We can feel in the high notes of French pianist Robert Kaddouch and the deep bass of American Gary Peacock the High Line on which Robert has built its harmonic structure: an unstable equilibrium where musicians, like tightrope walkers, increasingly move away from their comfort zone towards a point where only the fall becomes possible, or a spark of genius climbing even higher towards a new High Line.
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Robert Johnson – Crossroad: The Legendary Recordings (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:07 minutes | 881 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. He is now recognized as a master of the blues, particularly the Delta blues style.
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Robert John Godfrey & The Enid – Live at The Citadel (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:16:45 minutes | 721 MB | Genre: Progressive Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Operation Seraphim
The Enid are a British progressive rock band founded in 1973. “Live At The Citadel” is the unplugged performance with the band’s original founder Robert John Godfrey. Recorded on a spellbinding evening where the music emanated profound emotions, this performance is a completely unique rendition of just a segment of the band’s full repertoire, formed carefully to captivate. This one-off version of the songs – played without drums and bass – allows parts of the music perhaps not noticed before to shine through and creates an extraordinary atmosphere.
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