Christoph Renhart – Ins Offene (Für Gerd Kühr) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:01:26 minutes | 430 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © col legno
Stylistic diversity and openness to new things characterize the compositional work in Graz, so that the institute for composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz has an excellent international reputation. For the retirement of Gerd Kühr, who has helped shape this path over the years with his commitment and his composition class, an album of short piano pieces was created, which the composers of the institute wrote for Gerd Kühr. Gerd Kühr’s piano cycle »Praeludium – eight interludes – postlude« appears for the first time. With aphoristic accuracy, the short pieces each throw their spotlight on a special gesture of playing the piano.
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Christoph Croisé – Voyage Exotique (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:20:33 minutes | 1,46 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Avie Records
Christoph Croisé channels his prowess as a cellist – “he’s got it all – technical chops, impeccable musicianship and imaginative daring” (Gramophone) – into compositional ingenuity on the first album devoted entirely to his own works.
Christoph draws inspiration from a variety of musical role models, including contemporary and centuries past, paying homage to the time-honoured evolution of classical music that has melded current conventions with popular styles. Traditional forms, such as sonata and concerto, are imbued with jazz, blues, bossa nova and improv to create, as Christoph puts it, “a musical and cultural melting pot.”
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Christian Gerhaher – Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:23 minutes | 966 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical
Christian Gerhaher’s recording of Mahler’s ‘Das Lied von der Erde’ in a version with piano featuring tenor Piotr Beczala and pianist Gerold Huber. ‘This recording of ‘Das Lied von der Erde’ does not represent a preliminary stage in Mahler’s compositional process but stands alongside it as its equal. The piano version of ‘Das Lied von der Erde’ is more daring and at the same time more intimate, forcing the singers to sing in a different, more subtly nuanced, way than they would with an orchestra, while listeners are obliged to listen more intently and to prolong the abstract sound in their imaginations until it acquires the rhetorical colour that is implied by Mahler’s music.’
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Chouchane Siranossian, Venice Baroque Orchestra & Andrea Marcon – Duello d’archi a Venezia (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:16:29 minutes | 2,84 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
“For this recording we have created an imaginary ‘battle of the bows’ between Vivaldi, Veracini, Tartini and Locatelli, the ‘four musketeers’ of the violin in Venice during the first half of the 18th century”, said Chouchane Siranossian and Andrea Marcon. “Corelli died in 1713 and passed the torch on to his heirs… Venice then became the setting for merciless rivalries. The violin became an instrument of confrontation, an ideal weapon for demonstrating virtuosity and technical prowess. The player’s ultimate goal was to astonish the listener and to demonstrate his own bravura, to the point that certain narcissistic tendencies of the player were often exaggerated.” Chouchane Siranossian, whose virtuosity was described as “diabolical” by the Sunday Times and who “hit the nail on the head” according to Classica on her Tartini recording (Alpha596, Choc), is the ideal interpreter of these high-risk concertos, with the fresh and knowledgeable support of Andrea Marcon and his Venetian ensemble.
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Choir of Girton College, Cambridge – Marc’ Antonio Ingegneri, Vol. 3: Missa Susanne un jour a5 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:44 minutes | 1,34 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Toccata Classics
The Cremonese composer Marc’Antonio Ingegneri (c. 1535/36–92) is chiefly remembered as the teacher of Claudio Monteverdi while, for well nigh 500 years, his own achievements were left to sit in the shadows. This third in a series of pioneering recordings from the Choir of Girton College, Cambridge, reveals Ingegneri to have been one of the masters of his age, writing music of breathtaking richness and beauty: the works heard here combine learned, intricate counterpoint with the kind of sheer sonic thrill that brings a shiver of physical excitement. It is, of course, religious music, but it is also extraordinarily passionate, to a degree not previously heard, nor for centuries to come, until the rise of the great Romantic choral works.
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Chiyan Wong, London Symphony Orchestra, Christoph Koncz – Swing!: Tsfasman x Ravel (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 37:49 minutes | 655 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Platoon
Professional soloists had the rare luxury of straying from their demanding routines when the coronavirus pandemic hit, and pianist Chiyan Wong found himself signing up for online jazz lessons during one particular lull.
His February 2022 concerts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic had just been cancelled and the Berlin-based soloist was looking for something to do.
But a mild flirtation has since become a serious pursuit, the 34-year-old says. And now, back in Hong Kong for the rescheduled concerts, he is also announcing the launch of a new record that has a finger-busting stride.
At the launch event on April 25 at the Hong Kong Fringe Club – which incidentally is trying to revive its long association with the city’s jazz scene – Wong was effusive with the thrill of discovery in spite of suffering with a heavy cold, and performed samples from the album, called Swing!, which is an exuberant pairing of two works for piano and orchestra throbbing with the syncopated vernacular of jazz.
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Chiaroscuro Quartet – Haydn: String Quartets Op. 33 Nos 1-3 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:00:24 minutes | 2,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
“Gut strings and classical bows are also the tools of a captivating quest for sonority”, French magazine Diapason recently wrote to describe the Chiaroscuro Quartet. After Op. 20, Joseph Haydn’s first major string quartet cycle, and Op. 76, his last, the internationally renowned ensemble is now embarking on the Quartets Op. 33, dubbed the “Russian Quartets” and dedicated to the Russian Grand Duke Paul, the future Tsar Paul I.
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Chet Baker – Chet (Mono) (1959/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 42:17 minutes | 1,62 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Craft Recordings
Limited MONO Edition of Chet Baker’s 1959 Riverside album Chet. Featuring jazz legends Bill Evans, Pepper Adams, Herbie Mann, Kenny Burrell, Paul Chambers, Connie Kay and Philly Joe Jones, with all-analog mastering from the original MONO tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio.
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Chet Baker – At Capolinea (Remastered) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 43:29 minutes | 509 MB | Genre: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Red records
At Capolinea is an album by jazz trumpeter Chet Baker, recorded in Milan and originally on the Italian Jii label as Al Capolinea before being more widely released by Red Records. It features, among others, Italian guitarist Nicola Stilo and French pianist Michel Graillier, both of which contributed with original compositions.
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Chaz Jankel – Flow (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:00:18 minutes | 646 MB | Genre: Synth-pop, New Wave, Disco
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CJ Records
Chaz Jankel was a founding member of the Blockheads and Flow is his new solo album. It is a triumph across 13 cuts of soulful, funky and jazz tinged tunes that will be familiar to anyone who has tuned into Ian Dury and the Blockheads over the years. Chaz is joined on this one by fellow Blockhead saxophonist Dave Lewis and trumpet comes from Bryan Corbett while two vocalists guest in Melody Palmer and Andy Caine, both of whom bring real soul.
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Charlotte Cornfield – Could Have Done Anything (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 29:32 minutes | 281 MB | Genre: Folk Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Double Double Whammy – Polyvinyl Record Co
For Toronto, ON’s Charlotte Cornfield, 2021 was a year of massive growth – Her critically acclaimed full-length album, Highs in the Minuses, was heralded as her best work yet, with Rolling Stone declaring her “Canada’s best-kept secret” and The Alternative calling it “one of the year’s best records.” The album showcased Cornfield’s knack for crafting deeply personal songs with an observational tone and witty lyric delivery. She took these heartbreakingly relatable songs on the road, playing numerous shows & festivals across North America and Europe, including opening for Pedro The Lion, Stars, Sarah Harmer and others. On Cornfield’s new album, Could Have Done Anything, she teamed up with producer and Bonny Light Horseman member, Josh Kaufman in Upstate New York, first at the stained-glass-tinted Dreamland Recording Studios, then at the nearby Isokon Studio, run by engineer D. James Goodwin (Kevin Morby, Whitney) and his assistant, Gillian Pelkonen. Kaufman and Cornfield played every instrument themselves, channeling the energy of her favorite classic records, from Elliott Smith’s Figure 8 and Jeff Buckley’s Grace to Neil Young’s Harvest –albums where the listener is simply carried by the songs, and their musicians’ beautiful playing. Standouts like “You And Me” highlight intimacy and absence, while “Gentle Like The Drugs” captures memories from Cornfield’s spring 2022 tour with Pedro the Lion – her first time seeing sunsets in Arizona.
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Bill Champlin, Joseph Williams & Peter Friestedt – Carrie (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 22:22 minutes | 265 MB | Genre: Soft Rock, Melodic Rock, AOR
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Black Lodge Records
TOTO singer Joseph Williams teams up with former Chicago singer Bill Champlin and Swedish guitarist/Producer Peter Friestedt for a new release following the success with the album CWF II that was # 11 in Japan on their Billboard chart and #6 in Sweden as well as the “Live In Concert” DVD that made it all the way to the top on the Swedish Chart!
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Chad Lawson – breathe (guided breathwork edition) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:45:42 minutes | 1,61 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chad Lawson Decca US
Prolific pianist and composer Chad Lawson invites you to breathe in, calm the mind, and release what you do not need. On his luminous new album breathe, Lawson expands on the intentionality he brought to his 2020 effort You Finally Knew by delivering an exquisitely crafted and genre-transcending body of work. Partly informed by his work as creator and host of the “Calm It Down” podcast, breathe ultimately establishes Lawson as an essential voice exploring the intersection of music and wellness.
This deluxe “guided breathwork” edition, Lawson expands the album with multiple alternate versions and reworks, focusing on an exploration of how breathing techniques combined with meditative music can help achieve a more relaxed state of mind.
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Céline Dion – Love Again (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 56:39 minutes | 602 MB | Genre: Soundtrack, Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia
The soundtrack from the motion picture LOVE AGAIN features 5 new Celine Dion recordings, in addition to 6 of Celine’s previous hits and 3 film score selections. The album was announced with the release of the title song, “Love Again.” This is the first new music from 5 time Grammy winner Celine Dion, since 2019’s album Courage.
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Cedar Walton – More Blues for Myself (1985/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 37:28 minutes | 396 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Red records
Blues for Myself is an album by pianist Cedar Walton which was recorded in 1985 and released on the Italian Red label.
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