Les Cinq Modernes – Continental Jazz (Remastered from the Original Somerset Tapes) (1960/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 36:28 minutes | 705 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Somerset
Al Hendrickson became one of the most prolifically recorded studio guitarists in the history of American music following a career as a jazz and dance band guitarist and studies as a classical stringmeister. His name is frequently mutilated in recording credits, leading to the mistaken if perhaps understandable conclusion that more than one guitarist was responsible for all this work. He can be cited as the missing link between the Weavers and the Monkees or between artists with such cool names yet diverse styles as country novelty king Sheb Wooley and bebop pianist Dodo Marmarosa. Famous records this guitarist contributed to include “Moon River,” “Memories Are Made of This,” and “Goodnight, Irene.”
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Les Baxter and his Orchestra – The Exotic Worlds Of…Les Baxter! Vol. 2 (Remastered) (2009/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 57:22 minutes | 542 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla
Leslie Thompson Baxter was an American musician and composer. After becoming well known as an arranger and composer for swing bands in the 1940s, he developed his own style of world music-influenced easy listening music, known as exotica, during the 1950s and 1960s. Baxter’s heyday was in the ’50s and ’60s. Although he continued to compose and record in the ’70s, his output was sporadic. Nevertheless, a cult following formed around his exotica recordings that persisted into the ’90s.
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Les Baxter and his Orchestra – The Exotic Worlds Of…Les Baxter! Vol. 1 (Remastered) (2009/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:55 minutes | 625 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla
Les Baxter is a pianist who composed and arranged for the top swing bands of the ’40s and ’50s, but he is better known as the founder of exotica, a variation of easy listening that glorified the sounds and styles of Polynesia, Africa, and South America, even as it retained the traditional string-and-horn arrangements of instrumental pop. Exotica became a massively popular trend in the ’50s, with thousands of record buyers listening to Baxter, Martin Denny, and their imitators. Baxter also pioneered the use of the electronic instrument the theremin, which has a haunting, howling sound.
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Les Baxter And His Orchestra – The Primitive & The Passionate (1962/2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 31:04 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Jazz, Easy Listening
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino – Warner Records
The Primitive & The Passionate showcases conductor and composer Les Baxter’s signature “exotic” flair and brilliant orchestrations. The 1962 release features refreshing renditions of “Laura,” “A Taste of Honey” and “Little Girl Blue.” This mesmerizing hi-res release has never sounded smoother.
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Les Baxter – The Primitive And The Passionate (Remaster) (1962/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 31:04 minutes | 308 MB | Genre: Jazz, Easy Listening
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla
Another in Collectables’ series of Les Baxter two-fers, The Primitive and the Passionate/Les Baxter’s Balladeers collects a pair of the composer/conductor’s early-’60s albums. With song titles like “Peking Tiger” and “A Night with Cleopatra,” 1962’s The Primitive and the Passionate is a pretty typical – and entertaining – mix of Baxter’s instrumental exotica and standards. And, while the relatively straightforward renditions of “Laura,” “Little Girl Blue,” and “A Taste of Honey” might be a little too tasteful to pique the interest of modern exotica/lounge fans, their supreme smoothness is almost as much of an accomplishment as the album’s more whimsical moments. These include the spooky, mariachi-lounge of “Fiesta Brava”; the Latin rhythms and smoky flutes on “Congalé”; and “Bird of Paradise,” a sunny, string-driven track that builds on Baxter’s quintessential hit, “Quiet Village.” Les Baxter’s Balladeers, on the other hand, goes in a completely different direction: instead of exploring and borrowing from the music of exotic cultures, on this 1963 album Baxter delves into the sounds of traditional American music in response to the era’s folk music resurgence. With its simple production and the focus on the Balladeers themselves (including Phil Campos, Ernie Sheldon, and Jerry Yester in this incarnation), this album feels less like a Les Baxter album than a solid collection of early-’60s folk-pop. However, the versions of “Ashville Junction,” “Sail Away Ladies,” and Sheldon’s originals “The Green Mountain Boys” and “Dunya” still exemplify what that sound was all about.
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Les Baxter – Les Baxter’s Wild Guitars! (1959/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 26:53 minutes | 570 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla
Leslie Thompson Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was an American musician and composer. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica.
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Les Baxter – African Jazz (1959/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 29:48 minutes | 262 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla
Les Baxter’s African Jazz is an album by Les Baxter and His Orchestra. It was released in 1959 on the Capitol label (catalog no. T-1117). The album consists of original music composed by Baxter.[1][2] Upon its release, the album received a four-star rating from Billboard magazine. Billboard called it an “imaginative package” with “inventive treatments”, excellent sound, and “lush, rich approaches.”
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Les Arts Florissants and Paul Agnew – Gesualdo: Madrigali, Libri primo & secondo (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:21:39 minutes | 802 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Much gossip has surrounded the double murder committed by Carlo Gesualdo, who killed his young wife and her lover when he caught them in flagrante delicto. The remorse he felt for this atrocious crime is said to have inspired the Neapolitan composer to write new harmonies, using and abusing scraping and characterful chromatisms. Paul Agnew takes aim at this widespread belief, contending that “this aristocratic double murder only indirectly influenced the musician’s life.” In a very interesting introductory text, the “Associate Musical Director” of the Arts Florissants sets the figure of Gesualdo back into his historical context, explaining just how his tormented psychological state would have fed into his own musical evolution, alongside the musical journeys of his peers. The same line of argument is also made by musicologist Denis Morrier in his analysis of the two first Books of Madrigals, which are presented here: “At once visionary and conservative, eccentric in language and conventional in form, these works have fascinated musicians and commentators across the ages”, he writes.
Following the recording of 17 madrigals from Book IV to Book VI, conducted by William Christie in 1988, this new album marks the first stage of a complete recording of Gesualdo’s Madrigals, which are to be performed across three seasons at the Philharmonie de Paris. Passionate, violent, dark and burning with meaning, Gesualdo’s music touches the heart and speaks to us of the doubts and contradictions of the human soul.
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Les Arts Florissants & William Christie – Si vous vouliez un jour…airs serieux et à boire, Vol. 2 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:40 minutes | 1,29 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
As the first of a series of publications that aim to celebrate forty years of the “Arts Flo” founded by William Christie in 1979, this new album, recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2016, is made up of “serious songs and “drinking songs” from France in the 17th century. Following the filming of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, performed at the Salzburg Festival 2018, and the ambitious complete recording of Carlo Gesualdo’s Madrigaux conducted by Paul Agnew, who is little by little taking over as the ensemble’s conductor, new editions are returning towards harmonia mundi, the “historic” publisher of the Arts Florissants and their founder.
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Les Arts Florissants & William Christie – Rameau: Platée (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:14:05 minutes | 2,73 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
A marsh nymph thinks she is so irresistible that Jupiter himself will take an interest in her… Brimming with exceptional dramatic and musical verve, this strangely under-recorded ‘ballet bouffon’ offers us Rameau’s art in a nutshell: glittering orchestration, harmonies and rhythms of unprecedented modernity. William Christie and his comrades plunge with delight into what is one of its composer’s most fascinating works.
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Les Arts Florissants & William Christie – Monteverdi: L’incoronazione di Poppea (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 03:06:32 minutes | 3,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
An echo of the luxuriant performance at the 2018 Salzburg Festival, where this recording was made, this new version of the Coronation of Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi, conducted by William Christie (who had already recorded the piece once before, at a concert in Madrid, with production by Pier-Luigi Pizzi, in 2010) met with unanimous acclaim thanks to its exceptional musical execution. A distribution to die for, dominated by Sonja Yoncheva’s voluptuous interpretation of the titular role, and fabulous instrumentation from the Arts Florissants, led by Christie, with no fancy tricks, from the vantage point of his harpsichord. These ingredients all add up to a very high quality production to mark the fortieth anniversary of the ensemble, which was founded in 1979.
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Les Arts Florissants & William Christie – Le Jardin De Monsieur Rameau (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:21:01 minutes | 1,57 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
“Le Jardin de Monsieur Rameau,” the second recording by Les Editions Arts Florissants, was released in April 2014 as part of the commemorations of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death.
These recordings reprise the program of French music given for the 2013 Jardin des Voix, performed by William Christie and six soloists from the sixth edition of the Arts Florissants Academy for young singers.
From Rameau to Dauvergne via Campra, the musicians invite us on a promenade through the vocal art of the French Enlightenment.
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Xavier de Maistre, Les Arts Florissants, William Christie – La Harpe Reine: Concertos for Harp at the Court of Marie-Antoinette (Live) (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:10:08 minutes | 731 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Mention Marie Antoinette, and inevitably the guillotine springs to mind – one is less likely to think of the harp, which, according to courtiers’ accounts from the end of the Ancien Régime, she played admirably.
Thanks to Louis XVI’s queen and to her Austrian origins, a whole new and deliciously refined repertoire saw the light of day in Versailles, a repertoire that subsequently became known throughout Europe. To celebrate their first musical partnership, William Christie and Xavier de Maîstre have undertaken to revive these splendid works in a program full of charm and surprises. Audiences will discover Les Arts Florissants playing an unexpected collection of concertante pieces by Jean-Baptiste Krumpholz, Johann David Hermann and Joseph Haydn on authentic late 18th-century instruments.
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Les Arts Florissants, William Christie – J.S. Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232 (Live) (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:45:00 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists are renowned of their spectacular performances of Bach’s epic masterpiece, which they have toured extensively.
During their last tour (in Munich, Frankfurt, Lucerne, Aix-en-Provence and Paris) there was a stampede for tickets and they performed every night in full houses, to spellbound audiences.
This album is the culmination of the tour: it was recorded in an open session in London, and captures the special atmosphere of the concerts
It is presented in a 2-CD casebook and contains a booklet featuring original notes by John Eliot Gardiner translated in English, German and French.
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Les Arts Florissants & William Christie – Handel: Music for Queen Caroline (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:15 minutes | 1,37 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Queen Caroline was an emblematic female figure of the eighteenth century. The wife of King George II of England, Caroline of Ansbach was a woman of great beauty, a supporter of the arts and sciences, and also a friend and protector of Handel.
It was Handel who was commissioned to compose the ceremonial music that accompanied her reign—“The King Shall Rejoice” played at her and George’s coronation, the “Queen Caroline” Te Deum, written for her arrival in England, and also “The Ways of Zion do Mourn,” composed for her funeral.
In this recording which, for the first time, brings together these three works illustrating the very strong link between the queen and her chosen artist, the choir and orchestra of Les Arts Florissants, whose ranks were enlarged for the occasion, bring back to life music that is at once flamboyant and poignantly human.
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