Gringolts Quartet & Meta4 – Mendelssohn & Enescu: Octets (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:43 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
Before Felix Mendelssohn produced his Octet for strings in 1825, only Louis Spohr had composed for a similar combination of instruments. Rather than an octet, however, Spohrs work was a double quartet written for two equal but independent string quartets. Mendelssohn, on the other hand, treated the eight instruments as a single unit, collaborating in symphonic orchestral style, as he himself put it. He was only sixteen when he composed the Octet, full of a youthful ardour that has made it one of his most popular works. It is a farewell to the Mozartian style that had characterized Mendelssohns early production and at the same time a first step on the way to Romanticism. The second octet on this disc is also a youthful work written at a time of transition, now from Romanticism to Modernism: George Enescu was 19 years old when he completed his Octet in C major in December 1900. The work is concentrated, complex and highly contrapuntal, a sounding illustration of what Enescu elsewhere described in words: I am by nature a polyphonist, not at all an advocate of sequences of pretty chords. I have a horror of anything that stagnates. For me, music is not a state but rather an action Among the small number of works for this instrumental combination, these belong to the very finest, and are here performed by two of todays leading quartets: the Gringolts Quartet and Meta4 have both made numerous acclaimed recordings in the most diverse repertoire.
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Grimm Grimm – Ginormous (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 43:30 minutes | 475 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Tip Top Recordings
“Grimm Grimm is a tonic for the curious heart” – Cate Le Bon There’s more than a hint of the famous Grimm brothers’ twisted fairy-tale folklore to Ginormous – the third album from London-based, Tokyo-born experimentalist and former frontman of cult psychedelic-punk group Screaming Tea Party Koichi Yamanoha. Recalling a childhood with Humpty Dumpty and Mother Goose by his side, his latest offering marks the next chapter in a trilogy of self-discovery; a compendium of sonically astute storytelling where nightmares and dreams meet via French yé-yé and Casio beats. “I always wanted to write an album that sounds like a funeral and a wedding at the same time,” Koichi says of the happy-sad tales extracted from the phantasmagoria of his Grimm Grimm alias’ consciousness. “I wanted to create something intimate and each album is like a different road trip I’ve taken; all with exit doors leading to the next story. It is like a warning letter to the older and younger version of me.” An outlet for his fragile, haunted, otherworldly forays into baroque folk, futurist lyricism and electro-acoustic oddities, stories have always shaped Koichi’s world. Whether channelling the wonder of nursery rhymes from his youth to megalophobic thoughts of monolithic objects, Ginormous turns to the next page of Koichi’s sonic journey so far; its lyrics and melodies culled from the notes on his phone whilst travelling alone on trains across Europe. Between shows with Cate Le Bon, Simon Finn, Dinosaur Jr, Thurston Moore, The Undertones, Green Man Festival and Edinburgh Fringe, each note offers a monumental moment in time from every passing experience of Koichi’s emotional world; such as his feelings upon seeing the imposing Yugoslavian monuments of World War II (Spomenik’), or hearing from his many friends made along the way. The album was recorded in his room at home and Total Refreshment Centre in North/East London, Koichi enlisted award-winning producer Marta Salogni (Bjork, The Orielles) and Capital K’s Kristian Craig Robinson. Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier vocals feature on The Ghost of Madame Legros, Sophie Lowe of Peluché played clarinet, and violin whilst Pete Baker and Monchan of Bo Ningen provided additional drums. Joining them; avant-garde violinist Agathe Maxx, and Koichi’s flatmate Paz Maddio, of postpunk trio Value Void, added her whispery vocals to ‘In A Glass Jar’ and the title track. “I choose words to create mood and I like the word ‘Ginormous’,” he says. “It’s dumb and funny but expresses something big in everyday life… an object, determination, relationships, or even a chair or sausage – American sized.”
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Grimes – Miss Anthropocene (Deluxe Edition) (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:07:16 minutes | 865 MB | Genre: Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 4AD
Much of Grimes’ fifth LP is rooted in darkness, a visceral response to the state of the world and the death of her friend and manager Lauren Valencia. “It’s like someone who’s very core to the project just disappearing,” she tells Apple Music of the loss. “I’ve known a lot of people who’ve died, but cancer just feels so demonic. It’s like someone who wants to live, who’s a good person, and their life is just being taken away by this thing that can’t be explained. I don’t know, it just felt like a literal demon.” Miss Anthropocene deals heavily in theological ideas, each song meant to represent a new god in what Grimes loosely envisioned as “a super contemporary pantheon”—“Violence,” for example, is the god of video games, “My Name Is Dark (Art Mix)” the god of political apathy, and “Delete Forever” the god of suicide. The album’s title is that of the most “urgent” and potentially destructive of gods: climate change. “It’s about modernity and technology through a spiritual lens,” she says of the album, itself an iridescent display of her ability as a producer, vocalist, and genre-defying experimentalist. “I’ve also just been feeling so much pressure. Everyone’s like, ‘You gotta be a good role model,’ and I was kind of thinking like, ‘Man, sometimes you just want to actually give in to your worst impulses.’ A lot of the record is just me actually giving in to those negative feelings, which feels irresponsible as a writer sometimes, but it’s also just so cathartic.” Here she talks through each of the album’s tracks.
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Grimes – Art Angels (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:43 minutes | 1,03 GB | Genre: Electronic, Alternative
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 4AD
Claire Boucher aka Grimes’ fourth album, produced and engineered by herself. Spanning over 14 tracks, the new album features collaborations with Janelle Monáe and newcomer, Taiwanese rapper Aristophanes. It was recorded primarily in her home studio in Los Angeles, CA, where she relocated to in 2014. Like all of her previous albums, Art Angels was written and recorded entirely as a solo endeavor. The new album features more live instrumentation than ever before on a Grimes record. She plays piano, guitar and violin, continuing her evolution as a musician and a producer for her most ambitious album to date.
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Grigory Sokolov – Beethoven Brahms (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:06:36 minutes | 2,06 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
3 Years after his last recording Grigory Sokolov returns with a double album of live recordings from his triumphant 2019/20 tour. Focusing on early (Piano Sonata No. 3) and late Beethoven sonatas (Piano Sonatas Nos. 27 & 32) and Brahms’s autumnal piano pieces opp. 118 & 119, the “musical sorcerer” has fascinated audiences and critics across Europe: “Music making at the piano could hardly be more unaffected yet compelling…The music unfolds directly” ( Süddeutsche Zeitung ). “His pianism is stupendous…but Sokolov’s real magic occurs in the moment, in his fine art of making music live, transcending epochs, levitating, always mindful that our playing must end” ( Tagesspiegel Grigory Sokolov will turn 70 on April 18, 2020!
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Grigory Krotenko, Barocco Concertato, Ilya Mazurov & Maria Krestinskaya – Travels with Goliath, In the footsteps of Josef Kämpfer (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 57:55 minutes | 582 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RUBICON
The Goliath in question, as the kind reader might have guessed, is none other than the double bass, an instrument with which is admittedly harder to travel than a recorder. This is however what double bass player Joseph Kämpfer did from the 1770s to the 1810s: after resigning from the Austrian-Hungarian cavalry, he decided to learn the double bass (the market for pianists or violinists was already saturated) and once he became a virtuoso, he travelled throughout Europe accepting positions from time to time, but mostly giving concerts from Saint-Petersburg to Bratislava, from Munster to Salzburg, Vienna or even Paris, where his appearance at the highly famous Spiritual Concerts seems to have quite surprised the audience, unaccustomed to the double bass’ growling. His repertoire probably covered many of the works recorded here by Grigori Krotenko, concertos or sonatas from Hoffmeister, Vaňhal, Sperger and even Mozart! Because, yes, Mozart wrote in 1791 an aria sung by bass, solo double bass and orchestra, Per questa bella mano, which is in no way an adaptation or an apocryphal transposition. It seems that this colorful moment was created for the bass-baritone Franz Xaver Gerl and the double bass player Friedrich Pischelberger, both present during the world premiere ofThe Magic Flute. Splendid sonorities, probably highly uncommon, but who make you hope that this Goliath will never meet his David, as that would be too bad.
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Griff – One Foot In Front Of The Other (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 20:28 minutes | 274 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Records
One Foot in Front of the Other is the first mixtape by British singer-songwriter Griff. It was released on 18 June 2021 by label Warner Records. It follows Griff’s debut extended play (EP) The Mirror Talk (2019). The mixtape’s lead single “Black Hole” was released on 18 January 2021, which was performed at the 2021 Brit Awards in May 2021, where she was awarded the Brit Award for Rising Star. The single was followed by the release of the title track and “Shade of Yellow”. Originally set to be released on 11 June, the release was pushed back by one week.
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Dana Ciocarlie, Christiane Baume-Sanglard – Grieg, Huber, Bruch, Winkelman: Invitation à la Danse (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:09:39 minutes | 2,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Claves Records
Since their first encounter in 2007 during the Swiss festival Piano à Saint-Ursanne, Christiane Baume-Sanglard and Dana Ciocarlie have started working together and collaborating as a Four-Hands Piano Duo. The female duo has since played in numerous concerts and festivals all over Europe. Through their friendship, their contrasting personalities make for a vibrant mixture of energy, poetry and musical expressiveness.
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Glenn Gould – Grieg: Piano Sonata, Op. 7 / Bizet: Nocturne & Variations Chromatiques (1973/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 45:00 minutes | 419 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical
Gould as an “incorrigible romantic.” Instead of Schumann, Chopin, or Liszt he selected two unimaginably obscure rarities, referring to Grieg as a personal ancestor (“the composer was a cousin of my maternal great-grandfather”) and to Bizet’s Variations chromatiques as “one of the very few masterpieces for solo piano to emerge from the third quarter of the nineteenth century.”
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New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein – Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 & No. 2 / Sibelius: Finlandia & Valse Triste & The Swan of Tuonela (1981/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 54:47 minutes | 529 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical
Bernstein – Remastered Edition: Sibelius – The Symphonies collects Bernstein’s complete Sibelius recordings, newly remastered from the original analogue tapes using 24 bit / 96 kHz technology in a 7CD limited original jackets collection.
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Annerose Schmidt, Dresdner Philharmonie, Kurt Masur – Grieg: Klavierkonzert A-Moll Op. 16 / Weber: Konzerstück F-Moll Op. 79 (1969/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 44:54 minutes | 1,49 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © King Record Co., Ltd
Nikolaï Lugansky, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Kent Nagano – Grieg & Prokofiev: Piano Concertos (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:19 minutes | 879 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ambroisie – naïve
Accompanied by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO Berlin), one of the best German orchestras, conducted by Kent Nagano, renowned for interpretations of clarity, elegance and intelligence, Nikolai Lugansky performs a new album dedicated to two famous composers, Grieg and Prokofiev. The Russian pianist is still spectacular in these concertos.
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Joseph Moog, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Nicholas Milton – Grieg & Moszkowski: Piano Concertos (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:24 minutes | 578 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Onyx Classics
Joseph Moog has established an enviable reputation as one of the most impressive virtuoso pianists of the younger generation. His catholic tastes embrace both the core repertoire and many works from its backwaters – works that were once warhorses, but have for no apparent reason fallen into unjust neglect. The Moszkowski piano concerto on this new CD is such a work. Overflowing with memorable tunes, the piano writing and indeed the handling of the orchestra marks this out as a very skilfully constructed work. Do not expect moments of profundity or an emotional roller coaster: just marvel at the fluidity and brilliance of Moszkowski’s writing. This is salon music of the highest order, and none the worse for that!
Moog couples the Moszkowski with one of the concertos in the repertoire whose fortunes have not waned – the evergreen Grieg concerto which never fails to impress the listener.
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Andreas Brantelid, Christian Ihle Hadland – Grieg & Grainger: Cello works (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:33 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
Although they were born forty years apart on opposite sides of the world, Edvard Grieg and Percy Grainger have much in common. The aim to become pianists and composers more or less forced both of them to leave their native countries – Norway and Australia respectively – in order to gain access to the great central European tradition that so dominated musical life during the second half of the 19th century. Grieg enrolled at the Leipzig conservatory in 1858 and Grainger at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt in 1895, but their experiences were in many ways strikingly similar: both made progress as pianists, but neither of them found the German approach to the teaching of composition fruitful. Grieg’s strong attachment to Norwegian folk music made it difficult for him to compose in a way that conformed to the Germanic ideal, while Grainger some forty years later withdrew from the composition class at the conservatory in order to study privately. He too would find his greatest inspiration in folk music traditions, as exemplified in La Scandinavie for cello and piano, a suite of arrangements of Scandinavian folk songs. The two composers met in 1906, in London, and not surprisingly they got along famously. The meeting led to Grainger visiting Grieg in Bergen the following year, only two months before the older composer passed away. The Danish-Swedish cellist Andreas Brantelid and his Norwegian chamber music partner Christian Ihle Hadland have teamed up in this programme of cello works by the two composers, opening with Grieg’s celebrated Cello Sonata. They also include less well-known pieces, however, such as the composer’s arrangement of the Allegretto from his third violin sonata, and an Andante con moto intended as part of a never completed piano trio, in which they are joined by the violinist Lars Bjørnkjær. Discovered after Grieg’s death, the piece would have to wait more than 70 years before receiving its first performance.
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Daniela Cammarano, Alessandro Deljavan – Grieg: The Violin Sonatas, Opp. 18, 13 & 45 (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:16:44 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ÆVEA
The 3 Violin Sonatas by Edvard Grieg are a mixture of German and Austrian traditions with the Nordic folk. The experience at the Leipzig Conservatory, where the strong influence of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Robert Schumann was felt, and the trips to Italy, especially Rome, where Grieg met Franz Liszt, contributed greatly to the formation of the style of the Norwegian composer. Similarly of crucial importance were the years he spent in Copenhagen where he completed his studies under the guidance of the Danish composer Niels W. Gade.
The complete Sonatas for violin and piano are included in this album signed by the well-matched couple Cammarano-Deljavan who has already recorded the works by Johannes Brahms and Anton Rubinstein. The 7-mic recording by Alessandro Simonetto is fully dynamic and realistic.