Maysa – Voltei (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 30:41 minutes | 593 MB | Genre: Bossa Nova, Latin Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla
Maysa Leak (born August 17, 1966) is an American jazz singer better known by her mononym Maysa. She is well known by fans of smooth jazz both for her solo work and her work with the British band Incognito.
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Maysa – Tom Jobim Por Maysa (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 36:18 minutes | 689 MB | Genre: Bossa Nova, Latin Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla
A collection of Jobin’s Brazilian songs on an Argentinean record production, but it is really the first song, Eu sei que vou te amar, that’s worth the whole disc. Every once in awhile a writer, artist or composer creates a jewel, when everything worthwhile comes together and the total is a masterpiece, worth far more than the sum of its parts. The melody, the lyric, and Maysa’s incomparable voice transcend a song about love lasting a lifetime and become love itself.
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Maurizio Pollini – Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Opp. 101 & 106 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:42 minutes | 967 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
After Pollini already recorded Beethoven’s Sonatas No. 28 and No. 29 back in 1977, he does so again in 2022 to elicit the last secrets from these late sonatas in a new interpretation. Like all of Beethoven’s late sonatas, these defied the formal conventions common to the genre and were ahead of their time. Beethoven no longer cared about constraints in society and music, instead giving free rein to his subjective feelings.
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Matthias Goerne – Schubert Revisited: Lieder Arranged for Baritone and Orchestra (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:08 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Matthias Goerne, one of the most high-profile Schubertians of his generation, has recorded a selection of Schubert’s songs not in their original versions with piano but in orchestral arrangements by Alexander Schmalcz, Goerne’s accompanist of many years’ standing. Goerne says about Alexander Schmalcz’s arrangements: “His creativity in adapting these songs for the orchestra is enormous, while his stylistic sensibilities and his subtle approach in deploying the right instruments at the right moment are truly astonishing.” “Schubert’s ability to empathize makes him one of the most important composers in the whole of human history. (…) He created “a perfect balance between intellectuality and the greatest naturalness. With Schubert, even the most complicated melodies and forms sound entirely natural.” (Goerne) And yet what we hear on this album is “pure Schubert”, Alexander Schmalcz insists. “I have added nothing. Sometimes I fill out the voices by doubling the octave, for example. Or I write sustained chords in the orchestra in order to simulate the sound-surfaces that are the result of the use of the sustaining pedal on the piano. But my goal is to be as original as possible.”
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Matthew Schellhorn – Howells: Piano Music, Vol. 2 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:23 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
In the first volume of this series, Matthew Schellhorn surveyed six decades of Herbert Howells’ compositions for the piano. This second volume reprises the journey, tracing the composer’s stylistic development from the charming poetic miniatures of his youth through to the resonant modal quirkiness of his later dances.
The survey includes a centrally important work, the Sonatina of 1971, performed here in Schellhorn’s own edition compiled from the manuscript sources, which includes variants not heard for half a century.
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Matthew Halsall – Changing Earth (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 30:01 minutes | 553 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Gondwana Records
Matthew Halsall has already blessed us with one beautifully conceived EP this year, now with Changing Earth he has shared another perfectly crafted four track mini-album or EP. Where the music on The Temple Within came from the energy around the band’s monthly sessions at Yes in Manchester, Changing Earth is a more meditative, spiritual offering.
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Mathieu van Bellen, Mathias Halvorsen – Puccini: La Bohème (Arr. M. van Bellen & M. Halvorsen for Violin & Piano) [Live] (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:29:57 minutes | 1,62 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Backlash Music
Mathieu van Bellen and Mathias Halvorsen present an ambitious and first ever completly instrumental arrangement of Giaccomo Puccini’s entire opera La Bohème. The musicians have arranged the score themselves, bringing together the parts of the soloists, the choir and the orchestra into a hyper-virtuosic piece for just violin and piano. Recorded live in front of an audience, van Bellen and Halvorsen give everything they have; bringing forth each scene in an expressive and highly evocative tour de force. Drawing on styles and techniques from Puccini’s contemporaries Kreisler and Godowsky, the musicians have strived to utilise a wide array of colours and textures. Ranging from intimate love scenes to buzzing streets filled with soldiers and children, the arrangement is meant not only to reflect Puccini’s orchestration, but also to build the scenic imagery and bring the characters to life.
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Marvin Gaye – Here, My Dear (1978/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:13:44 minutes | 3,25 GB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © UNI – MOTOWN
Here, My Dear is the fifteenth studio album by Marvin Gaye, originally released as a double album on December 15, 1978, on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place between 1977 and 1978 at Gaye’s personal studios, Marvin Gaye Studios, in Los Angeles, California. The album was notable for its subject matter focusing largely on Gaye’s acrimonious divorce from his first wife, Anna Gordy Gaye.
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Martyn Brabbins – Gregson: Blazon, Violin Concerto, Clarinet Concerto & Stepping Out (2003)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:44 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra bring to life the varied influences of Edward Gregson on this recording of four world premieres, combining the structural clarity of Bartók and Hindemith, the economy and incisiveness of Stravinsky, the rhythmic flair of Walton and the simple modality of Vaughan Williams. To that list, Tippett, Lutoslawski, Messiaen and John Adams could also be added. This is a consciously eclectic mix, informing an approach to writing which is rigorous, disciplined and rooted firmly within the symphonic mainstream. The soloists on the Clarinet Concerto and Violin Concerto are Michael Collins and Olivier Charlier respectively.
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Martin Rummel – Bottesini: Three Gran Duettos for Cello and Bass (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 54:09 minutes | 997 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Paladino Music
Martin Rummel is much more than just a cellist: “musician, cultural manager, academic, pleasure person” is how he describes himself, even if playing the cello has of course remained his “core business”. More than 50 CD albums have earned him the highest praise from the public and the press as well as the reputation as one of the leading cellists of his generation. Martin Rummel is a guest of orchestras and organizers in Europe, Asia, Oceania, North and South America, with conductors and chamber music partners of all generations; namedropping is not his. After academic posts in Germany, China and New Zealand, he is currently Rector of the Anton Bruckner Private University. He is the owner of a company with four CD labels and a publishing house, had his own radio show and speaks and writes about music.
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Marita Albán Juárez Quartet – Jazmines (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 44:42 minutes | 463 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Marita Albán Juárez Quartet
The quartet comprises Polish-Peruvian siblings Marita and her brother José Manuel, Dominik Wania and Andrzej Święs. They explore themes ranging from tropicalismo and Afro-Peruvian music to free improvised forms that extend beyond Latin jazz. Their first album, Aguas Calientes (Youkali Music, 2015), was dominated by an intense groove section, a dazzling piano sound with sweeping harmonies and a sensitive interpretation of consciously chosen lyrics accentuating the issues of equality and feminism.
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Marin Alsop – Antonin Dvorak : Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” – Symphonic Variations (2008)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:04 minutes | 418 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Coming as it does after disappointingly turgid readings of Brahms’ four symphonies with the London Philharmonic, Marin Alsop’s powerful recording of Dvorák’s Ninth with the Baltimore Symphony is a surprise. Recorded live in Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, Alsop’s Ninth is robust and energetic, with muscular rhythms and stalwart tempos. Her Molto vivace Scherzo has real heft and weight and her closing Allegro con fuoco has drive and strength. Better yet, Alsop coaxes warm, characterful playing from the Baltimore musicians. The ensemble is tight and direct in the fast movements, but the playing is colorful and soulful in the slow movements. The burnished lower strings in the opening Adagio and the solemn trombones at the start of the central Largo are deeply felt and quietly affecting. Preceded by a brilliant and bumptious account of the same composer’s Symphonic Variations, this disc will add luster to both Alsop and the Baltimore’s reputation.
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Maria Emrik – Christmas Dreaming (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 34:31 minutes | 756 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ali Production
“Music is the most important thing in my life! I have sung all my life and recorded more than 30 albums through the years. I am in a process of remastering some of them to be able to upload them to various streaming services on the internet.
It will take some time as there are many songs, and many of them are on tapes, and the process is being done in another country – so there is plenty of work!
I have often been asked why I don’t do concerts or interviews, and I understand that it may be difficult to understand, but honestly I do not think it is important to listen to me repeating my lifestory over and over again. I would be happy to talk about my music, but I have found that it often ends up being about me instead. My music is my purpose – not me as such. Trust me I am not that interesting 🙂
I think that music and art is very important for peoples wellbeing in this world and I believe that those who are supposed to hear me will find me regardless.
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Maria Callas – Verdi: Un ballo in maschera (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:11:22 minutes | 1,34 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
December 2nd is the birthday of Maria Callas, meaning that we are now exactly one year before her centenary. Warner is eagerly anticipating those celebrations! This year, they mark the date with the release of the first Verdian opera of their Teatro alla Scala retrospective: Un ballo in maschera. Maria Callas gives an overwhelming performance as Amelia, torn between her love for Riccardo (Giuseppe Di Stefano) and her faithfulness to Renato (Tito Gobbi).
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Maria Callas, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Gianandrea Gavazzeni – Rossini: Il turco in Italia (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:52:50 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
Hermes Opernlexikon: “Callas as a fascinatingly disciplined ensemble member;Stabile in a post-war recording as a reminder of his great past;Rossi-Lemeni’s demonstration of a quasi-graceful wit – all that makes these discs very precious.”
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