Timothy Ridout, Frank Dupree, James Baillieu – A Lionel Tertis Celebration (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 02:07:52 minutes | 4,51 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Lionel Tertis (1876-1975), a great genius of the viola, is little known to today’s public.
Timothy Ridout pays tribute to this key figure in his instrument’s history with a flamboyant programme featuring music by Tertis’s friends, teachers and students alongside some of his own original works and transcriptions.
A marvellous musical journey, rich in discoveries.
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Tamsin Waley-Cohen & James Baillieu – CPE Bach: Complete Original Works for Violin & Keyboard (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:33:06 minutes | 2,70 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
Born in Weimar, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-88) was the fifth child and second surviving son of JS Bach and his first wife Maria Barbara. By his own account he had no other teacher for composition and keyboard except his father. Nevertheless, the majority of Emanuel’s earliest works owe more to the influence of Telemann and other exponents of the new galant style, while already suggesting his own progressive instinct.
At the age of twenty-four, after seven years studying law, Emanuel decided to devote himself to music. In 1738 he accepted the position of keyboard player at the court of the Prussian crown prince – the future Frederick the Great. After nearly thirty years of royal service he left Berlin and moved to Hamburg, where he occupied the positions of Music Director and Cantor until his death.
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Orsino Ensemble with Peter Sparks, Llinos Owen, James Baillieu – Echoes of Bohemia – Czech music for wind (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:55 minutes | 1,19 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
Following their début album, Belle Époque, the Orsino Ensemble turns its attention to music from Bohemia. There is a strong tradition of Czech wind playing, and hence a wealth of great repertoire on which to draw. Antoine Reicha was a contemporary (and friend) of Beethoven. His E flat Quintet, published in 1817, demonstrates his harmonic ingenuity and talent for idiomatic instrumental writing. Mládí, described by Janácek as ‘…a sort of memoir of youth’, was composed in 1924 in celebration of the composer’s own seventieth birthday, and the mood of the piece is optimistic throughout. Born in Brno, Pavel Haas studied at the city’s conservatory, under Janácek – indeed Haas is widely considered to be Janácek’s greatest pupil. Composed in 1929, the Wind Quintet typifies his quirky musical imagination and affinity for instrumental timbre. Bohuslav Martinu came from the small town of Policka, on the Czech-Moravian border, but received his early musical education in Prague, where he also played second violin in the Czech Philharmonic. A government scholarship enabled him to move to Paris in the early 1920s to study with Roussel. Martinu immersed himself in Parisian musical life, the works of Stravinsky and the Jazz scene proving two considerable influences on his own compositions. His Sextet for Wind and Piano is considered one of his most successful Jazz-inspired pieces and, although an early work, demonstrates the natural melodic style so typical of his later works.
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Benjamin Appl & James Baillieu – Forbidden Fruit (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:38 minutes | 1,31 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Temptation, prohibition, good, evil… ‘how relevant are these in today’s world?’ asks Benjamin Appl. With the complicity of pianist James Baillieu, we are taken on a musical arc from simple folk songs through to the great song composers such as Schubert, Schumann and Wolf, along the way visiting the French masters Debussy and Poulenc, exploring ‘new objectivity’ with Weill and Eisler and enjoying compositions by Casucci, Heggie and others. The metaphor of forbidden fruit gives Benjamin and James a wide range of possible interpretations. Whilst some of the song settings centre on sensuality, others focus on socially immoral topics such as incest or sensitive subjects such as abortion. The German baritone embodies each of these stories with a passion and dramatic sense that makes this album a kaleidoscopic and astonishing journey through time and space.
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Julain Bliss & James Baillieu – Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Sonatas Op. 120, 4 Ernste Gesänge, Op. 121 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:58 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Classics
Julian Bliss and James Baillieu present a recording Johannes Brahms’ Clarinet sonatas, Op. 120 and an arrangement of his 4 Ernste Gesänge, Op.121 arranged by Bliss. These late works were inspired by the great clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld, principal clarinet of the Meiningen Court Orchestra, without whom we would not have had this clarinet repertoire.
Read moreBenjamin Appl, James Baillieu – Schubert: Winterreise (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]
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Benjamin Appl, James Baillieu – Schubert: Winterreise (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:17 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Franz Schubert’s masterpiece, his song cycle Winterreise (‘Winter Journey’), was written shortly before his death in 1828, at the age of only 31. On his winter journey, the singer wanders as a lost soul in harsh terrain, wracked with conflicting emotions, but consoled by his memories of kinder times – a vivid reminder of the emotional anguish that can touch every generation, whether from personal rejection, or from exile enforced by political, cultural or military pressures.
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James Baillieu, Peter Moore – Life Force (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:06:26 minutes | 542 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © RUBICON
Peter Moore won the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2008 aged just 12, and became the youngest winner of the competition. At the age of 18 he was appointed co-principle trombone with the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2015 Peter joined the prestigious BBC New Generation Artist scheme.‘Life Force’, Peter’s debut album is a superb portrait of his artistry and extraordinary talent, showcasing works that have played a pivotal role in his development as an artist, and for which Peter says he has special and great affection for – they became his life force, and still play a big part in his busy musical life.
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Benjamin Appl, James Baillieu – Heimat (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:51 minutes | 1,13 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Sony Classical
Benjamin Appl won Gramophone “Young Artist of the Year 2016”. He is a former chorister of the famous Regensburger Domspatzen, Appl is now one of the most interesting artists of the new generation, with a great voice, charming personality and great stage presence.
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Benjamin Appl, James Baillieu – Schubert: Winterreise (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]
Benjamin Appl, James Baillieu – Schubert: Winterreise (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:17 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Franz Schubert’s masterpiece, his song cycle Winterreise (‘Winter Journey’), was written shortly before his death in 1828, at the age of only 31. On his winter journey, the singer wanders as a lost soul in harsh terrain, wracked with conflicting emotions, but consoled by his memories of kinder times – a vivid reminder of the emotional anguish that can touch every generation, whether from personal rejection, or from exile enforced by political, cultural or military pressures.
(more…)
Adam Walker, Timothy Ridout, James Baillieu – French Works for Flute (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:01 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
French Works for Flute is the Chandos début of Adam Walker, ably accompanied by James Baillieu. The pair is joined by the violist Timothy Ridout in Duruflé’s Prélude, récitatif et variations. At the forefront of a new generation of wind soloists, Adam Walker was appointed principal flute of the London Symphony Orchestra in 2009 at the age of twenty-one. Built around three major works (Widor’s Suite, Jean-Pierre Rampal’s edition of Franck’s Violin Sonata, and Duruflé’s flute trio), the programme proves an excellent showcase for Walker’s prodigious talent – effortless virtuosity, ethereal sound, and above all outstanding musical expression.
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