Maurice Steger & La Cetra Barockorchester Basel – A Tribute to Bach (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:18 minutes | 1,49 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Berlin Classics
This album already carries the intention in its title: “A Tribute to Bach” is meant to be a deep bow by the world-renowned recorder player Maurice Steger to the great master of the music world, Johann Sebastian Bach.
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Maurice Steger, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis – Vivaldi: Concerti per flauto (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:09 minutes | 1,32 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Maurice Steger presents a splendid new project with music from Baroque Venice. Along with the period-instrument orchestra I Barocchisti under the direction of Diego Fasolis, he invites you into the world of Antonio Vivaldi and his virtuoso Concerti per flauto. Benvenuti a Venezia!
It was not the violin, but the inconspicuous and practical recorder with its pastoral sound that was the most popular instrument of the early eighteenth century. Antonio Vivaldi composed for it a number of impressive concertos that became hits in his lifetime and have nowadays achieved evergreen status. La pastorella, Il gardellino and La notte tell stories about natural phenomena, brimming with blazing colours, humour, exuberance, and melancholy.
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Maurice Steger – Souvenirs d’Italie (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:37 minutes | 1,31 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
“Naples is the capital of the musical world”, wrote Charles de Brosses in one of his letters from Italy from 1739/1740. He also wrote “Naples is the sole Italian city that seems truly a capital…” and this was not an exaggeration: it was the largest city in 17th century Europe and possessed four conservatories. Musicians trained there spent most of their lives in the service of sovereigns and aristocrats in other major European courts, such as Paris and Vienna. During their lifetime, they were internationally regarded among the finest exponents of their art. and their music adds an entirely new dimension to the history of Italian instrumental music. That variety of tastes and colours is the hallmark of this recording devoted to the staggeringly virtuosic music for recorder brought back from Italy by Count Harrach [the Austrian diplomat Aloys Thomas Raimund], who served as Hapsburg viceroy in Naples from 1728 to 1733. Hasse, Vinci, Sammartini, and the less familiar names of Antoni, Fiorenza, Leo and Sarro represent these souvenirs of a six-year gilded exile, which is preserved in his collection of precious manuscripts.
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Maurice Steger – Mr Handel’s Dinner (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:29 minutes | 1,48 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Highly virtuoso dinners: London in the 1730s. Musical life was flourishing around the figure of Handel. The Saxon composer also served as director; at the height of his fame, he surrounded himself with the finest London musicians, and was joined by many foreign composers to occupy the long breaks between the acts of his oratorios. Their musical interludes accompanied lavish dinners, during which Mr Handel escaped from the pit to indulge his gourmet tendencies. Quite a programme!
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Benyamin Nuss, Wayne Marshall, Maria Kliegel, Maurice Steger – Bernstein: Piano & Chamber Music (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:59:52 minutes | 1,51 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © CAvi-music
With Bernstein being considered as a composer of symphonies, musicals, and sacred works, many people forget that he also wrote a considerable amount of chamber music pieces, most of them for piano only. His Anniversaries represent an important part of these collections: miniatures created in homage to his friends and colleagues for each new anniversary. They include Copland, Foss, Mr and Mrs Koussevitzky, Sondheim, his wife and daughter and many other lesser-known characters. And let’s not forget his 1981 Touches for solo piano, a piece which was required for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. There’s also a Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, another for violin and piano, a trio with piano, and a few other diversified pieces, most of which date from between the composer’s first maturity to the 1950s. Then there are the surprising Variations for recorder and cello on an “octatonic” scale, one of Messiaen’s favoured modes of limited transposition. Another rarity; the Dance Suitealmost constitutes a musical testament as it was created only a few months before the genius composer-conductor passed away. It features jazz and even music-hall influences and was very dear to Mr Bernstein.
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