Your basket is empty

Categories:
Narrow my search:

Results 1 to 20 out of a total of 101036
From
HI-RES$17.59
CD$15.09

Grieg: Lyric Pieces

Emil Gilels

Classical - Released December 31, 1974 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions The Qobuz Ideal Discography
From
HI-RES$17.59
CD$15.09

12 Stradivari

Janine Jansen

Classical - Released September 10, 2021 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

Hi-Res Booklet
It must have been an amazing dream come true for Janine Jansen to play twelve of the finest Stradivarius violins made available to her for ten days or so to record this album, and to have it filmed by Gerry Fox in London. Ten days to master these precious gems is certainly a very short time, even if the outcome is preserved forever by this documentary available online in late 2021.The twelve precious instruments travelled from all over the world to realise this whimsical project. Some of these twelve "Strads" lifted from their museum display cases have not been played for decades, others belong or have belonged to legendary virtuosi, and some have probably never been recorded. It was then necessary to devise a programme that would best illustrate the characteristics and personality of the individual violins. The rather original choices eschew Bach, which Janine Jansen plays so well, to focus on a dozen composers perhaps not all the most obvious: Falla, Tchaikovsky, Kreisler, Schumann, Brahms, Elgar, Vieuxtemps, Rachmaninov, Szymanovski, Ravel, Suk and Heuberger.There is no need to look for coherence here, but just to appreciate the sound of each instrument which, we have to admit, represents a real challenge for a non-specialist audience. Antonio Pappano, as good a pianist as he is  conductor,  uses a wide range of sounds to enhance these twelve vignettes, original pieces or arrangements of famous works. © François Hudry/Qobuz
From
HI-RES$13.19
CD$10.89

En Rêvalité

M

French Music - Released December 1, 2023 | Wagram Music - 3ème Bureau

Hi-Res
From
HI-RES$17.59
CD$15.09

Tchaikovsky

Daniel Lozakovich

Classical - Released October 18, 2019 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 5 de Diapason
Don't be fooled: this youthful face belongs to an 18 year old violinist with a wealth of knowledge and a tried-and-tested technique. For proof, just look at his Bach record, which came out before this Tchaikovsky Concerto, also on Deutsche Grammophon. With every new outing, Daniel Lozakovich surrounds himself with famous formations: for Bach, the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra; for Tchaikovsky, the Russian National Philharmonic under Vladimir Spivakov (himself a great violinist who conducted his first recital in 2010). This gutsy concerto is addressed by a musician with an ample, sparkling sound, capable of an intense virtuosity and a very tender melancholy. Alongside Spivakov, who also recorded this score, he is quite at home. The hands-on sound recording seeks out the fullness of lyricism here, without robbing the strings of their bite. Note that the young soloist learned his scales under Eduard Wulfson in Karlsruhe. This student of giants like Henryk Szeryng, Nathan Milstein and Yehudi Menuhin (no less) taught his young disciple the violin of the Russian school. This young artist's voracious curiosity did the rest. And so, the second part of his programme here offers passages where pure melancholy has been distilled into music, as in Lensky's aria from Eugene Onegin, an opera that the violinist adores and knows by heart. His performance is inspired by previous interpretations by Fritz Wunderlich and Ivan Kozlovsky. And no-one could deny it: Daniel Lozakovich's violin sings! © Elsa Siffert/Qobuz
From
HI-RES$26.29
CD$22.59

ICONIC

David Garrett

Classical - Released November 4, 2022 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Hi-Res Distinctions OPUS Klassik
The titular "Iconic" nature of the program here is twofold. First, stardom-groomed violinist David Garrett pays tribute to violin icons of the past. Primary among them is Fritz Kreisler, who is represented several times on the program, including by the familiar Schön Rosmarin (which is not among the bonus tracks for those who purchase the deluxe physical edition but is an additional bonus track available to streaming listeners). One of the icons, Itzhak Perlman, even makes a personal appearance in a Shostakovich duet, and other guests include tenor Andrea Bocelli and the single-named flutist Cocomi. What Garrett calls the second thread of his program deals not with performers but with music; what he has put together here is an example of the classic program of encores. He has done his job well, arranging a lot of the music for himself and changing up the sentimental tunes that can sink a project like this if too relentless with more unusual fare (Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair) and upbeat numbers like Dinicu's Hora Staccato and a reminder of his earlier virtuoso ways with Paganini's Moto Perpetuo, Op. 11. The end result is an entertaining example of the venerable all-encore genre, marred only by oddly too-close studio sound from Deutsche Grammophon.© James Manheim /TiVo
From
HI-RES$14.89$16.59(10%)
CD$12.89$14.39(10%)

Tharaud plays Rachmaninov

Alexandre Tharaud

Classical - Released October 21, 2016 | Erato - Warner Classics

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Gramophone Editor's Choice
There is no shortage of recordings of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, one of the most popular pieces in the classical repertory ever since its slow-movement clarinet solo underlaid the quintessence of cinematic romance, Brief Encounter. But this one, by pianist Alexandre Tharaud (he may not be as well known as the decision to omit his first name in the graphics would presume, but he's getting there), is worth strong consideration. It's not blood-and-thunder Rachmaninov, so those seeking that in the C minor concerto might look elsewhere. But there's absolute clarity throughout, and with that an attractively variable dialogue with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Alexander Vedernikov, one of the unsung Russian conductors who are having the times of their lives in Britain these days. Perhaps the highlight of the album is the early set of Cinq Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3, in which Tharaud's way with a restrained but involving narrative thread comes to the fore. Sample the character piece "Polichinelle" in F sharp minor. The version of the Vocalise, Op. 34, here is unremarkable, and the two Pieces for six hands at the end are not the virtuoso showpieces that might be imagined, but rather salon novelties. So the program peters out somewhat. But those in search of an elegant C minor concerto or near-definitive Cinq Morceaux de fantaisie should hear this release.© TiVo
From
HI-RES$115.49
CD$100.09

The Complete Warner Recordings 1972 -1980

Itzhak Perlman

Classical - Released September 25, 2015 | Warner Classics

Hi-Res Booklet
From
HI-RES$54.29
CD$48.09

Franz Schubert

András Schiff

Classical - Released March 27, 2015 | ECM New Series

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Gramophone: Recording of the Month - Gramophone Editor's Choice
This double album represents a change of heart for pianist András Schiff, who once publicly ridiculed the idea of "playing Schubert sonatas on Graf fortepianos." He recounts his evolution and something of his philosophy in using a historical piano in an elegant booklet essay that some might find worth the price of admission. The same might be said of ECM's engineering here, which exceeds even its usual high standard and catches Schiff's whispered low notes with startling clarity. The recording was made in the chamber music room of the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, where Schiff's piano -- an 1820 Brodmann model from Vienna, once owned by the last Austro-Hungarian royal family, not a Graf -- usually resides. Those absolutely opposed to historical performance are likely to be repelled by Schiff's reading here, which spends a great deal of time at low decibel levels. But listen again: Schiff finds a great deal that's new in the music. The closing Piano Sonata in B flat major, D. 960, is perhaps the best of all, with the low trills that underpin the opening movement taking on subtle but vast expressive power. Schiff takes the slow movement at a fairly brisk clip and effectively turns it into a kind of nocturne in a way no one else has done. His muscular style is not submerged, but he adds to it a new expressive vocabulary that carries nothing of the somewhat reluctant tone players of modern instruments often bring to historical-instrument performances: Schiff has clearly thought these readings through, and felt them through. The shorter works on the album have as much weight as the two large sonatas. An extraordinary achievement.© TiVo
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$16.99

So Romantique !

Cyrille Dubois

Classical - Released March 10, 2023 | Alpha Classics

Hi-Res Booklet

BIG BAND SCALE -REVIVED BIG BAND SOUND-

KENICHI TSUNODA BIG BAND

Jazz - Released May 27, 2015 | WM Japan

Download not available
From
HI-RES$17.59
CD$15.09

Encores

Nelson Freire

Classical - Released October 18, 2019 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

Hi-Res Distinctions 5 de Diapason - Choc de Classica
This release, issued to mark the 75th birthday of the great pianist Nelson Freire in 2019, is hardly a typical album of encores. A good deal of it is devoted to a single composer, Edvard Grieg. Other composers are represented by multiple works, and there are substantial pieces like the Rachmaninov Prelude in B minor, Op. 32, No. 10, that would not fill the role of encore well. You might take the word "encore" in another way, though: to mean things reprised. Many of these pieces are ones Freire knows well, has played many times, and has explored at a truly breathtaking level of detail. The Grieg Lyric Pieces are not virtuoso works, and indeed are often played by amateurs, but you haven't heard them played like Freire plays them, with each one a little study in phrasing and register. You could sample almost anywhere here, but try the first of the Shostakovich Fantastic Dances, Op. 5, which has an entrancing subtlety from the very first notes. Freire, a famed virtuoso, mostly avoids showpieces here, but, as if to say he hasn't lost the ability, he does drop some in. The album is, then, an encore to Freire's remarkable career, which isn't over yet.© TiVo
From
HI-RES$14.82
CD$9.88

Futur

Dub Inc

Dub - Released September 30, 2022 | Diversité

Hi-Res
From
HI-RES$10.14$14.49(30%)
CD$7.34$10.49(30%)

Schubert : Des fragments aux étoiles

Shani Diluka

Solo Piano - Released September 3, 2015 | Mirare

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 5 de Diapason - 4 étoiles Classica
From
HI-RES$15.09
CD$13.09

The First At Last

Jasper Staps

Contemporary Jazz - Released November 3, 2023 | Just Listen Records

Hi-Res
From
HI-RES$150.09
CD$130.09

Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas

Mélodie Zhao

Classical - Released May 5, 2014 | Claves Records

Hi-Res Booklet
From
HI-RES$18.09
CD$15.69

Le Ruban Dénoué - Valses

Frank Braley

Classical - Released December 1, 2023 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res Distinctions Diapason d'or
Composer Reynaldo Hahn is known mostly for his songs, and his music in the less common two-piano genre is all but forgotten. This release by pianists Frank Braley and Éric Le Sage may change that. The main attraction here, the waltz set Le Ruban Dénoué, contains marvelously evocative music; a "ruban dénoué" is an untied ribbon, and this work is indeed a gift for the listener who may not have heard it. The work consists of 12 waltzes, capped with a song rendered here by the ethereal Sandrine Piau; the waltzes have titles that seem to carry an unlikely degree of specificity ("Indolent Decrees of Chance," "The Lost Ring"), but listen and hear how the complexity of Hahn's textures brings them alive. Braley and Le Sage do not miss a detail. These pieces appeared in 1915 when Hahn was serving as a clerk at the front in World War I, and they feel like an uncannily detailed look back into a past that was instantly disappearing. The program is filled out with interesting two-piano works by Chabrier and Hahn; especially charming is Hahn's three-movement Pour bercer un convalescent ("Rocking a Convalescent"), limpid despite the use of two pianos. A delightful release that may leave listeners wondering where this music has been all their lives.© James Manheim /TiVo
From
CD$19.59

Memories – The Unreleased Recordings 1970-2019

Nelson Freire

Classical - Released October 14, 2022 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

Booklet
Rare is the artist whose leftovers would end up on best-seller lists, but this one from pianist Nelson Freire did just that in the autumn of 2022. Part of the reason is that the unexpected loss of Freire the previous year is still keenly felt. Also, his recorded output was less than prolific, and many Freire fans will jump on this release sight unseen, but the biggest reason is that there are indeed some lost gems, mostly small ones. The album offers recordings in three categories. First, there is a short session recorded in Berlin in 2014, apparently part of a project that never came to fruition. These include the miniatures that Freire always did so well; the balance of voices in the Myra Hess piano transcription of Bach's Jesu, joy of man's desiring is nothing short of miraculous. The Beethoven Andante favori, WoO 57, was apparently not recorded by Freire anywhere else. Second, there are three concertos recorded during radio broadcasts in Germany in the 1970s and '80s. The sound on these is reasonable considering the limitations of the era, and the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83, especially, is a fine illustration of Freire's art, with the percussive half-steps in the first movement done in such a way that they reverberate through the whole work. Finally, there are miscellaneous short pieces that have never appeared on CD before; one can understand, with the likes of Debussy's La plus que lente, why Decca wanted to rescue these from the historical scrap heap. Freire fans will need no encouragement here, and there is a lot of pleasure for the general listener.© James Manheim /TiVo

Qui De Nous Deux

M

French Music - Released October 24, 2003 | Parlophone (France)

Distinctions Victoire de la musique - The Qobuz Ideal Discography
Download not available
The third studio album from French pop superstar -M- (aka Mathieu Chédid) features 15 cuts, all of which help to reinforce the idiosyncratic, award-winning artist’s reputation for crafting truly adventurous rock/jazz/pop songs with an international flair.© James Christopher Monger /TiVo
From
CD$15.09

Ex Fan Des Sixties

Jane Birkin

French Music - Released January 1, 1978 | Universal Music Division Barclay

From
HI-RES$17.59
CD$15.09

Treasures From The Temple

Thievery Corporation

Electronic - Released April 20, 2018 | Primary Wave Music

Hi-Res
Electronic/downtempo due Thievery Corporation present their latest record, Treasures from the Temple, the follow-up to their 2017 album Temple of I & I. This release acts as a companion to that album, collating remixes and unused tracks from the same recording sessions that took place in their Jamaican studio.© Liam Martin /TiVo