Narrow my search:
From
HI-RES$17.49
CD$13.99
Mendelssohn: Songs without words, Vol. 2
Peter Donohoe
Classical - Released April 14, 2023 | Chandos
Hi-Res
Booklet
Similar to his first volume of Songs without words (Lieder ohne Worte), published in January 2022, the British pianist Peter Donohoe is again incorporating Felix Mendelssohn pieces into his 2nd Volume. It opens with what is perhaps considered the German composer's piano masterpiece, the Variations Sérieuses, op. At Franz Liszt’s request, a total of 54 were composed in 1841 for the inauguration of the Beethoven statue. They owe their inspiration as much to Bach as they do to Beethoven, with the creation of a pure Mendelssohn piece combining classicism and romanticism.La Fantaisie sur un Chant irlandais, op. Song number 15 dates back to 1827 before Felix's first visit to the British Isles. It is based on the famous ‘Last Rose of Summer’ melody, attributed to the Irish poet Thomas Moore. The young Mendelssohn, then just 18 years old, certainly seems to have been overcome by this song’s nostalgia, which exhibits moods ranging from sadness to unbridled joy.These two works offer an obvious stylistic link with the Songs without words that Peter Donohoe strives to play with ease, grace, and continuous virtuosity. His choice purposely ignores the chronology of the pieces to offer a kind of colourful and changing musical bouquet. Like an elf pitter-pattering over the piano keys, he ends this collection of Songs with a devilish arrangement that Sergei Rachmaninoff left behind the Scherzo of A Midsummer Night's Dream. © François Hudry/Qobuz
From
CD$18.09
Songs by Great Artist-Composers
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Classical - Released April 17, 2000 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$16.99
Nocturnes
Rupert Charlesworth
Classical - Released January 12, 2015 | Zig-Zag Territoires
Hi-Res
Booklet
From
HI-RES$17.49
CD$13.99
Mendelssohn: Songs without Words Vol.1 (Lieder ohne Worte)
Peter Donohoe
Classical - Released January 7, 2022 | Chandos
Hi-Res
Booklet
Peter Donohoe CBE is acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, stylistic versatility, and commanding technique. On this first volume of Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words, he writes: "When I first became conscious of my desire to be a musician, Mendelssohn meant more to me, personally, than almost any other composer – he certainly ranked alongside Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. My choice of programme for the present recording is based around a large selection from the Lieder ohne Worte, which I preface with the Rondo capriccioso, Op. 14 and the three wonderful Fantaisies ou Caprices. The Rondo capriccioso and Trois Fantaisies ou Caprices are exquisite examples of the extraordinary facility of Mendelssohn (implicitly as a pianist, but also as a composer), of his originality and inspiration, at an age that allows us, in my view, to place him in the same group of wonderfully natural and prodigious composers as Haydn and Mozart. It is always a pleasure to play these works, and they go to the heart of why I became a musician in the first place". © Chandos
From
CD$19.77
Piano Music - Schumann, R. / Kabalevsky, D. / Schubert, F. / Bartok , B. (Such Stuff As Dreams - Lullaby Album for Children and Adults)
Carol Rosenberger
Classical - Released September 30, 1997 | Delos
From
CD$4.09
MENDELSSOHN, Felix: Songs without Words - Opp. 19b, 30, 38, 53, 62, 67, 85, 102 (Schorler)
Renate Schorler
Classical - Released January 1, 1977 | Eterna
From
CD$10.07
Classics for Toddlers, Episode 2
Johanna Kleber
Classical - Released August 13, 2019 | Classics for Toddlers
From
HI-RES$17.99
CD$13.49
Irgendwo auf der Welt
Pia Davila
Classical - Released September 23, 2022 | Es-Dur
Hi-Res
From
CD$13.09
Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos No. 1 & No. 2 - Lieder Ohne Worte, Op. 53 - Variations Sérieuses, Op. 54
Felix Mendelssohn
Concertos - Released June 27, 1998 | Cascavelle
From
HI-RES$30.69
CD$26.59
Mendelssohn
Sol Gabetta
Chamber Music - Released January 19, 2024 | Sony Classical - Sony Music
Hi-Res
Booklet
Distinctions
Diapason d'or -
4F de Télérama
A good chunk of the 19th century repertory for cello and piano was composed by Felix Mendelssohn, and grateful duos have responded with a good many recordings even during the years when Mendelssohn was out of fashion. This one by cellist Sol Gabetta and pianist Bertrand Chamayou can stand with the best of them. Gabetta and Chamayou have performed together for almost two decades, and it shows in their rendition of the youthful and enthusiastic Variations concertantes, with its shifts of mood and texture. There is an unusual piece here (the recently discovered Assai tranquillo) and the performances of the two hugely contrasting cello sonatas are very strong, with the almost neoclassical Cello Sonata No. 1, Op. 45, and the Romantic, stormy Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 58, emerging with vivid individuality and a fine sense of the composer's idiomatic cello writing (Mendelssohn's brother was a cellist) from Gabetta. Another distinctive feature here is the set of contemporary pieces on the second CD in the physical version, commissioned by the performers with a request to respond to Mendelssohn's Songs without Words in some way. It is not completely clear that this works; Mendelssohn's Songs without Words, one of which is included here, proceeded from different aesthetic bases than those of Wolfgang Rihm and Jörg Widmann. However, Gabetta gets a real virtuoso vehicle in the Lieder ohne Worte II excerpts by Heinz Holliger and succeeds with it. In general, the music-making here is committed, sensitive, and often enough humorous; it will please any lover of Mendelssohn or the cello. The album made classical best-seller lists in early 2024.© James Manheim /TiVo
From
HI-RES$18.09
CD$15.69
Sibelius
Leif Ove Andsnes
Solo Piano - Released September 1, 2017 | Sony Classical
Hi-Res
Booklet
Distinctions
Diapason d'or -
Gramophone Editor's Choice -
Le Choix de France Musique -
Choc de Classica -
5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
Sibelius’s piano music remains a secret – chronically neglected or approached from an entirely unsympathetic aesthetic standpoint. Sometimes, criticism is justified. “I will be the first to admit that Sibelius’s piano music is uneven in quality”, says Leif Ove Andsnes, pointing to the composer’s own cynicism towards his piano works as a possible reason for the neglect of the genuine gems. But Andsnes also professes in no uncertain terms that he is “on a mission” to bring Sibelius’s piano works out of the shadows. “I really believe in this music and I want people to hear it”, he says. After scouring every published note of the composer’s piano music, Andsnes has selected works for this recording that speak to him not just as a pianist but as a musician who for a long time has felt particularly close to Sibelius. Here are piano works in which Sibelius’s orchestral thinking advances the language of the instrument even if it can test the technical orthodoxies of the player. As may be imagined, Andsnes masters them with elegance and ease.
From
HI-RES$17.49
CD$13.99
Overtures from Finland
Oulu Sinfonia
Symphonies - Released August 11, 2023 | Chandos
Hi-Res
Booklet
Truth in advertising prevails; this release offers ten overtures from Finland, more often freestanding orchestral pieces than overtures to dramatic works. There is just one piece by Jean Sibelius, the Karelia Overture, Op. 10, and it is hardly typical; it is one of his splashy early works from the period of Kullervo, Op. 7, but what is striking about the rest is how often it sounds like Sibelius. Of course, this is partly because Sibelius influenced some of these pieces and also because there is a substantial Overtura sinfonica here by Sibelius' teacher, Robert Kajanus. Armas Järnefelt, another Sibelius predecessor, is represented by a pair of works, but most of the music is exactly contemporary with Sibelius' career, and it shows a national style when Finland was not even yet an independent country. Sample the Comedy Overture, Op. 53, of Leevi Madetoja, much in the vein of some of Sibelius' lighter music. There are other influences, including Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky, yet one is left with a sense of the vitality of the scene in this tiny country and of a national school before there was a nation. The performances by the indefatigable Rumon Gamba and the Oulu Symphony Orchestra, the latter a remarkable illustration of the depth of Finland's regional orchestral scene, are another attraction. Highly recommended to anyone interested in music of the early 20th century outside Viennese and French circles. This release made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2023.
© James Manheim /TiVo
From
HI-RES$47.98
CD$39.18
A Lionel Tertis Celebration
Timothy Ridout
Classical - Released January 26, 2024 | harmonia mundi
Hi-Res
Booklet
Violist Lionel Tertis and cellist Pablo Casals were both born on December 29, 1876. They were friends, and both did much to popularize and attract repertory to their respective instruments. It was a good day to be born, for both lived into their late nineties. Tertis is a familiar-enough figure among string players and aficionados of the early 20th century British scene, but he deserved the tribute that violist Timothy Ridout (who has already recorded Tertis' transcription of the Walton Cello Concerto for viola) offers here. Tertis is not well represented on recordings, so it is not really clear to what degree Ridout replicates his style. (Certainly, it does to some degree; Tertis' influence on British viola teaching was and remains deep.) Yet the program represents his activities in an engaging way. Although Arnold Bax wrote a good deal of music for Tertis, there is nothing by him here; perhaps another album is on the way, but there is a good deal of music that is not widely available elsewhere, certainly not in one place. There are attractive miniatures by Tertis himself, a variety of transcriptions he made of well-known pieces, and a genuine oddity, an obbligato part for the first movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata. There are three more substantial works, the Viola Sonata No. 1 in C minor, Op. 18 by York Bowen; the viola version of Vaughan Williams' Six Studies in English Folk Song; and the Viola Sonata of Rebecca Clarke. The last two were not written for Tertis, but Clarke was a fine violist herself, and nothing seems out of place. The Clarke work, skillfully exploiting the viola's lower reaches, is especially nicely done. A must for violists, this is of interest to any lover of 20th century English music, and it made classical best-seller charts in early 2024.© James Manheim /TiVo
From
HI-RES$17.49
CD$13.99
Da Pacem
Ricercar Consort
Classical - Released March 8, 2024 | Mirare
Hi-Res
Booklet
Director Philippe Pierlot and the Ricercar Consort here set Heinrich Schütz's music against the background of the Thirty Years' War that raged over much of his career, suggesting that "[Schütz's] music conveyed people's hopes for a fair and lasting peace that can still resonate in our ears today." It is not crystal clear that Schütz's hearers would have understood the pieces this way, but it is possible, and it is worth accepting for the sake of argument as the Schütz portion of the program begins with the motet Da pacem. Pierlot and company use one person per part throughout, draining energy from the Geistliche Chormusik and Cantiones Sacrae pieces but working well enough in the simple short motets that are at the heart of this program. One might reflect that there was a war on, and even if Schütz's music was performed this way, that might not have been what he would have wanted. Nevertheless, this is a matter of listener choice; the small motets are quite powerful, and each set of Schütz pieces is elegantly introduced by a five-part instrumental work of Johann Schein. Mirare's sound from the Abbaye de La Lucerne gives the whole a luminous quality. Listeners who like the madrigalistic, more delicate type of one-per-part release will be delighted with this release, which inarguably does its bit for world peace.© James Manheim /TiVo
From
HI-RES$14.39
CD$10.79
Thomanerchor Leipzig: Weihnachtsliederabend
Thomanerchor Leipzig
Classical - Released November 17, 2023 | Rondeau Production
Hi-Res
From
CD$19.77
Œuvre pour piano
Maria Lettberg
Classical - Released January 1, 2004 | CapriccioNR
Booklet
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$16.99
Maria Mater Meretrix
Anna Prohaska
Classical - Released April 14, 2023 | Alpha Classics
Hi-Res
Booklet
By no means should you be expecting the "typical" productions we so often associate with the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Together with the soprano Anna Prohaska, she has developed a highly original programme which brings violin and vocals together. In this respect, while we were delighted to find a recording of the beautiful and all too rare Maria-Triptychon, which Frank Martin wrote in 1968 for Irmgard Seefried and her violinist husband Wolfgang Schneiderhan, we wonder whether it was really necessary to dismantle this polyptych whose three movements tell the story of the mother of Christ with perfect fluidity.It must be said that the entirety of this unusual album feels rather all over the place, very much like György Kurtág who unsurprisingly features in this curious inventory of a thousand years of music, from Hildegard von Bingen to the present day.We need to look elsewhere for the main theme and, more precisely, at the questioning of the two musicians around the subject of female emancipation and “the sensitive exploration of their common experiences as women evolving in the current music industry.” This quest for content, set to music around the figure of Mary, evokes a mixture of shimmering colours created by the Camerata de Berne orchestra, and depicts a journey through the ages and arias which incorporates so many of the contradictions of human nature. We highly recommend that you immerse yourself fully, and listen to these twenty tracks from beginning to end. This way you will be better able to appreciate this strangely fascinating patchwork, which feels like a work of art in its own right. © François Hudry/Qobuz
From
HI-RES$15.74$17.49(10%)
CD$12.59$13.99(10%)
Mendelssohn: Choral Works
MDR Leipzig Radio Choir
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released July 7, 2023 | PentaTone
Hi-Res
Booklet
From
CD$105.09
Schubert : Lieder, Schöne Müllerin, Winterreise...
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Classical - Released January 1, 2005 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Booklet
Distinctions
Diapason d'or -
4F de Télérama -
Choc de Classica
This collection of all of Schubert's songs for low voice is one of the landmark recordings of the 20th century because it features two of the greatest Schubertians of their era, baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and pianist Gerald Moore. The recordings, made by Deutsche Grammophon between 1966 and 1972, come from Fischer-Dieskau's prime, when he was in his early to mid-thirties, his voice fully mature and its youthful bloom gloriously resplendent. He brought an acute, probing intelligence to everything he performed, as well as a penetrating, unmannered musicality, and those qualities are everywhere apparent in his Schubert lieder. Moore was primarily known as an accompanist, and in that role he was perhaps unsurpassed, but his contribution to the music is no way secondary. His playing has interpretive distinctiveness as well as the instinctive musicality of a performer deeply immersed in Schubert's sound world. The singer and pianist made multiple recordings of many of these songs and while aficionados may prefer a version of a song or cycle other than the one offered here, the version here is never less than superb.The set, which includes 463 songs on 21 discs, should be of utmost interest to any fans of the singer and pianist, and to anyone who loves Schubert, and to anyone who loves collaborative music-making of the highest order. The value of the limited edition set released in celebration of the singer's 85th birthday makes it a terrific bargain. The remastering is mostly exemplary and the sound is immaculate, warm, and present. There are a few technical glitches, like a slight click and skip in the introduction to "Wasserflut," but overall the sound is first-class. The balance is just about ideal; it's easy to shut one's eyes and imagine the performers there in the same room. Very highly recommended.© TiVo
From
HI-RES$15.74$17.49(10%)
CD$12.59$13.99(10%)
Rachmaninoff & Tchaikovsky: Romances
Piotr Beczala
Mélodies - Released August 25, 2023 | PentaTone
Hi-Res
Booklet
Tenor Piotr Beczala is better known for opera than for art song. He has recorded music from his native Poland, but Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky songs (or Romances, as they were known by the Russians) wouldn't necessarily come to mind for him. However, he is a versatile figure, and here, he succeeds and more. The album came together when Beczala and pianist Helmut Deutsch discovered a mutual enthusiasm for these works. Beczala scales his voice back beautifully to song dimensions, and the album is well recorded at the Markus-Sittiges Hall in Salzburg, but the biggest attraction here is the coordination between singer and accompanist, which is extraordinary. Not only Rachmaninov, who was writing for himself, but also Tchaikovsky puts a lot of the action into the piano and in the songs of the latter, which include the entire Op. 73 set (the last pieces he wrote before the final "Pathétique" symphony), the piano introduces a lot of psychological currents beneath the fairly straightforward texts. The pair's performances of these are haunting; sample the final Again, As Before, Alone, which here seems to speak volumes about Tchaikovsky's state of mind. They're equally good in the Rachmaninov songs, tuneful things mostly written during the composer's youth. A casual listen may find the balance tilted too far in the pianist's favor, but listen again; it is carefully controlled by the performers. A major new entry in the discography for these not-terribly-familiar (except for Tchaikovsky's None But the Lonely Heart) songs.© James Manheim /TiVo
Suppose you have a more precise idea of what you want. If you are searching for the album "Bad" by Michael Jackson, type michael jackson bad. The album in question will be displayed at the top, as it is the most relevant.
By default, search results are sorted in order of relevance. The drop-down menu to the right of "Sort by" allows you to display the results in the desired order.