Bis

Yoshikazu Mera - Baroque Arias
Yoshikazu Mera (countertenor) / Bach Collegium Japan / Masaaki Suzuki (conductor)
EAC+LOG+CUE | APE: 290 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: BIS # BIS-CD-919 | Country/Year: Sweden 1998
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Vocal

]Yoshikazu Mera born May 21, 1971, in Miyazaki, Japan, is a Japanese countertenor. His range is three and a half octaves. Originally wanting to become a pop singer, Mera now primarily sings classical music from the West but also classical Japanese music. He appears frequently as a soloist with the Bach Collegium Japan, which under its conductor Masaaki Suzuki performs Baroque music. His 1998 recital disc "Nightingale" on Sweden's BIS Records was a major success in Japan.

John Dowland (1563-1625) - Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares - The Dowland Consort & Jakob Lindberg (1988) {Grammofon AB BIS - BIS-CD-315}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 393 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 152 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 19 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1988 Grammofon AB BIS | BIS-CD-315
Classical / Chamber Music / Renaissance

Despite the Swedish label for which this disc was recorded, and despite the Swedish origins of the group's leader, the Dowland Consort is English. It has a lot of competition in the realm of instrumental music by John Dowland, but less so for the seven linked pieces that open the program, based on the material used in the famous lute song Seven Teares. (This disc was originally recorded in 1985.) These seven pieces (and the pair of sevens would have had deep significance for Dowland's audience) are unique in Renaissance instrumental music.

Richard Strauss - Oboe Concerto etc. - Alexei Ogrintchouk (2017) {BIS Digital Download BIS-2163 SACD}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download -> 318 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 182 Mb
Full Artwork (pdf+jpg) -> 8 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2017 BIS Records | BIS-2163 SACD
Classical / Concertos / Woodwind / Late Romantic / Early 20th Century

Despite his advanced age and the chaos surrounding him, Richard Strauss remained highly productive well into the 1940s. As the Second World War was coming to an end in 1944-45, the eighty-year-old composer was working on his Oboe Concerto and Sonatina No. 2 for winds, as well as the Metamorphosen for strings. While the latter work was an explicit response to the destruction Strauss was witnessing, in the Concerto and the Sonatina the composer seemed to be turning his mind away from the events surrounding him. There is a pastoral quality to the oboe concerto, with a highly tuneful solo part and more than occasional touches of nostalgia for the 18th century. Similarly, Strauss headed the score of the sonatina with a dedication ‘to the spirit of the immortal Mozart at the end of a life full of thankfulness’.

Alfred Schnittke - Faust Cantata and other works - Malmö Symphony Orchestra (1989) {BIS Schnittke Edition, BIS-437} (Item #3)
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 265 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 180 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 55 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1989 Grammofon AB BIS | BIS-CD-437
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Choral / Orchestral

If you were ever faced with having to own one–and only one–Alfred Schnittke CD, this would be an excellent choice. A collection with Seid Nüchtern und Wachet (better known as the Faust Cantata) as its anchor, this set also features inspired performances of the large, pulsing Ritual as well as a pair of additional large orchestral works: (K)ein Sommernachtstaum and Passacaglia. These are sprawling things, each invoking styles by the seeming dozens in blasts of energy. Schnittke's is a music of embarrassing riches, a palette he intentionally overfills in a self-consciously postmodern pastiche that speaks to the twin 20th-century Russian traditions of (in music) rich orchestration and (in politics) political repression. So it is that the Faust Cantata can weave between c. 16th-century texts and a very familiar liturgical choral style and a gut-busting set of solos that drive the piece to a frenzy.