Classical Wonderland (classical Music For Children) (2016)

Classical music for children has been an underserved genre, even though nothing could be more beneficial to the cause of bringing the music to future generations. Any such release is worthy of note, but one like this, charming and original, is cause for celebration. Pianist Jenny Lin organizes for children some favorite compositions and a few delightful rarities along a timeline "from breakfast to bedtime." There are 26 short pieces, enough to give a feel for the variety and importance of this tradition in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Along the way you get Chopsticks, which you may not have known was an actual composition with an actual composer (female, at that), former chestnuts like Grieg's Grandmother's Minuet, the utterly charming I Danced with a Mosquito by Anatoly Liadov, ragtime and jazz works, and, to end, starlight familiar (Mozart) and more rare (Selim Palmgren), plus the famed cradle songs of Brahms and Chopin. Lin and the engineers from the Steinway label create a magical atmosphere, amplified by excellent children's illustrations in the booklet by Mikela Prevost. An ideal holiday, or anytime, gift item.

This simple celebratory cantata made Stradella a well-known theatrical personality. As opposed to using traditional recitative, Stradella incorporates string interludes interrupting the characters, which allowed them to express emotions during facial expressions and movement, a novelty during the Baroque era. The Concerto Madrigalesco performs these works extraordinarily with historical performance practices.

The first album of the trilogy devoted to Ramon Llull includes a selection of pieces that represents some of the most important genres of the time of Ramon Llull, as well as some of the most representative authors. It offers a musical journey that accompanies the first development stages of Lull’s life, since the moment that begins his radical change to the intellectual illumination, which is attributed to a divine origin-, and that will lead him to Ars. “Conversion, study and contemplation“ illustrates Ramon Llull ‘s youth devoted to sensual pleasures, love and the cultivation of troubadour lyric poetry, from the perspective of a person who left world vanities.

Blue Chamber Quartet - Chick Corea: Children's Songs
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 181 MB | Full Artwork: 107 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Stockfisch Records # SFR 357.4067.2 | Country/Year: Germany 2009 | 5% Recovery Info
Genre: Jazz, Classical | Style: Contemporary Jazz, Chamber Music

"…The music works beautifully in this arrangement by group member Thomas Schindl, scored for piano, harp, vibraphone, and double bass, along with a part for guest percussionist Sven von Samson. The colorful and unusual instrumentation creates an even broader expressive palette than the piano version, and the evocative percussion atmospherics that surround some of the pieces add about 10 minutes to the total duration of the suite. The playing is delicate and spirited throughout, and the sound quality of the SACD is balanced and detailed." ~allmusicguide

Blue Chamber Quartet - Chick Corea: Children's Songs
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 181 MB | Full Artwork: 107 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Stockfisch Records # SFR 357.4067.2 | Country/Year: Germany 2009 | 5% Recovery Info
Genre: Jazz, Classical | Style: Contemporary Jazz, Chamber Music

"…The music works beautifully in this arrangement by group member Thomas Schindl, scored for piano, harp, vibraphone, and double bass, along with a part for guest percussionist Sven von Samson. The colorful and unusual instrumentation creates an even broader expressive palette than the piano version, and the evocative percussion atmospherics that surround some of the pieces add about 10 minutes to the total duration of the suite. The playing is delicate and spirited throughout, and the sound quality of the SACD is balanced and detailed." ~allmusicguide