Manuel D'échecs

A first-ever complete recording for the organ output by a pivotal figure in 18th-century music across Europe.

A first-ever complete recording for the organ output by a pivotal figure in 18th-century music across Europe.‘Upon so short an acquaintance I never liked any man more,’ wrote the English traveller Charles Burney, ‘and I felt as little reserve with him after a few hours conversation, as with an old friend or beloved brother.’ The young Mozart was also privileged to enjoy his friendship: ‘I never cease to grieve that I am far away from that one person in the world whom I love, revere and esteem most of all.’They are writing of (and to) Giovanni Battista Martini (1706-1784), who was referred to at his death as ‘Dio della musica de’ nostri tempi’ – the God of music of our time. Born and raised in Bologna, he took holy orders at an early age and rarely left his home city, apparently due to poor health.However, this cloistered lifestyle scarcely inhibited a mind of prodigious energy and industry. In 1758 he was made a member of Bologna’s most select academic society after presenting a paper (in Latin) on the use of geometry in music. Martini also wrote comprehensive manuals on counterpoint and music history, demonstrating an erudition which he passed on to many students who would become among the most noted composers of the day, among them J.C. Bach, Grétry, Jommelli, Mozart and Naumann.

December 16th will mark the 70th birthday of the Cuban guitarist Manuel Barrueco, which we celebrate with a comprehensive physical boxset of the beautiful EMI recordings he made during the 1980s and 90s. We release here a collection of his best renditions digitally, from fascinating transcriptions of baroque pieces to folkloric tunes from Barrueco’s beloved Latin American tradition, via Spanish romantic masterpieces and arrangements of the Beatles. An eclectic program that brings Barrueco’s radiant sonority to light.

Telemann published the Kleine Kammermusik in 1716 in Frankfurt: his second published collection, intended for performance equally with violin or flute.

This special product celebrates Serrats 50 years as a recording artist. He is considered one of the most prolific, poet singer/songwriters in Latin music. His songwriting has always remained very socially conscience in nature. February 18, 2015 is the 50th anniversary of his first performance. All 50 songs (tracks) are written by Serrat and handpicked by Serrat himself from his 500 plus repertoire of self-penned songs. Serrat will be on tour worldwide throughout 2015 and performing over 100 concerts. The special package will feature 4 CD (50 tracks) and 104 pages of liner notes written by Serrat and providing notes and stories for each of the tracks/songs.

Manuel Barrueco is one of the best guitarists I've ever heard. Listen to his own arrangement of Albeniz's Suite Española and you'll have trouble believing it's only two hands on one guitar. But Barrueco doesn't use his technique to show off. He's a solid musician, as expressive in Bach as in Villa- Lobos. He also makes transcriptions that respect the origins of the music. This is a wide-ranging guitar collection, but all the music is worth hearing, especially in performances like these. The disc is one of the best bargains among all guitar recordings, and Vox's recordings still sound like a guitar. –Leslie Gerber

Manuel Rosenthal's life overlapped pretty near perfectly with the arrival and passing of the twentieth century. He was born in 1904, the illegitimate son of a Russian immigrant woman and a wealthy Frenchman whose name he never knew, and grew up in dire poverty in Paris. He loved music sufficiently to teach himself the violin, and when his stepfather passed away in 1918, the 14 year old proved good enough on the instrument to support his mother and sister, playing in cafés and accompanying silent films. He enrolled in the Paris Conservatory at 16 to formalize his musical knowledge, but he was so far along that he was already manifesting talent as a composer. A sonatina that he submitted in 1921 not only passed muster with a committee that included Stravinsky, Bartók, Ravel, and Prokofiev, but received a public performance two months later. In addition to the violin, he also took up the sursoprano, a stringed instrument 1/4 higher than the violin, for which he wrote music.

Manuel Rosenthal's life overlapped pretty near perfectly with the arrival and passing of the twentieth century. He was born in 1904, the illegitimate son of a Russian immigrant woman and a wealthy Frenchman whose name he never knew, and grew up in dire poverty in Paris. He loved music sufficiently to teach himself the violin, and when his stepfather passed away in 1918, the 14 year old proved good enough on the instrument to support his mother and sister, playing in cafés and accompanying silent films. He enrolled in the Paris Conservatory at 16 to formalize his musical knowledge, but he was so far along that he was already manifesting talent as a composer. A sonatina that he submitted in 1921 not only passed muster with a committee that included Stravinsky, Bartók, Ravel, and Prokofiev, but received a public performance two months later. In addition to the violin, he also took up the sursoprano, a stringed instrument 1/4 higher than the violin, for which he wrote music.

Per voi ardo præsenterer et stort antal italienske madrigaler i den form, de er bevaret i Spanien i vihuela bøger af Enríquez de Valderrábano (1547), Diego Pisador (1552) og Miguel de Fuenllana (1554).

Per voi ardo presents a large number of Italian madrigals in the form they are preserved in Spain in the vihuela books of Enríquez de Valderrábano (1547), Diego Pisador (1552) and Miguel de Fuenllana (1554). They are complemented by settings by Alonso Mudarra, original compositions like Milán’s, using Italian texts of the same flavour, and with accompaniments that parallel the arranged madrigals in many ways. Some solo works by Mudarra and Fuenllana offer brief momeThe arrangements by Valderrábano, Pisador and Fuenllana, on the other hand, follow exactly the precedent of the 1536 Willaert-Verdelot collection.