Max Tegmark L'universo Matematico

Accardo's performances are nothing short of spectacular, and (the late) Kurt Masur and the Gewandhaus's performances never disappoint. Most classical audiophiles may be familiar only with Bruch's first violin concerto and the "Scottish Fantasy," but there are two more wonderful violin concertos, a Romance, a Konzertstuck, a Serenade, a piece entitled "Adagio Appassionato" and a piece that was new to me, "In Memoriam," a very beautiful and moving composition that is the last band on the last record.

Gliding ambient serenity with hypnotic hand drumming. Max Corbacho's first CD drifts over the listener like soft sand and silk, weightless wafts and gossamer veils of synthetic tone rising and falling in delicate harmony. The tone is light and dreamy, floatational and airy - atmospheric rather than oceanic, skybound rather than subterranean. The percussive content is confined to the first four pieces - here gentle loops comprised of organic beats with an ethnic flavour roll round evenly, trance-inducing, repeating until a part of the fabric of the environment. As the album progresses the introspective nature of the music increases - the beautiful Erosion lulling and spacious leading into the final three beatless tracks. The shadows pull in somewhat toward the end, Vestiges opening with a twilight moodiness that seems to open into a clear night - the listener a solitary presence in a vast panorama.

Graun was in his mid-twenties when he composed this Grand Passion . It is a surprisingly mature work, full of subtle gems. When first listening to this two-CD album, I wrote: “The music is very pleasant. Although it is quite tuneful, little of it is memorable and at two hours tends to wear out its welcome. There is almost a monotonous similarity of one number to the next. It needs something rousing like the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus.” Repeated hearings of this album have increased my appreciation considerably. Even Handel liked this Passion , and quoted some of its music in his own works.

Mad Max is a German hard rock band from Münster. The "New Wave Of British Heavy Metal" was the starting point for Mad Max founder and guitarist Jürgen Breforth in 1982 to make his musical dreams come true. In 2022, after 15 albums and concerts around the world, Mad Max celebrates the band's 40th anniversary with the new album "Wings Of Time". But no trace of standstill, singer Michael Voss and bassist Thomas "Hutch" Bauer have left the band, with Julian Rolinger on lead vocals and Fabian "Fabs" Ranft on bass, Mad Max perfectly capture the style and vibe of their 80s, but also bring the Mad Max sound one step further.

A decade on from the release of his mesmerising Recomposed album, trailblazing composer Max Richter returns to the sound world of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Recorded with violinist Elena Urioste and the musicians of Chineke! Orchestra, The New Four Seasons sees Richter create a new version of his Recomposed score for period instruments – using gut strings and vintage synthesisers to create a “grittier, more punk rock sound”.

Building on the musical material of the first record, Voices 2 extends the musical language into a purely instrumental and abstract direction. Where the first part of the project is very focused on the text of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, the 2nd part opens up a musical space to let these words and ideas sink in.

Hermann Max's recording of J. S. Bach: Matthaus Passion with the Rheinische Kantorei and Das Kleine Konzert embodies current orthodoxy in most respects: two choirs of 16 voices each are partnered by two orchestras of comparable size, with period instruments sounding at low (Baroque) pitch; tempos are mostly quite sprightly and textures light; ornamentation is sparing and discreet, but cadential appoggiaturas in the recitatives are mostly in place (though the latest fashion seems to be increasingly to omit them). Christoph Pregardien and Klaus Mertens are ideally cast as the Evangelist and Jesus: precise in diction, judicious in expression. The other soloists are more variable.