Now Ensemble

Xak Bjerken, Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble & Timothy Weiss - The Oberlin Concertos (2021)

Xak Bjerken, Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble & Timothy Weiss - The Oberlin Concertos (2021)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 250 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 168 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:11:27
Classical | Label: Oberlin Music

The concept that led to The Oberlin Concertos was initially hatched in a conversation between pianist and educator Xak Bjerken and a former student, Oberlin Conservatory composition professor Jesse Jones. It was Jones who suggested writing a chamber concerto to be premiered by his friend and mentor, and it was Bjerken-a former longtime member of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet and a veteran soloist with the L.A. Philharmonic and other ensembles-who was immediately hooked. Their plan gave rise to another commission-for the chair of Oberlin's Composition Department, Grammy Award-winner Stephen Hartke-and then another, for fellow composition faculty member Elizabeth Ogonek. The resulting works were recorded in three sessions over a two-year span, with Bjerken joining forces with Oberlin's Contemporary Music Ensemble and conductor Timothy Weiss in the conservatory's Clonick Hall studio, in addition to presenting the world- premiere performance of each piece on campus.

VA - NOW That's What I Call Broadway (2016)  Music

Posted by delpotro at July 4, 2020
VA - NOW That's What I Call Broadway (2016)

VA - NOW That's What I Call Broadway (2016)
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks+log+.cue) - 446 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 171 Mb | 01:14:46
Musical, Pop, Stage & Screen | Label: Sony Music

The album, which features 18 tracks from original cast recordings. The recording includes songs from Annie, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Cats, Chicago, A Chorus Line, Evita, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Into the Woods, Jersey Boys, Les Misérables, The Lion King, Mamma Mia!, Matilda The Musical, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Wicked and The Wiz. “We’re thrilled to add this distinguished and varied collection of Broadway music to our NOW! family,” stated Jeff Moskow, head of A&R for NOW That's What I Call Music. “In curating this album, we set out to find 18 songs that represent and celebrate the rich history of Broadway from the last 40 years. I think we’ve achieved that and more. We look forward to bringing these brilliant performances to the NOW! audience.”
Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Thierry Fischer - Igor Stravinsky: Mavra; Symphonies of Wind Instruments; Octet; Concertino (1998)

Igor Stravinsky: Mavra; Symphonies of Wind Instruments; Octet; Concertino (1998)
Netherlands Wind Ensemble, conducted by Thierry Fischer; Soloists of the Kirov Opera

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 222 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 141 Mb | Artwork included
Genre: Classical | Label: Chandos | # CHAN 9488 | Time: 00:59:44

This CD offers a rare opportunity to hear Igor Stravinsky's opera buffa, 'Mavra.' At only 28 minutes, the opera is short, but interesting. By scoring the orchestra with full winds and just a handful of strings, Stravinsky molded the usually romantic opera genre into his cool, neoclassical form. Both the singing and the playing are highly energetic, and contain a certain wittiness. Conductor Thierry Fischer does something quite amazing: instead of the usual separation between voice and pit orchestra, Fischer puts the orchestra in direct dialogue with the stage action, creating an incredible integration. The 'Octet' and 'Concertino', more standard works, are also well played. Attacks and articulations are so very clean, and it was this cleanliness that attracted Stravinsky to wind instruments in the first place. Unlike other Stravinsky recordings, this one has the vitality and moodiness that make the notes sparkle. One always feels a sense of propulsion. In the 'Concertino', this rhythmic drive is contrasted beautifully with eerie string lines. The 'Octet' manages to achieve a perfect chamber music feel. The ensemble never forces the sound, and the result is an elegant, interesting and contagious performance. The same could be said for the whole album.
Ensemble Correspondances & Sébastien Daucé - Locke: Psyche (2022)

Ensemble Correspondances & Sébastien Daucé - Locke: Psyche (2022)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 537 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 249 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:47:37
Classical, Opera | Label: harmonia mundi

Inspired by the Psyché created collectively by Lully, Molière, Corneille and Quinault, Locke’s Psyche was a veritable artistic firework display: seeking to vie in splendour with the operas of continental Europe, it luxuriously combined theatre, song, dance, and spectacular machines and scenery. Sébastien Daucé here offers us his splendid reconstruction of this key masterpiece in the history of early English opera.

Ives Ensemble - Morton Feldman: String Quartet (2007)  Music

Posted by tirexiss at Jan. 31, 2023
Ives Ensemble - Morton Feldman: String Quartet (2007)

Ives Ensemble - Morton Feldman: String Quartet (2007)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 76:57 | 332 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: hat[now]ART | Catalog: 167

There's always been a crossover appeal among avant, jazz artists with renegade contemporary classical composers. As with various musical forms, and perhaps life in general, rules are sometimes meant to be broken. String Quartet features a 1979-penned composition by Morton Feldman, recorded by the highly-regarded Dutch group known as the Charles Ives Ensemble.
Alex Betto, Umbra Lucis Ensemble - The Lost Fresco: Music for the Anghiari Battle (2019)

Alex Betto, Umbra Lucis Ensemble - The Lost Fresco: Music for the Anghiari Battle (2019)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 368 Mb | Total time: 63:20 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Urania Records | LDV14054 | Recorded: 2014

The Umbra Lucis Ensemble present an intriguing disc portraying the Anghiari Battle in works by Byrd, Dowland, Andreuccetti, Dufay, de Victoria, Hume and others. The relationship between music and war bears witness to the ethical dimension of music and its impact on the human. But warfare is also a metaphor and sign of the battles to which the existence is voted: amorous disputes, moral duels … In a word: the dialectic between shadow and light that which incessantly beats life. Shadow and light that has marked, according to the contemporary chronicle, also one of the symbolic events of the Italian Renaissance: he Battle of Anghiari.
Alessandro Maria Carnelli, Ensemble Progetto Pierrot & Federica Napoletani - Mahler. The Wunderhorn World (2023)

Alessandro Maria Carnelli, Ensemble Progetto Pierrot & Federica Napoletani - Mahler. The Wunderhorn World (2023)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 190 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 126 Mb | 00:53:40
Classical, Vocal | Label: Da Vinci Classics

The initial inspiration for this project came to me while I was writing a monograph on Schönberg’s “Verklärte Nacht”, Il labirinto e l’intrico dei viottoli [The Labyrinth and the Tangle of Pathways]. Schönberg, like Mahler, was attuned to the relationship between music and venues for music, and in my research, I discovered that Mahler was particularly concerned with the chamber-music aspect of his own Lieder from the Wunderhorn collection. He had even conducted some of them in what was then known as the Small Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein (now Brahms Hall), a space only suitable for a chamber orchestra—too small for the ensemble required for some of these Lieder. I consequently wondered about the kind of adaptation Mahler had made for that performance, while I was already considering undertaking a similar operation myself.
Carlos Montesinos Defez & Breaking Bass Ensemble - Cirri: Sonatas and Duos for Cello (2022)

Carlos Montesinos Defez & Breaking Bass Ensemble - Cirri: Sonatas and Duos for Cello (2022)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 293 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 134 Mb | Digital booklet | 00:56:34
Classical | Label: Brilliant Classics

The debut album from a Spanish string-bass ensemble with a mission to revive lost treasures of chamber music from the Baroque era.

The Nash Ensemble - Joaquin Turina: Chamber Music (2012)  Music

Posted by Designol at Sept. 26, 2024
The Nash Ensemble - Joaquin Turina: Chamber Music (2012)

The Nash Ensemble - Joaquín Turina: Chamber Music (2012)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 277 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 165 Mb | Artwork included
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA67889 | Time: 01:12:12

The colourful folk melodies and rhythms of Spain knit seamlessly with twentieth-century French compositional sophistication in Joaquín Turina’s chamber works. Born in Seville, Andalucia, the young composer went to study in Paris in 1905, where he was greatly attracted to the forward-looking style of the likes of Debussy—however, his musical course was altered when he encountered countrymen Falla and Albéniz, who encouraged him to write in a style that fully embraced his Andalucian musical heritage. Later in life the composer himself explained ‘my music is the expression of the feeling of a true Sevillian who did not know Seville until he left it’. The acclaimed Nash Ensemble here demonstrate what a satisfying artistic homecoming he made.
Damon Locks & Black Monument Ensemble - Where Future Unfolds (2019)

Damon Locks & Black Monument Ensemble - Where Future Unfolds (2019)
XLD Rip | FLAC (tracks+log+.cue) - 265 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 108 Mb | 00:46:41
Contemporary Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz, Spiritual Jazz | Label: International Anthem

Where Future Unfolds is a new work spirited by Chicago-based sound & visual artist Damon Locks. Starting as a solo sound collage piece (where Locks pulled samples from Civil Rights era speeches and recordings to create an improvisational pallet for performance on his drum machine), over 4 years the project has blossomed into his 15-piece Black Monument Ensemble – featuring musicians (including Angel Bat Dawid on clarinets and Dana Hall on drums), singers (alumni of the Chicago Children's Choir), and dancers (members of Chicago youth dance company Move Me Soul). Where Future Unfolds is a live capture of the ensemble's epic debut at the Garfield Park Botanical Conservatory on the West Side of Chicago. Recalling the spirits of Phil Cohran's Artistic Heritage Ensemble, Eddie Gale's Black Rhythm Happening, Archie Shepp's Attica Blues, and Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, the album presents an inspired, innovative & immediate intersection of gospel, jazz, activism & 808 breaks.