Olivier Varese

It starts, appropriately enough, with Charles Ives's The Unanswered Question, which seems to hold its breath, and occasionally exhale in brief bursts of panic, as the new century unfolds. It ends with Dmitri Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony Op. 110a (based on his String Quartet No. 8), whose alternating sequences of anguish, alarm, and derision come as close as possible for absolute music to indicting its bloody history - eight CDs and over 30 works later.

Various Artists - A Guide to Musical Instruments, Vol. II: 1800-1950 (2013) {8CD Box Set Ricercar RIC104}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.18 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.40 Gb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 235 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Ricercar / Outhere Music | RIC104
Classical / Viennese School / Romantic / Early 20th Century Music

This second volume of the Guide to Musical Instruments explores the history of musical instruments in the period from 1800 to 1950. Its purpose is both to discuss improvements and transformations of instruments dating from before 1800 and to investigate all the novelties thought up by instrument makers during this era. All these developments took place in a context in which the process of instrument making moved from artisans’ workshops to commercial firms which became veritable factories, typical of the ‘age of industrialisation’. The majority of the musical examples are recordings of individual instruments that allow us to hear timbres often lost under the weight of the orchestral mass.This second volume of the Guide follows the same principles as the first.

Riccardo Chailly was born into a musical family in Milan. He studied at the conservatories in Milan and Perugia and received specialized training in conducting from Franco Ferrara at his Siena summer courses. At the age of 20, Chailly became assistant conductor to Claudio Abbado at Milan’s La Scala. He made his opera debut there in 1978 and was soon in great demand at the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls.

Various Artists - Archives GRM, INA 30th Anniversary (2006) {5CD Set, INA-GRM ina c 1030}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.69 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 862 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 140 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2006 INA-GRM | ina c 1030
Modern Classical / Electronic / Musique Concrète / Experimental / Electroacoustic

For the 30th birthday of INA, the GRM has decided to present in this CD box some of his archives. INA - GRM (Institut National de l'Audiovisuel - Groupe de Recherches Musicales) in Paris, France, is the pioneering organisation of electroacoustics, acousmatics and musique concrète, with a history going back many decades, as active today as ever, recording and releasing a long string of historically important, but also new and innovative, electracoustic works, while also engaging in research into new techniques and teaching. The Acousmonium of the GRM is utilized giving renowned concerts of electroacoustic music.