Sonata Arctica Silence (2001)

After their two acoustic adventures, Finnish power metal veterans Sonsta Arctica will honor us with their 11th studio album Clear Cold Beyond, which will be released in March 2024.
And right from the first track First In Line, we get the keyboard-heavy power metal we learned to love from the band in their early days.
Tony Kakko, Henrik Klingenberg and co. are playing like they haven't for a long time!

“Acoustic Adventures” Volume One by Sonata Arctica is a sprawling and beautiful compilation of tunes from throughout the bands’ career performed in a series of stripped-back renditions. It takes the bands’ signature sound and extracts the heaviness to render the songs in a breathtaking new light…

Finnish melodic metal titans SONATA ARCTICA have always played a unique sound, driven by a wide variety of emotions and infused with a touch of melancholy. Now the band announces the release of their first acoustic album aptly titled "Acoustic adventures - Volume one", which is scheduled for release on January 21, 2022.

Mitsuko Uchida has been a committed exponent of Schoenberg's Piano Concerto for over a decade now. It is a work which remains controversial in its adaptation of the serial method to an almost Brahmsian harmonic palette, wedded to a formal approach that takes up the integrated design, and textural richness, of Schoenberg's pre-atonal works. Certainly in terms of the balance between soloist and orchestra, this recording clarifies the often capricious interplay to a degree previously unheard on disc (and most likely in the concert hall too).Interpretatively, it combines Pollini's dynamism, without the hectoring touch that creeps into the Adagio's climactic passages, and Brendel's lucidity, avoiding the deadpan feeling that pervades his final Giocoso.

Talviyö (Finnish for "winter night") is the tenth studio album by Finnish power metal band Sonata Arctica. It was released on 6 September 2019 by Nuclear Blast. The album was produced by the band and Mikko Tegelman, a producer they already wanted for their previous album, The Ninth Hour, but was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts. According to vocalist, additional keyboardist and main songwriter Tony Kakko, the band had been willing to create an album with a more "live" sound, but could never properly do it on their own. In order to make sure Tegelman would be able to work with them, Kakko had all songs ready before they went into studio. In the album's promotional material, Kakko said "the idea was to create an album that is musically in line with at least the previous two albums".

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Masse (c.1700s-c.1757) Ordinaire de la Chambre du Roi and member of the King's Bande of Twenty-Four Violins, as well as member of the orchestra of Comédie Française, was a French composer and violoncellist in the court of Louis XV. He published five volumes of sonatas. Books I, II and V are for two cellos and basso continuo. Books III and IV are for two cellos without a figured bass.

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Masse (c.1700s-c.1757) Ordinaire de la Chambre du Roi and member of the King's Bande of Twenty-Four Violins, as well as member of the orchestra of Comédie Française, was a French composer and violoncellist in the court of Louis XV. He published five volumes of sonatas. Books I, II and V are for two cellos and basso continuo. Books III and IV are for two cellos without a figured bass.

Mitsuko Uchida's slowly evolving Schubert cycle continues to thrill and scintillate with every new volume. At first glance, the works here might seem less essential than some of her previous offerings: an early (and infrequently played) sonata and the endlessly recorded Moments musicaux. However, just a few minutes' listening will soon persuade you otherwise. Schubert may have been only 20 when he penned this E-flat Sonata, but in Uchida's hands its expansive four-movement form is a perfect delight. She finds an ideally dancing lilt for the opening Allegro, not allowing the moments of drama to overshadow the movement's sunny disposition.