The Main Source

This is the second of Brilliant's box sets devoted to Russian recordings from Evgeny Kissin. Labeled as early, these live concert performances from 1984 to 1990 carry us from the day after Kissin turned 13 (Mozart Cto. #12 K. 414) to age 18 (Mozart Cto. #20, K. 466), with most readings clustering in the range of 1985-89. Russians were well aware of the marvel in their midst; the pianist's American breakthrough occurred in 1990 when he debuted at Carnegie Hall's centennial season.

German metallers Rage have returned to the scene with their new album ‘The Devil Strikes Again’, the long-awaited follow up to their 2013 album ‘LMO’. The band has yet again changed its line up, with Marcos Rodriguez and Vassilios “Lucky” Maniatopoulos coming in to the band to replace Victor Smolski and André Hilgers respectively…

Gentleman Jim Reeves was perhaps the biggest male star to emerge from the Nashville sound. His mellow baritone voice and muted velvet orchestration combined to create a sound that echoed around his world and has lasted to this day. Detractors will call the sound country-pop (or plain pop), but none can argue against the large audience that loves this music. Reeves was capable of singing hard country ("Mexican Joe" went to number one in 1953), but he made his greatest impact as a country-pop crooner. From 1955 through 1969, Reeves was consistently in the country and pop charts – an amazing fact in light of his untimely death in an airplane accident in 1964. Not only was he a presence in the American charts, but he became country music's foremost international ambassador and, if anything, was even more popular in Europe and Britain than in his native America.

This long-deleted Essential Classics reissue (available again courtesy of Arkivmusic.com’s on-demand reprint program) comprises the first CD remastering of two separate Bach piano releases. One disc features Rosalyn Tureck’s Bach Album, an early-1981 digital production made up mostly of short pieces, plus the Aria and Variations in Italian Style. The close-up yet warm sonics capture the full measure of Tureck’s technical specificity, subtle use of color, and micromanaged dynamics. Notice her absolute linear control in the F minor suite’s Prelude (first sound clip), or how her seemingly over-detached articulations (the seventh Italian variation) always maintain a lilting presence.

Very little is known about Charpentier's life (1643-1704). The main source of information is an obscure rival composer named de Brossard. According to de Brossard, Charpentier was originally from Paris but studied music in Rome under the composer Carissimi. In 1696 he beat out de Brossard for the post of choirmaster at the Sainte Chapelle Cathedral in Paris, where he remained until his death in 1704. As Goebels writes in the album liner notes, there are several reasons for Charpentier's neglect as a composer.

The Legendary Quatuor Mosaïques celebrates its 30th anniversary with a fabulous return to disc: the immense and demanding Everest of the last string quartets of Beethoven. The late string quartets are themselves exceptional: metaphysical masterpieces in which almost all of human emotion and pioneering musical concepts exist. The cycle represents a unique entity in the entire history of music. The Quatuor Mosaïques, performing on period instruments,delivers stunning and rarely equalled performances, perfectly balanced between purity, precision and a sublime harmonic richness.