The String Chees Incident

Ambrose Akinmusire brings his artistic vision to the next level with the imagined savior is far easier to paint, his second release for Blue Note Records. Akinmusire takes a more compositional turn on the imagined savior…, writing 12 of the 13 tracks and producing the album himself.

Wilhelm Stenhammar was one of the most versatile Swedish composers of his generation. In addition to writing two operas, two symphonies and two piano concertos, he produced a large number of songs, piano music and a violin sonata. The string quartet genre is a central one in his œuvre.

Between 1988 and 2010, Steve Reich composed three string quartets – ‘Different Trains’, ‘Triple Quartet’ and ‘WTC 9/11’. Deutsche Grammophon now presents this trilogy of works for the first time on one album, in definitive new recordings from the Mivos Quartet. Hailed by The Chicago Reader as “one of America’s most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles”, the Mivos players developed their interpretations of the three quartets – inspired by the music of speech, echoes of Bartók and the events of a day transformed by terror – in close collaboration with the composer.

Award-winning young Icelandic pop/classical musician Ólafur Arnalds uses a radical new approach to recording the music of Chopin. Arnalds developed an intimate, fragile and often charmingly imperfect sound using old/unusual/altered pianos captured on vintage recording equipment and various mixing techniques to re-enforce feelings of solitude or loneliness, and to create dreamlike ambient soundscapes. Pianist Alice Sara Ott joins and Ólafur has composed new works to link the album together.

Looking ahead to 2028 and the 200th anniversary of the composer's death, the Alinde Quartet will annually release a disc of Schubert string quartets for the next eight years, alongside a specially commissioned work.

Immediately upon their debut at the 1969 Marlboro Festival, four brilliant young American musicians calling themselves the Cleveland Quartet were hailed as a chamber ensemble of exceptional quality.

If there is one album fully deserving of a coming of age celebration, it is The Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen. Since its original release in October of 1993, Gentlemen's lore has grown in stature as fans new and old continue to embrace the album. 33 1/3 published a book about the album in 2008 and Stereogum proclaimed just last month, "From its bombastic opening to its understated end, Gentlemen remains a fine example of what exactly independent rock music is capable of accomplishing".

Handel's unrivaled masterpieces of the concerto grosso form and style - his Twelve Grand Concertos, in seven parts, for four violins, a tenor, a violoncello, with a thorough-bass for the harpsichord - here receive their finest recording to date, with performances that leave all others - both period - and modern-instrument versions - in their wake. For obvious reasons these 12 concertos have remained popular since their publication in 1740: the irresistibly congenial tunes and engaging rhythms, the free-spirited fugues, endearing Largos and Adagios, and overall vivacious writing for all instruments elicits correspondingly high-spirited responses from anyone within earshot of these unrelentingly entertaining works.

Mott the Hoople were an English rock band with strong R&B roots, popular in the glam rock era of the early to mid-1970s. The band released four albums on Atlantic Records between 1969 and 1971. All of them included into this Hi-Res collection - features "Mott the Hoople" (1969), "Mad Shadows" (1970), "Wildlife" (1971), and "Brain Capers" (1971).