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The London Symphony Orchestra - Scriabin Symphony No 2 - Valery Gergiev (2017) {B&W Society of Sound LSO87 24-96}
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz (studio master) | 948 Mb
© 2017 B&W Society of Sound | Official Digital Download - Source: bowers-wilkins.com
genre: classical, symphony

Emerging at the dawn of the twentieth century, the idiosyncratic structures of Scriabin's early symphonies display the Russian's unique approach. His Second Symphony blends echoes of Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Wagner, with sweeping climaxes, swirling colours, and passages of majestic intensity over the course of its five movements.

London Symphony Orchestra - Verdi Requiem - Gianandrea Noseda (2017) {B&W Society of Sound Digital Download LSO84 16-44.1}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (bowers-wilkins.com) -> 286 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 186 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) ->22 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2017 LSO / B&W Society of Sound | LSO84
Classical / Romantic / Choral

Recording a piece like the Verdi Requiem in the Barbican presents various technical challenges. Scored for very large forces, it pushes to the limit the number of people you can fit on the stage. It is a work with an enormous dynamic range. Maestro Noseda, with this performance, teases every decibel from barely audible to almost ear-shattering climax. Representing that in a recording is a challenge, but one that our experienced team of engineers at Classic Sound was more than capable of overcoming.

LSO, Gardiner - Stravinsky - Oedipus Rex & Apollon Musagete (2018) {B&W Society of Sound no. 86 Digital Download 16-44.1}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (bowers-wilkins.com) -> 313 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 189 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) -> 14 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2018 LSO / B&W Society of Sound | LSO92 / SoS no. 86
Classical / Early 20th Century / Neo-Classical

Based on Sophocles' famous tragedy, Stravinsky's grippingly powerful Oedipus Rex represents the pinnacle of his neo-classical style, using the chorus and aria structure of that earlier period to great dramatic effect. Similarly drwing inspiration from classical antiquity, the ballet Apollom musagete evokes the grand French tradition of the 17th and 18th centuries, its two tableaux displaying rich string harmonies and textures that are pleasantly mesmerising, expressive and calmly indulgent.

LSO, Gardiner - Mendelssohn - Symphony No. 2, Op. 52, 'Lobgesang' (2017) {B&W Society of Sound no. 83 Digital Download 16-44.1}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (bowers-wilkins.com) -> 255 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 152 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) -> 9 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2017 LSO / B&W Society of Sound | LSO88 / SoS no. 83
Classical / Romantic / Symphony

In October 2016, to bring his acclaimed Mendelssohn symphonies cycle to a rousing conclusion, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the London Symphony Orchestra – accompanied by Lucy Crowe, Jurgita Adamonytė, Michael Spyres and the Monteverdi Choir – gave two performances of the composer’s symphony-cantata, ‘Lobgesang’. Also known as ‘Hymn of Praise’, it sits slightly uneasily with Mendelssohn’s four other symphonies, with its extended last movement involving soloists and chorus. However, the idea was not without precedent – the work has its roots in both Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (‘Choral’), and Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette.

LSO, Rostropovich - Shostakovich - Symphony No. 8 (2017) {B&W Society of Sound no. 80 Digital Download 16-44.1}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (bowers-wilkins.com) -> 259 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 161 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) -> 5 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2017 LSO / B&W Society of Sound | LSO85 / SoS no. 80
Classical / Early 20th Century / Symphony

Shostakovich wrote his Eighth Symphony (from a total of fifteen) in the summer of 1943, across a period of around ten weeks. It was given its first performance on 4 November that year by the USSR Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Evgeny Mravinsky, to whom the work is dedicated. Expectations were high, for Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, associated with the siege of Leningrad, had been adopted both in Russia and the West as a symbol of resistance to the Nazis. It was hoped that the Eighth would follow in its patriotic footsteps – earlier that year the German Sixth army had been annihilated at Stalingrad, the siege of Leningrad has been lifted, and the Nazis were in retreat.

LSO, Rostropovich - Shostakovich - Symphony No. 11 (2017) {B&W Society of Sound no. 84 Digital Download 16-44.1}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (bowers-wilkins.com) -> 237 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 169 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) -> 7 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2017 LSO / B&W Society of Sound | LSO89 / SoS no. 84
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Symphony

Shostakovich’s atmospheric Eleventh Symphony recounts the events surrounding the First Russian Revolution of 1905, while reflecting on the brutality of the later Soviet regime. Its cinematic depiction of winter cold and military might is utterly compelling, and never more so than under the baton of the composer’s friend Mstislav Rostropovich.

LSO, Sir Simon Rattle - Turnage Remembering - In Memoriam Evan Scofield (2017) {B&W Society of Sound no. 81 Digital Download 16-44.1}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (bowers-wilkins.com) -> 114 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 70 Mb | Cover | 5% repair rar
© 2017 LSO / B&W Society of Sound | LSO86 / SoS no. 81
Classical / Modern Classical

Remembering, written in memory of Evan Scofield, is Mark-Anthony Turnage’s response to the young man’s premature death from cancer in 2013, at the age of 26. Turnage knew Evan as the son of family friends, the jazz guitarist John Scofield and his wife Susan, and the sister of Jeannie, the partner of Ursula. A boy whose quirky but deep rooted enthusiasms – for cinema, axes, hyacinths, friends – reflected a readiness to take on life in all its fullness, a young man whose ways of seeing seemed so good, so full of promise and possibility. Such early deaths strike us less like personal tragedies and more like cosmic catastrophes. What kind of a world is it that allows such things to happen?

Roller Trio - Tracer (2014) {B&W Society of Sound no. 71 Digital Download 16-44.1}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (bowers-wilkins.com) -> 275 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 124 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Real World / Roller Trio / B&W Society of Sound | SoS no. 71
Jazz / Modern Creative

Roller Trio are James Mainwairing tenor sax and electronics, Luke Wynter guitar and Luke Reddin-Williams on drums, still in their early ‘20s they met whilst studying at Leeds College of Music. Influenced by a wide range of music from Tim Berne, Chris Potter and Anthony Braxton to Queens of the Stone Age, Soundgarden, Slum Village, J Dilla and Flying Lotus as well as the vibrant Leeds scene.

Loney Dear - Loney Dear (2017) {B&W Society of Sound 112 Official Digital Download 16-44.1}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (bowers-wilkins.com) -> 200 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 87 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 2017 Real World Records / B&W Society of Sound | SoS no. 112
Dream Pop / Indie Pop

Swedish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Emil Svanängen makes records and plays shows under the enigmatic name of Loney dear. In the early 2000s, in his Stockholm apartment studio, Svanängen made a name for himself by creating homemade CDRs with a minidisk microphone and a home computer, self-releasing albums which by 2007 had pricked Sub Pop’s ears and they released Loney Noir. Two more albums - Dear John and Hall Music - followed, as did glowing reviews in The Guardian, BBC, Drowned in Sound, Pitchfork and earlier this year the Line of Best Fit went as far as calling him a "brilliant genius".