French Harpsichord Music

The Magnetic Fields’ Quickies will be released on Nonesuch Records on May 29, 2020 (digitally on May 15). The five 7" vinyl box set features twenty-eight new short songs by Stephin Merritt, ranging in length from thirteen seconds to two minutes and thirty-five seconds.

András Schiff is one of the best Bach players among Gould, Rosalyn Tureck and Wanda Landowska. On Schiff's French Suites, every part from every suite has a different color and gives you different feeling. Every harmony is taken to its end with care, and dynamic balance is always delightful to listen. Articulation of the notes is excellent, full of humour, and in some places you surely start to smile and you feel very happy when you listen to Schiff. He also plays the slow parts very deeply and warmly, which is for some artists a big problem when playing Bach. There are also Italian Concerto and French Overture on the CD's, played brilliantly, so this set is really worth buying. Recommended for everyone.

Lalo Schifrin - The Dissection and Reconstruction of Music (1966) {Verve Elite Edition 314 537 751-2 rel 1997}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 186 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 80 Mb | Full Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 1966, 1997 Verve Records | 314 537 751-2 | Verve Elite Edition
Jazz / Bop / Third Stream / Hard Swing / Modern Big Band

Come again? This crackpot title – probably the longest ever concocted for a jazz album – actually is a front for a not-so-dangerous, hard-swinging album in which Schifrin invents or borrows 18th-century classical themes and sets them into big band or small-combo contexts. Such is Schifrin's chameleonic mastery that his own inventions are a match for the themes of the period, and he is tasteful enough not to overload the window dressing and keep the rhythm section loosely swinging nearly all the time.

Myrna Herzog is a well-known figure in the Early Music world, internationally praised as a viola da gamba performer, conductor and researcher in the field of viols. Her ground-braking articles on the Quinton, the English Division Viol, Stradivari's viols and viols in general have appeared in important journals (such as Early Music and the Galpin Society Journal) and books (The Italian Viola da Gamba; Across Centuries and Cultures); she is a contributor to the New Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians. She studied cello with Iberê Gomes Grosso, viola da gamba with Judith Davidoff and Wieland Kuijken, and was mentored in conducting by Doron Salomon.

French Baroque Concertos - Musica Antiqua Köln
Blavet - Boismortier - Buffardin - Corrette - Quentin
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 406 MB
Recorded: 4/1981 (10-13) & 6/1982, Plenarsaal, München
Released: 1995 | Label: DG Archiv Masters 447 286-2 | TT: 73:10 | RS
Musica Antiqua Köln, Reinhard Goebel

With so much excellent work over the years from MAK, this relatively early jewel has often been overlooked. Music by minor masters this may be but Goebel and his high-powered team are at their persuasive best. (L. K., Gramophone, Sept. 2007)

Stephen Hough presents an enchanting programme of French music, played with the filigree perfection and total command of the music’s expressive world that make him one of the most admired pianists of today. In typical Houghian style this recital is full of surprises and lesser-known gems from the repertoire, as well as works by the masters Fauré, Ravel, Debussy and Poulenc. A particular delight is Hough’s own arrangement of the Massenet song Crépuscule, a ravishing exercise …….

Conductor and musicologist Jean-François Paillard was one of the most visible French exponents of Baroque music from the 1960s onward. Paillard earned a degree in mathematics from the Sorbonne, but he turned to music soon after. He attended the Paris Conservatory as a musicology student, where he won first prize in music history; he later studied conducting at the Salzburg Mozarteum with Igor Markevitch. He formed the Ensemble Jean-Marie Leclair in 1952, which was renamed the Jean-François Paillard Chamber Orchestra the following year. Comprised of a dozen string players and a harpsichord, the group paralleled such small-scale English ensembles as the Boyd Neel Orchestra in performing Baroque-era works - especially those from France - as well as contemporary works for string orchestra. As the public's interest in Baroque music rose, the orchestra's popularity grew and was aided by a series of international tours covering dozens of countries.