Deutsche Grammophon's five-CD trimline box set of the complete concerto recordings by Maria João Pires, packaged in separate sleeves with their original cover art, focuses quite appropriately on her area of specialization, the piano concertos of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The first CD offers her eloquent performances of Frédéric Chopin's Piano Concertos No. 1 and No. 2, in performances conducted by Emmanuel Krivine and André Previn, respectively, and Disc 5 closes with her refined reading of Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor. Between them are seven piano concertos by Mozart, with six of those performances conducted by Pires' longtime collaborator, Claudio Abbado, who also led the Schumann, while one of the Mozart performances was directed by Frans Brüggen.
This is an exceptional disc. Exceptional both for the music Johannes Brahms’ three violin sonatas contain some of his most lovely writing and the performance French violinist Augustin Dumay and Portuguese pianist Maria Pires project a strong interpretive vision. The interpretation is more lyrical and thoughtful than typical, with somewhat slow tempi generally. This is married to exquisite – and I mean, exquisite – technique from both Pires and Dumay as well as an outstanding sound engineering job from DG. The excellence of this CD is comprehensive.
Mare Nostrum (Latin for Our Sea ) was a Roman name for the Mediterranean Sea, one of the most important focal points of cultural, political and intellectual growth and exchange and dialogue in the history of humankind. In this lavishly illustrated CD-book, Jordi Savall and the musicians of Hespèrion XXI invite us to explore the facts, myths and legends of the Mediterranean and the sway it has had over many peoples and cultures from Morocco to Israel, from Spain to Lebanon. Also featured on the recording are soprano Montserrat Figueras and Israeli singer Lior Elmaleh, one of the leading representatives of the new generation of performers of Andalusian music.
With her refined, honest artistry, the Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires - who turns 70 in July 2014 - is one of the musicians who defined the Erato label in the 1970s and 1980s. This 17-CD box presents all the recordings she made between 1972 and 1987. Reflecting the consistent focus of her repertoire, this box set's emphasis is on Austro-German composers of the Classical and early-Romantic periods. Embracing solo works, piano duets, and concertos, this release contains works by Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, and Beethoven, as well as by Bach and Chopin.
Astrud Gilberto, Milt Jackson, Dave Grusin, Herbie Mann, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Oscar Peterson and many others.
The Jazz Club series is an attractive addition to the Verve catalogue. With it's modern design and popular choice of repertoire, the Jazz Club is not only opened for Jazz fans, but for everyone that loves good music.
This funky bit of samba by the king of bossa pianists was the second such album he recorded in the middle of the decade. Moving away from his earlier bossa nova and Latin jazz sound, João Donato cut Quem E Quem a year earlier with stellar results: The disc landed him on the charts for the first time in three years and was actually distributed in the U.S. to the fusion-hungry jazz audience. Lugar Comum is another step away. The bossa has been replaced by a more pronounced samba sound and there are few acoustic pianos on the disc at all. Furthermore, in addition to funking it up - in that light, airy, breezy Brazilian way - on electric keys, Donato handles all the lead vocal chores himself. As for his voice, well, Tom Jobim's is worse, but not much…