Jordi Savall, viol player, conductor, expert in early music performance practice, and founder of the ensembles Hespèrion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya is responsible for what must be one of the most creatively and sumptuously packaged recordings ever produced. This two-SACD set gathers vocal and instrumental music from the era of Cervantes' Don Quixote, some of it directly related to the novel. Savall and Manuel Forcano selected and adapted sections of the novel and interspersed the music and readings, allowing the listener to follow the events of the novel accompanied and surrounded by appropriate music.
Between 1960 and 1981, the music label Deutsche Grammophon recorded the eight greatest operas (plus the Requiem) composed by Verdi at La Scala in Milan…
Mathieu van Bellen and Mathias Halvorsen present an ambitious and first ever completly instrumental arrangement of Giaccomo Puccini’s entire opera La Bohème. The musicians have arranged the score themselves, bringing together the parts of the soloists, the choir and the orchestra into a hyper-virtuosic piece for just violin and piano. Recorded live in front of an audience, van Bellen and Halvorsen give everything they have; bringing forth each scene in an expressive and highly evocative tour de force.
Vive La Chanson (10-disc box set) released Membran Music Ltd. in 2006. French chanson (French song translated) - the founder of the world music genre in music chanson. In this direction, performed their hits unrivaled Charles Aznavour, Edith Piaf, Gilbert Becaud…