Morton Feldman Thomas

Composer Thomas Newman has proven himself a true master at invoking an atmosphere of melancholic nostalgia on films like The Shawshank Redemption, Road to Perdition, The Green Mile… Newman’s sound world goes beyond the world of the film soundtrack and extends into the minimalism of American composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich, as well as instrumental sonorities experimentation of Morton Feldman and Henry Cowell.

Stuart Sanders Smith - Wind In The Channel (1997) {OODiscs OO31}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 208 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 155 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 8 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1997 OODiscs, Inc. | OO31
Classical / Modern Classical / Avant-Garde / Experimental / Minimal

American composer Stuart Saunders Smith is an enigma among late-20th century composers in that he has forsaken the notion of interiority in his music. This gorgeous sampling of his work, which is finally becoming known throughout the United States and in Europe, reveals the same kind of centrality of the external as that of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Truthfully, there is no similarity to Williams other than the tenderness he imbues his compositions with. For example, in a solo for the oboist called "Hawk," the performer is made keenly aware of the shimmering glissandi, which float through the piece as if they were written as a gift to him.

Michael Denhoff - Credo
Chor der Katholischen Hochschule für Kirchemusik St. Gregorius Aachen / Steffen Schreyer
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,91 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 995 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Cybele # SACD 860.301 | Country/Year: Germany 2004
Genre: Classical, Sacred | Style: Choral, Vocal, 21st Century

…Denhoff's compositional vocabulary shows evidence of a sensitive feeling for harmony and form, whose roots are to be found in composers such as Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Olivier Messiaen, Morton Feldman and György Kurtág…

Michael Denhoff - Credo
Chor der Katholischen Hochschule für Kirchemusik St. Gregorius Aachen / Steffen Schreyer
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 238 MB | Full Artwork: 210 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Cybele # SACD 860.301 | Country/Year: Germany 2004
Genre: Classical, Sacred | Style: Choral, Vocal, 21st Century

…Denhoff's compositional vocabulary shows evidence of a sensitive feeling for harmony and form, whose roots are to be found in composers such as Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Olivier Messiaen, Morton Feldman and György Kurtág…

Bohuslav Martinu - Ensemble Villa Musica - Chamber Music
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 248 MB | Full Artwork: 88 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Gold" # 304 0774-3 | Country/Year: Germany 1998
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century

…Ensemble Villa Musica was founded in 1990 when a group of principal players from several of Germany's major orchestras assembled for master classes in Mainz under the state-sponsored Villa Musica foundation. The players decided to form the group with no limitations in repertory, but with a focus on neglected masterworks of the past. Most of the members retained their posts in orchestras and/or on the faculties of universities or music schools. The ensemble's leader since its founding has been clarinetist Ulf Rodenhäuser…

Michael von Biel - Michael von Biel (2004) {Edition RZ ed. RZ2002 rec 1962-1968}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 303 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 166 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 26 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1962-68, 2004 Edition RZ | ed. RZ 2002
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Experimental / Electronic / Avant-Garde

Gatefold slipcase with 12-page booklet containing scores, photos and liner notes. One of only two CDs to bear his name at the top, Edition RZ’s Michael Von Biel collection presents a hardcore haul from the nebulous 1960s avant garde, including one blinding, 13 minute piece of electronic composition commissioned from Von Biel by Karlheinz Stockhausen - his tutor at Darmstadt - which resulted in him repeatedly breaking the sliders on the desk during its creation! No messing, it’s worth it for that one alone - you won’t find it anywhere else! (just checked youtube and discogs) - but his patent taste for noisy dynamics and twist on convention elsewhere on the CD also make this a bit of a must, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Four American composers, all pianists, all prizewinners at the height of their powers. It is not surprising that the works collected here are idiomatic to the instrument and gratify ing to play. Augusta Read Thomas explores the piano’s natural resonance and beauty. Wayne Peterson’s expressive, sweeping virtuosic lines reflect his past as a jazz pianist. Charles Wuorinen’s bracing rhythms leap across the instrument in a modernist romp that echoes the wit and humor of his opera. Eric Moe’s Afro-bebop encore rounds out the program.

Hans Werner Henze - Complete Violin Concertos
Torsten Janicke, violin / Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra / Christian Ehwald
2x CD | EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 331 MB | Full Artwork: 134 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Scene" # 601 1442-2 | Country/Year: Germany 2005
Genre: Classical | Style: Contemporary

"Hans Werner Henze has written three violin concertos so far, separated in his output by gaps of 23 and 26 years. As you'd expect, they are very different pieces stylistically, and hearing them in succession provides a revealing map of the trajectory Henze's evolution has followed in his orchestral music. However, it's the two most widely separated works here that have the most similarities, suggesting how, in some important respects over the last half-century, he has come full circle. (…) The result is arguably one of the strongest of Henze's works from the 1970s; certainly that is how it seems in this very impressively controlled performance from Torsten Janicke and the Magdeburg Philharmonic." ~The Guardian