It's an event when AACM members collaborate on disc. The former Art Ensemble stalwart Jarman (alto sax, flute, ) and the incendiary tenor saxophonist McIntyre team up to form a most powerful and prolific front line as you'll ever hear in creative music. Colson's rarely recorded piano, the always joyous Favors on bass, and El'Zabar's African informed percussion wizardry provide the ideal backdrop for the countless bright moments heard on this CD…
Recording exclusively for Sanctuary Classics, the Lindsays’ extensive discography includes complete cycles of Beethoven and Bartók, and a series devoted to Haydn, Schubert and to 'The Bohemians'. In 1984 they received the Gramophone Award for their recording of the Beethoven ‘Late’ Quartets. As an enthusiast of the Lindsays, I have long admired their special affinity for the string quartets of Schubert. This four disc box set from Sanctuary Classics on their Resonance label uses previously released material and proves a fitting tribute to the ensemble’s art.
To celebrate the legendary David Oistrakh, for many, one of the greatest violinists ever, Deutsche Grammophon presents a 22-CD box set which brings together for the first time all his recordings for DG, Decca, Philips & Westminster/Melodiya.
DG 111: The Conductors gathers all the great conductors on Deutsche Grammophon from the 1930s to the 2000s in one essential box set. A 40CD original-jacket collection with iconic recordings alongside rarer gems, several of the recordings found herein are new to CD or are experiencing their first international CD release.
…Finally, the playing of the Concentus Musicus Wien is extraordinary. (…) You'll be dazzled, even awed. It sets a new standard in Haydn performance–and trust me, you won't be able to stop listening.
Bach’s youth was a vast field of observation. From the years of apprenticeship in Ohrdruf, where his precocious artistic sensibility was dazzlingly demonstrated, to his first major post as organist at Arnstadt, Bach constantly enriched his musical culture, underpinned by a strong family tradition and driven by iconic respect for the old masters, crucial affinities and unfailing curiosity. As the prelude to a complete recording of a new kind, the eloquence and vigilant intelligence of the admirable Benjamin Alard’s playing are the ideal medium to reveal the technical mastery of Bach’s early keyboard works and convey the essence of this young composer’s musical discourse at a time when he was already measuring himself against the yardstick of predecessors and contemporaries alike.