Virgin Classics

This 6CD set contains 100 tracks from the catalogues of EMI Records, EMI Classics and Virgin Classics of recordings by the London Symphony Orchestra under some of the world’s greatest conductors and with a number of famous soloists.

This 6CD set contains 100 tracks of popular organ music from the catalogues of EMI Classics and Virgin Classics performed by some of the world’s finest organists on a wide variety of instruments from all over the UK and Continental Europe.

Following the Artemis Quartet‘s prizewinning Beethoven Quartet cycle on Virgin Classics, the Berlin-based ensemble has recorded Schubert’s last three quartets, works that Artemis cellist Eckart Runge praises for both their “incredible simplicity and purity” and their “almost terrifying modernism”. Awarded both Germany‘s prestigious Klassik ECHO award and France’s Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros in 2011 for their Virgin Classics Beethoven cycle, the members of the Artemis Quartet now release an all-Schubert CD. It presents the composer’s final three string quartets: No 13 in A minor, ‘Rosamunde’ (which draws on his incidental music for Helmina von Chezy’s play Rosamunde); No 14 in D minor, ‘Death and the Maiden’ (with its haunting second movement based on his song Der Tod und das Mädchen), and No 15 in G major.

Culture - Culture On The Front Line: The Virgin Front Line Albums (2015) {2CD Set Caroline-Virgin 5358458 rec 1978-1979}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 0.99 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 366 Mb
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© 1978-79, 2015 Island / Caroline / Virgin Records | 5358458
Reggae / Roots Reggae

Shortly after being formed by Joseph Hill Kenneth Paley and Albert Walker in the mid-seventies, Culture joined the roster of Kingston-based producer, Joe Gibbs for whom they recorded a stream of Roots classics, including the 1977 breakthrough hit, 'Two Sevens Clash'. The following year, the group signed with Sonia Pottinger, who between 1978 and 1979 provided Richard Branson's recently launched Virgin Front Line imprint with four of sublime long players: 'Harder Than The Rest', 'Cumbolo', 'International Herb' and 'Black Rose'. Widely acclaimed upon their release, the first three of these albums soon became regarded as Roots classics. Now, after over 35 years, this long-lost masterpiece finally sees its long-overdue release on this essential 2CD collection, which also features the legendary trio's three other Front Line LPs, so highlighting Culture's complete recorded works for Virgin's esteemed label.

Paul Weller - More Modern Classics (2014) {3CD Virgin EMI Records Deluxe Edition CDVX 3127}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.23 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 417 Mb
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© 2014 Solid Bond / Virgin EMI Records | CDVX 3127
Rock / Adult Alternative / New Wave / Mod Revival

It is a fitting title: a high quality stylish collection featuring tracks taken from Paul’s albums of the last 15 years of his solo career. These 15 years have seen a constant artistic high, with each subsequent album release being heralded as ‘his best yet’. There are few artists with as many incarnations as Paul who can claim to have achieved such an ongoing renaissance, keeping each of their album releases sounding fresh and showered with plaudits.

The four concerti in The Four Seasons of Antonio Vivaldi have probably earned the distinction of being the most frequently recorded classical works in the digital era. Originally published as part of a set of 12 concerti as Vivaldi's Opus 8, the other eight concerti also get some attention, particularly La tempesta di mare, but the set as a whole is comparatively seldom recorded. In Europa Galante's Virgin Classics release, Vivaldi: Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, violinist Fabio Biondi, who has recorded The Four Seasons at least once before for Opus 111, leads his expert ensemble in the whole of the Opus 8 set.

Hercules reborn! Rolando Villazón and Joyce DiDonato lead a dazzling cast in Vivaldi’s opera Ercole sul’Termodonte, first heard in Rome in 1723 and reconstructed by conductor Fabio Biondi from the original libretto, historical scores and his intimate knowledge of the composer.

Virgin Classics present the world-premiere recording of L’Oracolo in Messenia, an opera prepared by Vivaldi for Vienna and now reconstructed by Fabio Biondi. Biondi leads this triumphant performance, which opened the 2011 Resonanzen festival in the Austrian capital with a high-powered cast including Ann Hallenberg, Vivica Genaux and rising soprano Julia Lezhneva.

The second Virgin Classics CD from the Orchestre de Paris under its new Music Director, Paavo Järvi, is entirely devoted to Fauré, with his Requiem as the centrepiece. The soloists are baritone Matthias Goerne and, singing the Pie Jesu usually assigned to a soprano, countertenor Philippe Jaroussky.