Studio Masters: Page 2

Jean-Philippe Collard – Auric: Imaginees (1979/2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

April 18, 2019 · by admin · in Studio Masters

In 1968, as he approached the age of 70, Georges Auric began work on Imaginées, a series of six intimate works in a modernist vein – concentrated and compelling in their expression. Famously a member of Les Six in the 1920s, the multi-faceted Auric studied under Vincent d’Indy and gained an international reputation for his film scores while also taking an influential role in France’s musical life.

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Jean-Guihen Queyras, Atlas Ensemble & Ed Spanjaard – Joel Bons: Nomaden (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

April 18, 2019 · by admin · in Studio Masters

Bons composed Nomaden for Queyras and the Atlas Ensemble – a group he himself founded in 2002, made up of 18 eminent musicians from China, Japan, Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe. From the Japanese shakuhachi and Chinese erhu to the Armenian duduk and the Persian setar, the scoring offers an untold number of combinations and an unheard spectrum of timbres. Nomaden was premièred by these performers in 2016, under the baton of Ed Spanjaard, and has been awarded the prestigious 2019 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

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Jean-Francois Heisser & Marie-Josephe Jude – Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

April 18, 2019 · by admin · in Studio Masters

Jean-François Heisser & Marie-Josèphe Jude – Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 52:19 minutes | 448 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

A composition that marked the birth of the modern symphony orchestra, it was instead through the medium of the piano that Symphonie Fantastique became generally known to the public when Franz Liszt – a prime champion of the music of his friend, Hector Berlioz – made a transcription of the work for solo keyboard.

The project undertaken here by Jean-François Heisser and Marie-Josèphe Jude continues that respected tradition but it doubles the stakes and multiplies the pleasure: the expanded sound palette offered by the two-keyboard piano constructed by Pleyel and housed at Paris’s Museum of Music gives rise to unexpected colours emanating from the shared resonator box, and their fingerings (twenty fingers strong) can reproduce the minutest details of Berlioz’s dazzling, ground-breaking orchestral writing. The work of a master indeed.

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Jean-Efflam Bavouzet – Bavouzet Plays Schumann (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

April 18, 2019 · by admin · in Studio Masters

Following his recent acclaimed recordings of Haydn and Beethoven Sonatas, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet turns from the Classical to the Romantic era, and the works of Schumann. The programme is built around the Grand Sonata (no.3). This impressive, large-scale work was originally composed in 1834, later revised in 1853 and eventually premiered (6 years after the composer’s death) by Schumann’s young protégé Johannes Brahms. Jean-Efflam first discovered the work though a recording by Vladimir Horovitz in the 1980s, and got to play it to and discuss the work with Horowitz in Paris in 1985. Like Horovitz before him, Jean-Efflam combines elements from both the original and revised versions of the work on this recording. Bavouzet has chosen to couple this with another early work – the “Faschinsschwank aus Wein” – and then the much later work the “Drei Fantasiestücke”. He closes with the ‘Gesange der Frühe’ which were among the last compositions that Schumann wrote before his attempted suicide and incarceration in February 1854. As always with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s albums, the booklet features an insightful personal note by the performer.

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Jazzmuseo – Elavana Pyynikinlinnassa (Live) (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

April 18, 2019 · by admin · in Studio Masters

Jazzmuseu (The Jazz Museum) is a jazz band founded in Tampere in 2012. The band includes saxophonist Masa Orpana, guitarist Lauri Hannu, pianist Arto Piispanen, and bassist Ville Rauhala. The band first appeared by the players’ names, but later became known as Jassmuseo. Concerts are themed, such as the “spirits and jazz encounters” concert which produced a 2014 live recording album “Live in Kangasala.” The record was recorded in 2013 at Kangasala over two concerts. This album is the second release from the band. It was recorded live in Pyynikinlinja, and includes mostly compositions from the band’s own members.

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Javier Girotto – Tango Nuevo Revisited (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

April 18, 2019 · by admin · in Studio Masters

Tango reloaded. The Argentinia-born, Italian baritone-saxophonist Javier Girotto dives deep into the music of one of modern Tango’s most important recordings: “Tango Nuevo” by Astor Piazolla and Gerry Mulligan. Girotto and his trio bring the 1975 classic to new life and impresively show how vital and versatile Tango music is until this day.

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Jane Lee Hooker – No B! (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

April 18, 2019 · by admin · in Studio Masters

New York-based quintet Jane Lee Hooker named themselves after one of the 20th century’s titans but their 2016 debut, No B!, doesn’t much trade in his patented down-home boogie. It’s big, blowsy blooze, the kind learned second-hand through barrooms and covers records. Song doesn’t matter much: whether it’s a cover or an original, it’s used as a platform for chops, something that each member undoubtedly has. The problem is, every member of Jane Lee Hooker plays with the dials crank to 11. Maybe Dana “Danger” Athens pushes her vocals that hard so she can be heard through the twin-engine roar of guitarists Tracy Hightop and Tina “T-Bone” Gorin, but the end effect winds up feeling a bit like GNR covering Honkin’ on Bobo: over-amplified riffs we know too well. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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Jan Lisiecki & Orpheus Chamber Orchestra – Mendelssohn (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

April 18, 2019 · by admin · in Studio Masters

Jan Lisiecki was still only 23 when he released this, his fifth album for Deutsche Grammophon. It focuses on two of Mendelssohn’s concertos. Piano Concerto No. 1 was written for himself to play when he was about Lisiecki’s age. He must have been a fantastic pianist and Lisiecki proves a splendidly poetic, vibrant advocate. Piano Concerto No. 2, which drew praise from Schumann, has terrific power, and Lisiecki and the thrillingly energetic Orpheus Chamber Orchestra do it proud, treating it as chamber music on a big scale. Alongside the two concertos, Lisiecki gives us a pair of Mendelssohn’s finest solo works, which he plays with characteristic elegance and refinement.

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James Gaffigan – Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 & Brahms: Nanie (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

April 18, 2019 · by admin · in Studio Masters

The countdown is on for Beethoven’s 250th birthday in 2020. The composer still stands for independence of mind, for revolutionary ideas, for music that reaches far beyond his own time. To celebrate, Sony Masterworks presents this outstanding interpretation of his famous 9th symphony from the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under the baton of it’s chief conductor James Gaffigan, following up their “Beethoven Project” (complete piano concertos) from autumn 2017. This release also features the orchestra’s version of the famous “Prisoners’ Chorus” from Fidelio, as well as “Nänie” by Johannes Brahms, an unjustly rarely performed masterwork. This highly original combination of one of Beethoven’s best loved symphonies features the exquisite soloists Rachel Harnisch, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Mauro Peter and Hanno Müller-Brachmann.

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Jaap van Zweden – Stravinsky Le Sacre du printemps; Debussy La Mer (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

April 18, 2019 · by admin · in Studio Masters

The New York Philharmonic and its conductor, Jaap van Zweden, continue the revered institution’s partnership with Decca Gold with the release of their latest recording, featuring Debussy’s orchestral masterpiece La Mer and Stravinsky s groundbreaking Le Sacre du printemps. Both pieces were performed and recorded live in 2018 in the opening weeks of van Zweden’s tenure as the New York Philharmonic s Music Director.

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