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KALEVI AHO
Works for Solo Piano Sonja Fräki (piano) [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 10/Jan/2015 ] As in much of his other music, the works for piano display his characteristic fascination with the virtuosic and technically brilliant side of music-making. On the present disc, this quality comes to the fore in the Sonata. |
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J. S. BACH
Secular Cantatas Vol 2: BWV208 'The Hunt', BWV134a 'Serenada' Sophie Junker (soprano) Makoto Sakurada (tenor) Roderick Williams (baritone) / Bach Collegium Japan directed by Masaaki Suzuki [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 1/Jun/2012 ] "brilliantly caught, from the casting of the four characters to the expectional continuo work, led by Suzuki himself. Makoto Sakurada (as Endymion) conveys the ensnaring potential of love with friendly caution" Gramophone Magazine, Editor's Choice... |
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TRADITIONAL
Folkjul II: A Swedish Folk Christmas St Jacobs Chamber Choir, Gary Graden [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 20/Nov/2018 ] Well into the previous century Sweden was largely a peasant society with folk music an integral part of daily life. There were work songs, narrative ballads and, obviously, music for dancing. Over the centuries a not always easy coexistence between... |
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WAGNER
Wesendonck-Lieder, Siegfried-Idyll & Overtures Svenska Kammarorkestern, Thomas Dausgaard [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 3/Jun/2013 ] Stemme dominates with the Wesendonck-Lieder, which have all of her customary vocal richness but also an amplitude and approach that's appropriate to the larger scale and broader strokes of opera. |
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WILHELM STENHAMMAR
Stenhammar: The String Quartets Stenhammar Quartet [ BIS SACD / 3 Hybrid SACD - released 3/Feb/2023 ] "Composed between 1894 and 1916 Wilhelm Stenhammar's body of six numbered string quartets is considered unique among Scandinavian music of its time, both in its consistency and in its musical aspirations. |
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WILHELM STENHAMMAR
Stenhammar: String Quartets Volume 2 Stenhammar Quartet [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 24/Oct/2013 ] After the harmonic and technical audacities of his Fourth String Quartet, Wilhelm Stenhammar evidently felt the need to explore other paths. Thus, in the Fifth Quartet, he makes a new beginning, as indicated by the title 'Serenade' |
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WILHELM STENHAMMAR
Stenhammar: String Quartets Volume 3 Stenhammar Quartet [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 1/Dec/2014 ] The Stenhammar Quartet was founded in 1995. The members are Peter Olofsson and Per Öman, violins, Tony Bauer, viola and Mats Olofsson, cello.Their warm and energetic musicianship together with striking technical refinement have given them a position... |
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DEBUSSY / BRIDGE / FAURE / WEBERN
The Cello In Wartime Steven Isserlis (cello), Connie Shih (piano) [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 20/Oct/2017 ] "Webern's microscopic Three Pieces are wonderfully ominous: another unexpected moment on an imaginative and superbly realised disc. " (Gramophone) |
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BLOCH / BRIDGE / HOUGH
In The Shadow of War Steven Isserlis (cello) / Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Hugh Wolff / Tapiola Sinfonietta, Gábor Takács-Nagy [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 1/Jan/2013 ] "this profoundly engaging reading [of the Bridge] sets a new standard. [in Schelomo] nothing is forced or overdone, no rhetoric or posturing gets in the way of the work's own soulful expression." (5 Stars BBC Music) |
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BOHUSLAV MARTINU
Martinu: Cello Sonatas Vol 1 Steven Isserlis (cello) Oli Mustonen (piano) [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 1/Feb/2014 ] "These are performances to treasure and comprise the finest renditions of the Martinu Sonatas I have come across...There is a profound understanding and sympathy for Martinu's melodic and rhythmic idiom." (BBC Music Magazine) |
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MONTEVERDI / JOHN DOWLAND / GESUALDO / SASATO / etc
Then: Renaissanceairs and dances Stockholm Chamber Brass [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 1/Dec/2012 ] This is a highly polished modern brass quintet playing Renaissance arrangements with solemn precision and occasional dancing exuberance. The recorded sound is terrific and the project is well-documented. |
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NICCOLO PAGANINI
Paganini: Caprices for solo violin, Op. 1 Nos. 1-24 (complete) Sueye Park (violin) [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 1/Dec/2017 ] Niccolò Paganini is possibly the only figure in the field of classical music whose name has become a household word, equivalent with an almost supernatural excellence in any kind of human endeavour: from soccer to stock market analysis or haute... |
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ISANG YUN
Isang Yun - Three Late Works Sueye Park (violin) / Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 9/Sep/2022 ] At the end of a career spent between his native Korea and Germany, during which he produced works that span the musical traditions of both countries, Isang Yun expressed a wish to limit himself 'to what is substantial, in order to transmit more... |
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Svante Henryson (cello & cello arrangements) & Katarina Henryson (vocals)
High, Low or In Between [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 27/Nov/2015 ] The repertoire on this album is as varied as it gets: truly 'High, Low or In Between'. Pop songs by Elton John and George Harrison rub shoulders with Prince's funk hit Kiss, and Bill Evans's jazz classic Waltz for Debby. |
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FRANZ SCHUBERT
Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 / etc Svenska Kammarorkestern, Thomas Dausgaard [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 20/Sep/2014 ] On the final disc of a complete cycle, Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra offer us their readings of Franz Schubert's first two symphonies. Written between 1813 and 1815, by a composer still in his teens, both works exemplify the... |
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SCHUBERT
Symphonies Nos. 3, 4 & 5 Svenska Kammarorkestern, Thomas Dausgaard [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 3/Mar/2014 ] The SCO's accounts of the 'Unfinished' and 'Great C major' Symphonies made critics sit up and take notice: 'a consistently refreshing view of both masterpieces' was the verdict of Gramophone, with the Daily Telegraph comparing the result to 'having a... |
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KURT WEILL
Weill: From Der Silbersee and Symphonies 1 & 2 Swedish Chamber Orchestra, HK Gruber (conductor and voice) [Der Silbersee] [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 3/Feb/2023 ] HK Gruber conducts and sings music by Kurt Weill. |
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JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: Symphonies, Overtures & Hungarian Dances Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Thomas Dausgaard [ BIS SACD / 4 Hybrid SACD - released 25/Feb/2022 ] Brahms' symphonies and much more in Thomas Dausgaard's interpretations. |
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JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: Symphony No 4 / Hungarian Dances / Tragic Overture Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Thomas Dausgaard [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 7/Aug/2020 ] Begun in 2012 with the release of Symphony No. 1, Thomas Dausgaard's four-disc traversal of the symphonies of Johannes Brahms is here brought to a close with the composer's final work in the genre. |
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JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: Symphony No.2 / Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn / etc Swedish Chamber Orchestra / Thomas Dausgaard [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 15/Dec/2017 ] "They play with a transparency that makes the inner lines sing but with a burgeoning weight and warmth that is always ready to be unleashed. Dausgaard is as ever a propulsive driving force...he subtly brings out the unpredictable elements" BBC Music |