BACH
Solo Cantatas Bernarda Fink (mezzo-soprano), Freiburger Barockorchester, dir. P. Müllejans [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 17/Jun/2016 ] "Fink's velvet-timbred mezzo evokes to perfection the consoling sentiment of Bach's alto arias. Vergnügte Ruh has long been a favourite of star mezzos and countertenors, but Fink sings with an artless humility, with eloquent yet never overemphatic... |
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Schumann: Frauenliebe und Leben Bernarda Fink (mezzo) Roger Vignoles (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 20/Mar/2008 ] Editor's Choice - Gramophone Magazine (July 2002) |
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem op.45 [A German Requiem] Christiane Oelze / Gerald Finley / La Chapelle Royale / Collegium Vocale Gent / Orchestre des Champs-AlysACes / Philippe Herreweghe [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 25/Mar/2008 ] 'Herreweghe's innate sense of Brahms's musical lines is evident everywhere as he sculpts this works. Herreweghe's combined choirs respond magnificently to his direction.' - Stereophile |
BERLIOZ
Les Nuits D'ete, Op. 7 / Herminie - Scene lyrique (cantata) Brigitte Balleys & Mireille Delunsch / Orchestre des Champs Elysees / Philippe Herreweghe [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 20/Sep/2009 ] Brigitte Balleys & Mireille Delunsch |
BEETHOVEN / BRAHMS / CHOPIN / SCHUBERT / SCHUMANN
"Romantic" (10 CD boxset) Brigitte Engerer, Bernarda Fink, Werner Güra, Philippe Herreweghe, Régis Pasquier, Roland Pidoux, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Alain Planès, and many more [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 10 CD Box Set - released 25/Oct/2011 ] An amazing 10-CD bargain boxes from Harmonia Mundi of classic recordings from their catalogue. We know from experience that these will sell out quickly: incredible price, limited edition, while stocks last. |
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
Rachmaninov: Works for two pianos and four-hand piano Brigitte Engerer, Oleg Maisenberg (pianos) [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 2 CD - released 10/Aug/2018 ] "Engerer and Maisenberg are wholly successful." - Gramophone |
J. S. BACH
Bach: Missae Breves (Lutheran Masses) - BWV233, BWV234, BWV235 and BWV236 Cantus Colln / Konrad Junghanel [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 2 CD - released 1/Mar/2018 ] "Konrad Junghänel brings finesse and clarity to the music, but there is also plenty of excitement… Cantus Cölln's unity of approach between voices and instruments is outstanding." BBC Music Magazine, October 2008 |
BUXTEHUDE
Sacred Cantatas (Incls 'Herzlich lieb hab ich Dich, o Herr') Cantus Colln / Konrad Junghanel [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 1/Sep/2008 ] Buxtehude's major contribution to mid-baroque German sacred music lay in the Abendmusiken, the evening concerts organized before Christmas by the organist of Lübeck outside the context of his official duties. While most contemporary cantors had to... |
J. S. BACH
Bach: Mass in B minor Cantus Colln; Konrad Junghanel - conductor [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 2 CD - released 20/May/2011 ] "this is a meticulous, at times, breathtaking performance which will delight the connoisseur." - The Observer (1 Feb 2004) |
HEINRICH SCHUTZ
Psalmen Davids Cantus Colln / Concerto Palatino, Konrad Junghanel (cond) [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 2 CD - released 10/Jul/2012 ] "Published in 1619, the young Schutz's landmark settings revel in the musical riches of Gabrieli's Venice - wonderfully brought to life by Junghanel's forces." (BBC Music) |
GYORGY LIGETI
Ligeti: Lux Aeterna Cappella Amsterdam, Suzanne van Els (viola) [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 17/Jun/2016 ] MARBECKS STAFF PICK: CD OF THE YEAR 2009 - "In this performance [of Lux aeterna] by the astoundingly good Capella Amsterdam it sounds more meditative and less apocalyptic than it did [in Kubrick's 2001], but no less haunting." Daily Telegraph |
VICTORIA
Et Jesum: Motets for Solo Voice Carlos Mena (countertenor), Juan Carlos Rivera (lute, vihuela) [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 20/May/2010 ] "A fresh and surprising look at one of the Renaissance's most distinguished figures" Editor's Choice Gramophone Magazine July 2004 |
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: Piano Concerto No 1 / Haydn Variations Op 56a Cedric Tiberghien (piano) / BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jiri Belohlavek [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 9/Jun/2017 ] "This notoriously difficult yet majestic concerto is the perfect vehicle to show off the considerable talents of dazzling French pianist Cedric Tiberghien." Gramophone |
VIVALDI
Sonate a tre 'La Follia' / Sonate a due violini Veronique Mejean, Kathi Gohl & Jesper Christensen / Ensemble 415 / Chiara Banchini (conductor) [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 25/Mar/2008 ] Born in Lugano (Switzerland), Chiara Banchini is one of the most renowned "baroque" violinists on the international musical scene. |
TRADITIONAL
Troubadours: Minnesanger & other Courtly Arts (Southern France, 11th & 12th centuries) Clemencic Consort / Rene Clemencic (dir) / Paul Hillier / Theatre of Voices / The Harp Consort / Andrew Lawrence King / Dufay Collective / etc [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 20/Sep/2009 ] The programme of this CD, accompanied by full explanatory notes, features the poems and songs of the trouvères, troubadours and Minnesingers. These inventors of an (almost) exclusively secular poetic style were also the first musicians to emerge from... |
NINO ROTA
Rota: La Strada & Il Gattopardo [The Leopard] (film scores) Concerto Soiree, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Joseph Pons, with Benedetto Lupo (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 10/Aug/2018 ] This CD offers total immersion in the filmic and musical universe of Nino Rota, one of the greatest composers in the history of the cinema. "La strada" and "The Leopard" (with its unforgettable ball scene) are probably Rota's most famous scores,... |
JOSEF HAYDN
String Quartets Op 33 Nos 1 - 6 Cuarteto Casals [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 2 CD - released 10/Jul/2014 ] "Astonishingly insightful playing, musically captivating and technically blemishless. Each and every phrase rings so completely true that one can't imagine the music being played any other way." (BBC Music Five Stars) |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas & Piano Trios Daniel Sepec (violin) & Andreas Staier (fortepiano) [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 2 CD - released 30/Jun/2014 ] "Underpinned by the musicianship of Andreas Staier, these recordings are real classics. Sepec is using Beethoven's own violin." (BBC Music) |
Deller Consort & Choir/King's
Purcell: King Arthur [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 2 CD - released 30/May/2011 ] |
PURCELL
King Arthur (complete) Deller Consort / The King's Musick, Alfred Deller - director [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 2 CD - released 20/May/2011 ] It was with Henry Purcell, the greatest of 17th century English composers that the semi-opera, that specifically English genre, reached its apogee. |