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major releases
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My First Ballet Collection
The Royal Ballet, Various Artists
OPUS ARTE | OA1019D | DVD | 809478010197
Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Scenes, The Sleeping Beauty Waltz, Entrance of the Swans, Nutcracker Battle of the Toys and Mice, Chinese Dance, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Waltz of the Snowflakes, Waltz of the Flowers, Adam Giselle Scenes
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Featuring some of the world’s most exciting and talented dancers, this sparkling collection brings together some of the best scenes from your favourite ballets -- from the graceful elegance and passion of Swan Lake, to the humour and wit of the Clog Dance from La Fille mal gardée and the exuberant liveliness of The Nutcracker, this is a perfect collection for any ballet beginner.
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Within A Dream - A Celebration of the Artistry of Richard Hickox
Richard Hickox (conductor), Various Orchestras
CHANDOS | CHAN10568 | CD | 095115156827
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The premature death of Richard Hickox on 23 November 2008, aged sixty, deprived the musical world of one of its greatest conductors. The depth and breadth of his musical achievements were astonishing, not least on behalf of British composers. Richard Hickox had a long and deeply fulfilling relationship with Chandos, which enabled him to realise his artistic vision. His recorded legacy remains as a testament to his musical ability and the pieces, movements and other excerpts chosen for this two-disc set demonstrate all aspects of his art. Chandos will donate the profits from the sales of the set to The Richard Hickox Foundation which has been established to support the causes about which Richard felt passionately, among them support for British composers, young conductors and singers, and performances of British music.
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Haydn Die Schopfung - The Creation
Julia Kleiter (soprano), Maximilian Schmitt (tenor), Johannes Weisser (bass), RIAS Chamber Choir, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Rene Jacobs (conductor)
HARMONIA MUNDI | HMC90203940 | CD2 + DVD | 794881924523
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‘There is the book; begin at the beginning’. If one believes an anecdote from the early 1790s, it was with the account of the Creation that Haydn, in his autumn years, hoped to perpetuate his fame for posterity. Yet he was already the most celebrated composer in Europe, and the work’s first public performance in 1799 was such a triumph that it was immediately repeated twice. Five years after a much acclaimed version of The Seasons, René Jacobs chooses this ‘beginning’ to make his major contribution on record to the celebration of the bicentenary of Haydn’s death.
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Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin
Alina Ibragimova (violin)
HYPERION | CDA676912 | CD2 | 034571176918
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The dazzling young virtuoso Alina Ibragimova has enthralled audiences for years with her live Bach performances. Critics have acclaimed her faultless intonation, achingly beautiful tone, superlative technique and a musical wisdom far beyond her years. Now, in this important new recording of Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin, Ibragimova brings all these qualities and more to create an interpretation that is both excitingly original and profoundly humble. This is music of unfathomable subtlety, astounding virtuosity and great expressive and architectural beauty.
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Michel Legrand Film Music, Arrangements
Grand Orchestre Symphonique, Catherine Michel (harp), Michel Legrand (conductor)
NAÏVE | K1663 | CD2 | 3298490016633
Symphonic Themes from Yentl, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Summer of '42, The Go-Between, Arrangements of Porgy and Bess, West Side Story, The Threepenny Opera, Le Passe Muraille, Donkey Skin, 9 Suites for Orchestra and Harp
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2 CDs for the price of 1. Oscar and Grammy Award-winning French composer Michel Legrand is responsible for some of the most memorable classic film scores of the last fifty years, from the charming all-sung Umbrellas of Cherbourg starring Catherine Deneuve to Barbra Streisand's magnum opus Yentl. Having studied under Nadia Boulanger at the Paris Conservatoire, Legrand is also a renowned composer for Broadway, and a gifted arranger and conductor. This 2-CD career retrospective celebrates Michel Legrand as composer, conductor and arranger, his most famous film music (in sweeping symphonic suites) alongside arrangements from West Side Story, Porgy and Bess and other favourites.
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Dreamland Choral Riches from the
Hyperion Catalogue
Polyphony, Stephen Layton, Schola Cantorum of Oxford, James Burton, Holst Singers, Wells Cathedral Choir, Matthew Owens, Tonus Peregrinus, Antony Pitts, The Choir of Royal Holloway, Choir of Westminster
HYPERION | HYP41 | CD | 034571100418
Jackson To Morning, Tavener As One Who Has Slept, Part Magnificat, Chilcott Shepherd's Carol, MacMillan A Child's Prayer, Tormis Lulling, Pitts Adoro Te, Lukaszewski Nunc Dimittis, Whitacre Sleep
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A new and intriguing selection of pieces from Hyperion’s extensive and varied choral collection. This disc seeks to give a flavour of the contemporary choral music recorded by Hyperion over the last decade. Whilst on one level it can stand alone as a tribute to the beauty of its composers’ writing and choirs’ singing, it also lifts the lid on the albums from which the tracks are drawn. A perfect introduction to the magical new worlds of sound that await the listener!
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Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48 - Limited Edition 2009 Australian Tour
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski (conductor)
LPO | DOWNLOAD NOW
Only available for a limited time!
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This exclusive tour-edition download includes a never-before-released recording of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, performed live by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with charismatic Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski.
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October, 2009
Souvenirs for Mandolin and Guitar
Craig Ogden (guitar), Alison Stephens (mandolin)
CHANDOS | CHAN10563 | CD | 095115156322
Kiouphides Armin Kaufmann, Diferencias, Stephens Mount Fiji, Zambrano Suite Venezolano
In 1999 Chandos released an album featuring music from the novels of Louis de Bernières (CHAN9780) to great acclaim, and it launched the ingenious partnership of Australian guitarist Craig Ogden and Alison Stephens, the celebrated mandolinist who played on the motion picture soundtrack to Captain Corelli's Mandolin. The pair have been performing together internationally ever since and this new disc celebrates their decade-long musical partnership. During this time, they have amassed an eclectic repertoire of vibrant music from Columbia, Mexico, Greece and other regions. The result is a wildly colourful album of fresh works bound to appeal to lovers of classical and world music alike, as well as plucked instrument enthusiasts. Alison will donate her royalties from the sale of this disc to Macmillan Cancer Support.
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September, 2009
Cheryl Barker - Great Operatic Arias In English
Cheryl Barker (soprano), Gillian Keith (soprano), William Dazeley (baritone), London Philharmonic Orchestra, David Parry (conductor)
CHANDOS | CHAN3161 | CD | 095115316122
Adriana Lecouvreur ‘See Now, I Am Exhausted’, ‘Poor Little Flowers’, La Wally Aria, Arabella ‘I’m Very Glad’, ‘He’s Not The One’, Pagliacci ‘His Eyes Were’, Duet ‘Nedda’, The End Of The Affair, Queen Of Spades ‘It’s Nearly Midnight Now’, Williamson ‘The Violins of St Jacques’, Louise Aria
Opera Australia’s extraordinary soprano, Cheryl Barker, sings her favourites on CD. This highly original program showcases thrilling moments of her dramatic artistry in music both familiar and fresh, all performed in English. It includes a moving scene from The End of the Affair (premiered by Cheryl with her husband Peter Coleman-Wright in 2004), arias from Strauss’s Arabella (for which she won the 2008 Helpmann Award for Best Female Performer in an Opera) and from a beautiful, rarely heard Australian work: The Violins of St Jacques by Malcolm Williamson. All this alongside memorable moments from La Wally, Pagliacci, Adriana Lecouvreur and more! Great Operatic Arias arrives in the wake of Cheryl’s triumphant performances in Opera Australia’s Manon Lescaut.
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August, 2009
Sacred Garland: Devotional Music From the Age of Monteverdi
The Gonzaga Band
CHANDOS | 095115076125 | CHAN0761 | CD
Founded and led by cornettist Jamie Savan, this acclaimed Renaissance ensemble takes its name from the Gonzaga family: the powerful Dukes of Mantua who were Monteverdi’s patrons and helped to shape a musical establishment that was the envy of the world. These gems of sacred music from the dawn of the Italian Baroque are remarkable for their beautiful interplay between soprano voice and cornett, matched in ‘dazzling duet’.
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new on naxos |
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Shostakovich
Symphonies Nos 5, 9
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko (conductor)
8572167 | CD | 747313216772
Following their electrifying account of Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony (8572082), Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra explore the profound ambivalences of the composer’s most performed symphony, the Fifth, written in 1937 at a time when he was under intense personal and political pressure from the authorities. The jaunty, neo-classical character of the Ninth Symphony (1945) prompted Shostakovich to remark that ‘musicians will like to play it, and critics will delight in blasting it’. Shostakovich’s startlingly different original draft for the opening of the Ninth’s first movement is available on 8572138.
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Adams Nixon in China
Roberth Orth, Maria Kanyova, Thomas Hammons, Marc Heller, Tracy Dahl, Melissa Malde, Chou En-Lai, Opera Colorado Symphony and Chorus, Marin Alsop (conductor)
866902224 | CD3 | 730099902274
A longtime collaborator of John Adams and champion of his music, Marin Alsop directs this live recording of Opera Colorado’s 25th Anniversary Celebration production of Nixon in China, presented at Denver’s new Ellie Caulkins Opera House during the 2008 National Performing Arts Convention, and featuring an internationally recognized cast. Alice Goodman’s epic libretto and John Adams’s distinctive music weave together a colorful fabric of actual events from President Nixon’s historic visit to the People’s Republic of China with intimate examinations of the opera’s real life characters. The spectacle, drama, humor and pathos of this masterpiece remain as compelling today as when the opera was premièred in 1987.
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audiobooks |
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Wilde: The Canterville Ghost and Other Stories (Junior Classics)
Rupert Degas (reader), with music from the Naxos catalogue
NAXOS AUDIOBOOKS | 197412 | CD | 9789626349748
A terrifying ghost is haunting the ancient mansion of Canterville Chase, complete with creaking floorboards, clanking chains and gruesome disguises - but the new occupants seem strangely undisturbed by his presence. Deftly contrasting the conventional gothic ghost story with the pragmatism of the modern world, Wilde creates a gently comic fable of the conflict between old and new. Rupert Degas’s hilarious reading brings the absurdity and theatricality of the story to life. Also available: The Picture of Dorian Gray (799112).
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coming soon |
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Handel The Messiah
Soloists, Polyphony, Britten Sinfonia, Stephen Layton
HYPERION | CDA67800 | CD2 | 034571178004
Available from November 2009
‘No-one, but no-one performs Messiah better every year than the choir Polyphony under the conductor Stephen Layton’ (Evening Standard)
Polyphony and Stephen Layton’s live Messiah at St John’s Smith Square has become one of the highlights of the London musical season. The joyful sincerity and urgent brilliance of the performers has brought the familiar story to life again and again. Now this wonderful experience is available on disc, recorded in 2008 for a new release that will surely prove a strong competitor in a necessarily crowded market. Polyphony is joined by the Britten Sinfonia and a quartet of magnificent young soloists, all variously acclaimed as the premier Handel singers of the new generation. Stephen Layton visits Australia in December 2009 to conduct The Messiah – a real Christmas treat.
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Complete Beethoven Sonatas
Paul Lewis (piano)
HARMONIA MUNDI | HMX290190211 | CD10 | 794881915620
With each of his Beethoven Piano Sonata recordings garnering Gramophone Awards and Editors Choices, Paul Lewis’s acclaimed cycle has come to be seen as the definitive reading of our generation, essential for Beethoven enthusiasts.
The revered student of Alfred Brendel returns to Australia in 2010 for a much-anticipated national tour with Musica Viva. This beautifully packaged boxed set will make the ideal Christmas gift for lovers of Romantic piano music performed at its most riveting. ‘Buy Lewis’s Beethoven with confidence, and listen and explore for many years to come’ –The Times. ‘One of the most highly prized recording marathons of recent years…an unmissable benchmark.’—Gramophone
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Yiddish Rhapsody
Sirba Octet, Isabelle Georges, Orchestra de Pau
NAÏVE | AM191 | CD | 822186001912
Available from November 2009
After the great success of From the Shtetl to New York (AM173) in Australia last year, Sirba Octet and the all-singing, all-dancing Isabelle Georges reunite to continue their exploration of traditional Jewish songs brought into focus by the bright lights of Broadway.
On Yiddish Rhapsody, their fresh jazz and klezmer-infused arrangements are augmented by a symphony orchestra for that ‘big city’ sound, roaming from a Yiddish take on the Charleston to well-known classics like ‘Dona, Dona’ and ‘Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn’.
Watch Sirba Octet & Isabelle Georges
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Adagio Vol 2
Various Artists
NAXOS | 857806263 | CD2 | 747313806270
Available from November 2009
25 blissful, easy-listening classical pieces, including beautiful selections of music by Albinoni, Mozart, Bach, Haydn, Hummel and more. Like the best-selling Adagio Volume 1 (857001516), this new compilation offers almost 2 ½ hours of music specially programmed to create a relaxing atmosphere and soothe your soul.
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