Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Chorus and Youth Choir & Hans Graf – Józef Kozłowski: Requiem (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:15 minutes | 933 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PENTATONE
The Singapore Symphony and its music director Hans Graf present a recording of Józef Kozłowski’s Requiem, together with the Singapore Symphony Chorus & Youth Choir, as well as a quartet of outstanding soloists: Olga Peretyatko (soprano), Olesya Petrova (mezzo-soprano), Boris Stepanov (tenor) and Christoph Seidl (bass). The Requiem (1798) was commissioned to Kozłowski by the abdicated King Stanisław of Poland, and can be perceived as a requiem not just for the monarch, but for the entire Polish nation, absorbed by the Russian state during the 1780s. Interestingly, the work was also heard during the funeral of Tsar Alexander I of Russia, in a different version with heavier orchestration and choruses for more drama. The current recording uses a new edition created by conductor Graf himself, realizing the intimate character of the original 1798 version. Composed just 7 years after Mozart’s famous Requiem, the work is rooted in Viennese Classicism, yet also adumbrates nineteenth-century developments, with a subtle Slavonic tinge. This revival is a gem to anyone interested in music from the early Romantic era.
The Singapore Symphony returns to Pentatone after their acclaimed recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Locatelli’s Labirinto armonico starring violinist Chloe Chua (2023). Hans Graf, the Singapore Symphony Chorus & Youth Choir and the vocal quartet all make their Pentatone debut.
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Roy Ayers – No Stranger To Love (1979/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 41:52 minutes | 1,64 GB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Polydor
Digitally remastered! “No Stranger to Love” is a studio album by American musician Roy Ayers. It was released in November 1979 through Polydor Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at Automated Sound Studios and Sigma Sound Studios in New York City, and at Kendun Recorders in Burbank, California. Production was handled by William Allen and Roy Ayers.
The album peaked at number 82 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and at number 22 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in the United States. Both of its singles, “Don’t Stop the Feeling” and “What You Won’t Do for Love”, reached peak positions on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at #32 and #73 respectively.
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Ray Bryant – We Live in a Jazz World – Ray Bryant (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:17:24 minutes | 730 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ISIS
Raphael Homer “Ray” Bryant (December 24, 1931 – June 2, 2011) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.
Bryant was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 24, 1931. His mother was an ordained minister who had taught herself to play the piano; his father also played the piano and sang. His brothers were the bass player Tommy, drummer and singer Len, and Lynwood. Ray began playing the piano around the age of six or seven, following the example of his mother and his sister, Vera. Gospel influences in his playing came from being part of the church at this stage in his early life. He had switched from classical music to jazz by his early teens and played the double bass at junior high school. He was first paid to play when he was 12: “I would play for dances, and they’d sneak me into bars. I’d get four or five bucks a night, which was good money then.” He turned professional aged 14, and immediately joined a local band led by Mickey Collins.
Read more![Richard Casey - Paul Newland piano works 1994-2014 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/27/d8q2qrolgpm0a_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Richard Casey – Paul Newland piano works 1994-2014 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:26:11 minutes | 675 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ASC Records
The superb Richard Casey, most notable for his recording for Prima Facie of the complete Works of Peter Maxwell Davies, explores an altogether different territory in the music of Paul Newland. Paul paints a vivid but bleak and minimalist landscape in his almost impenetrable music. Paul Newland is a composer and performer with interests in acoustic, collaborative, interdisciplinary (particularly dance) and site-specific work that invites close listening to sound through patterning, extended duration, amplification and slowing of often sparse, pared down materials making use of both traditionally notated and open scores. The work draws on ideas and practices derived from both Japanese culture and contemporary visual arts. Richard Casey was born in Manchester in 1966 and started playing the piano at the age of seven. After graduating in Music and Modern Languages at St John’s College, Cambridge, he studied piano at the Royal Northern College of Music with Marjorie Clementi and Martin Roscoe, and later with Ronan O’Hora. In 1997 Richard won first prize in the British Contemporary Piano Competition, an achievement which attracted a series of solo engagements in the UK and abroad. Based in Manchester, Richard complements his solo career with a strong commitment to chamber music. He frequently gives 2-piano concerts with his duo partner, Ian Buckle, specialising in repertoire from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Since 1994 he has been pianist with the New Music Players and has performed frequently as a guest with the London Sinfonietta, Lontano and Ensemble 10:10. Richard has recorded the piano works of Camden Reeves, Anthony Gilbert (with Ian Buckle), Peter Maxwell Davies, Edward Cowie, Anthony Powers, Ed Hughes and Anthony Burgess. Richard also teaches at Manchester University.
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Oscar Peterson – We Live in a Jazz World – Oscar Peterson (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:21:30 minutes | 1,66 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ISIS
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson CC CQ OOnt (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. Considered a virtuoso and one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, and received numerous other awards and honours. He played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years. He was called the “Maharaja of the keyboard” by Duke Ellington, simply “O.P.” by his friends, and informally in the jazz community, “the King of inside swing”.
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New Dutch Academy – Grand Tour: Baroque Road Trip (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:36 minutes | 1,55 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PENTATONE
I grew up in the inner-city of Sydney, in the largely Greek and Italian harboursuburb of Balmain. As a child of 5 or 6, I remember the delighted smiles and warm embraces one received upon stepping into the local Italian restaurant, where you would be greeted like family. Chef Armando would immediately stop what he was doing, scoop me up and whisk me off, straight into the kitchen. I was totally fascinated by the sights and sounds. Holding me in his arms, he would passionately show how and what he was making, give me a taste of all of the sauces, and simply revel in all the ingredients, flavours and textures. Such warmth, welcomeness and inclusiveness. Such an innate love for what he did. Such a beautiful belief in the importance of sharing passion, nourishment and inspiration.
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Marco Angioloni & Ensemble Contraste – Dolce Vita – French and Italian Songs & Chansons (1932-1956) (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 48:30 minutes | 887 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Glossa
For as long as I can remember, I have loved and admired France, and especially the city of Paris – ever since my first visit as a young boy: I was captivated by the powerful charm of the country to the point of falling in love with it and later settling there. And today, after living there for over a decade, I still feel the same sense of wonder for this city. In this album, I pay homage to my two homelands with a selection of pieces and songs that grasp the essence of the 20th century, from the period between the two wars and in the 1950’s.
Each of these pieces resonates in my ears: I can still hear my mother and my grandmother humming them, in our Italian family fascinated by Paris. This selection reveals the great variety of styles and tastes of the period, from the supercharged ambiance of cabarets to the intimacy of Italian salons.
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John Lewis – We Live in a Jazz World – John Lewis (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:10:42 minutes | 756 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ISIS
John Aaron Lewis (May 3, 1920 – March 29, 2001) was an American jazz pianist, composer and arranger, best known as the founder and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet.
John Lewis was born in La Grange, Illinois, and after his parents’ divorce moved with his mother, a trained singer, to Albuquerque, New Mexico when he was two months old. She died from peritonitis when he was four and he was raised by his grandmother and great-grandmother. He began learning classical music and piano at the age of seven. His family was musical and had a family band that allowed him to play frequently and he also played in a Boy Scout music group. Even though he learned piano by playing the classics, he was exposed to jazz from an early age because his aunt loved to dance and he would listen to the music she played. After attending Albuquerque High School, he then studied at the University of New Mexico, where he led a small dance band that he formed and double majored in Anthropology and Music. His piano teacher at the university was Walter Keller, to whom he paid tribute on the title composition of the Modern Jazz Quartet’s 1974 album In Memoriam. Eventually, he decided not to pursue Anthropology because he was advised that careers from degrees in the subject did not pay well. In 1942, Lewis entered the Army and played piano alongside Kenny Clarke, who influenced him to move to New York once their service was over. Lewis moved to New York in 1945 to pursue his musical studies at the Manhattan School of Music and eventually graduated with a master’s degree in music in 1953. Although his move to New York turned his musical attention more towards jazz, he still frequently played and listened to classical works and composers such as Chopin, Bach and Beethoven.
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HoppArt Society – Márton Kovács, János Pilinszky – Urbi et Orbi (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:00:27 minutes | 895 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hunnia Records
Chamber opera for singing actors and irregular chamber orchestra.
“Theatre is an association. We are reminded of things about ‘things’, sometimes sounds, sometimes melodies, spatial forms, images, that sort of thing. Pilinszky’s text is the stone and HoppArt Society is the lake. We threw the stone into the lake.
“We are using János Pilinszky’s text as a libretto, yet we are not creating an opera in the classical sense, because we are not alternating arias and recitatives, and yet all the time this is: music. Music and singing, text, letters, sounds and overtones.”
Two Popes, one black and one white. One is the agonizing, dying Pope, the other the one to come. One on a black throne, the other on a white throne. The venue: the Vatican window overlooking St Peter’s Square. The crowd is waiting in the square. They await the death of their Pope. They await the blessing. “Urbi et orbi” for the suffering of the flesh, “Urbi et orbi” for the city and the world, for the whole world. But what they get is something quite different. A miracle? A surprise? An unexpected turn of events? Is it God’s revelation? Something.” (Gábor Rusznyák, director of the chamber opera)
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Herbie Hancock – We Live in a Jazz World – Herbie Hancock (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:13:45 minutes | 826 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ISIS
Herbert Jeffrey “Herbie” Hancock (born April 12, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American jazz pianist and composer, as well as an Oscar and Grammy Award winner. His improvisations are characterized by a sparkling, funk-oriented style of playing and the use of expressive cross rhythms. Some of his compositions have become standards and serve as a basis for improvisation for other jazz musicians. These include Watermelon Man, Cantaloupe Island and Maiden Voyage, which appeared on the Blue Note label in the 1960s.
Read more![Renée Fleming, The Metropolitan Opera - Her Greatest Moments at the MET (Live) (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2023/02/02/it1z9jbfull5b_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Renée Fleming, The Metropolitan Opera – Her Greatest Moments at the MET (Live) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:23:43 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Music Group Ltd.
This first-ever, specially remastered collection compiles highlights chosen by Renée of her ‘most magical experiences’, captured live on stage in this pinnacle of opera houses. Produced by GRAMMY-winning David Frost, the collection features duets with Cecilia Bartoli, Susan Graham, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Samuel Ramey, Bryn Terfel and more. Since her 1991 debut when she stepped in for Felicity Lott, Renée has performed on the MET stage over 250 times and describes the MET as ‘my musical home, the theater where I feel welcome amongst friends – backstage, onstage, and in the audience’. Renée will return to the MET on 22 November for the world premiere work by Kevin Puts, ‘The Hours, with Joyce DiDonato and Kelli O’Hara.
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![Richard Andersson - Undo (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2023/05/31/rm7i1bln6sb4a_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Richard Andersson – Undo (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 42:25 minutes | 456 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hobby Horse Records
Spending much of his time in collaboration with musicians from all around the world, standout Danish bassist Richard Andersson always finds time to make his way home to his trio, NOR. The ensemble is proud to present their latest exploration of the contemporary Nordic idiom, ‘UNDO’, set to release on May 12th on Hobby Horse Records.
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![Russkaja - Turbo Polka Party (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2023/03/20/izbpkbljrkrlc_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Russkaja – Turbo Polka Party (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 39:59 minutes | 512 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Napalm Records Handels GmbH
Stand up, couch potatoes – it’s time to get moving!
High voltage party polka virtuosos RUSSKAJA provide the most danceable heavy album of early 2023 with Turbo Polka Party, out February 3 via Napalm Records!
Hailing from Austria but wearing their Ukrainian and Russian heritages on their sleeves, RUSSKAJA present their hardest-hitting studio album to date, once again mixing elements of metal, punk, ska and polka to create an addictive mixture you can’t help but move to.
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Revolution Saints – Eagle Flight (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:45 minutes | 519 MB | Genre: Melodic Hard Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Frontiers Records s.r.l.
Revolution Saints, the band centered around vocalist/drummer Deen Castronovo, have returned with a new line-up and a new album, “Eagle Flight”. Castronovo is joined by new companions, bassist Jeff Pilson and guitarist Joel Hoekstra for Revolution Saints, MK II and “Eagle Flight” is their brand new musical statement announcing their arrival.
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![Rick Astley - Hold Me in Your Arms (2023 Remaster) (1988/2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2023/05/31/irgb61bu65g1b_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Rick Astley – Hold Me in Your Arms (2023 Remaster) (1988/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 39:03 minutes | 850 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd
Hold Me in Your Arms is the second studio album by English singer Rick Astley, released on 26 November 1988 by RCA Records. It is the follow-up to his successful debut album Whenever You Need Somebody, and was his last album produced and written with the Stock Aitken Waterman team.
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