![Quartetto Italiano – Debussy & Ravel: String Quartets (1967/2016) [FLAC 24 bit, 192 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/12/11/nYjo99Q.md.jpg)
Quartetto Italiano – Debussy & Ravel: String Quartets (1967/2016) [FLAC 24 bit, 192 kHz]
It took French composers most of the nineteenth century to come up with a really good string quartet – Franck’s example in 1888. Even so, Franck’s German models – Schumann, Liszt, and Wagner – are pretty apparent. Debussy’s string quartet appeared five years later. Most of Franck’s followers hated it, which lets you know how radical the music must have seemed. While today we still see the lingering spores of German Romanticism in the work, it’s still the first string quartet that sounds French, rather than Teutonic. The Teutonicism comes from a certain harmonic cast, particularly in the first movement, and in the approach to form. Once the first movement has passed, the Franconia shows itself in the quasi-modal shape of most of the themes, and most obviously in the scherzo second and slow third movements, where we stray rather far afield from Wagnerian modulations and immerse ourselves in the parallel chord progressions so characteristic of Debussy in particular and musical Impressionism in general. The slow movement dares much with bare textures, interrupting tutti passages with one instrument singing the remnant of a song. Further, for those who think of Debussy as dopey and moonstruck, the intellectual and architectural power of the quartet hits just as hard as its beauty. Every theme derives from the first idea, and Debussy can ring an apparently endless supply changes – some that take you to the limits of intelligibility, others breathtakingly and beautifully simple. The latter impresses me the most, particularly in the slow movement, where the tempo slows to barely moving and the counterpoint reduces almost, but not quite, to hymn. Above all, one encounters even at this early date that kaleidoscopic, subtle musical “psyche” so prevalent in the late works: En blanc et noir, the Villon ballads, and the cello sonata, for example. Franck called Debussy’s scores “nerve-end music,” and although he probably meant it as a slap, he pretty much got it. This isn’t the Romanticism even of traders in the fantastic, like Hoffmann, Browning, Swinburne, or Poe, but very much a personality who revels in “unsettledness,” who needs neither resolution nor transcendence. Debussy remarked that he wanted to write music “without sauerkraut.” With this quartet, he got his wish.
![London Symphony Orchestra, István Kertész – Dvořák: Complete Symphonies, Tone Poems, Overtures & Requiem (2016) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/12/24/0002894830760_600.md.jpg)
London Symphony Orchestra, István Kertész – Dvořák: Complete Symphonies, Tone Poems, Overtures & Requiem (2016) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
It took just two days before the microphones for István Kertész to imprint his name in the minds of Decca’s senior executives. The Budapest-born conductor’s debut recording for the label, made with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in March 1961, projected his high artistry and deep imagination into a bold and individual reading of Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony. Producer Ray Minshull and sound engineer James Brown liked what they heard at Vienna’s Sofiensaal. They recognised Kertész as a conductor for the new stereo age: he was young and handsome — eternally marketable qualities — yet owned the charismatic power, mature musicianship and personal warmth required to draw the best from the best. Minshull’s post-session report opened the door to Kertész’s productive relationship with the label, one that lasted until he fell victim to a tragic drowning accident in the sea near the Israeli city of Herzliya in 1973.
London Symphony Orchestra, István Kertész – Dvořák: Complete Symphonies, Tone Poems, Overtures & Requiem (2016) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
It took just two days before the microphones for István Kertész to imprint his name in the minds of Decca’s senior executives. The Budapest-born conductor’s debut recording for the label, made with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in March 1961, projected his high artistry and deep imagination into a bold and individual reading of Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony. Producer Ray Minshull and sound engineer James Brown liked what they heard at Vienna’s Sofiensaal. They recognised Kertész as a conductor for the new stereo age: he was young and handsome — eternally marketable qualities — yet owned the charismatic power, mature musicianship and personal warmth required to draw the best from the best. Minshull’s post-session report opened the door to Kertész’s productive relationship with the label, one that lasted until he fell victim to a tragic drowning accident in the sea near the Israeli city of Herzliya in 1973.
London Symphony Orchestra, István Kertész – Dvořák: Complete Symphonies, Tone Poems, Overtures & Requiem (2016) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
It took just two days before the microphones for István Kertész to imprint his name in the minds of Decca’s senior executives. The Budapest-born conductor’s debut recording for the label, made with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in March 1961, projected his high artistry and deep imagination into a bold and individual reading of Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony. Producer Ray Minshull and sound engineer James Brown liked what they heard at Vienna’s Sofiensaal. They recognised Kertész as a conductor for the new stereo age: he was young and handsome — eternally marketable qualities — yet owned the charismatic power, mature musicianship and personal warmth required to draw the best from the best. Minshull’s post-session report opened the door to Kertész’s productive relationship with the label, one that lasted until he fell victim to a tragic drowning accident in the sea near the Israeli city of Herzliya in 1973.
London Symphony Orchestra, István Kertész – Dvořák: Complete Symphonies, Tone Poems, Overtures & Requiem (2016) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
It took just two days before the microphones for István Kertész to imprint his name in the minds of Decca’s senior executives. The Budapest-born conductor’s debut recording for the label, made with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in March 1961, projected his high artistry and deep imagination into a bold and individual reading of Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony. Producer Ray Minshull and sound engineer James Brown liked what they heard at Vienna’s Sofiensaal. They recognised Kertész as a conductor for the new stereo age: he was young and handsome — eternally marketable qualities — yet owned the charismatic power, mature musicianship and personal warmth required to draw the best from the best. Minshull’s post-session report opened the door to Kertész’s productive relationship with the label, one that lasted until he fell victim to a tragic drowning accident in the sea near the Israeli city of Herzliya in 1973.
![Cecilia Bartoli, Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini – Farinelli (2019) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/11/09/wvdzh25gdm70b_600.md.jpg)
Cecilia Bartoli, Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini – Farinelli (2019) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
“Celebrating over three decades on the Decca Classics label, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli releases a brand new album commemorating the life and career of the most famous opera singer of the eighteenth century: the castrato Farinelli. The record includes arias by Farinelli’s older brother Riccardo Broschi, and his teacher and mentor Nicola Porpora. It also features a new recording of ‘Alto Giove’ from Porpora’s Polifemo. Cecilia performs with the period ensemble Il Giardino Armonico and its conductor Giovanni Antonini, with whom she first collaborated on her Grammy award-winning Vivaldi album, and again on Sacrificium, her first castrati album from 2009 which also won the Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Performance. This new album focusses on the baroque audiences’ love of anti-realism and the fetishisation of “hermaphroditic” voices during this period, and this celebration of gender fluidity and its associated power dynamics has been brought to the fore for 21st century audiences by Bartoli for this new release.”
![László Polgár, Ildiko Komlosi, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Iván Fischer – Bartók: Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, Sz. 48, Op. 11 (2003/2012) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/08/23/giyVIl7.md.jpg)
László Polgár, Ildiko Komlosi, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Iván Fischer – Bartók: Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, Sz. 48, Op. 11 (2003/2012) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]
“Bartók’s wrote his only opera, the one-act Duke Bluebeard’s Castle in 1911, but it didn’t receive its premiere until May 24, 1918 in a concert shared with the composer’s The Wooden Prince. Bluebeard’s plot is about the ill-fated Judith who, in spite of warnings, marries Duke Bluebeard and goes with him to his ominous castle where she finds seven locked doors. Judith insists on unlocking each one, finding behind them a torture chamber, an armoury, a treasury, a garden, Bluebeard’s empire, a lake of tears and, behind the seventh door, Bluebeard’s three previous wives, not dead, but immortal. Judith then joins the other wives behind the seventh door. Bluebeard’s Castle had undergone a number of revisions before the premiere and contains some of the composer’s most imaginative music. There have been many superb recordings, particularly Ferenc Fricsay’s slightly-cut stereo version from 1958, Istvan Kertész’ 1965 Decca recording, and, most recently, Bernard Haitink’s with the Berlin Philharmonic on EMI. Audio buffs always have treasured this score for its grand opening of the Fifth Door with its smashing high ‘C’ for the soprano accompanied by heavy brass, percussion and organ. This new Philips recording is magnificent in every way. Conductor Ivàn Fischer reads the brief Prologue (in Hungarian, of course), and both singers are outstanding. The Bartók archives in Budapest have discovered some errors in the printed score all of which have been corrected in this recording, and the Budapest State Opera loaned the very rare keyboard xylophone which is heard to great effect in the torture chamber sequence. Hein Dekker was recording producer. He and his staff did a magnificent job in creating a totally natural, rich concert hall perspective with a perfect balance between singers and orchestra.”
![Silvia Chiesa, Maurizio Baglini, Valentina Coladonato, Omero Antonutti, Orchestra Filarmonica Di Torino, Tito Ceccherini – Azio Corghi: Tra La Carne E Il Cielo / Filigrane Bachiane / D’Apres Cinq Chansons D’Elite (2016) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/07/11/ehv4Sds.md.jpg)
Silvia Chiesa, Maurizio Baglini, Valentina Coladonato, Omero Antonutti, Orchestra Filarmonica Di Torino, Tito Ceccherini – Azio Corghi: Tra La Carne E Il Cielo / Filigrane Bachiane / D’Apres Cinq Chansons D’Elite (2016) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]
Azio Corghi (b.1937), allievo tra gli altri di Massimo Mila e Bruno Bettinelli, nel 1967 vince il concorso Ricordi-Rai con Intavolature, che viene eseguito alla Fenice di Venezia. Insegna dapprima al Conservatorio di Torino, poi al Conservatorio di Milano. Per la stagione 1989-1990 va in scena alla Scala Blimunda, opera su libretto del compositore stesso e del Nobel Josè Saramago. In occasione del bicentenario rossiniano compone Suite dodo, da Péchés de vieillesse di Rossini. È Accademico di Santa Cecilia, coordinatore dei corsi e docente di composizione all’Accademia Petrassi. Intraprende nel 2000 la composizione di Amori incrociati, dal Decameron nella versione di A. Busi, commissione dell’Orchestra della Rai. Nel 2001 scrive lettura e commento dal Vangelo secondo Gesù di Saramago sopra la Via Crucis di Liszt. In occasione del centenario belliniano, scrive …malinconia, ninfa gentile per il Teatro Massimo Bellini di Catania. L’Accademia di Santa Cecilia presieduta da Luciano Berio gli commissiona De paz e de guerra, su testo di Saramago. Nel 2005 scrive Il dissoluto assolto, teatro musicale in un atto su libretto proprio e di Saramago, coproduzione del Teatro San Carlos di Lisbona e del Teatro alla Scala di Milano. In occasione del 25° anniversario della fondazione della Filarmonica della Scala, l’orchestra gli ha commissionato Poema Sinfonico, la cui prima è stata diretta da Riccardo Chailly. Per i 500 anni dalla nascita del Palladio, gli è stata commissiona Giocasta, rilettura in chiave moderna (libretto di Maddalena Mazzocut-Mis) dell’Edipo Tiranno di Sofocle. Nel marzo 2013, ospite d’onore della terza edizione di “Play it”, festival di musica contemporanea dell’Orchestra della Toscana, ha ricevuto un premio alla carriera.
![Akiko Suwanai, Pace Ennrico – Franck & R.Strauss: Violin Sonatas, Takemitsu: Hika (2016) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/06/04/0060040670249_600.md.jpg)
Akiko Suwanai, Pace Ennrico – Franck & R.Strauss: Violin Sonatas, Takemitsu: Hika (2016) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]
Akiko Suwanai (the youngest ever winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition) and pianist Enrico Pace with a programme featuring works by Strauss and Franck. The duo will also perform Hika by Tōru Takemitsu, marking the 20th anniversary of the composer’s death.