HBDirect Classical Music News

Friday, November 13, 2009

Bavouzet, Late Victorians & The Crown Of India at HBDirect

A Naxos & Chandos Weekend!

Our Naxos & Chandos sale comes early this month! New releases will be out on Tuesday and we're offering discounts up to 30% on both catalogs. Don't miss this fleeting opportunity - the sale will end Monday at Midnight!

Bavouzet Does It Again!

"Bavouzet's Debussy offers the epitome of style, virtuosity, taste, and interpretive intelligence. His touch is miraculous... Bavouzet's choice of tempo is perfect, his rhythmic inflections infectious but never mechanical. Listening to him is a joy." -Classics Today (10/10) - On Vol. 4, Gramophone's Best Instrumental album of 2009

New From Chandos

Tansman - Symphonic Works, Vol. 4 / Caetani

Trumpet Renaissance - Birtwistle, Jost, Roger, Artunian

Verdi: Don Carlos / Opera North, Farnes, Watson, Miles

Mark Adamo: Late Victorians

Acclaimed as "one of the best opera composers of the moment", American composer-librettist Mark Adamo has also ventured into symphonic composition and other fields in each of which his theatrical sensitivity, political commitment and musical mastery are equally evident.

New & Noteworthy on Naxos

In Terra Pax - A Christmas Anthem - Finzi, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Howells, Rutter, etc.

Vaughan Williams: Piano Concerto / Wass, Judd

Synergy - Wind Band Classics

Stamitz: Flute Concertos / Aitken

Gershwin: Porgy & Bess, Music For Clarinet / Lethiec

Elgar's Complete Crown of India

Chandos is delighted to present the first complete recording of the masque The Crown of India, performed here by Clare Shearer and Gerald Finley, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. Completed by Anthony Payne in 2008 the work conveys all the pomp and pageantry with which Elgar is associated.

More New Orchestral Recordings

Wiliam Schuman: Symphony no 6, Prayer In Time / Schwarz

Roussel: Symphony no 1, Résurrection / Denève

Arthur Bliss: Christopher Columbus / Adriano

Sale Highlights

Box Sets!

Dowland: Complete Lute Music / Nigel North

Virtual Hadyn - 4 Blu-Ray Audio Discs!

Artist Profile - Jeremy Summerly

Solo Keyboard

Biret Concerto Edition - Liszt Concertos 1 & 2

Bach: Complete Concertos For Solo Harpschord / Farr

Busoni - Piano Music Vol 6 / Wolf Harden

New Chamber Music

Leclair: Violin Sonatas, Book 1

Hummel: Sonata in E flat major, Sonata in F major

Franck: String Quartet, Piano Quintet / Fine Arts

Sinding - Music for Violin & Piano, Vol 2 / Kraggerud

Rubbra: String Quartet no 2, Amoretti / Maggini Quartet

Tarreta: Guitar Music / Bergström

English Viola - Bliss, Delius, Bridge

New Vocal Releases

Dickinson: Mass of the Apocalypse, Larkin

Schubert Lied-Edition, Part-Songs Vol. 3

Schoenfield: Camp Songs, Ghetto Songs

Schubert: Mass In C Major, Mass In G Major

Also Currently On Sale

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

HBDirect Recommends...Percussion Music

HBDirect Recommends...Percussion Music

Do not underestimate the percussion section. Some great music has brought the rear-most members of the orchestra front and center. Below are some recommended recordings of composers noted for their percussion music, and, to the right, some by famous percussionists. You can browse HBDirect's entire listing of music featuring percussion here.

Steve Reich

Reich: Music for 18 Musicians / Ensemble Modern
"The Ensemble Modern's recording demands comparison with the composer's own (NON 79448)...and is therefore indispensable for all devoted Reichians." - American Record Guide

More Percussion Music by Steve Reich

Drumming / Steve Reich and Musicians

Nagoya Marimbas, etc. / Safri Duo

Clapping Music / Hoffnung, Lockhart

Electric Counterpoint, etc. / Powerplant

All music by Steve Reich featuring percussion

Edgard Varèse

Varèse: Ionisation, etc. / Boulez, Chicago SO
"Boulez is totally in his element in music like this, observing every teeming detail." - *****BBC (nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award for "Best Classical Album.)

More Percussion Music by Edgard Varèse

Offrandes, etc. / Lyndon-Gee, Polish RSO

Intégrales, etc. / Boulez, Ensemble InterContemporain

Hyperprism, etc. / Craft, Columbia SO

Déserts, etc. / Boulez, Ensemble InterContemporain

Cage, Harrison, and Others

Cage: Works for Percussion Vol 4 / Amadinda Percussion Group
"Amadinda gives Cage the benefit of the doubt and plays this music with the mixture of seriousness and guileless good humor that Cage embodied." - American Record Guide

Harrison, Partch, Xenakis, Chavez, & Antheil

Harrison: Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra

The Harry Partch Collection Vol 1 / Gate 5 Ensemble

Xenakis: Complete Works for Percussion / Schick

Chavez: Toccata for Percussion / Amadinda

Antheil: Ballet Mécanique, etc / Spalding

Famous Percussionists

Evelyn Glennie

Oriental Landscapes - Yi, Musgrave, Long, Hovhaness

Rouse: Der Gerettete Alberich, Rapture, etc.

Turnage: Works / Glennie, et al

Glass, Philip : Concerto Fantasy for 2 Timpani

Evelyn Glennie à Luxembourg: Vivaldi, Beethoven, Schmitt [DVD]

Everett "Vic" Firth - Former Timpanist of the Boston SO, and Drum Stick Mogul

Beethoven: Symphony no 5, etc / Ozawa, Boston SO

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherezade / Ozawa, BSO

Respighi: Pines of Rome, etc. / Ozawa, Boston SO

Orff: Carmina Burana / Ozawa, Boston SO

Mahler: Symphonies 1 & 3 / Leinsdorf, Boston SO

Steven Schick

Xenakis: Complete Works for Percussion / Schick

Steven Schick - Drumming in the Dark

Adams: Mathematics of Resonant Bodies

Lang: Untitled [Original Soundtrack] / Schick, Bang on a Can

Links Series of Vibraphone Essays / Schick, et al

Currently On Sale at HBDirect

Friday, November 6, 2009

The Best Beethoven Set? The Times Thinks So

Save on Two Outstanding Labels!

This weekend's sale includes all titles from Harmonia Mundi and Hyperion! These two outstanding labels are the home of many of today's finest artists and their recordings never fail to impress us sonically. Don't pass this by - the sale will end on Monday at Midnight!

Paul Lewis' Complete Cycle

"There are many prized recordings of the Beethoven sonatas from past masters and current artists. But if I had to recommend a single complete set, I would suggest Mr. Lewis' distinguished recordings... His playing is honest and beautifully detailed, with impressive clarity and no compromises." - The New York Times

More New Box Sets!

Mendelssohn: Elias, Paulus, A Midsummer Night's Dream / Herreweghe, La Chapelle Royale - 5 CDs $38.49

Sacred Music, The Box Set - 30 CDs $86.49

René Jacobs' Creation

"This period-instrument recording of Haydn's Creation is explosive stuff... By using smaller, "authentic" forces, René Jacobs and his musicians convince us that this warhorse is really a brisk, quirky stallion. Lithe soloists, sprung rhythms, brisk tempi and a sparkling fortepiano continuo result in a bracing account of this masterpiece, with plenty of time for wit." -The Guardian

More Haydn Releases - To Be Released On Tuesday!

Haydn: Violin Concerto, Symphonies no 49 & 80 / Gottfried von der Goltz, Freiburger Barockorchester

Haydn: "Prussian" String Quartets Op. 33 / Cuarteto Casals

Messiah With Polyphony

"Polyphony and its director Stephen Layton are bona fide, well-seasoned Messiah experts, whose more than 10 years of annual London Messiah concerts have conferred a special understanding of and relationship with this at once varied and variable masterpiece... this version will be a welcome addition--or first acquisition--for any collection." -Classics Today