Something massive is shifting in the world of entertainment. Across the planet, humans spend more of their free time watching video than doing anything else. But increasingly it's not TV they're watching, but online video. In 2016, Swedish vlogger PewDiePie made a record $15 million from his YouTube videos, beating Hollywood A-listers like Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts and Amy Adams. Something massive is shifting in the world of entertainment. Since its founding in 2005, YouTube has become the first and only truly global media platform, with over a billion users worldwide. It has changed the media industry as profoundly as the development of radio, film and television. In Streampunks, YouTube's Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl gets to the heart of this creative revolution through behind-the-scenes stories of its biggest stars - YouTubers like Tyler Oakley, Lilly Singh, and Casey Neistat-and the dealmakers brokering the future of media, like Scooter Braun, who scouted 12-year old Justin Bieber on YouTube, and Vice media mogul Shane Smith who used the platform to turn young people onto news and current affairs. By giving anyone with a smartphone their own TV channel, YouTube is fuelling a new creative boom. Not only is it generating the new faces of entertainment, but also changing how students are taught, how social issues are discussed and how small businesses advertise and develop. Streampunks is the definitive book on the modern pop-culture juggernaut Youtube, the platform remaking the face of entertainment.

An unprecedented glimpse into the minds of two maestros. Haruki Murakami's passion for music runs deep. Before turning his hand to writing, he ran a jazz club in Tokyo, and the aesthetic and emotional power of music permeates every one of his much-loved books. Now, in Absolutely on Music, Murakami fulfills a personal dream, sitting down with his friend, acclaimed conductor Seiji Ozawa, to talk about their shared interest. They discuss everything from Brahms to Beethoven, from Leonard Bernstein to Glenn Gould, from record collecting to pop-up orchestras, and much more.

Dylan Jones's engrossing, magisterial biography of David Bowie is unlike any Bowie story ever written. Drawn from over 180 interviews with friends, rivals, lovers, and collaborators, some of whom have never before spoken about their relationship with Bowie, this oral history weaves a hypnotic spell as it unfolds a remarkable rise to stardom and an unparalleled artistic path. Tracing Bowie's life from the English suburbs to London to New York to Los Angeles, Berlin, and beyond, its collective voices describe a man profoundly shaped by his relationship with his schizophrenic half-brother Terry; an intuitive artist who could absorb influences through intense relationships and yet drop people cold when they were no longer of use; and a social creature equally comfortable partying with John Lennon and dining with Frank Sinatra. By turns insightful and deliciously gossipy, DAVID BOWIE is as intimate a portrait as may ever be drawn. It sparks with admiration and grievances, lust and envy, as the speakers bring you into studios and bedrooms they shared with Bowie, and onto stages and film sets, opening corners of his mind and experience that transform our understanding of both artist and art. Including illuminating, never-before-seen material from Bowie himself, drawn from a series of Jones's interviews with him across two decades, DAVID BOWIE is an epic, unforgettable cocktail-party conversation about a man whose enigmatic shapeshifting and irrepressible creativity produced one of the most sprawling, fascinating lives of our time.

Read the internationally bestselling book before you watch the major movie from Lionsgate, starring Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson. This special edition is complete with exclusive behind-the-scenes content. The unforgettable and life-affirming story of August Pullman - a boy who's desperate to blend in, but is destined to stand out.'My name is August. I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.'Auggie wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things - eating ice cream, playing on his Xbox. He feels ordinary - inside. But ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. Ordinary kids aren't stared at wherever they go.Born with a terrible facial abnormality, Auggie has been home-schooled by his parents his whole life. Now, for the first time, he's being sent to a real school. All he wants is to be accepted. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, underneath it all?Astonishingly powerful, WONDER is a read you'll never forget.

'Her bravest work of performance art to date . . . Rawly intimate' ObserverThis memoir spans Marina Abramovic's five decade career, and tells a life story that is almost as exhilarating and extraordinary as her groundbreaking performance art. Taking us from her early life in communist ex-Yugoslavia, to her time as a young art student in Belgrade in the 1970s, where she first made her mark with a series of pieces that used the body as a canvas, the book also describes her relationship with the West German performance artist named Ulay who was her lover and sole collaborator for 12 years. Abramovic has collaborated with stars from Lady Gaga to Jay-Z, James Franco and Willem Dafoe. Best known for her recent pieces 'The Artist is Present' and '512 Hours', this book is a fascinating insight into the life of one of the most important artists working today, and the woman who has been described as 'the grandmother of performance art'.

Sounes' book pushes the standard Reed narrative - The New York Times Lou Reed, who died in 2013, was best known to the general public as the grumpy New Yorker in black who sang 'Walk on the Wild Side'. To his dedicated admirers, however, he was one of the most innovative and intelligent American songwriters of modern times, a natural outsider who lived a tumultuous and tortured life. In this in-depth, meticulously researched and very entertaining biography, respected biographer Howard Sounes examines the life and work of this fascinating man, from birth to death, including his time as the leader of The Velvet Underground - one of the most important bands in rock'n'roll. Written with a deep knowledge and understanding of the music, Sounes also sheds entirely new light on the artist's creative process, his mental health problems, his bisexuality, his three marriages, and his addictions to drugs and alcohol. In the course of his research, Sounes has interviewed over 140 people from every part of Lou Reed's life - some of whom have not spoken publicly about him before - including music industry figures, band members, fellow celebrities, family members, former wives and lovers. This book brings Lou Reed and his world alive

Veen, Jeroen Van - Heldenklage Veen, Jeroen Van - Ungarischer Marsch Veen, Jeroen Van - Edes Titok Veen, Jeroen Van - So Lach Doch Mal Veen, Jeroen Van - Da Geht Ein Bach Veen, Jeroen Van - In Mondschein Auf Der Puszta Veen, Jeroen Van - Ermanarich (Sinfonische Dichtun Veen, Jeroen Van - Unseren Altvordern Eingedenk 1. Mazurka 2. Aus Der Czarda Veen, Jeroen Van - Das Zerbrochene Ringlein Veen, Jeroen Van - Albumblatt Veen, Jeroen Van - Das Fragment An Sich Veen, Jeroen Van - Hymnus An Die Freundschaft Vorspiel Hymnus Erste Strophe Erstes Zwischenspiel Hymnus Zweite Strophe Zweites Zwischenspiel Steht Fest Hymnus Dritte Strophe

Bressan, Andrea - Duos Fuer Viola Und Fagott Nr. 1 Nr. 1 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Nr. 2 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Nr. 3 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Nr. 4 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Nr. 5 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Nr. 6 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Nr. 7 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Nr. 8 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Bressan, Andrea - Hopi (Fuer Fagott Solo) Bressan, Andrea - Stuecke Fuer Fagott Und Instrume Nr. 1 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Nr. 2 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Nr. 3 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Nr. 4 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Nr. 5 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Nr. 6 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Nr. 7 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Nr. 8 (Ohne Satzbezeichnung) Bressan, Andrea - Duo Sephardim (Fuer Viola Und Fa Bressan, Andrea - Niggun (Fuer Fagott Solo) Schola San Rocco - Wanderung (Fuer Frauenchor Und ? Philippe Hersant (born 1948) is one of the most remarkable and successful composers of his native France. A student of André Jolivet he embraced tonality and modality, finding his own unique voice, eclectic, open and appealing to a wide audience. He won numerous prizes: Grand Prix de la ville de Paris, Grand Prix SACEM, Victoires de la Musique Classique 2016, and the Légion d’honneur. ? This new recording presents his music for the bassoon, a still neglected but versatile and expressive wind instrument. Included are the duos for bassoon and viola, 8 Pieces for bassoon and instrumental ensemble and works for bassoon solo. ? Played with great conviction and imagination by Italian bassoonist Andrea Bressan and the Ex Novo Ensemble. ? Liner notes written by the composer.

Previous albums on Brilliant Classics have illuminated significant figures in the school of North German organ music in the generations before Bach: among them Georg Ludwig Bohm (BC94612), Johann Gottfried Walther (BC94730) and Dieterich Buxtehude (BC94422). Here is the work of another, hardly less significant figure, Heinrich Scheidemann. Hamburg-based, Heinrich took over from his father as organist at the church of St Catherine’s in 1629 and remained in post until his death in 1663. He wrote almost exclusively for his instrument, and in the expected forms of chorale fantasias, motet arrangements, preludes, toccatas and fantasias which constituted the bread and butter of the 17th-century church musician’s diet. On this newly recorded album, the French organist Joseph Rassam plays a selection of all these genres, juxtaposed for maximum variety. In fact Scheidemann invented the genre of chorale fantasia, later so refined and developed by J.S. Bach, where a well-known chorale melody is played as the soprano line and reworked by means of superimposition, canon and imitation for the effects of grandeur and spiritual elevation. There are several Praeambulum movements in which Scheidemann builds on the legacy of the Dutch master Sweelinck, more freely composed, allowing full rein for the performer/composer’s own virtuosity. Until quite recently, all Scheidemann’s keyboard works were thought to have been written for the organ, but scholarly research has now shown that more than a quarter of the hundred or so pieces known to be by Scheidemann (or attributed to him) were actually written for the harpsichord and intended for performance in a secular context. Joseph Rassam’s recording is therefore one of the first to place such pieces in their original, intended context. In doing so, it reveals new and extrovert facets of the music which was hitherto characterised as more solemn and monumental according to an eccelesiastical context. Joseph Rassam has chosen to use three instruments appropriate to the historical and stylistic context of Scheidemann’s music. The organ is a relatively new one, inaugurated in 2010 by Gustav Leonhardt in the church of St Martin, Amilly, and built by Bertrand Cattiaux in the style of North-German Baroque instruments. He also plays an original 17th-century harpsichord of unknown manufacture, beautifully decorated and recently restored by Alain Anselm, and one of Anselm’s own virginals. This new recording presents both organ works and harpsichord works of Heinrich Scheidemann (c. 1596-1663). Chorales sung in the vernacular, the pillar of Lutheran Service, are the primary source of inspiration for Scheidemann’s organ music. In combining the simplicity of the original melody and the complexity of contrapuntal technique the organist-composer made the genre of chorale settings his own. Joseph Rassam plays on an organ built by Bertrand Cattiaux who draw his inspiration from the Netherlands and North German instruments of the 17th-century, as well as a historic two-manual harpsichord, built in 1650/55 by “CLF”. The booklet includes excellent liner notes written by a musicologist, in both English and German.

1Sonata No. 1, Op. 63: I. Largo, allegro animato 2Sonata No. 1, Op. 63: II. Sarabanda 3Sonata No. 1, Op. 63: III. Scherzo 4Sonata No. 1, Op. 63: IV. Introduzione e rondo 5Sonata No. 2, Op. 84: I. Allegro non troppo 6Sonata No. 2, Op. 84: II. Intermezzo 7Sonata No. 2, Op. 84: III. Allegro assai 8Elegy, Op. 96 9Nearly Waltz, Op. 98 10Burlesque, Op. 97

With this album, Tortorelli and Meluso have provided a sequel to their Brilliant Classics recording of the sonatas for violin and viola, released late in 2016. The previous disc was praised in online reviews for ‘the excellent playing of Gran Duo Italiano’ (Lynn Rene Bailey) and the sense, so characteristic of the composer, that ‘irony is always just around the corner when it comes to Milhaud, and the wink and sardonic smile is there along with whatever mock pomposity he comes up with’ (Dean Frey). They are now joined by Pierluigi Bernard, first of all for the lively Suite from 1936 which Milhaud wrote for all three instruments: an unusual combination in itself, but then Milhaud’s facility allowed him to write for almost any imaginable ensemble, while always coming up withmusic that is grateful for the musicians, pleasant for the listeners and inimitably personal to himself. With the Danses de Jacarémirim Op.256 (1945) for violin and piano, Milhaud made playful reference to a small Brazilian alligator with big eyes and a long snout, reflecting his long-standing passion for the culture of that country. Its salon-like easy humour is shared by the Sonatina pastorale for solo violin and the Caprice for clarinet and piano. By contrast, the Élégie for viola and piano, also from 1945, more reflects the temper of its troubled times, whereas the Farandoleurs from the following year is a playful, heartfelt homage to the Renaissance-era Provençal dance form. Perhaps the best-known work on the album is the Scaramouche Suite which exists in several versions, and is here performed on clarinet and piano. The suite shares with the best of Milhaud a quality of rational distance from intense expression, a palpable sense of joy taken in making music, and an irrepressible sense of fun. If it’s hard to know what lies behind the masks, it’s impossible not to smile with the masks themselves. Darius Milhaud is one of the most colourful and versatile composers of 20th century France. He was active in all fields and genres of composition: opera, choral, orchestral, chamber and solo works, a prolific writer and bold spirit, a member of the French composer’s group “Les Six”, a modernist influenced by jazz, polytonality and Brazilian culture. This new recording presents chamber music for clarinet, violin, viola and piano, in different combinations. Most works are small scale, exquisite and delicious miniatures smelling of the rich perfumes of the French Provence, the region from which Milhaud came and which was his source of inspiration during his long creative life. Excellent performances by violinist Mauro Tortorelli, pianist Angela Meluso and clarinetist Pierluigi Bernard. Tortorelli already recorded a successful Milhaud album for Brilliant Classics, the complete violin and viola sonatas (BC95232). Their recording of the Saint-Saëns violin sonatas received 5 stars in the French Diapason.

Eminent Italian early music keyboardist Manuel Tomadin adds to a splendid discography on Brilliant Classics with his eighth release for the label. Commemorating the centenary of the apparition of Mary at Fátima, Portugal (1917), Tomadin performs settings for organ of the well-known Marian hymn Magnificat by four composers from the Hanseatic north of Germany, all talented students of Dutch organist–composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, father of the north German organ tradition. And what more fitting organ could be selected for this tribute than the fine Dell’Orto & Lanzini instrument, modelled on 17th-century organs of the Hanseatic school, housed in a Piedmontese parish church dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima? This organ reflects the rich tonal resources that would have been at the skilled fingertips of Scheidemann, Schildt, Weckmann and Strungk, who were active in the 17th century around the Hanseatic area on such organs as those at St Catherine’s and St James’s, Hamburg, the Marktkirche, Hannover, and Braunschweig’s St Martini church. Manuel Tomadin is joined in these Magnificat performances by award winning tenor and early music ensemble director Giuseppe Maletto. The Magnificat, the hymn to the Virgin Mary, is one of the most ancient and sacred liturgical texts, and has been set to music numerous times by composers between the 16th and 18th century. This new recording presents Magnificat settings by Scheidemann, Schildt, Weckmann and Strungk, all active in Northern Germany and all pupils of the great Sweelinck, master of Baroque counterpoint. This recording was made on the occasion of the centenary of the apparition of Mary of Fatima, and played on the beautiful Dell’Orto & Lanzini organ of the Parish of Pinerolo, an instrument inspired by the 17th century Hanseatic school. The booklet offers extensive liner notes in English and Italian, and the full specifications and photos of the organ.

Oliva, Andrea - Serenade Fuer Flote, Violine Und V 1. Entrada - Allegro 2. Tempo Ordinario D'un Menuetto 3. Allegro Molto 4. Andante Con Variazioni 5. Allegro Scherzando E Vivace 6. Adagio 7. Allegro Vivace E Disinvolto Oliva, Andrea - Serenade Fuer Flote, Violine Und V 1. Allegro 2. Andante Semplice Con Variazioni 3. Presto Oliva, Andrea - Serenade Fuer Flote, Violine Und V 1. Vivace 2. Larghetto 3. Presto

‘One of the greatest guitarists of all time,’ remarked John Duarte in his entry on Ida Presti for Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Best-known in posterity as one half of the celebrated Presti-Lagoya duo, she is celebrated on this album as a composer and virtuoso in her own right, half a century after her unexpected death in the middle of a US concert tour, at just 43 years of age. In her booklet-note, Cinzia Milani remarks that she has always considered Presti a role-model, not only for her prodigious talent as a guitarist, but as a female musician in a culture and industry still often dominated by male authority. She presents here six studies by Presti herself, a Danse rhythmique and an Etude du matin, and Presti’s tribute to her own hero, Segovia. Just as Presti dedicated the dance to her husband Lagoya, so Milani follows it with two works which he in turn dedicated to her. Then there are various works by composers little known outside guitar circles such as Miguel Ablóniz and indeed Duarte. Through all these works may be traced the joyous personality of Presti herself, summed up by her granddaughter Isabelle in the booklet as ‘elegant nimbleness, luminous musicality and wonderful self-confidence’. She was friends with many of the composers such as Gontran Dessagnes, who wrote his Tendesse for her in 1954. The work by Guy Morançon is a tribute to her memory, composed in the wake of her death. Finally, Milani has written her own tribute, Quattro Mi, in admiration for the extraordinary facility of Presti in holding down the note E (Mi in solfege) on four different strings simultaneously. By its nature, the album is unique in the catalogue, of immediate interest to guitarists and anyone curious about a great artist of the last century. This recording was made on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the death of Ida Presti, one of the greatest guitarists of the 20th century, a pioneering woman who used her extraordinary talents for the popularization of her instrument and the music written for it. Italian guitarist Cinzia Milano compiled the program for this new recording, consisting of original works by Ida Presti as well as works by other composers which are dedicated to her: Alexandre Lagoya, Miguel Ablóniz, John Duarte, Dimitri Fampas, Gontran Dessagnes and Francis Poulenc. The booklet contains contributions by the artist as well as by Isabelle Presti, the granddaughter of Ida Presti.

With this recording the acclaimed ensemble Le Nuove Musiche, led by director Krijn Koetsveld, have at last completed a monumental undertaking nearly a decade in the making: the complete cycle of Claudio Monteverdi’s books of madrigals. Fittingly, the last instalment in this series is the final Ninth Book (Libro IX), which was published posthumously in 1651 and looks back on the breadth of the composer’s career with lighter pieces in the established forms of his day (prima prattica), in Monteverdi’s own innovative style (seconda prattica), and in a new genre that had begun to eclipse the madrigal in Monteverdi’s twilight years. Though not published in his lifetime, the preface suggests that the Ninth Book was indeed compiled by Monteverdi himself, as a mix of madrigals – still contrapuntal, though simple in texture with at most three parts – and examples of this newly popular canzonetta, with its single accompanied melody. In that sense, the Ninth Book captures the transition from polyphony to monody – from the Renaissance to the early Baroque – in miniature. Le Nuove Musiche’s approach to Monteverdi is both dedicated and informed. They bring the past into the present, considering questions that were asked in the Renaissance and are still relevant in our present musical landscape, thereby making Early Music as new today as any other, while maintaining the highest standards of performance authenticity. Their Monteverdi cycle began with the 2008 release of the Fifth and Sixth Books of Madrigals, which garnered excellent reviews including five stars in the French magazine Diapason. A new installment of the Monteverdi XL project, the recording of the complete Madrigals by Le Nuove Musiche conducted by Krijn Koetsveld. The preface suggests that Monteverdi himself compiled the 9-th book of madrigals. He called it “Madrigali e canzonette a due e tre voci”. It is a mixture of the olden time madrigals with their equality of voices and the Canzonettas, with their predominance of one solo voice (like an opera aria), and which were all the rage by then. The vocal ensemble Le Nuove Musiche consists of the elite of Dutch Early Music vocalists, led by eminent conductor and scholar Krijn Koetsveld. Their first Monteverdi recording, the Books 5 & 6 (BC93799) received excellent reviews in the international press, among which a “5 star” in the French Diapason and a “10” in Dutch classical magazine Luister. The complete songs texts and their English translation are included in the booklet. Recorded in The Netherlands in late 2016 – early 2017.

It would not be an overstatement to declare that Ludwig van Beethoven stands as one of the most significant figures in Western civilisation: a composer who shaped the course of music history through his mastery of rhythm, melody and harmonic exploration, pushing the boundaries of form and effectively bridging the gap between Classicism and Romanticism – and yet all the while continuously professing how difficult he found composition. Detailing his complete output – from his earliest years to his last, by which time he had almost completely lost his hearing – this 85CD box reveals an extensive palette of styles and mediums, rendered all the more obvious by the box's division into different genres (starting with the symphonies and ending with the large corpus of different national folk songs). This box is the 2017 reissue of Brilliant Classics’ acclaimed Beethoven Complete Edition, with updates including Beethovenian pianist par excellence Alfred Brendel now in the complete cycle of Piano Concertos, Alessandro Commellato on historic fortepianos in brand new recordings of the 18 sets of ‘without opus’ piano variations, Emmy Verhey in the Violin Concerto and Romances and a definitive Mass in C from Stuttgart’s Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium. Reissue of the famous Brilliant Classics Beethoven Complete Edition. The ONLY Complete Beethoven Edition available! Well in advance of the momentous year 2020, the 250th Anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. With the addition of some brand new recordings (Piano Variations) and featuring the iconic Alfred Brendel in the Piano Concertos. One of the best selling Brilliant Classics Editions ever.

A collection of effervescent French chamber music, generously compiled (almost 140 minutes), unrivalled in the current catalogue, in stylish new recordings, complemented by an extensive and authoritative booklet-note. André Jolivet (1905-1974) is surely one of the most interesting yet neglected French composers of the last century. Outside the constraints of the Parisian conservatoire tradition, he developed an idiom way ahead of its time compared to many of his contemporaries; indeed, while Edgard Varese was ploughing his furrow, Jolivet was his only European pupil between 1929 and 1933. However, Varese-like acerbity and austerity is out of place here. Jolivet was never less than a skilled melodist, and one who wrote for his chosen instruments rather than against them. Much that is here such as a sensuous Flute Sonata, a muscular Violin Sonata or a jocular Suite for oboe and piano is pitched, to ears unfamiliar with Jolivet, in an idiom somewhere between Poulenc, Messiaen and Dutilleux; but that’s the voice of Jolivet, and closer acquaintance with this set will accustom listeners to it in all its unpredictable, quicksilver charm. The Flute Sonata has received several recordings in the company of the likes of Poulenc and Koechlin, but there is much here that will be unfamiliar to even the most dedicated discophiles and followers of French musical fashions: an Ouverture en Rondeau for 4 ondes martenot, piano & percussion, for example, or the Petite Suite for string quintet, piano and percussion. Few of the individual pieces or movements are of any great length – Jolivet knew the value of succinct expression like many French musicians of his generation, and had a horror of pomposity – but there is a ten-minute Nocturne for cello and piano, and a rhapsodic Chant de Linos for flute and piano of the same length. The later music – the set is helpfully arranged in chronological order – is especially intriguing, once Jolivet had found for himself a new form of classicism aimed at synthesizing serial and freely atonal music together with modal developments. One fine example is the Hopi Snake Dance for two pianos. An invaluable set, masterminded by the pianist Filippo Farinelli, who has previously accompanied distinguished colleagues in the complete songs of Jolivet (BC9220), Ravel (BC94743) and Dallapiccola (BC95202). André Jolivet (1905-1974) is considered one of the most interesting French composers of the 20th century. His vast oeuvre includes nearly all musical genres. Actively open to all musical genres (he never had a proper conservatory education) he developed a personal style that was distinctly avant-garde. This new recording spans Jolivet’s entire lifetime, and presents his complete chamber music with piano in combination with violin, viola, cello, flute, oboe, saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, double-bass and Ondes Martenot. Fascinating, vibrant and colourful music! Excellent performances by Italian soloists and pianist Filippo Farinelli, the driving force behind several Brilliant Classics projects: complete songs by Ravel, Jolivet and Dallapiccola, Koechlin Saxophone Music and others. The extensive liner notes are written by a musicologist.

No modern record company has done more than Brilliant Classics to revive the music and reputation of the Italian-American composer Mario Castelvuovo-Tedesco. Not only in the field of guitar music for which he is most famous, but in piano music (BC94811) and most recently an extensive and powerful song-cycle for soprano and guitar, The Divan of Moses Ibn Ebra (BC95282). Here’s another new album of the composer’s vocal music, of still greater importance: the first complete recording of his cycle of Shakespeare Sonnets, coupled with the world premiere recording of the three Shakespeare Duets. Castelnuovo-Tedesco set texts by many great poets, among them Dante, Heine and Lorca. It was for Shakespeare, however, that he nurtured his foremost passion. Having composed settings of all the standalone songs in the plays while still resident in Italy, he then turned to the sonnets while ‘isolated and proud’ in the bitter-sweet exile of Beverly Hills where he made his home for the last 30 years of his life. They were set down with astonishing fluency, more than half within less than two months in the autumn of 1945. Ultimately he put music to 32 of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, all in the original English, including three settings for vocal ensemble. All of them are now gathered together for the first time, together with the three Duets from 1937. For Castelnuovo-Tedesco as for many of his colleagues past and present, Shakespeare’s language is ‘perfectly musical: it unites the spiritual subtlety of English with the sonorous splendour of Italian.’ In particular, ‘the Sonnets are one of the most miraculous products of the poetry of all times! Shakespeare acts like a mirror of humanity, expressing sentiments that are both his and universal: they are absolute and eternal, expressed by means of an extraordinary, perfect wealth of images.’ Thus these settings reflect the beauty and complexity which Castelnuovo-Tedesco ‘heard’ in the poetry. There is no repetition of words or phrases; the only recurring element is a coda in the piano that seems to act like the unconditional resolutions that conclude each poem. Musical convention is rare, and when it does surface is handled with irony. The prevailing style is bold and free, within the sphere of the Italian vocal tradition, yet not afraid to absorb elements from European music of the early 1900s or echoes of the lighter, popular music that was evolving in the US. This new issue offers the first complete recording of the Shakespeare Sonnets by Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Castelnuovo-Tedesco wrote most of these songs in the USA, after his forced exile from Fascist Italy in 1938. He has been all his life fascinated by William Shakespeare and his sonnets: “it is a perfectly musical language: I dare say that it unites the spiritual subtlety of English with the sonorous splendor of the Italian..Shakespeare acts like a mirror of humanity, expressing sentiments that are both his and universal, they are absolute and eternal, expressed by means of an extraordinary perfect wealth of images…each sonnet is a miniature drama, a theatrical play..” The Shakespeare songs are written for soprano, tenor and baritone, some are for choir, the accompaniment is for piano. They are sung by three excellent Italian soloists, with Claudio Proietti on the piano. The booklet contains excellent liner notes written in English and Italian.

Not just Piazzolla: there are 13 represented here, many of them hardly known outside their native Argentina, giving this newly recorded set a unique place in the record catalogue. Anyone seduced by the smoky harmonies and the sensual rhythms of the tango will discover hidden treasure. Between 1860 and 1925, the immigrants who had settled in Argentina to seek their fortune contributed to the development of this music, giving life to forms of varied derivation such as the Cuban habanera, the milonga (a type of folk dance), the African candombe and Italian songs. More of these immigrants came originally from Italy than from any other country, and the first musicians were Italian, which explains the lyrical element in the tango: its aura of melancholy and yearning. Enea Leone and Roberto Bongianino retrace the various stages in the evolution of the tango on this album: the milonga (Milonga de mis amores, Corralera, La trampera), the tango itself (El Chocio, El Pollo Ricardo, Mi refugio, Silbando), and the vals (Pedacito de cielo, Flor de lino). Piazzolla is naturally well-represented by classics such as Histoire du Tango (originally written for guitar and flute), and others in new arrangements. There are also several solo pieces, as well as an Italian homage to the world of the Tango: two compositions that feature in well-loved Italian films, Il postino and the TV serial Il commissario Montalbano. Bongianino has transcribed several works from film scores, and made new arrangements for himself and Leone. Like Piazzolla, the name of Carlos Gardel spread far and wide, not least thanks to the use of his music in soundtracks. Others such as Javier Cugat Cobain, Pedro Laurenz and Aníbal Troilo are waiting to be discovered by a worldwide audience. This new recording features original music from Argentina, spanning the entire 20th Century, music of great vitality, colour and passion, the natural fusion of high and low culture, from the concert hall and the brothel, vibrant as life itself. The music centres around the tango, the national dance of Argentina which conquered the world by storm. Composers include Piazzolla (including his famous Adios nonino, Libertango and Bordel 1900) Fernandez, Cobain, Gardel, Castillo and many others. Featuring the two most emblematic instruments of Argentina, the guitar and the bandoneon, played with characteristic restrained passion, virtuosity and fun by Enea Leone and Roberto Bongianino.

Given their infrequent appearances on concert programmes, Dvořák’s string quartets have done rather well in the recorded catalogues. There are several recordings of the complete cycle of 16 works, which span the composer’s career. A couple have been made by native ensembles from the composer’s Czech homeland but also a couple more by central-European ensembles such as the Stamitz Quartet, who since their foundation in 1985 have been known as leading interpreters of Czech repertoire. The approach of the Stamitz Quartet is quite different from either the Panocha or Prague ensembles, noted David Hurwitz in Classics Today: ‘more relaxed, less rhythmically charged, and gracious in an old-world sort of way… The group also gives unusual stature to the somewhat formally scattered early works, particularly the monstrous Third Quartet, which at 72 minutes has to be just about the all-time longest string quartet that ostensibly observes the rules of classical form.’ Taken as a whole, the quartets chart the evolution of Dvořák’s style, from his interest in Wagnerian music in the years prior to 1870 – in the String Quartet in D major – to the folk-infused works of his later life, such as the String Quartet in G major Op.106, and show the influence of his time in the United States, with the String Quartet in F Op.96 'American'. If the only Dvorák quartet that you’re familiar with is the ‘American’, then this set will provide an embarkation point for what should prove an immensely fruitful musical journey. The late quartets in particular are shaped by the oscillations between varied weather and song that sit at the heart of the three late symphonies. According to the Taipei Times, this set is ‘a feast for a lifetime. They’re gorgeously warm and evocative recordings, and no one could possibly go wrong in choosing them...this remains an astonishing bargain.’ This reissue includes full programme notes on each work. Reissue of a successful Brilliant Classics box set. Includes the complete string quartets (of course featuring the ever popular American Quartet) as well as the shorter works for string quartet, music which speaks of the beauty of Bohemia, the woods, the streams, the flowers and the rich folklore. Played by the Czech Stamitz Quartet, who have the idiom for this music in their blood. Highly rated in the press: “9/9, warmth and richness, highly rewarding” (Classicstoday.com).