MAY 2014 | NEW RELEASES
PAUL LEWIS
SCHUBERT The Late Piano Sonatas
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Accent Accords-Croisés Actes Sud Ad Vitam Agogique Albion Alia Vox Ambronay Aparté APO APR Archie Ball Armide Asphalt Tango Black Saint Bonsaï Channel Classics Chant du Monde Classic Records Contre-Jour Daqui Dawn of Freedom Delphian Discograph Dog My Cat Doumtak Ducale Dutton East Meets West Eloquentia First Hand FRA Musica Frémeaux Gimell Gloriae Dei Cantores Gramercy Park Music harmonia mundi Helicon Howe Records Hyperion Institut du Monde Arabe Jazz Village
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King’s College La Dolce Volta La Música Les Arts Florissants Long Distance Loreley LSO Live Lusafrica Mariinsky MCO Records Mélisande Melisse Mirare M’ister Productions MN Records Ocora Onyx Classics Opella Nova Opera Rara Orange Mountain Otá Paradizo Paraty Penguin Cafe Philharmonia Baroque Ponderosa Praga Radio France RCOC Retrospective Revival SFS Media Signature SmallsLIVE Sound Grammar Spirit of America Tahra Testament Van Cliburn Wahoo Wergo World Village Ysayë
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Piano music is in the spotlight this month. Gramophone Award-winning pianist Paul Lewis returns to Schubert with a third volume of Piano Sonatas for harmonia mundi, this time focusing on the composer’s late works in the genre (p.9). Stephen Hough, “The thinking man’s virtuoso,” presents In the Night – the latest in his ongoing series of themed recital albums for Hyperion (p.15). Following on the success of his critically acclaimed recordings of C.P.E Bach, Danny Driver turns to the music of Handel, with an album of the Eight Great Suites, also on Hyperion (p.16). Lute virtuoso Paul O’Dette is featured in a brand new recording highlighting the artist’s favorite works by John Dowland (p.12). Vocal music also features prominently in our list of priorities. In tribute to the late, great soprano Montserrat Figueras, Alia Vox offers a second volume of The Voice of Emotion, this time including a bonus DVD (p.5). Mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink teams up with pianist Anthony Spiri and the Gustav Mahler-Ensemble for an album of Mahler songs on harmonia mundi (p.11). Conductor Valery Gergiev offers his second release of music of Johannes Brahms for LSO Live, this time featuring the powerful German Requiem (p.19). And for baroque opera fans, Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra present an album of excerpts from Handel’s Teseo (p.21).
Tel: (800) 634-0674 x1516 Fax: (818) 333-1502 Email: sales-usa@harmoniamundi.com
IN THE PRESS Dowland: Lute Songs Iestyn Davies, Thomas Dunford Hyperion • CDA 68007
Jazz World CONCERTS
NEWS & HIGHLIGHTS
Berg: Lyric Suite Jean- Guihen Queyras harmonia mundi • HMC 902150
POPULAR
STREET DATE: MAY 13, 2014 Page 3 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 13 Page 14 Page 19 Page 20 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25
Bal•Kan - Honey & Blood Jordi Savall Alia Vox • AVSA 9902
Accent Alia Vox APO Channel Delphian Fremeaux harmonia mundi Helicon Hyperion LSO Live Onyx Orange Mountain Philharmonia Baroque Praga Tahra Testament Wergo
“Overwhelming, fascinating.”
“A bristling, fiery interpretation”
“Ripe, affecting and utterly beautiful.”
—THE NEW YORK TIMES
—SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
—THE NEW YORK TIMES
COMING NEXT MONTH Lucky Peterson débuts on Jazz Village The Son of a Bluesman Lucky Peterson Jazz Village • 570035
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CLASSICAL
Lucky Peterson is considered one of the preeminent blues artists of the modern era. Not just a killer guitarist and a wizard of the keyboard, he’s also a first-rate vocalist. His début on Jazz Village, The Son of a Bluesman, pays tribute to his father, James Peterson, who owned a blues club in Buffalo called The Governor’s Inn where all the greats used to play. Recorded in Dallas, The Son of a Bluesman mixes originals and inspired covers in a poetic blend of darkness and light, all supported by a irrepressible groove.
Press & Radio
Tel: (800) 634-0674 x1509 Email: media-usa@harmoniamundi.com Editor-in-Chief: Matthew Owen Design: Stephanie Jacobson
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
RATIS Dialoghi con l’Angelo – Dramatic Cantatas & Popular Songs
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IMPORT There was a rumor that the Passacalli della Vita – a genuine hit in the early music scene – was not an original composition from the 17th century at all, but the work of a present-day musician. Lutenist and conductor Michael Dücker obtained a copy of the printed edition containing the song and discovered that not only was the aria original, there were other musical treasures in the collection as well. In it, 17th Century organist Francesco Ratis compiled numerous popular songs and provided them with spiritual texts. The aim was to convert listeners with catchy melodies set to colloquial texts, thereby encouraging piety. The most exciting and interesting work in the collection is a type of miniature oratorio featuring angels and demons that confront personified figures such as the soul, the world, the conscience and the body. Through richlycolored instrumentation, the ensemble Nuovo Aspetto is able to bring out the various characters in a particularly vivid manner.
Price Code: A22 (Suggested Retail Price: $22.98)
Also available Reutter: Arie & Sinfonie Accent • ACC 24275 (4015023242753)
“The music here is attractive... it’s well worth hearing...” —MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL 3
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Chiyuki Okamura (soprano), Cornelia Samuelis (soprano), Franz Vitzthum (countertenor), Christian Dietz (tenor), Yorck Felix Speer (bass) Nuovo Aspetto, Michael Dücker Accent • ACC 24290
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
BERTALI Sonatas
IMPORT William Dongois is one of the best-known cornettists of our time. On this recording, together with the ensemble Le Concert Brisé, Price Code: A22 he presents a portrait of the composer Antonio (Suggested Retail Price: $22.98) Bertali, who hailed from Verona and was active at the Habsburg court in Vienna starting at the age of 20. He composed in the stylus fantasticus, which represents a synthesis of the Italian and Austrian styles. Today, Bertali’s great Chaconne for solo violin (also recorded here) belongs to the standard baroque repertoire, but Dongois and his ensemble also demonstrate in the lesser-known works how variegated and enticing this music is.
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Rome • Paris • Madrid European Baroque Guitar Music Pierre Pitzl (guitar) Accent • ACC 24287 IMPORT More or less “invented” in Spain in the mid17th century, it did not take long for the guitar to become popular throughout Europe. On this Price Code: A22 recording, guitarist Pierre Pitzl, on his first solo (Suggested Retail Price: $22.98) CD for Accent, explores this development in exemplary fashion, using the examples of three musical centers and composers active there. The image resulting from this is a highly varied one: only a strummed instrument in the beginning, the guitar soon developed a highly differentiated technique consisting of both strumming and plucking. In this way, a new style of composition and sound was created hand in hand with a previously unheard-of, bold treatment of dissonances.
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accent
Le Concert Brisé, William Dongois Accent • ACC 24260
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
[PRIORITY RELEASE] The Voice of Emotion II
IMPORT SACD Hybrid/ Stereo & Multi-channel/ DSD Bonus DVD: 55 minutes, Region 0, PAL Format Soprano Montserrat Figueras, a genuine and beloved superstar of the early music world, passed away on November 23rd, 2011. A few months later, Jordi Savall released a tribute album to his wife entitled The Voice of Emotion. This specially-priced compilation, which featured gems from the Naive and Alia Vox catalogs, was a huge success. Alia Vox now presents a second volume, which further explores the legacy of this great artist. Fourteen tracks of audio are combined with a 55-minute DVD portrait (offered on two DVDs to allow for multi-language subtitles). Housed in a beautiful CD-book containing rich illustrations and scholarly notes, this set is both a superb introduction to Figueras’s talents to those unfamiliar with her and a perfect way for fans to rediscover and remember this legendary musician.
“Figueras style of singing early music was at once steeped in historical sources and animated by freewheeling personal expression; she had a phenomenal ability to make ancient song come alive in the present.”
I4e5rp8c)( )$@s Price Code: A26 (2 CDs+Bonus DVD, Suggested Retail Price: $26.98)
—ALEX ROSS
Also available The Voice of Emotion I Alia Vox • AVSA 9889 (7619986398891)
“She was simply unique and has no direct successors or parallels.” —AMERICAN RECORD GUDE 5
alia vox
Montserrat Figueras (soprano), Jordi Savall Alia Vox • AVDVD 9904
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
apo
RESPIGHI Pines of Rome, Fountains of Rome
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner APO • CAPC 2436 SA
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner APO • CAPC 2446 SA
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Price Code: A40 (Suggested Retail Price: $40.98)
Price Code: A40 (Suggested Retail Price: $40.98)
DOMESTIC SACD Hybrid/ Stereo & Three-channel/ DSD Through the decade following 1953, RCA Victor made a wondrous and substantial body of recordings that have come to be identified with their early release label, Living Stereo. At the beginning of the widespread adoption of stereo audio in the home, Living Stereo offered a superb range of quality music and performances in high quality sound. An impressive number of these records offer music, performances and audio quality that are still top choices and in many cases, still definitive. In both its recording and marketing philosophies, Living Stereo influenced many of the recordings made since. Although available on CD since the early 90s, this marks the first time that the SACD remastering experts at Analogue Productions have worked their magic on RCA’s legendary recordings. The début releases include two recordings that remain favorites of critics everywhere. Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony are featured in Respighi’s tone poems Pines of Rome and Fountains of Rome and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade – widely considered to be the jewel in the RCA Living Stereo crown.
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CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
Dances of the Dolls
IMPORT It has been said that the hope for western music can be found in the east. The recent spate of Asian superstar musicians offers some support Price Code: A15 for that position, and with Dances of the Dolls, (Suggested Retail Price: $15.98) the Channel Classics début album by 9-year-old Serena Wang, the cycle continues. Wang began her piano studies at age 4. Her talents developed quickly, and only six years later she became the youngest-ever prize winner of Berkeley University’s Bach Piano Competition. It was to be the first in a string of prizes, and the beginning of what promises to be an impressive career. This recording, appropriately, is a disc of music for children, played by a child. It features works by Mozart, Poulenc, Shostakovich and works by Chinese composers including Tan Dun.
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channel classics
Serena Wang (piano) Channel Classics • CCS 81014
The Merton Organ Works by Franck, Stanley, Messiaen, Bach, Dupré and Vierne
IMPORT In a golden age of organ-building, Merton College’s new Dobson instrument stands out as exceptional. It is only the third American-built Price Code: A19 organ sent to the UK since the Second World (Suggested Retail Price: $19.98) War, a bold commissioning choice made by Benjamin Nicholas, the Director of Music at Merton College. Designed to accompany the chapel’s daily choral services and to honor the chapel’s ancient architecture, the instrument also had to be equipped to perform a large part of the solo repertoire. Ranging from Stanley to Messiaen, no inquisitive listener will feel short-changed by the variety and virtuosity on display here. In his solo début, Nicholas combines flair and intelligence as he presents the stunning instrument he helped mastermind.
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delphian
Benjamin Nicholas (organ) Delphian • DCD 34142
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
Choir of King’s College London, David Trendell Delphian • DCD 34136 IMPORT Winner of the coveted Prix de Rome, Alfred Desenclos remains an almost unknown figure in twentieth-century music. His Requiem Mass Price Code: A19 setting dates from 1963. Incorporating influences (Suggested Retail Price: $19.98) from Gregorian chant as well as rich harmonies based on added-note chords, this piece is a revelation. Also featured on this recording by David Trendell and the Choir of King’s College, London, are works by Villette and Poulenc, whose return to Catholicism in 1936 initiated a line of pieces that represent some of the most significant religious choral music of the twentieth century.
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delphian
DESENCLOS Messe de Requiem, Salve Regina, Nos autem POULENC Litanies à la vierge noire VILLETTE O sacrum convivium, Hymne à la Vierge, Attende Domine
The Violin in Italy 1600-1700 A Video Course by Constance Frei Frémeaux • FA 4025 IMPORT 180 Minutes; Region 0; Stereo; 4:3 Aspect; French with English Subtitles Constance Frei, a musicologist at the University of Geneva and herself a violinist Price Code: A27 and documentary-filmmaker, created this three(Suggested Retail Price: $27.98) hour video-class on the violin in 17th century Italy. Her program takes the form of an interactive chart allowing us to navigate through an absorbing didactic work divided into six parts, each subdivided into different chapters. This DVD groups together historical and musicological analyses, musical performance practices, studies related to instrument-making, various scores, interviews and concerts. The DVD also features the participation of Stefano Montanari, a violin virtuoso and renowned baroque violin expert, who has conducted numerous operas at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and at the Opera in Lyon.
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Stefano Montanari (violin)
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
SCHUBERT The Late Piano Sonatas Piano Sonatas D784, D958, D959 & D960 Paul Lewis (piano) harmonia mundi • HMC 902165 IMPORT Selections on this set Available as HMU 901800 (794881705924) British pianist Paul Lewis’s auspicious 2001 harmonia mundi début release marked the beginning of his fascination with the music of Franz Schubert. Thirteen years later, now hailed as “the finest Schubert interpreter of his generation” (Gramophone), Lewis offers this two-disc collection, the final installment of his three-part Schubert series, which presents newly recorded interpretations of sonatas D784 and D958 paired with his 2002 recording of sonatas D959 and D960. The ‘late’ works of Schubert hold a special place in Lewis’s heart. In a recent interview he said, “There is no precedent in his music for what the language becomes – that sense of austerity, sparseness, hopelessness, terror even! I think he suddenly had an acute awareness of his own mortality.”
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harmonia mundi
[PRIORITY RELEASE]
“Lewis’s Schubertian mastery undoubtedly commands the respect and attention of piano lovers.” —CLASSICS TODAY
Price Code: A22 (2 CD Set, Suggested Retail Price: $22.98)
LISTEN NOW IN CONCERT APRIL 17-19 Seattle, Wa - Benaroya Hall May 1-3 Chicago, IL - Symphony Hall
Also available Schubert: Piano Sonatas D840, 850 & 894 harmonia mundi • HMC 902115 (3149020211526)
Schubert: Piano Sonata D845 harmonia mundi • HMC 902136 (3149020213629)
“Superbly well played...”
“A revelation.”
—THE GUARIDAN
—BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 9
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
Alain Planès (piano) harmonia mundi • HMC 902163 IMPORT “At last, something genuinely new.” It was in these terms that Ferruccio Busoni greeted the publication in 1908 of the 14 Bagatelles, in which Béla Bartók conveyed the violent aesthetic impact of his discovery of authentic Hungarian peasant music. Over the next twenty years, up to the magisterial Piano Sonata of 1926, he indefatigably refined an innovative pianistic language – pungent, dissonant, percussive, with multiple new playing techniques – that was to influence the entire 20th century. A master of every style, from Haydn to Boulez by way of Chopin and Chabrier, Alain Planès stands revealed here as a Bartókian of the front rank.
“He plays ravishingly… Planès is a remarkable musician...” —FANFARE
D14opw0c@!^#@#s Price Code: A19 (Suggested Retail Price: $19.98)
Also available Chopin: Chopin chez Pleyel harmonia mundi • HMC 902052 (794881924721)
“A tour de force...” —AUDIOPHILE AUDITION 10
harmonia mundi
BARTÓK Dance Suite, Hungarian Peasant Songs, Four Old Songs, Piano Sonata, Romanian Folk Dances, Bagatelles Op.6
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
MAHLER Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (arr. for chamber ensemble by Arnold Schoenberg), Kindertotenlieder, Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen, Ich atme einen linden Duft, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen Bernarda Fink (mezzo-soprano), Anthony Spiri (piano), Gustav Mahler-Ensemble, Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, Andrés Orozco-Estrada harmonia mundi • HMC 902173 IMPORT Can one really grasp the whole of Mahler’s symphonic output without knowing his songs? Not only do they extensively influence the first four symphonies (sometimes referred to as the ‘Wunderhorn symphonies’), they also encapsulate the fundamental principles of his reading of the world. On this recording, the superb mezzosoprano Bernarda Fink explores Mahler’s song cycles from three different angles. It includes the traditional lieder format with piano, songs with orchestral accompaniment and Arnold Schoenberg’s illuminating chamber transcription of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.
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“Fink’s singing is always warm, elegant and thoughtful, with sensitivity to the text and a very personal point of view...”
Price Code: A19 (Suggested Retail Price: $19.98)
LISTEN NOW
—OPERA NEWS
IN CONCERT May 15-17 New York, NY - Avery Fischer Hall
Also available Canciones espanolas harmonia mundi • HMC 902133 (3149020213322)
“These performances are idiomatic and thrilling.” —THE GUARDIAN 11
harmonia mundi
[PRIORITY RELEASE]
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
DOWLAND My Favorite Dowland Paul O’Dette (lute) harmonia mundi • HMU 907515 IMPORT Now revered as a titan of the lute and one of today’s pre-eminent early music scholars, it may come as a surprise that Paul O’Dette began his musical career playing electric guitar in a rock band in Columbus, Ohio. After exploring guitar transcriptions of lute music he opted to focus solely on the lute and music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. In addition to a catalog of more than 120 recordings, O’Dette has garnered five GRAMMY® nominations and numerous other awards. The music of John Dowland has long been one of O’Dette’s specialties. This new recording is an appendix to his mid 90s recordings of Dowland’s complete music for lute on harmonia mundi.
“One of today’s most gifted lutenists...” —GRAMOPHONE
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LISTEN NOW IN CONCERT May 28 New York, NY - MUSIC BEFORE 1800
Also available Milano: Works for Lute harmonia mundi • HMU 907557 (093046755720)
“It’s a perfect match between composer and performer...” —FANFARE 12
harmonia mundi
[PRIORITY RELEASE]
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
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BERLIOZ Symphonie Fantastique BORODIN Prince Igor Overture Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Gianandrea Noseda Helicon • 029673
H2o3y2uc(^&#@&s Price Code: A22 (Suggested Retail Price: $22.98)
BRUCKNER Symphony No.8
BRUCKNER Symphony No.7
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta Helicon • 029674
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta Helicon • 029675
H2o3y2uc(^&$@^s Price Code: A22 (Suggested Retail Price: $22.98)
H2o3y2uc(^&%@%s Price Code: A22 (Suggested Retail Price: $22.98)
IMPORT These three new recordings from the Israel Philharmonic, released to support the orchestra’s recent US tour, demonstrate the group’s remarkable versatility and technical brilliance. In an especially colorful program, the extraordinary Italian maestro Gianandrea Noseda leads the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and the overture to Borodin’s unfinished operatic masterpiece, Prince Igor. The music of Anton Bruckner has always been a favorite of conductor Zubin Mehta. However, for the Israel Philharmonic, performing Bruckner has been somewhat controversial, due to Bruckner’s unrequited status as a Nazi idol. Mehta leads the orchestra in thrilling performances of the Symphony No.8 (in the Nowak edition) and the Symphony No.7 in the 1944 edition by Robart Haas.
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CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
RUBINSTEIN Piano Quartets
IMPORT Pianist Leslie Howard is joined here by three of his frequent string collaborators for two Price Code: A19 forgotten masterpieces of Russian nineteenth(Suggested Retail Price: $19.98) century chamber music by pianist-composer Anton Rubinstein. In his day, Rubinstein was a hugely important figure and the first international professional Russian composer. His influence is almost incalculably vast on the succeeding generations of Russians who benefited from his grasp of Western musical forms allied to an excellence of craftsmanship and an easy melodic fluency.
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PIZZETTI Violin Sonata, Tre canti CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO Violin Sonata, Tre vocalizzi Hagai Shaham (violin), Arnon Erez (piano) Hyperion • CDA 67869 IMPORT Hagai Shaham and Arnon Erez continue their exploration of the early twentieth-century Price Code: A19 violin repertoire, turning this time to Italy and (Suggested Retail Price: $19.98) works by Pizzetti and his pupil CastelnuovoTedesco. Included here are Pizzetti’s impressive Violin Sonata and his Tre canti. Works by Castelnuovo-Tedesco include his Sonata quasi una fantasia and the Tre vocalizzi, originally written for voice and piano. They are heard here in an arrangement for violin and piano by Mario Corti, who saw the potential in these pieces for transcriptions that used violin techniques to imaginative effect.
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Rita Manning (violin), Morgan Goff (viola), Justin Pearson (cello), Leslie Howard (piano) Hyperion • CDA 68018
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
[PRIORITY RELEASE]
Stephen Hough (piano)
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Hyperion • CDA 67996 IMPORT The latest recital album by Stephen Hough takes the listener on a journey through that most intense and absorbing of nineteenth-century obsessions, the night. The Romantic night was one without sleep, where experiences are mutated through darkness. Hough’s thoughtful programming creates a new aural sphere for some of the most celebrated piano works in the repertoire. Hough explores Schumann’s troubled, reeling In der Nacht, and continues with Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and two Chopin Nocturnes. Also included is Stephen Hough’s own Piano Sonata No.2, subtitled Notturno Luminoso, which he describes as, “about a different kind of night… the brightness of a brash city in the hours of darkness; the loneliness of pre-morning; sleeplessness and the dull glow of the alarm clock’s unmoving hours; the irrational fears which are only darkened by the harsh glare of a suspended, dusty light bulb.”
“One of our most consistent, dazzling, and adventurous artists…”
Price Code: A19 (Suggested Retail Price: $19.98)
—ENJOY THE MUSIC
LISTEN NOW
Also available Brahms: Piano Concertos Hyperion • CDA 67961 (4571179612)
“Stephen Hough will satisfy connoisseurs and initiates...” —AUDIOPHILE AUDITION 15
hyperion
In the Night BEETHOVEN Moonlight Sonata CHOPIN Nocturnes Op.27 SCHUMANN In der Nacht (Fantasiestück), Carnival HOUGH Piano Sonata No.2 ‘Notturno luminoso’
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
[PRIORITY RELEASE] Danny Driver (piano) Hyperion • CDA 68041 IMPORT Danny Driver’s recordings of C.P.E. Bach’s keyboard works have been praised by critics as deeply stylish and revelatory accounts of eighteenth-century works on a modern piano. Now he turns to Handel’s Eight Great Suites, largely written when the composer was living in England. They are an inspired, idiosyncratic amalgam of Gallic courtly dances, Italian vocal lyricism, Teutonic counterpoint and robust English tunefulness. Whereas Bach’s keyboard suites follow broadly similar patterns, Handel’s are unpredictable, with no two suites alike in the number and ordering of their movements. There are fugues, arias with variations, Italian-style sonata movements and even a Passacaglia. Compared with the elaborate finish of Bach’s suites, Handel’s often give the impression of written-down improvisations. In the fantasia-like Preludes, especially, Handel hints at his own genius as extemporizer, while leaving plenty to the performer’s own imagination.
“It would be impossible to over-estimate Driver’s impeccable technique and musicianship… ”
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—GRAMOPHONE
Price Code: 2A19 (2 CD Set, Suggested Retail Price: $39.98)
LISTEN NOW
Also available C.P.E. Bach: Keyboard Sonatas Vol.2 Hyperion • CDA67908 (034571179087) “Unusual and fascinating...” —BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
C.P.E. Bach: Keyboard Sonatas Vol.1 Hyperion • CDA67786 (034571177861) “Impeccable pianism...” —INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW 16
hyperion
HANDEL The Eight Great Suites
CLASSICAL
APRIL 2014
FAURÉ Complete Music for Piano
IMPORT This welcome release presents all of Kathryn Stott’s superb recordings of Fauré’s piano music, critically acclaimed as benchmark performances, at a special low price. It offers the listeners just under five hours of pure, unadulterated pleasure. Fauré’s major sets of piano works include thirteen nocturnes, thirteen barcarolles, six impromptus, and four valses-caprices. These sets were composed during several decades in his long career, and display the change in his style from uncomplicated youthful charm to a final enigmatic, but sometimes fiery introspection, by way of a turbulent period in his middle years. His other notable piano pieces, including shorter works, or collections composed or published as a set, are the Romances sans paroles, Thème et variations and Huit pièces brèves.
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Price Code: 4A11 (4 CD Set, Suggested Retail Price: $47.98)
“An extraordinarily interesting and incisive interpreter...” —THE WASHINGTON POST
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Kathryn Stott (piano) Hyperion • CDS 44601
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
BRUCKNER Symphony No.3
IMPORT Previously Available as CDA 67200 (034571172002) Deleted December 2012 Bruckner called the Symphony No.3 his ‘Wagner Price Code: A11 (Suggested Retail Price: $11.98) Symphony’ and it contains many quotations from the Wagner operas including the famous cascading strings from the Tannhäuser Overture. Of all the symphonies, No.3 is the most fraught with editorial problems. At least eight versions are known to exist. This recording with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra led by Osmo Vänskä features the 1877 third (first published) version, with the inclusion of an 1876 version of its Adagio containing much new material, which was discovered pasted over in the orchestral parts used in the first performance.
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DURUFLÉ Complete Organ Music John Scott (organ) Hyperion • CDH 55475 IMPORT Previously Available as CDA 66368 (034571163680) Deleted January 2013 Erstwhile organist of St Paul’s Cathedral, John Price Code: A11 (Suggested Retail Price: $11.98) Scott puts the cathedral’s wonderful instrument to the best possible use in this album of Maurice Duruflé’s complete works for organ. Duruflé studied with the greatest organists of the age, Charles Tournemire and Louis Vierne, and there is no doubt that his exposure to the genius of both in their respective organ lofts had a formative influence. Duruflé’s compositional reputation is assured through one work: his beloved Requiem of 1947. In his organ music we hear his fascination with Gregorian plainchant themes, which is such a feature of that work.
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hyperion
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä Hyperion • CDH 55474
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
[PRIORITY RELEASE] BRAHMS German Requiem
IMPORT SACD Hybrid/ Stereo & Multi-channel/ DSD Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra present Brahms’s greatest choral work, the German Requiem, featuring soprano Sally Matthews and baritone Christopher Maltman. Gergiev’s first Brahms release on LSO Live, which featured the Symphonies Nos.1 & 2, the Tragic Overture and Haydn Variations, was highly acclaimed by the worldwide press. Intended to be for ‘all humanity,’ the German Requiem is a powerful and deeply moving work. Its central themes of melancholy and comfort are universally applicable. Non-liturgical, yet sacred and devotional in spirit, it showcases the great romantic melodies for which Brahms was renowned, and has become a popular work with choirs all over the world – admired for its mystical, consolatory and contemplative tone.
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CONCERT REVIEWS “The London Symphony Chorus was wonderfully incisive and articulate...”
Price Code: A17 (Suggested Retail Price: $17.98)
—THE GUARDIAN
LISTEN NOW
“An undoubted plus was the solo singing – Christopher Maltman giving of his considerable best.” —CLASSICAL SOURCE
Also available Brahms: Symphonies Nos.1 & 2 LSO Live • LSO 0733 (822231173328) “Gergiev declares himself a major new Brahms interpreter to be contended with.” —FANFARE 19
lso live
Sally Matthews (soprano), Christopher Maltman (baritone), London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus Valery Gergiev LSO Live • LSO 0748
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
PROKOFIEV Symphonies Nos.3 & 7 Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Karabits Onyx Classics • ONYX 4137
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Stuttgart Opera, Houston Grand Opera Orange Mountain • OMM 5007 DOMESTIC Directed by Michael Blackwood, the film A Composer’s Notes takes the form of an interior monologue as Philip Glass allows us an Price Code: A31 intimate look at the inspiration, development, (Suggested Retail Price: $31.98) and production of his third opera, Akhnaten. It follows two productions of the opera that were premièring almost simultaneously at the Stuttgart Opera and the Houston Grand Opera. Their dramatically different interpretations of the work make for a fascinating contrast in American and European theatrical values. Filmed at rehearsals and performances in Germany and the United States, the disc also includes interviews with conductors and directors and a look back to two earlier Glass operas, Einstein on the Beach and Satyagraha. Now more than three decades after its creation, Akhnaten proves to be a watershed moment in Glass’s career. This fascinating in-depth portrait of the composer is a must see for any Glass fan.
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orange mountain
A Composer’s Notes Philip Glass and the Making of an Opera – A film by Michael Blackwood
onyx
IMPORT Onyx presents the first release in a complete Prokofiev symphony cycle featuring Kirill Karabits and the Bournemouth Symphony Price Code: A19 Orchestra, featuring the Symphonies Nos.3 and (Suggested Retail Price: $19.98) 7. The third makes extensive use of music from the opera The Fiery Angel. It is a vividly colorful work, sensual and exciting. The seventh dates from 1952, the year before the composer’s death. Intended as a work for young people, it harkens back to the great ballet scores. Prokofiev provided an alternative ‘upbeat’ conventional ending to the symphony so as not to provoke criticism from the Soviet authorities. This alternate finale is included on the CD. Today the work is always performed with the reflective peaceful ‘leave taking’ ending that the composer preferred.
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
HANDEL Teseo (Highlights) Amanda Forsythe (soprano), Amy Freston (soprano), Dominique Labelle (soprano), Céline Ricci (soprano), Robin Blaze (countertenor), Drew Minter (countertenor), Jonathan Smucker (tenor), Jeffrey Fields (baritone), Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Nicholas McGegan Philharmonia Baroque • PBP 07 DOMESTIC Music Director Nicholas McGegan leads Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and an acclaimed cast of soloists in highlights from Teseo, a rarely performed masterpiece of Handelian opera. Writing of the live performance of the opera, the New York Times said, “Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, led by Nicholas McGegan, gave a performance that confirmed its leading position in the field.” The cast, led by the glowing soprano Dominique Labelle as the witch Medea and the outstanding lyric soprano Amanda Forsythe in the title role, is buoyed by the brilliance of the orchestra under McGegan’s direction. The recording was made in 2013 from live performances at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley, California.
Il5218 c) #)([Q Price Code: A21 (Suggested Retail Price: $21.98)
“Listening to Philharmonia Baroque under music director Nicholas McGegan ... is a thrill.” —MUSICAL TORONTO
LISTEN NOW
Also available Handel: Atalanta Philharmonia Baroque • PBP 04 (852188003065) “One more Handel opera is put handsomely and securely in place.” —AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE 21
philharmonia baroque
[PRIORITY RELEASE]
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
STRAUSS Don Juan, Tod und Verklärung, Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Vier letzte Lieder
IMPORT SACD Hybrid/ Stereo/ DSD This SACD release, part of Praga’s Reminiscences series of remastered historic recordings, features Price Code: A23 music of Richard Strauss. Wilhelm Furtwängler (Suggested Retail Price: $23.98) leads the Vienna Philharmonic in the composer’s tone poems Don Juan, Tod und Verkärung and Till Eulenspiegel. Soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf is the soloist in an early recording of the Vier letzte Lieder, accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra led by Otto Ackermann under the supervision of Walter Legge. This homage to Richard Strauss on the occasion of his 150th anniversary is an essential release for collectors.
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BARTÓK Two Portraits, Dance Suite, Piano Concerto No.2, Divertimento for String Orchestra Géza Anda (piano), RIAS Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Ferenc Fricsay Praga • PRD 350108 IMPORT SACD Hybrid/ Stereo/ DSD This special release in Praga’s SACD-remastered Reminiscences series recreates a legendary Bartók Price Code: A23 concert given by Ferenc Fricsay at the Théâtre (Suggested Retail Price: $23.98) des Champs-Elysées on May 25, 1952. This event offered premières of four works that show the full breadth, color and diversity of Bartók’s music. It includes the Two Portraits, the Dance Suite and the Divertimento, paired with the great pianist Géza Anda’s first performance of the Piano Concerto No.2. This homage to Fricsay is released in celebration of his centenary.
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praga
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Ackermann Praga • PRD 350100
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
VIVALDI Gloria VERDI 4 Pezzi Sacri
IMPORT Between October 1957 and March 1996, the famous Italian conductor Carlo Maria Giulini conducted the famous orchestra of the Price Code: A18 Concertgebouw of Amsterdam 81 times. The (Suggested Retail Price: $18.98) concert recorded here took place on June 22, 1960 at the Holland Festival, and the program comprised only Italian music. Repertoire included Vivaldi’s Gloria and Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as the featured soloist. This recording is issued here for the first time.
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BEETHOVEN Symphony No.3 BRAHMS Symphony No.1 BERLIOZ Harold in Italy DVORÁK Cello Concerto Mstislav Rostropovich (cello), Concertgebouw Orchestra, Pierre Monteux Tahra • TAH 766 IMPORT This set documents the penultimate concert conducted by Pierre Monteux (he was 88 years old), leading the famous Concertgebouw of Price Code: 2A15 (2 CD Set, Suggested Retail Price: $31.98) Amsterdam. The program includes Beethoven’s Eroica, performed as a tribute to President Kennedy who had just been assassinated two days earlier. Also featured are the Symphony No.1 by Brahms and Harold in Italy by Berlioz. As a bonus, the set includes a performance of Dvorák’s Cello Concerto performed by Mstislav Rostropovich with the above artists. All these recordings are first-time releases.
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tahra
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano), Ursula Boeze (alto), Concertgebouw Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini Tahra • TAH 765
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
Joan Sutherland (soprano), Fiorenza Cossotto (mezzo-soprano), Luigi Ottolini (tenor), Ivo Vinco (bass), Philharmonia Orchestra, Philharmonia Chorus, Carlo Maria Giulini Testament • SBT2 1494 IMPORT Both as a man and as a musician, Carlo Maria Giulini was often thought to be the very embodiment of elegance. However, that view took insufficient account of the fires that burned within. Plácido Domingo once said, “It would be difficult to find another musician with Giulini’s combination of gentleness and intensity. His music making is extremely refined. Yet in [Verdi’s] ‘Dies irae’ he seemed to personify God the Father on the Day of Judgment.” This Testament release of the Verdi Requiem, a live performance from the 1960 Edinburgh Festival, features the great soprano Joan Sutherland. One critic of the time hailed the performance as being, “as near to perfection as I ever hope to experience.”
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Price Code: A23 (2 CD Set, Suggested Retail Price: $20.98)
Also available Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde Testament • SBT 1465 (749677146528) “An absolute highlight...” —INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW 24
testament
VERDI Messa da Requiem
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
CAGE Sonatas and Interludes
IMPORT Composed between 1946 and 1948, the Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano are among the most famous works of John Cage. Several Price Code: A24 years earlier, Cage had already developed the (Suggested Retail Price: $24.98) technique of piano preparation to explore the possibilities of sound manipulation. At first, Cage tried to achieve a specified sound image – an ideal which he later modified. Cage explains, “When I first placed objects between piano strings, it was with the desire to possess sounds (to be able to repeat them). But... it became clear that not only are two pianists essentially different from one another, but two pianos are not the same either.” This recording from Wergo features illuminating readings of these masterpieces of modern music played by pianist Antonis Anissegos.
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STOCKHAUSEN Momente Martina Arroyo (soprano), Aloys Kontarsky (organ), Alfons Kontarsky (organ), Kölner Rundfunkchor, Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester, Karlheinz Stockhausen Wergo • WER 6774 IMPORT In the1960s, Wergo made a name for themselves as a contemporary music label thanks to a series of ground-breaking recordings entitled Studio Price Code: A24 Reihe Neuer Musik. Wergo is now offering these (Suggested Retail Price: $24.98) gems from their early years on CD for the first time. Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Momente, written for soprano, four choral groups and thirteen instrumentalists, was not designed as a fixed work with a clearly defined beginning, formal structure, and ending. It is a composition of independent events with multiple meanings. Premiered in May 1962, the composition underwent some changes in the following years which led to several variants, with this CD presenting “Version 1965.”
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wergo
Antonis Anissegos (piano) Wergo • WER 6782
JAZZ
MAY 2014
Goat Rhythm
IMPORT File in: Jazz The members of the RP Quartet were steeped in and inspired by the aesthetics of the quintet Price Code: A19 Hot Club de France, which was formed by the (Suggested Retail Price: $19.98) great Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. Consisting of two guitars, violin and bass, the RP Quartet represent the best of Parisian gypsy jazz. Goat Rhythm is a daringly ambitious album that reconciles the partisans of Panassié and Delaunay while having all it takes to make the group a new reference on the international jazz scene.
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Django à la Créole Live! Evan Christopher & Django à la Créole Frémeaux • FA 8501 IMPORT File in: Jazz Both the public and the critics have been won over by Django à la Créole, the group led Price Code: A19 by Evan Christopher, no doubt the greatest (Suggested Retail Price: $19.98) jazz clarinetist on today’s New Orleans scene. Reaching the end of a hugely successful world tour, the band decided to record a live album that would show the rapport they’d created with audiences thanks to the extraordinary color and savor of their music. The music is intimate and generous, and the band goes way beyond gypsy swing and the jazz of New Orleans: the concept here is to take music outside the notion of genres. In fact, Django à la Créole is a genre of its own: a fantastic universe of sound somewhere between the Old World and the New.
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frémeaux
RP Quartet Frémeaux • FA 8500
JAZZ
MAY 2014
Bibi Tanga Jazz Village • JV 570037 IMPORT File in: Jazz After several musical collaborations (Malka Family, Le Professeur Inlassable, The Selenites), Bibi Tanga has focused his attention on a new solo project. Driven by his sunshine vocals and the slippery groove of his bass, this is soul music at its most inventive and elegant. Now, the album’s punchy title, perfectly captures its spirit. With inspiration springing from R&B, jazz, hip hop, and afrofunk, no wonder this music is so in tune with contemporary urban culture.
D14opw7c) @(@(s Price Code: A18 (Suggested Retail Price: $18.98)
“A true musical globe-trotter.” —NPR
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jazz village
Now
JAZZ
MAY 2014
¡30!
IMPORT File in: Jazz Six years after Songlines / Night & Blue, the Paolo Fresu Quintet have returned to the studio. Price Code: A22 The result is an album that celebrates these (Suggested Retail Price: $22.98) talented and creative artists’ three decades of collaboration and friendship on stage and in life. ¡30! explores the quintet’s many fruitful years together through thirteen original compositions.
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bonsaï
Paolo Fresu Quintet Bonsaï • BON 140401
Springtime
IMPORT File in: Jazz Springtime is a celebration of renewal, tranquility and intoxication in a vocal jazz style tinged with Price Code: A19 influences including soul, spiritual and Latin (Suggested Retail Price: $19.98) nuances. This album marks the consecration of Annick Tangorra not only as a singer but also as a songwriter and composer. In the company of Mario Canonge, the man behind the splendid production of this album, plus Tony Rabeson, Thomas Bramerie, but also Alain Jean-Marie, Arnaud Dolmen and Adriano Tenorio as guests, Tangorra gives us an album that is a master-class in finesse, elegance and sensuality.
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frémeaux
Annick Tangorra Frémeaux • FA 598
WORLD
MAY 2014
Flor di Bila
IMPORT File in: World / Africa / Cape Verde Flor di Bila, the début album by Neuza, unveils the secrets of Fogo Island rhythms such as talaia Price Code: A21 baxo, rabolo or samba. On “Trabessado,” one (Suggested Retail Price: $21.98) of the key tracks of this album, Neuza explores the curcutiçan, a traditional lyrical battle between female and male voices using irony and provocation. Neuza is joined by Michel Montrond who is an author, composer and singer.
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Black Bazar Round 2 Black Bazar Lusafrica • 662882 IMPORT File in: World / Africa / Congo Black Bazar, the brainchild of writer Alain Mabanckou, was formed in 2012 with the support Price Code: A21 of the label Lusafrica. The first album featured a (Suggested Retail Price: $21.98) return to the musical roots of Congolese Rumba. Audiences were enthusiastic and the numerous artists involved in the project were hailed as “the new masters of the African scene in Paris.” Black Bazar – Round 2 – is based on compositions by the legendary guitarist Popolipo Beniko and the talented bass-player Michel Lumana. Each track is full of atmosphere and deeply rooted in musical tradition, while also opening onto new avenues described by the German press as “dancehall Rumba,” orchestrated by the producer Francky Moulet.
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lusafrica
Neuza Lusafrica • 025102
Concert Highlights
Apr 13 Apr 24-26 Apr 28 May 2 May 8-10 May 20 Jul 16 Jul 20 Aug 26, 28
Boston New York San Francisco Boston Chicago Washington Aspen New York Los Angeles
MA NY CA MA IL DC CO NY CA
Symphony Hall Avery Fischer Hall SFJazz Center Jordan Hall Symphony Hall Kennedy Center Aspen Music Festival International Keyboard Institute Hollywood Bowl
Apr 11-13 May 30 May 31 Jun 1 Jun 11
Philadelphia Newark Red Bank Newark San Diego
PA NJ NJ NJ CA
Kimmel Center New Jersey Performing Arts Center Count Basie Theatre New Jersey Performing Arts Center Mainly Mozart Festival
Jul 29-30 Jul 31 - Aug 3 Sep 18 -20 Oct 4
Highland Park San Francisco New York Philadelphia
IL CA NY PA
Ravinia Festival SFJazz Center Jazz at Lincoln Center Zellerbach Theatre
Marc-André HAMELIN Hyperion
James EHNES Onyx Classics
Chucho VALDÉS Jazz Village
30
Fairmont Pella Columbia Kansas City Fayetteville St. Louis Woodbridge Rochester
MN IA MO MO AR MO NJ NY
Fairmont Opera House Central College Murry’s Knuckleheads Starr Theatre Sheldon Concert Hall Music on Main Street Harro East Ballroom
Apr 10 Apr 13 Apr 14 Apr 15 Apr 16 Apr 17, 19 &20
New York New York Chestnut Hill Philadelphia Williamsburg White Marsh
NY NY PA PA VA VA
The Church of the Transfiguration Trinity Church Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill St Clement’s Church Bruton Parish Church The Abingdon Church
May 30-31 Jun 15 Jun 17 Jun 19-20 June 21
Birmingham Purchase Bloomfield Hills Bloomfield Hills Beverly Hills
AL NY MI MI MI
Alys Stephens Center Purchase College PAC St. Hugh of the Hills Temple Beth El Seligman Performing Arts Center
Catherine RUSSELL Jazz Village
Choir of Merton College, Oxford Delphian
Tai MURRAY harmonia mundi/Mirare
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Concert Highlights
Apr 11 Apr 12 Apr 13-14 Apr 16 Apr 18 Apr 19 Jun 18 Jun 23
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS Alexandra Silber Cheyenne Jackson
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COMING SOON
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1117 Chestnut Street, Burbank, CA 91506 • Tel: (818) 333–1500 • Order Fax: (818) 333–1502 www.hm-distribution.com • sales–usa@harmoniamundi.com