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German Companies See Decline In Sales In 2020 Due To Covid-19 Pandemic: DIHK

Most of the German companies expect decline in sales in the whole year of 2020 as coronavirus related crisis is expected to last longer, a survey from the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, or DIHK, showed Friday.




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Austria Wholesale Prices Decline Most Since September 2009

Austria's wholesale prices fell at the fastest pace in over ten-and-a-half years in April, data from Statistics Austria showed on Thursday.




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ECB Policymakers Say 'More Determined' To Support Eurozone

European Central Bank Vice-President Luis de Guindos and Governing Council member Gabriel Makhlouf said separately on Thursday that the central bank was more determined to support the euro area economy during crisis periods and the bank stands ready to adjust all tools at its disposal, just days after the top German court ruled that the bank's government debt purchases were in violation of its mandate.




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EÖTVÖS, P.: Tri sestry (Three Sisters) [Opera] (Chenez, David DQ Lee, Egorov, Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, D.R. Davies, N. Petersen) (OC986)




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GLANERT, D.: Oceane [Opera] (Bengtsson, Schukoff, Pohl, Deutsche Oper Berlin Chorus and Orchestra, Runnicles) (OC985)




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MASCAGNI, P.: Cavalleria rusticana / LEONCAVALLO, R.: Pagliacci [Operas] (Di Toro, Iversen, Graz Opera Chorus, Graz Philharmonic, Lyniv) (OC987)




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WEBER, C.M. von: Freischütz (Der) [Opera] (Cornet, Muirhead, Banješević, Trinsinger, Aalto Theatre Opera Chorus, Essen Philharmonic, Netopil) (OC988)




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MATHIAS, W.: Choral Music - A May Magnificat / Learsongs / Riddles (St. John's Voices, The Gentlemen of St. John's, G. Walker) (8.574162)

William Mathias wrote some of the most imaginative, communicative and joyful choral music of the mid-to late 20th century. These qualities are perhaps most clearly represented in his substantial catalogue of works for choir and, in particular, his settings of sacred texts, notably the invigorating A Babe is Born and the hauntingly beautiful Ave verum corpus, one of his last compositions. This selection also includes the both serious and entertaining sequence of Riddles and the rapt, ecstatic A May Magnificat. More Mathias choral music can be heard on 8.573523.




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LISZT, F.: Later Piano Music (Historical Hungarian Portraits) (Jandó) (Liszt Complete Piano Music, Vol. 54) (8.574059)




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GLASS, P.: Violin Concerto No. 2, `American Four Seasons` / Violin Sonata (Plawner, Vila, Bern Chamber Orchestra, P. Bach) (8.559865)

Philip Glass has become an iconic figure in American music. His works are often inspired by collaborations with other leading musicians, and the proposal of an “American Four Seasons” by the violinist Robert McDuffie to reflect Vivaldi’s famous masterpiece resulted in a concerto which evokes the Baroque spirit of early 18th-century violin tradition. With the Concerto’s range of moods, listeners are invited to decide for themselves which season the music evokes. The Violin Sonata sees Glass’s melodic and harmonic language haunted by the ghosts of Brahms, Fauré and Franck, “the meditativeness of this piece bringing a unique energy” for award-winning violinist Piotr Plawner.




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FARIA GOMES, P.: Chamber Works (Thurlow, Santos, N. Johnson, M. Fernandes, Picado) (8.579029)

This selection of chamber music by leading Portuguese composer Pedro Faria Gomes was written between 2007 and 2018. The works encompass themes of memory, change and waiting, with the concept of time being a central preoccupation. Though he has drawn on music from his country’s folk traditions—in Memória and in the Sonata—it is always with new harmonic insights and subtlety, creating undeniably invigorating additions to contemporary chamber music repertoire.




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CASTÉRÈDE, J.: Flute Works (Complete), Vol. 2 - Ombres et clartés / Sonate en forme de Suite / Musique / Wind Quintet (du Toit, Doreen Lee) (8.573950)

Jacques Castérède was one of many composers who refused to abandon tonality and traditional forms amid the stormy avant-garde of the 20th century. The Quintette for winds was written in 1953, the same year that Castérède won the Prix de Rome, and touches of Gershwin appear among its witty colours. Neo-Classical restraint in the Sonate en forme de Suite contrasts with the grittier and more modernist Musique for flute, harp and string trio, and La Belle Époque takes us on a whistle-stop tour of Classical repertoire, parodying famous tunes by Haydn and Mozart.




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BEETHOVEN, L. van: Celebrate Beethoven - Symphonies and Orchestral Music (9.30209)




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Vocal Recital: Sternberg, Deborah - SIMPSON, A.E. / KITCHEN, E. / THIBAUDEAU, G. (Birds of Love and Prey) (8.579064)

Soprano Deborah Sternberg brings together three song cycles themed on birds, each with its own unique flavour and expressive vocabulary. Andrew Earle Simpson’s eloquent skills as a composer and pianist are united in Birds of Love and Prey, in which both antique and modern textual sources contrast songbirds and predators in a variety of ways. Eric Kitchen uses transcriptions of actual birdsong in The Olney Avian Verse of William Cowper, while Gabriel Thibaudeau’s Cycle Avicellus portrays birds within landscapes using a language of modern impressionism.




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Opera Scenes and Orchestral Songs (Soprano) - RAVEL, M. / BARBER, S. / BIZET, G. / SZYMANOWSKI, K. / PUCCINI, G. (Femmes Fatales) (Nasibli) (8.579066)

Composers of every era have drawn on the strengths, sorrows and joys of women for operas and vocal works, inspiring some of their most powerful music. From the heartbreaking tragedy of Samuel Barber’s Andromache’s Farewell to the magical storytelling of Shéhérazade and the Fairy-Tale Princess, acclaimed soprano Seljan Nasibli takes us on a timeless journey through female musical ancestors whose courage is as relevant in today’s society as it has ever been.




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FARRENC, L.: Symphony No. 1 / Overtures Nos. 1-2 / Grand Variations on a theme by Count Gallenberg (J. Muller, Solistes Européens, Luxembourg, König) (8.574094)

Louise Farrenc was renowned in her lifetime as a pianist, composer and teacher, but it is only recently that her compositions have emerged from many years of neglect. Symphony No. 1 in C minor—cast in the German tradition—is an exceptionally accomplished work, finely orchestrated, lyrical and fiery, and a substantial contribution to the canon. The Grand Variations on a Theme by Count Gallenberg is a showcase for virtuosic elegance, and the two overtures demonstrate real theatrical drama—Overture No. 2 was admired by no less a figure than Hector Berlioz.




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BEETHOVEN, L. van: Celebrate Beethoven - Music from His Middle Compositional Period (9.30206)




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AWESOME ORGAN - Best Loved Classical Organ Music (8.578179)

Mozart referred to the organ as ‘the king of instruments’, and with the breathtaking sound produced by huge cathedral organs glistening with thousands of pipes it is easy to hear why. This introduction takes us from one of the most famous pieces ever written for the organ, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, to Widor’s wedding favourite Toccata from the Symphony No. 5, taking in masterpieces from the distinctive German and French schools of organ composing along the way. This album also features genial and spectacular music by Handel and Pachelbel and the ‘devastating tornado’ of Jehan Alain’s Litanies.




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ZÁDOR, E.: Sinfonia Technica / Music for Clarinet and Strings / Trombone Concerto (Sólyomi, Fejér, Budapest Symphony Orchestra MÁV, Smolij) (8.574108)

The music of Eugene Zádor is both warmly expressive and colourful. The composer took great delight in writing for overlooked solo instruments, as his Trombone Concerto, garnished with elements of Hungarian folklore, clearly shows. The easy-going, gypsy-influenced Music for Clarinet and Strings is a beautifully proportioned quasi-concerto. The Sinfonia Technica, composed much earlier when he was living in Vienna, and something of a one-off, is an enchanting and exuberantly orchestrated example of ‘industrial music’.




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Wind Band Music - MASLANKA, D. / PERRINE, A. / WALCZYK, K. (Freedom from Fear) (University of Kansas Wind Ensemble, Popiel) (8.574169)

Contemporary American music for wind band continues to offer a rich combination of colour and variety. David Maslanka was one of the most prolific and admired of all wind band composers, and in Liberation he utilises plainchant in a moving exploration of death, the afterlife and the continuance of hope. Inspired by Walt Whitman, Aaron Perrine’s In the Open Air, In the Silent Lines creates a rich sense of space, while Kevin Walczyk’s moving Symphony No. 5: Freedom from Fear – Images from the Shoreline is unified by its themes of adoption, segregation and immigration.




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WEINBERG, M.: Clarinet Music - Clarinet Concerto / Clarinet Sonata / Chamber Symphony No. 4 (Oberaigner, Schöch, Michail Jurowski) (8.574192)

Mieczysław Weinberg was familiar with the clarinet from his youth, given its prominent place in klezmer bands and theatre ensembles, and he wrote three works specifically for the instrument. In the Clarinet Concerto he draws a wide range of textures from the accompanying strings, over which the soloist explores the clarinet’s extremes of register in virtuosic fashion. Despite having been written when Weinberg was still in his mid-twenties, the Clarinet Sonata is a mature work with Romantic and folkloric elements. His last completed work was the Chamber Symphony No. 4, an impassioned piece with a wrenching chorale theme and role for obbligato clarinet.




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JOLIVET, A.: Flute Works (Complete), Vol. 2 (Boulègue, Tulliez, L. Warnier, Gimeno) (8.574079)

In this second volume of André Jolivet’s complete works for flute (Volume 1 is on 8.573885), Kobe International Flute Competition winner Hélène Boulègue explores further examples of some of the most individual and important of all 20th-century works for the instrument. The Flute Concerto No. 1 exemplifies Jolivet’s genius for liquid melodic lines and frenetic bravura. The intricately scored Suite en concert for flute and four percussionists is one of the most fascinating in the repertoire, whilst the Sonatine is both trance-like and rhapsodic.




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GOULD, M.: Symphonettes Nos. 2-4 / Spirituals for Orchestra (Vienna Radio Symphony, Fagen) (8.559869)

Morton Gould was an American musical phenomenon, equally at home in classical, crossover and film genres, and the recipient of both GRAMMY and Pulitzer awards during his long and distinguished career. The Symphonettes represent Gould’s best crossover work—the Symphonette No. 4 deriving its character from Latin-American dance forms to make it one of his most popular compositions. The first movement of Symphonette No. 3 has been described as “a collection of dance band licks, full of bent notes and syncopations” and the central Pavanne of Symphonette No. 2 with its bluesy trumpet motif is one of Gould’s biggest hits. Spirituals for Orchestra utilizes the strings as a choir, with antiphonal responses in the rest of the orchestra.




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Flute Sonatas (20th Century) - Lupachev, Denis - HINDEMITH, P. / NAGOVITSIN, V.L. / DENISOV, E. / PROKOFIEV, S. (Lupachev, Laul) (8.579069)

Written over the course of a quarter-century, these four flute works reflect the individual approaches to the flute sonata taken by their composers. Hindemith’s aim was to offer new music of buoyancy and brio, tempered by elegiac moments. Prokofiev’s famous sonata has Classical formal elegance, while the sonatas of Denisov and Nagovitsyn are single movement works that explore the flute’s extreme registers, as well as its dynamic contrasts and virtuosic capacities.




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DANIELPOUR, R.: Passion of Yeshua (The) [Oratorio] (UCLA Chamber Singers, Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra, Falletta) (8.559885-86)

Richard Danielpour’s dramatic oratorio The Passion of Yeshua—a work which has evolved over the last 25 years—is an intensely personal telling of the final hours of Christ on Earth. It incorporates texts from the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Gospels inspiring extraordinarily beautiful music that stresses the need for human compassion and forgiveness. Danielpour returns to the scale and majesty of Bach in this oratorio, creating choruses that are intense and powerful, and giving both Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene a central place in a work of glowing spirituality. Conductor JoAnn Falletta considers The Passion of Yeshua to be “a classic for all time.”




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Cello and Piano Recital: Smith, Brinton Averil / Chen, Evelyn (Exiles in Paradise - Émigré Composers in Hollywood) (8.579055)

Political crises and rising antisemitism in Europe during the first half of the 20th century prompted many leading musicians to immigrate to America. An influx of refugees formed a flourishing artistic community centred within a few square miles near Hollywood and this exceptional gathering of composers transformed America’s musical landscape. This survey explores their diverse output through music for cello and piano, including arrangements by the composers and their fellow expatriate performers never before heard on the cello.




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BEETHOVEN, L. van: Celebrate Beethoven - Concertos (9.30210)




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WIDOR, C.-M.: Organ Symphonies (Complete), Vol. 2 - Nos. 3 and 4 (Rübsam) (8.574195)

Charles-Marie Widor was a hugely influential and venerated musician in his day, and his innovative organ symphonies are both a pinnacle of the repertoire and a testament to his creative and technical mastery of the instrument. These spectacular works are in the grand Romantic manner, but Widor was keenly aware of his musical ancestry, referring to music of the past such as Bach’s St Matthew Passion in the opening of the Third Symphony. The Scherzo of the Fourth Symphony is one of Widor’s finest symphonic movements, exploring the organ’s sonic beauties. The original E major Scherzo from the Symphony No. 2, which Widor subsequently replaced with a Salve Regina (see Volume 1: 8.574161), can be heard on Track 6.




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TURNER, K.: Horn Works (Complete), Vol. 1 (K. Mascher-Turner, K. Turner, F. Lloyd, Bloomer) (8.579050)

Kerry Turner made his mark on the global music community through his association with the illustrious American Horn Quartet. Turner’s compositional goal is to communicate to the listener a vivid picture through his highly melodic musical language. Many sources provided the inspiration for the works on this album, ranging from the spiritual, to the literary, and even Turner’s powerful response to the music of J.S. Bach.




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SPUCK, C.: Nutcracker and Mouse King [Ballet] (after P.I. Tchaikovsky) (Zürich Ballet, 2018) (NTSC) (ACC-20449)




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SPUCK, C.: Nutcracker and Mouse King [Ballet] (after P.I. Tchaikovsky) (Zürich Ballet, 2018) (Blu-ray, Full-HD) (ACC-10449)




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O'BRIEN, F.: At Swim-Two-Birds (Unabridged) (NA0476)

More preoccupied with drinking, sleeping and writing, an unnamed student neglects his studies and invents three separate openings for a novel. The first introduces the Pooka MacPhellimey, ‘a member of the devil class’, the second involves Mr John Furriskey, a character belonging to another of the student’s creations (writer Dermot Trellis), while the final opening features legendary Irish heroes Finn Mac Cool and Mad King Sweeny. Soon, Trellis’s creations rebel against him, doing as they like while he sleeps, and the characters from each story begin wandering in and out of each other’s tales. Published in 1939, At Swim-Two-Birds is a madcap exploration of Irish literature and mythology, and the unending possibilities of fiction.




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COLLINS, W.: Armadale (Unabridged) (NA0409)

Two young men linked by a familial murder mystery, a beautiful yet wicked governess who spins a web of deceit, and five individuals named Allan Armadale: Wilkie Collins’s follow-up to The Woman in White and No Name is an innovative take on mistaken identity, the nature of evil and the dark underbelly of Victorian England. The story concerns two distant cousins, both named Allan Armadale, and the impact of a family tragedy, which makes one of them a target of the murderous Lydia Gwilt, a vicious and malevolent charmer determined to get her hands on the Armadale fortune. Will the real Allan Armadale be revealed, and will he survive the plot against his life?




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SUK, J.: Asrael (Bavarian Radio Symphony, Hruša) (900188)

Review by Richard Whitehouse
Gramophone, May 2020




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Piano Recital: Gulda, Friedrich - BEETHOVEN, L. van / BACH, J.S. / SCHUBERT, F. / COUPERIN, F. (The Stuttgart Solo Recitals) (1966-1979) (SWR19081CD)

International Piano, May 2020

View PDF  




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Piano Concertos - MOZART, W.A. / BEETHOVEN, L. van / HAYDN, J. (Gulda, Keilberth, Müller-Kray, Rosbaud) (1959-1962) (SWR19088CD)

International Piano, May 2020

View PDF  




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LISZT, F.: 3 Études de concert / Grandes Études de Paganini / 12 Études d'exécution transcendante (Hommage à Liszt) (A. Katz) (C990202)


Review by Jeremy Nicholas
Gramophone, May 2020




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KÕRVITS, T.: Hymns to the Nordic Lights / Silent Songs / Élégies of Thule (Vind, Estonian National Symphony, Joost) (ODE1349-2)

Review by Ivan Moody
Gramophone, May 2020




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GOULD, G.: String Quartet / GULDA, F.: String Quartet in F-Sharp Minor (Acies Quartett) (Gramola99028)

Review by Guy Rickards
Gramophone, May 2020




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BACH, J.S.: Well-Tempered Clavier (The), Book 2, BWV 870-893 (A. Schiff) (NTSC) (2.110654)

Review by Jed Distler
Gramophone, May 2020




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BACH, J.S.: Well-Tempered Clavier (The), Book 2, BWV 870-893 (A. Schiff) (Blu-ray, HD) (NBD0105V)

Review by Jed Distler
Gramophone, May 2020




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BACH, J.S.: Well-Tempered Clavier (The), Book 1, BWV 846-869 (A. Schiff) (NTSC) (2.110653)


Review by Jed Distler
Gramophone, May 2020
Gramophone, May 2020




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BACH, J.S.: Well-Tempered Clavier (The), Book 1, BWV 846-869 (A. Schiff) (Blu-ray, HD) (NBD0104V)


Review by Jed Distler
Gramophone, May 2020
Gramophone, May 2020




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DEBARGUE, Lucas: To Music (Documentary, 2017) (NTSC) (2.110639)




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BACH, J.S.: Well-Tempered Clavier (The), Book 1, BWV 846-869 (A. Schiff) (NTSC) (2.110653)




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BACH, J.S.: Well-Tempered Clavier (The), Book 1, BWV 846-869 (A. Schiff) (Blu-ray, HD) (NBD0104V)




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BACH, J.S.: Well-Tempered Clavier (The), Book 2, BWV 870-893 (A. Schiff) (NTSC) (2.110654)




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BACH, J.S.: Well-Tempered Clavier (The), Book 2, BWV 870-893 (A. Schiff) (Blu-ray, HD) (NBD0105V)




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EXHIBITION ON SCREEN - LEONARDO: The Works (Art Documentary, 2019) (NTSC) (SEV207)




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STRAVINSKY, I.: Rake's Progress (The) [Opera] (Equilibrium Young Artists, 2018) / HANNIGAN, Barbara: Taking Risks (Documentary, 2018) (NTSC) (ACC-20420)