Mikhail Pletnev was born in Archangelsk, which is located in the north of Russia on the coast of the White Sea. By the time Pletnev began piano studies at age seven, with pianist Julia Shaskina, his family had moved to the central Russian City of Kazan in Tatarstan. Pletnev demonstrated promise and was enrolled at age 13 in Evgeny Timakin's piano preparatory class at the Moscow Central Music School. At 14, Pletnev earned the Grand Prix awarded by the International Jeunesses Musicales in Paris, and at 15 he transferred into master classes headed by Yakov Flier at the Moscow Conservatory. /quote]

Brought back into the active catalog by popular demand, the second Schubert release by the brilliant English pianist Paul Lewis features the composers' sublime late Piano Sonatas D959 and D960. Clearly channeling the musical spirit of his legendary teacher, Alfred Brendel, Lewis finds the heart of these works and instills them with his own brand of unrivaled clarity and virtuosity.

Recorded live at the Sydney Opera House, this concert performance finds beloved Australian pop singer/actor Olivia Newton-John offering up a set of her best-known songs. Highlights include signature tunes from her films XANADU (a slightly jazzy take on "Magic") and GREASE (a swooning version of "Hopelessly Devoted to You"), along with a playful bossa nova-like reworking of her 1981 hit, "Physical."

Claire Lynch's new album is a rare bird indeed. At one point, albums like this weren't the exception, but the rule. Twelve exquisitely written, carefully produced songs that bound along at a pace appropriate for their subject matter: life, love, and the conviction to get on with both. Only one song nudges the four-minute mark, and rightfully so.

UTV Records' Magic: The Very Best of Olivia Newton-John is the best compilation ever assembled on Newton-John's career, largely because it does cover her entire career, hitting every major point from her early-'70s soft country-pop hits, like "I Honestly Love You," through her star-making turn in Grease, selections from Xanadu, up to the Physical era and its fallout.

Après plusieurs albums chez Naxos au sein de l'édition intégrale des Lieder de Schubert, Wolfgang Holzmair revient à ce compositeur, cette fois chez Capriccio ! Le baryton autrichien présente le Voyage d'Hiver D911, en compagnie du pianiste Andreas Haefliger, auteur notamment de la série "Perspectives" chez Avie Records. Une interprétation opalescente et immaculée, tout simplement incroyable ! Une nouvelle version de référence.

Duos don’t always have the temperament for the smouldering fires of Franck as well as the sudden whims of Debussy. Dumay and Pires join the select few. They take their time to find Debussy’s opening pulse, but they establish an individual, thoughtful freedom that ‘speaks’ sensuously and assertively. In the finale, they let unexpected passion grow from the central waltz, setting up a brilliant final flourish. Implicit in the initial, floated phrases of the Franck is a sense of the arduous journey to come. Intensity surges up by degrees towards the soul-torturing struggles at the sonata’s centre, and recedes before a gradual return of serenity and confidence.

This is one of the most inspirational CD's I have ever listened to. Not only is the playing perfect, the choice in music for the CD is perfect. It provides the listener with several different styles, and yet many similar styles. The group plays the traditional Russian pieces with flair and great musicianship, such as the Stravinsky and the Shostakovich.

This is an excellent “traditional” version of the Opus 10 Concertos. I Musici returned three times to that cycle, all for Philips. The first was in 1958 with Gastone Tassinari (who had already recorded the complete flute concertos for Vox in 1956 with an ensemble called “I Musici Virtuosi di Milano”, not the same as “I Musici”… ).

The tuba is associated with numerous prejudices branding it as comical, clumsy and incapable of singing. Anyone who has heard Øystein Baadsvik play will know better, however, as witness reviews from his previous recordings: ‘Baadsvik's playing combines sweetness with strength, intensity with perception’ (International Record Review), he ‘conjures a wonderfully mellifluous baritonal tone from his instrument’ (MusicWeb International), and demonstrates ‘a lissome fluencysuggesting that anything a violin can do, a tuba can do too’ (Daily Telegraph).

Pianist Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort (1984) was one of the laureates and the audience’s favourite of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium in 2007. Since that time he has built an honourable reputation as a concert pianist, giving recitals in prestigious concert halls in Europe, Israel, China, South Africa, Canada and the USA.

Though Karlheinz Stockhausen's Stimmung (Tuning) for six solo voices may be one of his most accessible pieces, relatively few commercial recordings of the hour-long "meditation on a chord" exist. Collegium Vocale premiered the work in 1968, and subsequently took their interpretation known now as the "Paris version" on the road and into the studio. Singcircle presented a slightly different sonic reading in the mid-'70s; Paul Hillier himself was a part of that recording.

Aleksey Nikolaevich Gorokhov was a Soviet violinist who lived most of his professional life in Ukraine. He is considered a founder of the modern Kiev violin school. During 50 years of his creative life Gorokhov recorded a great number of disks, being the first violinist in the Soviet Union to record all 6 violin concertos by Niccolo Paganini.

Gitlis plays the violin concerti at a faster tempo than most soloists. It doesn't work very well for violin concerto number one, but it completely rocks for concerto number two I absolutely love it! In fact it's my favorite classical work. I can't rave enough about it. He uses his own cadenza which is fantastic. He uses Emile Sauret's cadenza in the first concerto, which I don't like very much too drawn out and long winded. The three Caprices and the I Palpiti are as good as it gets too..

The name Niccolò Paganini almost instantly conjures up an image of the quintessential virtuoso. The composition most commonly associated with his name is the set of 24 Caprices, which are undeniable demonstrations of sheer technique and prowess on the violin. However, the violin concertos are not so entirely dedicated to dazzling audiences with almost unbelievable feats of extended techniques.