Introducing a revolutionary new CD that challenges the stereotypes and prejudices against the double bass. This tribute album showcases the full potential and versatility of the instrument, featuring compositions by renowned composers such as Myroslav Skoryks, John Rutter, Peteris Vasks, and Sergei Rachmaninov. Experience the warm, soft, and welcoming tone of the double bass as it takes center stage in this diverse collection of music. From the spiritual anthem of Ukraine, Melodie by Myroslav Skoryks, to the familiar choral sounds of John Rutter's The Lord Bless You and Keep You, this album is a love letter to the double bass and an invitation to embrace its songful and tuneful credentials.

Experience the iconic music from movies and series such as Babylon Berlin, The Great Gatsby and Burlesque with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Danish Radio Big Band and guests.The Babylon Hotel is the concert where the upper class meets the underworld in a melting pot of euphoria and extravagance, nostalgia and pleasure with a carefree sinfulness only seen in the exuberant nightlife of the 1920s around the world. This concert evening takes you through the fictional Babylon Hotel, where the doors are opened to a world of music from movies like The Great Gatsby, Babylon, Burlesque, the TV series House of Dreams and Babylon Berlin and the operas Porgy and Bess and Mahagonny - and much more.

Daniel Hope's new album "Dance!" reflects his boundless interest in the most diverse styles and periods of music. The star violinist takes the listeners on a journey through seven centuries of music history and explores the rhythms that have set bodies in motion and lifted hearts since time began.

Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer's 2000 release Eight Seasons is a conceptual masterwork. Kremer, long known for his skillful interpretations of Astor Piazzolla's Argentinean tangos, had the brilliant idea of matching four of the Latin master's tone poems of the seasons in his native Buenos Aires with Antonio Vivaldi's conceptually similar masterpiece "The Four Seasons," alternating seasons between the two works. Besides the conceptual perfection of the idea, the performances are exquisite. Kremer and his conservatory orchestra, the Kremerata Baltica, do a particularly masterful job with the Vivaldi, avoiding the ornate bloat that affects so many recordings of this work. Their performances are brisk and to-the-point, with bright tempos that add a vitality not often found in this rather shopworn old standard. As always, Kremer's solos in the Piazzolla works are absolutely superb, with the dramatic flourishes of the massed string section providing startling counterpoint, especially on the breathtaking "Verano Porteno". Eight Seasons is a truly remarkable work by an underrated performer.

Astor Piazzolla belongs to Buenos Aires and to the whole world as well. His music has that secret, that intangible charm and that dose of magic it takes to fascinate musicians and non-musicians alike, whatever their own styles and wherever they come from. His sharply-accented melodies and his lively, persistent rhythms with their ferocious attacks capture you and sweep you along. Then suddenly all that sonic aggression calms down in a slow section and his lyricism, his inexorable melodies, hit you inside. It's the tango, and it goes straight to the soul.

Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla (Spanish pronunciation: [piasola], Italian pronunciation: [pjattsɔlla]; March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player and arranger. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. A virtuoso bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles.
In 1992, American music critic Stephen Holden described Piazzolla as "the world's foremost composer of tango music"

Inspired by a general love of the tango, and more specifically the tango of Astor Piazzolla, on the part of Yo-Yo Ma, the Soul of the Tango album is a masterful work of the nuevo tango, played by Ma's cello and many of Piazzolla's former associates. Piazzolla's old guitarists Sergio and Odair Assad even showed up to work on a pair of tracks arranged by Sergio: the Tango Suite (consisting of Andante and Allegro). The sheer beauty of one of Piazzolla's tangos is generally enough to warrant the purchase of an album involving them. An album such as this one, where all of the songs (save one: Tango Remembrances, where Ma plays along with outtakes from Piazzolla's recording of The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night album) are compositions by Piazzolla is even better. Add to this the masterful playing of Ma, and the surprising facility in which the cello fits into the tango, and you've got what could become a classic album, if only it weren't on the classical label from Sony.

Accordion sensation Ksenija Sidorova in a showcase demonstrating the full range and emotional power of her instrument. 'As an accordionist you sort of have to carve your own path, so I consider it my mission in this way to introduce the instrument to a wider audience', she says. The CD contains old and new repertoire, transcriptions and original works. Fairy Tales concerto by Vaclav Trojan, recorded with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, is written in an enchanting and approachable style with beautiful, heartfelt melodies. Arrangements and transcriptions of virtuosic showpieces include Moszowski’s Caprice Espagnol, the scherzo from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (a transcription that has its roots in Rachmaninov’s arrangement) and Grieg’s Holberg Suite. Contemporary composition Who’s the Puppet? was written for Ksenija by Russian composer Artem Vassiliev. Petr Londonov’s Scherzo-­Toccata is a popular piece with accordionists but little-­known to wider concert audiences.

Much Latin American music occupies a unique space between popular and "classical," rarely going to either extreme. On this recital of Latin American works mostly arranged for cello and piano (or guitar), the most formal work is the Sonata for cello and piano in G minor of Manuel Ponce, who also wrote the pop classic Estrellita, which is also included. It is mostly players from the region who record this music, but Louisianan John-Henry Crawford delivers a fine sense of enthusiasm at meeting the tradition for the first time.

‘A dancer’s blood runs in my veins’ announces the heroine of Léhar’s Giuditta in the beguiling bolero-cum-waltz ‘Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß!’ which blazes into life around fifteen minutes into today’s Recording of the Week from Egyptian soprano Fatma Said, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and special guests including lutenist David Bergmüller, Quinteto Ángel and the vision string quartet.

The Pulsacion set is sort of a musical orphan that has been tacked on to other compilation CDs over the years, but here it is in the logical sequence of its original issue. Those who have never heard it will find it surprisingly different from much of Piazzolla's other works. Different though it is, Pulsacion still screams Piazzolla.

From Charlie Parker to Piazzolla: the recorder as you've never heard it before! Lucie Horsch's new album 'Origins' is a collection of music rooted in folk cultures from all around the world, personally sourced and curated by Lucie, presented here in newly commissioned arrangements and transcriptions for the recorder. The tracks feature a variety of supporting musicians, including the trailblazing genre-bending collective Fuse Ensemble, a quintet from the GRAMMY Award-winning Dutch orchestra LUDWIG; acclaimed Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe; bandoneonist Carel Kraayenhof and Kora player Bao Sissoko.

Star violinist Arabella Steinbacher presents Antonio Vivaldi's world-famous Four Seasons alongside Astor Piazzolla's Cuatro estaciones porteñas, creating a lively combination of baroque and tango. The enormous popularity of Vivaldi's Four Seasons tends to make us forget the original and ground-breaking nature of these violin concertos. Coupling them with Piazzolla's tango-inspired Four Seasons of Buenos Aires makes both pieces sound fresher than ever before, thanks to Steinbacher's personal engagement with the repertoire and the inspired accompaniment of the Münchener Kammerorchester.

Retrouvez les grands standards de la musique sud-américaine interprétés par Roberto Alagna, enregistrés dans le cadre exceptionnel de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles. Une extraordinaire promenade dans le boléro cubain, la ranchera mexicaine et le tango argentin et pas question de dénaturer ces chansons auxquelles il est très attaché car « ces chansons ont toujours fait partie de ma vie ». En préservant l’authenticité de ces morceaux, notamment grâce à des arrangements qualifiés d’ethniques » par Yvan Cassar, mais sans hésiter à secouer des standards comme « La Cumparsita », Roberto Alagna explore ce répertoire avec lequel il a une proximité instinctive.