EarlyMusicNews.Org

“Jean-Philippe Rameau, an organist and music theoretician, was active for much of his life in musical centers distant from the cultural juggernaut of Paris. …  The beautiful selection of works provided in this recording allows the modern listener to view and enjoy the spectacle of five of Rameau’s most popular operatic creations in historically accurate performances …
  

(From the latest eClassical newsletter of 02 Jan 2012. Some of you may be interested in some of the CD titles on sale.)

“Introducing our Daily Deal.
Starting this month, we would like to offer an album every day at a huge discount of 50%. We hope this will be attractive for you helping you to enlarge your classical library and perhaps discover new and exciting music.  Click here for our Daily Deal“

The year that was

“It’s that time of year where we take a moment to reflect on the past twelve months. As Gramophone Editor James Inverne put it: "Having won Gramophone's coveted Label of the Year award in 2010, Linn Records are not a label to have rested on their laurels. Instead, as we have come to expect from them, the slate of fine new releases continued apace."
   

“In the first part of the seventeenth century, the north German city of Hamburg spawned an unusually rich organ culture, with Jacob Praetorius, the younger, and Heinrich Scheidemann both pupils of the famous Dutch organist, Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck, as leading figures.
  

New releases for January 2012 from Hyperion Records Ltd.

Handel in Hamburg
THE PARLEY OF INSTRUMENTS / PETER HOLMAN

A boisterous selection of the orchestral music Handel wrote for the Hamburg opera, some recorded for the first time. He arrived aged just eighteen and spent four hectic years absorbing the influences of this most culturally diverse of cities.
   

“This recent recording of the men and boys from King’s College, Cambridge, is an anthology organized around the texts and themes of the liturgical year, a scheme that offers ample opportunity for diverse works—in that sense the recording feels something like a “sampler”—but a scheme that also reflects the real experience of the daily life of the choir which sings demanding choral services six days of the week in term time.
  

For those of you who may be interested: 

“This holiday weekend at ArkivMusic includes an extra day of savings for our Weekend Specials, which include the 2012 New Year's Concert from Vienna, a gorgeous set of Mozart's quartets, a wonderfully vibrant box of Marais's viol music, one of the great recordings of the 13th-century Carmina burana, and an exceptional Hammerklavier from Emil Gilels. Remember, these deals end Monday at midnight EST!”
 

(From the latest BEMF news -- ed.)

“Due to overwhelming response, we will be extending our Holiday Sale through January 1, 2012!
  

(From the latest ArkivMusic.com Newsletter.)

“ If you need music for Christmas, we have it. King's College Choir, The Waverly Consort, Chanticleer, John Rutter, Canadian Brass, a Steinway Grand, a string quartet, and more -- all ready to be delivered immediately as digital downloads.
  

“A New Song is Folger Consort’s first entirely new recording in eleven years. It was produced in 2011 as part of the worldwide celebration of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.
  

For those of you searching for the right choice in Christmas music, Harmonia Mundi, in its latest promotion, links to its website with all of its Christmas-related music available for browsing.
  

“Cappella Artemisia is delighted to announce the release of our new recording: Scintillate amicæ stellæ - Christmas in the Convents of 16th- and 17th-Century Italy, an anthology of works written by and for Italian cloistered nuns calling for a great variety of forces ranging from solo voices to double choirs of both singers and instruments, and involving no fewer than 18 musicians. We can't imagine a better way to celebrate Christmas than with this glorious music.
  

“A few weeks ago, we featured a reinterpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in which pianist Lara Downes asked that contemporary composers create their own pieces inspired by the Variations’ aria. Now Fretwork has also been inspired to create their own arrangement of the Goldberg Variations in their 2011 CD.
  

(* Re-Posted by Editor)
(* And now this very cd has received a Prix choc by CLASSICA! for December/January -- ed.)

“Heinrich Isaac's work is a true synthesis of all existing Franco-Flemish polyphonic compositional techniques sweeping through Europe in the 16th century.
  

Seven ATMA recordings across four different categories have been nominated for the 2011 OPUS Prize. Founded in 1996 by the Conseil québécois de la musique, the Opus Prize reflects excellence in Quebec’s dynamic music scene. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on January 29, 2012.

Good luck to all of our nominees!
  

“Congratulations to all our Nominees!
Harmonia Mundi and Distributed Labels
Earn Six GRAMMY® Nomination”

 In the latest newsletter from Harmonia Mundi, congratulations are given to the nominees of the upcoming 54th Grammy Awards. Of particular note for “Best Orchestral”:

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Nicholas McGegan
Haydn: Symphonies Nos.88, 101 & 104
  

“ In celebration of the season (and in honor of our Manifold Greatness project), we're sharing Selections from Handel's Messiah, recorded by the Folger Consort and the Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford. You can download these six tracks in the link above [below -- ed.]. Happy Holidays!“
  

“Dear ArkivMusic Customers,

Every DVD at ArkivMusic -- nearly 5,000 titles, from complete operas to ballets, recitals, documentaries & more -- is on sale now, just in time for the gift-giving season. …”
  

C.P.E. Bach – Solo Keyboard Music, Vol. 23
Miklós Spányi, clavichord

BIS-CD-1763   |   EAN 7318590017630   |   TT: 63'52
Sonatas from 1750–58 and other pieces

“Clavierstück für die rechte oder linke Hand allein, Wq117/1 (H 241); Fantasia in D minor, Wq117/12 (H 224); Sonata in G major, Wq62/11 (H 63); Fugue in D minor, Wq119/2 (H 99); Fantasia in G major, Wq117/11 (H 223); Sonata in G major, Wq62/14 (H 77); Fantasia in D major, Wq117/14 (H 160); Solfeggio in A major, Wq117/4 (H 222); Sonata in C minor, Wq65/31 (H 121); Solfeggio in E flat major, Wq117/3 (H 221); Solfeggio in C minor, Wq117/2 (H 220); Sonata in A major, Wq65/32 (H 135)


  

“We are celebrating our first year of high-resolution downloads from Sweden with a special pre-Christmas promotion. Every day, from December 1 until Christmas Eve, you will find two different 24-bit albums from BIS and PentaTone at a 50% discount that day. If you miss one, don't worry, you will still have the opportunity to download it at a reduced price for two more days, the first day at 25% and the second at 10% discount.”
  

“It's official, the holidays are here! ArkivMusic has gifts of classical music as well as music for the holiday season ready to ship. Once again this year, we have limited editions and exclusive items you won't find anywhere else.”
  

“For our first course of this musical feast, we’ve assembled merchants from 17th-century London. The voices of merchants hawking their wares served as the inspiration for a generation of English composers and formed the basis for a genre of works now known as the cries.
  

The New York Times Holiday Gift Guide has been sent out on its newsletter lists. It features titles from harmonia mundi and its distributed labels. You may find some titles of interest to you.

Visit the New York Times Holiday Gift Guide web page to view/read the list.

Recently Google jumped into the music selling business with Google Music (store). The following is an article comparing the services of the three largest music download services on the Internet. (Editor)

“Google opened its new music store to all comers in the US this week, touting its partnerships with music labels and indie musicians, and its broad reach thanks to the Android Market. The new store has millions of songs for sale, but whether it's a game changer, serious competition for iTunes and Amazon MP3, or the best online music store out there is another question entirely. Let's take a look at each service based on its features. 
  

“Following Ensemble Caprice’s first recording of Vivaldi’s sacred music (Gloria! Vivaldi and his Angels) we return to Vivaldi’s Venice and find ourselves yet again within the confines of the Ospedale della Pietà orphanage where, beginning in 1703, Vivaldi, the Red Priest, not only taught the orphan girls violin and singing, but also composed many of his most dazzling concertos as well as a substantial part of his highly inspired corpus of sacred music.

Watch the video clip!”