Tony Banks, founder member of rock band Genesis, has already written a much admired orchestral work called Seven (8.557466), which was praised for its ‘genuine melodic gift’ (Gramophone). His new work consists of six songs without words which may evoke in the listener ideas of seduction, journey, hero, quest, decision and goal. Two of the pieces feature solo instruments – alto saxophone on Siren and violin on Blade – played here by elite soloists, which mesh into Banks’ orchestral tapestry with bewitching effect. The remaining pieces reveal his outstanding lyrical gifts and total command of musical narrative.

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The Great Classics series from Naxos is the perfect introduction to myriad genres of classical music. Comprising both complete and compiled selections from the greatest works in the repertoire, the boxes are bursting with wonderful pieces of music, both recognizable and unfamiliar. The boxes take the listener on a thrilling tour of some of the world’s most dramatic musical media, encompassing music from six centuries and featuring sensational performers. All boxes come with a fascinating booklet with detailed information on the genre itself, chronological placement of each work, and a comprehensive study of the music. A fitting celebration of 25 years of superb music from Naxos, the world’s favourite classical label.

Available titles:
8.501054 – Great Opera
8.501055 – Great Ballet
8.501056 – Great Piano Concertos
8.501057 – Great Romantic Symphonies
8.501058 – Great Violin Concertos
8.501059 – Great Russian Symphonies
8.501060 – Great Classical Symphonies
8.501061 – Great Baroque Masterpieces
8.501062 – Great Sacred Masterpieces

Loved and admired by virtually all of his contemporaries, Chopin cast a magical spell on his generation as well as on all future generations of musicians. His music remains as fresh, as enchanting and as powerful as the day it was first penned.

Janina Fialkowska is the recipient of the 2012 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement in Classical Music, Canada’s most prestigious award in the performing arts world.

She has chosen here a very personal program of the most delightful piano music by her favourite composer, Chopin.

“Fialkowska is formidable … performs with a clarity that sets her apart from the ordinary superstars.” – The Toronto Star

“I have enormous respect for clarinetists, like Benny Goodman and so many others, who were able to stimulate composers to cross over the border separating jazz from the more ‘classical’ world, and provoke the emergence of a new genre.” – André Moisan

After You, Mr Gershwin! is inspired mainly by jazz and great jazzmen – especially by Benny Goodman. Composer Bélà Kovács clearly announces his intentions in his title: After You, Mr. Gershwin! There can be no doubt that it was Gershwin who sealed the union between the two styles, jazz and classical, by opening his Rhapsody in Blue with its celebrated clarinet solo.

This disc is devoted completely to the music of Vancouver composer Owen Underhill. It is comprised of four major works composed between 1998 and 2011 and features Montreal’s Quatuor Bozzini. Underhill is winner of the 2007 Most Outstanding Composer at the Western Canadian Music Awards and is considered by Robert Everett-Green of The Globe and Mail as ‘one of the most thoughtful and effective of West Coast composers.’

The Golden Age of String Quartets is the eagerly anticipated debut CD of the Windermere String Quartet. Viewed through the prism of historically informed performance on period instruments, the canonical quartets of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven take on fresh colours as the Windermere String Quartet plays them. The CD’s program features period instrument performances of celebrated and seminal works by the “big three” composers of the Classical era, including Haydn’s Quartet Op. 33 No. 2 (‘The Joke’), Mozart’s “Dissonance” Quartet (K465), and Beethoven’s Quartet in C minor, Op. 18 No. 4. The Windermere String Quartet, “Toronto’s masters of the genre” of period string quartets (Toronto Star), bring an insightful, deft and affectionate focus to these influential masterpieces, and the musical results are an inspired breath of fresh air.”

Resplendent in his powdered wig and 18th-century garb, Maestro Handel (aka Director of the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, Ivars Taurins) leads Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir, a stellar cast of soloists and a mass audience choir made up of more than 1,000 Tafelmusik fans as they perform Handel’s baroque masterpiece. A Toronto tradition beloved by thousands, Tafelmusik’s annual Sing-Along Messiah has become a revered family ritual for many Torontonians over the past 25 years. Toronto’s largest sing-along event, Tafelmusik’s Sing-Along Messiah sells out every year, and participants are genuinely moved by the experience of joining their voices with hundreds of others to make music.

BONUSES: The DVD booklet lists the website where enthusiastic audiences can download the sing-along choruses so that they can sing along with Herr Handel at home! There are also five bonus audio tracks of Tafelmusik Chamber Choir performing music by Handel, Bach, Vivaldi and Mondonville.

The Brodsky Quartet celebrates its fortieth anniversary this year. Formed in 1972, the Quartet quickly emerged at the forefront of the international chamber music scene. It has performed more than 2,000 concerts and made more than fifty highly acclaimed recordings. Now exclusive Chandos artists, the Brodsky players are releasing their 2nd disc on the label featuring the music of Debussy, with guest soloists Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and Sioned Williams.

Legendary composer and sitarist Ravi Shankar is one of India’s most highly esteemed musical ambassadors, renowned for his pioneering work in bringing Indian music to the West. 2010 saw the première of his ambitious fusion work, his first symphony conceived for a Western symphony orchestra, which translates the aural sensibilities and sound-worlds of Indian music into a Western structural framework. In this live recording of the work’s première at Royal Festival Hall, David Murphy conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Ravi Shankar’s highly-acclaimed daughter Anoushka on sitar.

Red Eyes is Mina Agossi’s 2nd album on naïve and features the great Jazz legend Archie Shepp. Two years after Just Like A Lady, her first album on the label, Mina Agossi once again proves that she’s a different singer. Red Eyes expresses her love for Blues, Soul and Jazz. Once again, she mixes all her influences bringing new songs of her own as well as covers of Jimi Hendrix and Billy Idol. On The Stars Are In Your Eyes, a composition by Archie Shepp written for Sarah Vaughan, she duets with Archie on an almost irresistible and very indulgent mood. A must have!