Under the hand of Peter Breiner, however unlikely their disguise, these Beatles favourites, shorn of their words and strangely enhanced by their Baroque setting, retain the simplistic, modal clarity of McCartney’s originals. Re-arranged in their classical guise they are made to sound even more nostalgic, almost improved by some time-honoured process of alchemy. These favourite anthems of the 1960s in this fresh and unique setting still have the power to transport us ‘over the hills and far away’.

A long-time collaborator of John Adams and champion of his music, Marin Alsop directs this live recording of Opera Colorado’s 25th Anniversary Celebration production of Nixon in China, presented at Denver’s new Ellie Caulkins Opera House during the 2008 National Performing Arts Convention, and featuring an internationally recognized cast including Canadian soprano Tracy Dahl. Alice Goodman’s epic libretto and John Adams’ distinctive music weave together a colourful fabric of actual events from President Nixon’s historic visit to the People’s Republic of China with intimate examinations of the opera’s real life characters. The spectacle, drama, humour and pathos of this masterpiece remain as compelling today as when the opera was premiered in 1987.

• Haydn’s complete sonatas and Klavierstücke performed by one of today’s most thoughtful and eloquent musicians.
• On seven historic keyboards, specially built by four renowned master-artisans, some unheard since Haydn’s time.
• In nine virtual rooms, precisely mapped and recreated from settings in which Haydn’s music would have been played.

From McGill University’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology in Montreal comes a path-breaking project. Performer and musicologist Tom Beghin, Tonmeister and producer Martha de Francisco, and recording engineer Wieslaw Woszczyk apply VIRTUAL ACOUSTICS for the first time to a recording of this magnitude. In the “immersive Presence” Laboratory, surrounded by a semi-sphere of 24 loudspeakers, Tom Beghin plays “as if” in the historical room. His sounds are captured, mixed with reverberation responses identical to those of the actual location, and retransmitted almost instantaneously through the sphere, allowing him to engage “the room” then and there.

• 4 Blu-ray Audio discs in both 5.0 surround and high-resolution stereo (over 15 hrs of music) + 1 Blu-ray Video disc including a “making of” documentary (over 3 hrs)
• Follow this link to find the review on MacLeans.ca: http://bit.ly/2sOWvq

Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin returns to the podium of the Orchestre Métropolitain to conduct Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, completing ATMA’s cycle of the last three symphonies by the great 19th-century symphonist. The Symphony No. 8 was composed and revised over a period of three years, and became known as the 'Apocalyptic' because of its famous finale and its first movement punctuated by trumpet calls and a devastating climax.

For his first classical CD, tenor Marc Hervieux performs Christmas songs with the choir Les Disciples de Massenet, accompanied on the organ by Régis Rousseau. The recording was made in sessions in June 2009 at the Église Très-Saint Nom de Jésus in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood of Montréal. This church has one of the most powerful organs in North America, which was built in 1914 from the celebrated house of Casavant Frères of Saint-Hyacinthe.

Internationally renowned Canadian pianist Louis Lortie has made more than 30 recordings over the span of his career, and chose an all-Mendelssohn programme for his debut with ATMA Classique. He directs the Orchestre symphonique de Québec from the piano on this recording, released to mark ATMA’s 15th anniversary.

Following the immense success of her CD Handel Arias, Karina Gauvin returns with a new recording of arias, most never recorded, from the operas of Nicola Porpora (1686-1768). The prestigious Italian baroque orchestra Il Complesso Barocco under the direction of Alan Curtis accompanies Madame Gauvin on this recording produced in Italy.
“One of the dream sopranos of our time” who in turn is “distinctive, sophisticated, deeply intuitive, a questioning and fearless artist.” - The Globe & Mail

Rating:

‘Porpora Arias (ATMA Classique) Neapolitan opera composer Nicola Porpora (1686-1768) is best known today as having been the teacher and muse for the famous castrato Farinelli but, in the day, his work was as hot at George Frideric Handel's. Montreal soprano Karina Gauvin makes the dramatic, highly ornamented selection of 14 arias and recitatives glow with colour. The orchestra, Il Complesso Barocco, led by American ex-pat Alan Curtis, is spellbinding. The balance between more melancholy and highly dramatic selections is perfect. The thorough booklet includes all the lyrics. My only beef is that the recording makes everyone sound as if they're inside a small box.’
- John Terauds, TheStar.com

- Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

At the age of 24, contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux became the first Canadian to win the 1st Prize as well as the Special Prize for Lieder at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition of Belgium. Winning this prestigious award opened the door to an immediate international career allowing her to perform in concert and on the operatic stage with many great orchestras, opera houses and conductors around the globe. Marie-Nicole Lemieux has triumphed in baroque and romantic works, and is exquisite in the French repertoire. Accompanied by pianist Daniel Blumenthal, this album features two favourite German cycles sung in Marie-Nicole’s own lively, loving way.

"Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux's voice - ample, voluptuous, satin-finished, almost without edges - reminds one of Titian's Flora or Rubens's Venus. It's an incredibly warm and enfolding voice, and Lemieux projects a sense of containment in her singing that suggests there's nothing impulsive about the passion that surfaces with such veracity, a passion evident even in the intake of her breath. In Lemieux's interpretation of Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben, the ecstatic bride of the song cycle is no ingénue. We read her, instead, as a mature woman, surprised by the intensity of her feelings, perhaps, and all the more vulnerable for it."  - Elissa Poole, The Globe and Mail

"The young Québec contralto has never sounded finer than in this album of 25 Lieder by Robert Schumann. Lemieux's rich, expressive voice lends depth to these intensely nuanced, immediate-feeling interpretations. Daniel Blumenthal is an ideal accompanist on piano." - John Terauds, Toronto Star

Operatic superstar Dmitri Hvorostovsky has become the supreme interpreter of the Russian Romance, with its rich resource of music and poetry. In this generous program the great baritone soars vocally and plumbs emotional depths as he delivers definitive performances of a wide range of Tchaikovsky’s masterpieces.

This moving documentary takes us from the rubbish dumps and barrios of Caracas to the world’s finest concert halls. It shows how El Sistema, Venezuela’s unique system of music education founded by the visionary José Antonio Abreu, has changed the lives of hundred of thousands of children over the past three decades by taking them from streets dominated by the gun battles of gang warfare into music schools. It gives them access to music and teaches through the model of the symphony orchestra how to build a better society.

The eighth Glenn Gould Prize was recently awarded to Dr. Abreu at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto by the Glenn Gould Foundation. The Prize was presented at the Canadian debut concert of the world-famous Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela led by superstar conductor Gustavo Dudamel, a product of El Sistema and the new music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

BUY ONLINE FROM NAXOSDIRECT.CA
(Medici Arts DVD 2056958)

Featuring some of the world’s most exciting and talented dancers, this sparkling collection brings together some of the best scenes from your favourite ballets – from the graceful elegance and passion of Swan Lake, to the humour and wit of the Clog Dance from La Fille mal gardée and the exuberant liveliness of The Nutcracker, this is a perfect collection for any ballet beginner.