featured classical albums
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- Carter Burwell
- The Twilight Saga: Breaking…
- The score to the final installment of the Twilight Saga cranks up the drama and the action.
- Howard Shore
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected…
- Howard Shore again complements Peter Jackson's film work with a lushly orchestral -- and occasionally choral -- score.
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- John Zorn
- FilmWorks XXV: City of…
- The 25th -- and possibly final -- volume in the FilmWorks series consists of striking solo piano pieces for three projects.
- John Zorn
- The Concealed
- This gorgeous group of mystical compositions is performed by the Nova Express quartet, cellist Erik Friedlander, and violinist Mark Feldman.
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- Il Volo
- We Are Love
- The second studio album from the dreamy teenage tenors includes a U2 cover and duets with Placido Domingo and Eros Ramazzotti.
- Poppy Ackroyd
- Escapement
- The debut solo album by the Hidden Orchestra's Poppy Ackroyd is a quietly magical and immensely creative.
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- Matthew Shipp
- Greatest Hits
- While not a "greatest-hits" set in the conventional sense, this is a fine retrospective of Matthew Shipp's work on Thirsty Ear.
- Plácido Domingo
- Forever Domingo
- This gives the buyer a taste of the range of Domingo's abilities and is a reasonable choice for anyone wanting a single-album sampler.
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- Nico Muhly
- Drones
- This release includes the Drones & Piano, Drones & Viola, and Drones & Violin EPs, as well as an extended new work.
- BBC Concert Orchestra
- The Longed-for Light:…
- The whole program is a mixed bag, some blood-and-guts patriotic poems, and Callow delivers weepy, intense performances that are exactly what is called for.
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- Esa-Pekka Salonen /
- Henri Dutilleux: Correspondances
- French composer Henri Dutilleux has had impressive creative longevity, continuing to issue new works well into his nineties. And this is probably a good place…
- Emanuel Ax
- Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann:…
- Ax's reading of the Symphony seems almost meditative at first, although it eventually builds in power, and it's quite absorbing. And his reading of Haydn's…
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about classical
Classical music is hard to define in specific terms, but it is generally understood to be music rooted in Western European traditions performed by trained musicians in formal settings like concert halls, opera houses, and churches. Its key emphasis is the faithful interpretation of composers' written scores. Classical music's roots lie in the chant melodies of Medieval religious rites. Its contemporary incarnation encompasses everything from opera and the symphony orchestra to chamber ensembles, solo works, choral music, songs, film music, and the avant-garde. Works from the intervening centuries make up the bulk of the recorded repertory, and they mirror the artistic and architectural trends of the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern eras in their sound worlds and conception. The dichotomy between classical and popular music is a fairly recent cultural development. In fact, much of what is considered classical music today grew out of, was influenced by, or was popular music of its time.