Hi-Res Highlights,
Hi-Res Highlights - March 2017
It's been two years since we launched our Hi-Res download offering - and our catalogue now includes nearly 8,500 albums, both old and new. You can browse through our full Hi-Res selection here.
However, eight thousand is quite a lot - so last July we started putting together a monthly round-up offering some of our thoughts on the best of the best! Here's March's selection…
Hi-Res New Releases
A labour of love moulded over many years, John Joubert's opera Jane Eyre (based, of course, on Charlotte Brontë's novel) at last receives its first recording in time for the composer's 90th birthday. The English Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Kenneth Woods.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Owen Rees conducts the Choir of Queen's College Oxford in this collection of choral works past and present - established favourites by Bainton and Harris, set alongside newer works by Toby Young, Cecilia McDowall, James MacMillan and more.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Some relatively rarely-heard works by Chopin for piano and orchestra receive a welcome airing in this recording by Jan Lisiecki with the NDR Elbphilharmonie under Krzysztof Urbański - which also completes Lisiecki's survey of this facet of Chopin's repertoire.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Fast-rising German baritone Benjamin Appl makes his Sony debut with this collection of songs from European composers from Vaughan Williams to Grieg - celebrating the idea of 'Heimat', or homeland, in all its pan-European diversity.
Available Format: CD
One of the fundamental principles of the earliest operas was the ancient Greek idea of 'catharsis' - that the new art form should create such an emotional impact that the listeners' souls would be purged of such passions themselves. Countertenor Xavier Sabata rises to the challenge of presenting some of the emotional pinnacles of Vivaldi, Hasse, Caldara and others.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Frank Peter Zimmermann and Emanuel Ax are the soloists in this double-bill of Brahms concertos with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Bernard Haitink; Ax also shines alongside soloists from the RCO in Schumann's Piano Quartet.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Dorothee Oberlinger and her Ensemble 1700 explore some of the recorder repertoire that might have been performed at Frederick the Great's Sanssouci palace - music that lies on the cusp between the Baroque and the Classical.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Continuing the Rococo theme, Johannes Moser performs Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations alongside Elgar's ever-popular Cello Concerto, with Andrew Manze conducting the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Recent Hi-Res Re-issues
The greatest performances of yesteryear, newly remastered and re-released in Hi-Res.
Bernstein conducts the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in two vivid suites of orchestral excerpts - from the well-loved West Side Story and from his soundtrack to the crime drama On The Waterfront.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Bernstein's second symphony reaches for the stars, taking its enormously broad theme from a poem by W H Auden that considers the challenges and paradoxes of modern industrialised life and identity. Bernstein once again conducts the New York Philharmonic, with Philippe Entremont at the piano.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
David Smith - Head of Digital
