Dutch violinist Janine Jansen has made some unorthodox recordings (check out her Vivaldi Four Seasons sometime), but here, in a work in which proportion and technique are exquisitely balanced, she plays it straight with impressive results. Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2, composed in 1935 just before his return to the Soviet Union from France, has always been a popular repertory item, but Jansen's reading, ably accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski, has a pearly quality throughout, a kind of bright ease, that comes only at the highest levels of technique.

ALthough not very famous, Jeno Jando is a marvelous pianist. He combines lyrical beaty with power and emotion. Both of these attributes are evident in this disc, which contains the piano concertos of Grieg and Schumann, both in the key of a-minor. In Grieg's concerto, Jando creates a perfect balance between Lisztian virtuosity and Grieg's own Norweigan nationalism. The Schumann concerto is my favorite piece on the album, and Schumann's raw emotion comes out perfectly in Jando's interpretation. A word should also be said for the wonderful orchestration of these pieces. This is a wonderful CD both to introduce these romantic piano concertos and to offer a wonderful interpretation of them.

Blackmore's Night is a British/American traditional folk rock duo led by Ritchie Blackmore (acoustic and electric guitar) and Candice Night (lead vocals, lyricist and multi-instrumentalist).

Ensemble 415 is a chamber ensemble devoted largely to the performance of Baroque music on period instruments. The numerical reference in the group's name derives from the pitch used for tuning instruments in the Baroque era. In performing chamber music, Ensemble 415 consists of just a few players, but for larger compositions, the number expands to a minimum of 13 and can reach up to as high as 40 performers. The ensemble's repertory has been broad over the years, taking in many Baroque standards by J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel, as well as lesser known fare by Muffat and others.

Milt Jackson & Coleman Hawkins - Bean Bags (1958) {2012 Japan Jazz Best Collection 1000 Series WPCR-27161}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 223 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 86 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 126 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remaster
© 1958, 2012 Atlantic / Warner Japan / Rhino | WPCR-27161 | Jazz Best Collection 1000 Series
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Saxophone / Vibes

Features 24 bit remastering and comes with a mini-description. A wonderful little record – a real standout in both the careers of Milt Jackson and Coleman Hawkins! The album captures Hawk during his great later years – that time when his sound was even more soulful and inventive than ever – with lots of odd modern undercurrents that really work nicely with the album's slight Latin inflections – a bit like those you might hear on some of Hawkins' Impulse Records material from the same generation.

Knocking at Your Back Door: The Best of Deep Purple in the 80's is a compilation album by the British hard rock band Deep Purple. The album was released in 1992. It is a compilation of tracks from three albums, Perfect Strangers (1984), The House of Blue Light (1987), and the live album Nobody's Perfect (1988)…

Machito - Kenya (1957) {Roulette Jazz 724352266821 rel 1999}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 247 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 85 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 50 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1957, 1999 Roulette Jazz / Capitol / EMI Music | 7243 5 22668 2 1
Jazz / Afro-Cuban Jazz / Latin Jazz

Bandleader extraordinaire Machito was born in Cuba, and the "original Mambo King" utilized that country's indigenous rhythms throughout his career. As its title implies, though, this 1957 release finds Machito turning an ear towards the African side of the Afro-Cuban jazz style he helped to pioneer. The energy level on KENYA is astounding, and there's virtually no letup. Under the direction of Machito and his brother-in-law/right-hand man Mario Bauza, the ensemble tears through a dozen cuts with such disciplined ferocity it's a wonder anyone was left standing at the end of the session.

Schubert's 'Death and the Maiden' Quartet is now available on Blu-Ray, DVD and HD video to download. The concert includes the early quartets in D Major D74 and B-flat Major D68 as well as the monumental 'Death and the Maiden' D810, and it's the first release of the Cuarteto Casals' five disc set of live performances of the complete quartets of Franz Schubert…

Supreme among French composers of the Baroque era, François Couperin made his career at the court of Louis XIV. His creativity is manifest in his sacred music, chamber music and, above all, his abundant corpus of keyboard works, here presented complete in recordings by the harpsichordist Laurence Boulay in their first CD release. Interpretations on the piano come from such figures as Marcelle Meyer and Georges Cziffra, while other contributors to this collection, representing diverse schools of performance, include William Christie, Christophe Rousset and John Eliot Gardiner.