First held in 1962, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition has established itself as a joyous festival dedicated to the discovery and celebration of the world's finest young pianists. 
Nobuyuki Tsujii (born September 13, 1988) is an amazing Japanese pianist, born blind but gifted with a talent for music. 
John Giordano who was jury chairman for the Cliburn competition, said, "“He’s amazing. We closed our eyes and it’s so phenomenal that it’s hard to withhold your tears. Nobu played the most difficult hour-long Beethoven piece (Hammerklavier, Sonata no. 29) flawlessly. For anyone, it’s extraordinary. But for someone blind who learns by ear, it’s mind-boggling.”
Watch him live on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDtT5sSu5VQ

Chopin: Études, Op. 10: Étude No. 1 in C Major

Chopin: Études, Op. 10: Étude No. 2 in A Minor

Chopin: Études, Op. 10: Étude No. 3 in E Major

Chopin: Études, Op. 10: Étude No. 4 in C-Sharp Minor

First held in 1962, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition has established itself as a joyous festival dedicated to the discovery and celebration of the world's finest young pianists. 
Nobuyuki Tsujii (born September 13, 1988) is an amazing Japanese pianist, born blind but gifted with a talent for music. 
John Giordano who was jury chairman for the Cliburn competition, said, “He’s amazing. We closed our eyes and it’s so phenomenal that it’s hard to withhold your tears. Nobu played the most difficult hour-long Beethoven piece (Hammerklavier, Sonata no. 29) flawlessly. For anyone, it’s extraordinary. But for someone blind who learns by ear, it’s mind-boggling.”
Watch him live on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDtT5sSu5VQ

Chopin: Études, Op. 10: Étude No. 5 in G-Flat Major

Chopin: Études, Op. 10: Étude No. 6 in E-Flat Minor

Beethoven: Sonata No. 29 in B-Flat Major, Op. 106 - "Hammerklavier": I. Allegro

Beethoven: Sonata No. 29 in B-Flat Major, Op. 106 - "Hammerklavier": II. Scherzo

Beethoven: Sonata No. 29 in B-Flat Major, Op. 106 - "Hammerklavier": III. Adagio sostenuto

Beethoven: Sonata No. 29 in B-Flat Major, Op. 106 - "Hammerklavier": IV. Largo - Allegro risoluto

Liszt: Paganini Étude No. 3 - "La Campanella"

Musto: Improvisation and Fugue

Boccherini owes his celebrity to more than just the Minuet of the Quintet op.11 no.5 (although that can be heard here too)!
This recording proves the fact with stunning brilliance: from the castanets of the Fandango to the much more Viennese style of the String Quartet, the musicians of the Cuarteto Casals and their guests demonstrate the infinite creative resources of the composer. It culminates in the Night Music of the Streets of Madrid, a vivid example of musical realism in which, as Boccherini put it, ‘the strict rules of counterpoint' would be out of place! 
short description 

String Quintet in C major - op.30 no.6 "La musica notturna delle strade di Madrid" - II. Il tamburo del quartier dei soldati - III. Minuetto dei ciechi

String Quintet in C major - op.30 no.6 "La musica notturna delle strade di Madrid" V. "Los manolos". Modo di suono, e canto - VI. Allegro vivo

String Quintet in C major - op.30 no.6 "La musica notturna delle strade di Madrid" VII. Ritirata - Maestoso

String Quintet no.6 in E major / Mi majeur / E-dur G.275, op.11 no.5 I. Amoroso

String Quintet no.6 in E major / Mi majeur / E-dur G.275, op.11 no.5 - II. Allegro con spirito

String Quintet no.6 in E major / Mi majeur / E-dur G.275, op.11 no.5 - III. Minuetto - Trio

Full track: String Quartet in G minor / sol mineur / g-moll G.205, op.32 no.5- III. Menuetto con moto - Trio

‘I never thought of becoming a virtuoso. Virtuosity, with its concert tours, has always repelled me’, Manuel de Falla told a journalist in 1915, by which time he had virtually turned his back on composition for solo piano. He did occasionally return to the genre, but it is a fact that his corpus can be contained on a single CD, along with the famous Nights in the Gardens of Spain with orchestra. The titles proclaim their indebtedness to other composers, yet the music is highly personal! In order to carry out this exciting project, Javier Perianes and Josep Pons went back to the sources, the manuscripts held in the Archivo Manuel de Falla in Granada.

Noches en los jardines de España ["Impresiones sinfónicas para piano y orquesta"]

Serenata andaluza (1900). Allegretto

This programme offers a vivid and varied cross-section of English song, ranging from the Edwardian aesthetic of Quilter and early Vaughan Williams to the intensely expressive style of Howells and Finzi. The Purcell realisations by Britten and Tippett, meanwhile, are products of two great 20th-century composers engaging with their musical heritage. In all these different styles, Bejun Mehta shows the same verbal and vocal mastery that won such acclaim for his debut Handel recital on harmonia mundi.

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Silent Noon

Henry Purcell: Lord, what is man?

After his acclaimed explorations of such Handel operas as Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo, René Jacobs now tackles the first great operatic success of the ‘caro Sassone' (Venice, 1710), the climax of his Italian period. This version reconstructs the work in its original conception, the only one to combine explosive topicality with extreme dramatic cogency. As a result, this tale of amorous intrigues against a background of Roman history, the ‘prequel' to Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, emerges more fascinating than ever.

Handel. Agrippina, Atto II scene XI & XII - Sunhae Im (Poppea) / Jennifer Rivera (Nerone) / Akademie für Alte Musik berlin

Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien has won over audiences in many of the world's greatest opera houses with his powerful interpretations. For his first solo recital he employs his mellifluous and burnished voice to great effect in Polish, Russian and Czech arias which are very close to his heart.  A collection of operatic gems, familiar and rare.

Arias by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Smetana, Dvorák, Moniusko, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Szymanovsky.

Certova stena / The Devil's Wall JB 1:122 [1882] Vok's aria: Jen Jediana

Janácek's choral works draw on an extremely rich repertory of folksongs and folk tales. The composer seized on idioms from Bohemian and Moravian traditions, with their characteristic folk dances and rustic nursery rhymes, and on the recently published Moravian Duets of his compatriot Antonín Dvorák, to convey a mixture of emotions, forever shifting between cheerfulness and melancholy, like his subdued harmonies. Here we witness the birth of a musical language which, though deliberately rooted in central Europe, has projected for nearly a century the aura of a universal sentiment.

Six Moravian Choruses transcribed from ANTONÍN DVORÁK's Moravian Duets - 1. The Slighted Heart (Dyby byla kosa nabrósená)

Six Moravian Choruses transcribed from ANTONÍN DVORÁK's Moravian Duets -2. The Pledge of Love (Slavikovsky polecko maly)

Six Moravian Choruses transcribed from ANTONÍN DVORÁK's Moravian Duets- 3. Forsaken (Holub na javore)

Six Moravian Choruses transcribed from ANTONÍN DVORÁK's Moravian Duets-4. Parting without Sorrow (V dobrym sme se sesli)

Nursery Rhymes (Ríkadla)- II. The beetroot got married (Rípa se vdávala)

Nursery Rhymes (Ríkadla)- III. There's nothing better than springtime (Není lepsí jako z jara)

Russian ‘classical' music seems to have a dual consciousness: sometimes grave and interiorised, sometimes luminous and resolutely forward-looking. At root, this sentiment draws equally on the countless traditions of the biggest country in the world and on its relationship with western Europe, and especially France, from the 18th century onwards. If we had to define the very special atmosphere of Russian music in a few words, we might say that it represents the ‘exchange', ‘sharing' and ‘absorption' of an infinity of cultural and musical idioms.

8385 87-1266-tresor russie-Mussorgski

8385 87-7394-tresor russie-Tchaikovsky

VESPERS  Rachmaninov

‘Dialogue' is probably the best term to describe the coupling of these two famous violin concertos. While addressing the loved one he has lost, Berg sets his final work on the threshold between tradition and revolution, between tonal music and the nascent ‘serial' aesthetic; a century earlier, Beethoven had deconstructed formal Classicism to raise the solo violin to the status of a subject in its own right. This passionate exchange between the ‘soul' of the violin and the ‘chorus' of the orchestra is the fruit of an exciting meeting between two of the finest artists of our time.

***** in the Guardian,  CLASSICAL CD OF THE WEEK, ***** Daily Telegraph, CLASSICAL CD OF THE WEEK Sunday Times, Recording of the Month Gramophone, RECORDING OF THE MONTH BBC, Diapason d'Or Arte .. !

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