Adams: Harmonielehre, Short Ride in a Fast Machine [Hybrid SACD - DSD]

This recording represents the latest chapter in the long time collaboration between composer John Adams and Michael Tilson Thomas. Here, MTT and the San Francisco Symphony perform Adams' orchestral masterpiece Harmonielehre, a milestone of American minimalism first premiered by the orchestra in 1985. Paired with the joyful Short Ride in a Fast Machine, this new release from the GRAMMY-® award winning San Francisco Symphony is a must-have for any collection.

Mercury Living Presence Boxed Set [Collector's Edition]

The Collector s Edition
Celebrating a groundbreaking label
51CD BOX SET the true legacy of a legendary label

Long hailed as an audiophile s label, Mercury represents an important milestone in the history of classical recordings

As The New York Times described, "One feels oneself in the living presence of the orchestra"

60 years after the landmark first recording, Mercury Living Presence: The Collector s Edition celebrates this special anniversary

Verdi: Complete Ballet Music from the Operas

The only other serious competition in this repertoire, and it's not nearly as complete as this release (the Aida items are missing!), is an old Philips Due mostly conducted by the late Antonio de Almeida. Those are good performances, but they don't outclass these, either interpretively or sonically. You might say that it doesn't take much interpretive insight to conduct Italian ballet music, but ultimately the goal is always the same: to avoid boredom. This may be even harder in music whose purpose is largely decorative and expressively limited. It's to Serebrier's (and Verdi's) credit that there isn't a bar here that fails to entertain, or that doesn't make an excellent case for believing that this music is of much higher quality than its reputation suggests.