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Essentially, in the incredible ease and naturalness of his pianism, in the unassuming simplicity and absorption of the man, Backhaus was much the same artist and personality then. And he was far from unknown. Even before he won the Rubinstein Prize in...

During the summer of 1989, oboists Alfredo Bernardini and Paolo Grazzi together with bassoonist Alberto Grazzi founded Zefiro, a versatile ensemble specialized in 18th century music predominantly featuring wind instruments. Zefiro soon made a name for...

Born in Venice in 1946, he studied music, medicine and archaeology. He qualified as a medical doctor but then trained as a conductor under Hans Swarowsky in Vienna. He was appointed a lecturer in contemporary and electronic music in Venice in 1972. His...

At the end of the 1920's and the beginning of the 30's, the German gramophone company Polydor issued a number of much sought after Brailowsky recordings, and even today the technical quality of these recordings as regards to resonance and tonality is...

Alpha continues to explore it's catalogue and this year again offers a wide variety of combinations. After a box assembling the gems of the Baroque era (Masters of the Baroque - Alpha 372), the piano is now given pride of place. The box set Masters of...

After a boxed set devoted to nineteenth-century French music (Alpha, 2015) and another containing Beethoven's symphonies and overtures (Alpha, 2018), Jos Van Immerseel and his period-instrument ensemble Anima Eterna present an anthology of seven albums...

2008 UK two CD set. With 25 years of great collections behind them, the UK's Now... series reaches the ripe ol' age of 71 with this double disc set jam packed with the latest chart hits. 45 tracks from the likes of Girls Aloud, Pink, Katy Perry, Ne-Yo,...