Between 1979 and 1982, the Miroslav Vitouš Group was the primary outlet for the abundant improvisational skills of leader Vitouš and John Surman. They made three ECM albums: this eponymously-titled disc from 1980 ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Dave Holland always described Sam Rivers’ groups as his finishing school. It was Sam who instructed him to play “all the music” – inside, outside, atonal, swing, blues, and all the hues of the jazz and chamber music traditions.
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
“Something special happens when they play together” observed Robert Palmer in the New York Times, and the participants concurred. “Playing with John is one of my favourite things to do,” said Ralph Towner.
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Mainstream Jazz
Seven Songs for Quartet and Chamber Orchestra
Sounding as fresh today as it did in 1973, Seven Songs places the Gary Burton Quartet in an orchestral context, with compositions of Michael Gibbs – inspired by Messiaen and Charles Ives as well as Miles and Gil Evans ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Greek composer Eleni Karaindrou’s collaborations with stage director Antonis Antypas have generated some of her most powerful music. “Medea”, like the earlier “Trojan Women”, comes out of this association.
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Crossover Jazz
The sixth ECM album from Tord Gustavsen, recorded in Oslo in June 2013, quietly but most assuredly takes the Norwegian pianist’s music to the next stage of its development. Gustvasen’s quartet with Tore Brunborg, Mats Eilertsen ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Mainstream Jazz
After the eruptive excitement of their Live At Belleville album, which was widely praised around the world (and secured for leader Arild Andersen the Prix du Musicien Européen 2008 from the Academie du Jazz in France), the trio now ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Mainstream Jazz
Bach: Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis - Konzerte und Sinfonien für Oboe
A recording to delight all admirers of Bach and the baroque oboe and a wonderful account of Heinz Holliger’s interpretive genius as a player: for many, he is the world’s greatest oboist. Factor in the long-established relationship ...
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Concertos
Niccolò Paganini: 24 Capricci per violino solo
Thomas Zehetmair’s manually overwhelming and thought-provoking ECM recording of the complete sonatas for unaccompanied violin by Eugène Ysaÿe – released in 2004 to great critical acclaim – offered ample proof that alleged ...
Composer: Nicolò Paganini (1782-1840)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Concertos
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 4 and 5
Austrian pianist Till Fellner whose two Bach albums on ECM have won him unanimous international acclaim teams up with conductor Kent Nagano and his Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal for a sensitive and meticulous interpretation ...
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Concertos
Johann Sebastian Bach: Six Partitas, BWV 825-830
Following last year’s completion of his highly-praised Beethoven cycle András Schiff returns to Bach with a superb interpretation of the six “Partitas”, recorded live in September 2007 at Neumarkt Reitstadl one of the best piano music ...
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 –1750)
Genre: Instrumental
Subgenre: Piano
Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variationen
be regarded as one of the classical music events of the year. Two decades after his acclaimed account of the Variations for Decca, Schiff documents Bach’s towering masterpiece ...
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 –1750)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Piano
It was in 1993 when Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble, a vocal quartet from Britain focused on music of the Renaissance, have first recorded together. Their outstanding piece “Officium”, ...
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Classical Crossover
Is it fair for baroque to sound so sensual? An elegiac soprano voice wafts above an instrumental piece by Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger. Flamenco rhythms underpin a passacaglia. Then suddenly we hear the typical harmonies and ornaments ...
Composer: Kapsberger, Piccinini, Narvaez, Frescobaldi
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Instrumental
On “Nuove Musiche”, his highly successful ECM debut released in spring 2006, Norwegian master lutenist led his own group of international early music virtuosi. The album presented ravishing and most unorthodox accounts ...
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Instrumental
The Bregenz/Munich concerts were Jarrett’s most brilliant live solo recordings to date; his level of inspiration is quite extraordinary, and the music covers a wider musical and emotional range than ever.”
Genre: Instrumental
Subgenre: Piano
One of the world’s finest vocal chamber groups, the Hilliard Ensemble has a formidable reputation in the fields of both early and new music. The programme featured here exemplifies its distinctive style and highly developed ...
Composer: Bernardo Pisano (1490–1548), Roger Marsh (1949), Jacques Arcadelt (c. 1507–1568)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
Il Pergolese pays tribute to 18th century composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710 – 1736), and considers his relationship to the art music and the popular music of Naples, from a highly contemporary perspective.
Composer: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
Momo Kodma’s first ECM New Series album is a marvel, a mesmerizing journey from the shimmering surfaces of Miroirs, Ravel’s piano cycle of 1904-45 to Messiaen’s Fauvette des jardins (written in 1970), a late masterpiece ...
Composer: Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), Toru Takemitsu 1930-1996), Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Piano
There are magic moments when an artist can be said to have well and truly “arrived.” For Ralph Alessi, the release of Baida – his ECM debut as a bandleader – is just such a moment, despite his already extensive resume.
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
