• 

  The Every

  The electrifying follow-up to Dave Eggers' New York Times Bestseller The Circle 'Gulpable fictive entertainment . . . Eggers is a wonderful storyteller with an alert and defiant vision' Observer When the world's largest search engine / social media company merges with the planet's dominant e-commerce site, it creates the richest and most dangerous-and, oddly enough, most beloved-monopoly ever known: The Every. Delaney Wells is an unlikely new hire. A former forest ranger and unwavering tech skeptic, she charms her way into an entry-level job with one goal in mind: to take down the company from within. With her compatriot, the not-at-all-ambitious Wes Kavakian, they look for the company's weaknesses, hoping to free humanity from all-encompassing surveillance and the emoji-driven infantilization of the species. But does anyone want what Delaney is fighting to save? Does humanity truly want to be free? Studded with unforgettable characters and lacerating set-pieces, The Every blends satire and terror, while keeping the reader in breathless suspense about the fate of the company - and the human animal. 'More playful and satirical than Orwell . . . it scores as a series of brilliant set pieces and a devastating overall critique.' Sunday Times 'Part of the genius of this remarkable piece of satire, riven as it is with horribly plausible ideas and horribly good jokes. . . . What Eggers does so well is make The Every alluring as well as alarming...' The Times 'You read it and think: yes, this is set in the future but it is actually going on here and now. It is an urgent and necessary book. It's also fun. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar' The Scotsman

  • Shop: buecher
  • Price: 11.99 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  The Every (eBook, ePUB)

  The electrifying follow-up to Dave Eggers' New York Times Bestseller The Circle'Gulpable fictive entertainment . . . Eggers is a wonderful storyteller with an alert and defiant vision' ObserverWhen the world's largest search engine / social media company merges with the planet's dominant e-commerce site, it creates the richest and most dangerous-and, oddly enough, most beloved-monopoly ever known: The Every.Delaney Wells is an unlikely new hire. A former forest ranger and unwavering tech skeptic, she charms her way into an entry-level job with one goal in mind: to take down the company from within. With her compatriot, the not-at-all-ambitious Wes Kavakian, they look for the company's weaknesses, hoping to free humanity from all-encompassing surveillance and the emoji-driven infantilization of the species. But does anyone want what Delaney is fighting to save? Does humanity truly want to be free?Studded with unforgettable characters and lacerating set-pieces, The Every blends satire and terror, while keeping the reader in breathless suspense about the fate of the company - and the human animal.'More playful and satirical than Orwell . . . it scores as a series of brilliant set pieces and a devastating overall critique.' Sunday Times 'Part of the genius of this remarkable piece of satire, riven as it is with horribly plausible ideas and horribly good jokes. . . . What Eggers does so well is make The Every alluring as well as alarming...' The Times 'You read it and think: yes, this is set in the future but it is actually going on here and now. It is an urgent and necessary book. It's also fun. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar' The Scotsman

  • Shop: buecher
  • Price: 14.99 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Oliver Hazard Perry and Matthew C. Perry: The Lives and Careers of the Brothers Who Became Legendary U.S. Navy Officers , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 168min

  We have met the enemy and they are ours.” (Oliver Hazard Perry)The Japanese are remarkable for their inordinate curiosity.” (Commodore Matthew Perry)Americans had few things to celebrate during the War of 1812, and fighting on the frontier against the British and their native allies didn’t go any better than the conflict did in other theaters, but one of the only major victories the Americans won came at the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813. That action made Oliver Hazard Perry, a veteran of the Barbary Wars and commander of the USS Lawrence, a legend whose name has endured for over 200 years. Perry was so instrumental in the victory that British historian C.S. Forester noted “it was as fortunate for the Americans that the Lawrence still possessed a boat that would float, as it was that Perry was not hit." As one of the biggest naval battles of the war, the results meant that America maintained control of Lake Erie, an important location from which they could recover Detroit and be better positioned to confront the British and Shawnee leader Tecumseh’s confederacy. For his part, Perry would forever be remembered as the “Hero of Lake Erie,” even as he and compatriot Captain Jesse Elliot would feud over their respective actions during the battle for the rest of Perry’s life.On July 8, 1853, U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew Perry led four American warships into Uraga Harbor near Edo (later renamed Tokyo), presenting the Japanese with a letter from President Millard Fillmore. The Japanese couldn’t know they were at the end of their long withdrawal from the rest of the world, but they were quite aware that the conditions in China and in Asia generally were being forced to change. Perry remains a fairly familiar name in America as a result of his time in Asia, but that legacy actually belies just how influential he was for the U.S. Navy back at home. He is still known as the “Father of the Steam Navy” in America. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Gregory T. Luzitano. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/194173/bk_acx0_194173_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

  • Shop: Audible
  • Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Violinsonaten

  Markus Becker (Piano) // The German violinist Tanja Becker-Bender burst onto the recording scene with a dazzling set of Paganini's Caprices which thrilled the critics. She appears here in a second disc for Hyperion with her compatriot, Markus Becker, who has made two acclaimed recordings for the label.

  • Shop: odax
  • Price: 20.39 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Klavierkonzerte 22 & 24

  National Arts Centre Orchestra - Hannu Lintu (Dir) // Here Angela Hewitt is joined by her compatriot National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada and frequent collaborator Hannu Lintu for sparklingly stylish renditions of Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos 22 and 24.

  • Shop: odax
  • Price: 16.26 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Nocturnes

  Britten Sinfonia // While their recording of Eric Whitacre (CDA67543) continues its chart-topping run on both sides of the Atlantic, Stephen Layton and Polyphony have returned to the studio and put down a second disc devoted to the choral music of Whitacre's compatriot Morten Lauridsen.

  • Shop: odax
  • Price: 16.26 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Missa Ave Maria/Missa Salve sancta parens

  Stephen Rice and his Brabant Ensemble introduce us to another lesser-known contemporary and compatriot of Josquin. This is a release which will have everyone talking about Févin.

  • Shop: odax
  • Price: 15.43 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Variations on 1930

  This album is comprised of piano gems from 1927-1933 incorporating compositions ranging from Kodály's ethnic explorations to Tatum's sparkling riffs on American music theater. My inspiration came from an offhand comment while talking with my friend, Bill Bordonaro, at Bethany Church (where I am the music director and this album was recorded). Bill mentioned that the sanctuary of the church, the last part to be built, was completed in 1930 - just after the start of the Great Depression. The time frame sparked a desire in me to explore how the historical events of this period affected the music of the time in the United States and globally. The true problem was culling the great works, there is music enough for many albums but I started here. This recital was performed in Toronto, February 5, 2013 at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheater's recital series where it received critic's pick and, subsequently, came home to Bethany Church in Chicago on May 11, 2013. Zoltan Kodály composed the piano version of Dances of Marosszék (Marosszéki táncok) in 1927 and decided it's colorful, folk-inspired music would adapt well to a full orchestration (completed in 1930). Kodály, like his compatriot and friend Bartók, devoted much time to the collection and arrangement of ethnic music. The six tunes used here were collected in Marosszék, a town in the Szekely region (formerly of eastern Hungary, currently of Romania). Kodály reveals in his notes for the orchestral version that the dances are originally from "Fairyland", otherwise known as Transylvania (Dracula and fairies...). The dances are quite a ride from heavy to creepy, finally to a swirling explosive coda. Poulenc is the perfect balm for the bombast at the end of the Kodály. The novelette in C major is the epitome of neoclassical piano beauty. Poulenc eschews his normally lush harmony for a more restrained palette which allows for the melody to come to the fore. One can almost hear Bach (C major prelude from the well-tempered clavier book 1) or Brahms (Op.117, #1) but with "Poulencian" wit. The second novelette in B flat minor is a scherzo humoresque, more typical of the whimsical side of Poulenc. I paired the novelettes with the valse-improvisation sur le nom de BACH, composed in 1932. The waltz, dedicated to Vladimir Horowitz, is a miniature with lush harmonies and wide melodic leaps, finishing with a bravura octave passage. Sergei Rachmaninoff arranged Bach's Violin partita in E Major in 1933, during a period of relatively little compositional output due to his extensive concertizing. His transcription consists of three of Bach's original six movements. Rachmaninoff follows the original Bach structure, but seamlessly fleshes the single line out for the piano in a way that is personal and satisfying. The prelude begins exactly as Bach's original with just with one line that gradually expands and finishes in a flurry of Rachmaninovian brilliance - an ending that is equal parts Bach and Rachmaninoff. The gavotte is a light, almost jazzy take on the dance with an elegant and controlled development and good use of contrast between piano registers. The gigue is contrapuntally dense and adds a fuller bass line. The three character pieces of Benjamin Britten were composed when he was 17 in his first semester at the Royal Conservatory. I describe the three pieces as restless arioso, bittersweet lullaby, and moto perpetuo - Britten lists only the tempo markings and dedications (informally to his school friends). When selecting these pieces, I played them for my musician friends and asked them to guess the composer/school in which they were composed. Invariably, the response was that the composer was French, and there was always great surprise when I revealed Britten as the composer. Fleurs de France are 8 miniatures that were composed in 1930 by one of Les Six - the only female composer, Germaine Tailleferre. The pieces are spare and concise, yet poignant and fluid. Tailleferre created these pieces in the midst of her most fruitful period of composition. Most of the pieces have a simple ABA form which is elegantly obscured by simple changes in harmonization and figuration. Each piece describes a flower: Jasmin de Provence, Coquelicot de Guyenne, Rose d'Anjou, Tournesol du Languedoc, Anthémis du Roussillon, Lavandin de Haute-Provence, Volubilis de Béarn, and Bleuet de Picardie. Copland's Piano Variations stands as a stark and stentorian presence between his earlier jazz influenced works and later populist works. I became acquainted with the work from my teacher in high school, Dan Plante. He recommended that I learn the variations for my senior recital. Always up for a challenge, I fell in love with the work. The economy of means, development, and declamatory piano writing resonated with me. The work became the backbone of many of my concerts. As I was researching these liner notes and the lectures I gave surrounding the recital, I came across this article that Leonard Bernstein wrote about the Variations contextualizing the piece and it's composer: In the fall of 1937 I had just begun my junior year at Harvard. Although I had never seen Copland, I had long adored him through his music. He was the composer who would lead American music out of the wilderness, and I pictured him as a cross between Walt Whitman and an Old Testament prophet, bearded and patriarchal. I had dug up and learned as much of his music as I could find, the Piano Variations had virtually become my trademark. I was crazy about them then--and I still find them marvelous today--but in those days, I especially enjoyed disrupting parties with the work. It was the furthest you could go in avant-garde 'noise,' and I could be relied upon to empty any room in Boston within three minutes by sitting down at the piano and starting it. The theme of the Piano Variations is made up of intentionally dissonant intervals, illustrating a tension between the major and minor thirds. The theme is declaimed in single notes using sympathetic vibrations to create ghostly sonic "after-images". Twenty variations follow, concluding with a massive rhythmically unsettled coda. Out of avant garde and swing emerged perhaps the greatest pianist of the 20th century, Art Tatum. His technique was a thing of beauty, impeccable and unimpeded. His style was absolutely his own: rococo, baroque, ornamental, witty and fast ... outrageously fast ... and he played this way mostly blind (cataracts at birth, assaulted in 1930). In 1993, J. A. Bilmes, an MIT student, invented a term that is now in common usage in the field of computational musicology: the Tatum. It means "the smallest perceptual time unit in music" and is a tribute to Tatum's pianistic velocity. He took stride piano and stretched it in every direction, improvising ornate cadenzas á la Liszt and making free use of colorful harmonic substitution. He was one of the major inspirers of bebop and many of the luminaries of the classical music world were avid admirers of Art Tatum's playing, in particular, Horowitz. At one point, Horowitz, so impressed by Art Tatum's playing, composed a set of virtuosic variations on Tea for Two, which he played Art Tatum. Tatum said "very good, I enjoyed it". Tatum then sat down and played his own set variations. Horowitz, stunned at the brilliance of Tatum's performance, asked "when did you come up with this?" Tatum said "Oh, I was just improvising". Horowitz then threw out his manuscript and vowed never to play Tea for Two in public again. There is debate over whether or not this story is true, regardless, it's a great story and shows the extent to which Art Tatum was admired by his virtuosic pianist peers. An album like this does not simply rise out of the ether and is not a solo creation. I am deeply indebted to the many individuals who helped make this happen: Nina Draganic, who programmed this recital in Toronto and came up with the catchy title, Bethany United Church of Christ and pastor Bill Bor

  • Shop: odax
  • Price: 20.65 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  The Great Wall

  Director Zhang Yimou's fantasy-tinged action epic stars Matt Damon as William Garin, a European mercenary in China during the Song Dynasty. Taken prisoner by an elite group of Chinese soldiers, Garin and his compatriot Pero Tovar (Pedro Pascal) soon find themselves aiding their captors in their desperate struggle to defend the Great Wall from the Tao Tei, monstrous creatures that launch an attack once every 60 years. Jing Tian, Andy Lau, and Willem Dafoe also star in this American/Chinese production.

  • Shop: odax
  • Price: 17.63 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  L.A. Trumpet Works

  Lauridsen: Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (published 1973) As a performer on both trumpet and piano it was a natural undertaking for me to compose a Sonata for this combination of instruments. I consider the Sonata my Opus 1, composed while an undergraduate at the University of Southern California School of Music. Also studying at USC at the time as Ronald Romm, who premiered the Sonata in 1965 and later went on to fame as a founding member of the Canadian Brass. Calling for virtuoso playing (especially in the third movement), the Sonata has become a staple in the Twentieth-Century trumpet literature. (Morten Lauridsen) Newman: Kestrel and Leonardo for Trumpet and Viola (1996) 'Kestrel and Leonardo' is based on poems of Canadian poet, Susan Musgrave, and compositionally paints the vivid texts quite literally. The poems speak of two magical children that travel odd and delightful dimensions of the universe, leaving a unique mark wherever they go. Musically speaking, the sonorities point to the fantasy-like nature of the poetry, and though tonal, challenge with form and rhythmic drive. This programmatic set of wordless songs emerges in three contrasting movements, illustrating the utterly diverse natures of the bird-like Kestrel and her strong-willed and sometimes ferocious compatriot, Leonardo. This work was commissioned by and dedicated to Roy Poper and Laura Kuennen-Poper, who gave the first performances in Los Angeles and Germany in 1996. (Maria Newman) Stone: Pastorale (1989) The 'Pastorale' is a simple, lyrical, and beautiful one-movement work based on the hymn tune 'All Creatures of Our God and King.' Consisting of three parts (A-B-A), it is more musically than technically challenging, and very well complements any program by providing contrast to the more athletic trumpet literature. 'Pastorale' was written for my good friend Bill Bing, who in turn introduced me to Dwight. (Roy Poper) Halligan: Meditation (1999) I commissioned this work almost by accident. While working on Halligan's 'Dialogues' I realized that I had room on the CD for an other short work. In discussing my progress on the 'Dialogues' with Dick I mentioned this, and asked if he might be able to write a meditative piece for Bb trumpet. He responded that he'd think about it. This work arrived in the mail one week later, and I found it to be delightful and exactly what I was looking for. The 'Meditation' is beautifully melodic and almost operatic in nature. (Roy Poper) Halligan: Dialogues for Trumpet, Piano and Percussion (1996) I was pleasantly surprised to answer the phone one day and hear Dick Halligan at the other end of the line. We had worked together for over 20 years on many of his projects but had been out of touch for several years. Dick, composer for the band 'Blood, Sweat, and Tears' and many commercial recording projects, told me that he had again returned to writing 'art' music (frankly, I think everything he ever wrote was 'art') and he asked me if I'd like a piece. I was elated at the prospect, and suggested that a valuable addition to the repertoire might be a work for trumpet, piano, and one other instrument. I was also looking for a piece that could 'bridge' the classical and jazz-rock fusion styles. We discussed the work several times, and the result is 'Dialogues.' (Roy Poper) Stevens: Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (1959) The Sonata for Trumpet and Piano is an enduring contribution to the trumpet literature, having become a standard in most serious performers' repertoire. The work is comprised of two lively and technically challenging outer movements and a sparsely lyrical, almost eerie second movement, the work is a true sonata, in that the musical lines are interwoven between the instruments to create a seamless whole. Composed during his tenure as Professor of Composition at the University of California School of Music, the f1rst performance was actually accomplished on clarinet, when the trumpet student who had taken it on realized that it was, at least temporarily, beyond his reach. That trumpet student was Thomas Stevens (no relation), the now-retired Principal Trumpet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic! The Halsey Stevens Sonata remains a difficult, if rewarding, challenge for the best of players. (Roy Poper)

  • Shop: odax
  • Price: 29.26 EUR excl. shipping

---

---