"harmonia mundi has earned a reputation as one of the most important classical music labels with their emphasis on the highest quality both in performances and sound. The Gold series is an assemblage of cornerstones in establishing that reputation - a collection that contains innumerable gems." - from Classics Online.
"Described by the New York Times as 'one of Europe’s finest independent record companies', harmonia mundi’s origins date back half a century when, in 1958, a French journalist with connections to the book trade, Bernard Coutaz, decided to found his own publishing house for music. A year later the label had released its first recording, Chants From The Slavonic Liturgy.
The largest independent producer of classical recordings in France, the artist roster for harmonia mundi reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of classical music superstars. With ensembles including The Academy of Ancient Music to Trio Wanderer, Al Ayre Español to Theatre of Voices, Les Arts Florissants to Tokyo String Quartet, artists such as William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Andrew Manze, Kent Nagano, Dorothea Röschmann, Andreas Scholl, Andreas Staier and Alexandre Tharaud, leading chamber groups, choirs, orchestras – the list is virtually endless and covers most musical periods and classical genres.
You can read more about the history of Harmonia Mundi and watch a video clip of its founder Bernard Coutaz here." - from Presto Classical.
Get this collection in 1 Spotify playlist: Harmonia Mundi - hmGold Series (1788 tracks, 117 hours). A sampler album is placed at the beginning. 3 double-disk samplers of Baroque, Romantic and Choral Works can be found at the end. Some longer than 10 minutes tracks are unavailable at this moment, but it should be fixed soon. More info on the recordings available on the official site, Arkiv and Music Web.
In addition to those listed in the intro, you can also follow these excellent HM artists: Paul Lewis (his widely acclaimed Beethoven recordings have finally become available on Spotify), Isabelle Faust, Richard Egarr, Paul Hillier, Paul O'Dette and Anonymous 4, so you will get notifications for their new content.
Enjoy the sound of harmonia mundi.
Excellent addition to Spotify. Any chance of doing a deal with Chandos?
ReplyDeleteA much wanted addition to Spotify, Harmonia Mundi is one of the very best classical labels and a personal favourite. Now what about Hyperion, Chandos ...? :-)
ReplyDeleteHow about ECM ?
ReplyDeleteGreat fidelity terrific addition much thiaks for all you do. Your lists and research is staggering and have made Spotify usable for us classical lovers.Up til your contributions I seriously thought streaming music and the metadata problem would hurt classical music in the long run, but now I have hope it will be a blessing. PLease keep up your work you are appreciated.
ReplyDeleteAlso get Dr Wu's new "collector's illustrated vinyl bible" it just came out and reviews all classical best vinyl. See if much of it is available in streaming format. It is written in Chinese and English and illustrated. Beautiful job indeed.