Everything Else / Classical/Opera

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Vinyl

Genres:

Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Classical/Opera, Country, Folk, Holiday, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

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Maestro on Record

November 27, 2023 by Joe Marchese

Sony Classical offers a new look at Leonard Bernstein with this 12CD hardcover book-style box set. The main selling point of Maestro on Record isn’t the music – though it’s thoughtfully curated as and powerful today as when it was recorded – but rather the photos. Of roughly 21,000 photos related to Bernstein in the Sony Music Archives, producer Robert Russ and his team have selected hundreds (many previously unpublished) to document Bernstein’s life and work, year by year, in this hefty 224-page tome. Most of the photos here were taken by…

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Classical/Opera

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Release Round-Up: Week of November 17

November 17, 2023 by The Second Disc | 4 Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the many titles available today in the final “big week” of the holiday release season. We are an Amazon affiliate and earn on qualifying purchases. We’re kicking things off with our two Christmas releases from Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music! While Amazon’s orders are unfortunately delayed, both of these titles are shipping now from Real Gone’s webstore! Arthur Fiedler and The Boston Pops, The Ultimate Pops Christmas Party! (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music) Arthur Fiedler…

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News, Release Round-Up

Formats:

Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Classical/Opera, Country, Disco/Dance, Electronic, Folk, Holiday, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock

Hurry Home for Christmas: Arthur Fiedler with Steve and Eydie, “Great Songs of Christmas” Now Shipping from Real Gone Music

November 16, 2023 by The Second Disc | 3 Comments

Great Songs of Christmas Masterworks Edition

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? Here at Second Disc HQ, we’ve been in the Christmas spirit with the release of Johnny Mathis’ all-new album Christmas Time Is Here (available on LP from Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records, and on CD from Legacy Recordings) and Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme’s That Holiday Feeling (out on CD and LP from Real Gone). Now, we’re proud to announce that our two newest titles celebrating some of the greatest Christmas music of all time are now shipping, directly from Real Gone, In his 50-year tenure…

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Classical/Opera, Holiday, Popular Standards/Vocal

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Al Hirt, Anna Moffo, Arthur Fiedler, Erich Leinsdorf, Eugene Ormandy, Eydie Gorme, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, Pablo Casals, Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill, Steve Lawrence, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, The Boston Pops, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Best of All Possible Worlds: “Maestro on Record” Offers Leonard Bernstein Recordings, Photos in One Volume

November 15, 2023 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Director-star Bradley Cooper’s long-awaiting Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, featuring Cooper as the late composer-conductor (1918-1990) and Carey Mulligan as his wife Felicia Montealegre, opens next week in limited theatrical release before arriving December 20 on Netflix. Bernstein’s final label home of Deutsche Grammophon (DG) has the official soundtrack album featuring the new recordings made for the film by Yannick Nezet-Seguin leading the London Symphony Orchestra as well as a 2-CD overview, The Maestro: The Very Best of Leonard Bernstein, which draws on his 1976-1990 tenure with the label. (Both releases are due…

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Formats:

Books, Box Sets, CD

Genres:

Classical/Opera

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Leonard Bernstein

Short Takes: Josh Groban Expands “Closer,” The Kinks Continue “The Journey,” Daft Punk Goes “Drumless”

November 13, 2023 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

Today’s Short Takes gathers news of three upcoming releases, all of which are currently scheduled for this Friday, November 17. We are an Amazon affiliate and earn on qualifying purchases. Josh Groban, currently packing houses as Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, is looking back to his 6x Platinum sophomore album, 2003’s Closer, for a new 2CD or 2LP anniversary reissue (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada). Like his self-titled debut, Closer featured songs in English as well as other languages: in this case,…

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Formats:

CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Classical/Opera, Disco/Dance, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal

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Daft Punk, Josh Groban, The Kinks

The Great Songs of Christmas: Masterworks Edition

October 2, 2023 by Joe Marchese

The Great Songs of Christmas: Masterworks Edition brings together 18 lush selections primarily drawn from the original, long out-of-print series of LPs, featuring the most beloved carols of all time as performed by the greatest classical artists of the 20th century. These legends include Leonard Bernstein and The New York Philharmonic, Eugene Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, opera greats Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill, and Anna Moffo, cellist-conductor Pablo Casals, and Erich Leinsdorf and The London Symphony Orchestra with The Roger Wagner Chorale. Half of the tracks are new…

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Classical/Opera, Holiday

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The Ultimate Pops Christmas Party!

October 2, 2023 by Joe Marchese

Arthur Fiedler Ultimate Pops Christmas Party

Arthur Fiedler and The Boston Pops’ The Ultimate Pops Christmas Party! lives up to its title with 2 CDs and 35 tracks of yuletide cheer in the grand and lavish Boston Pops fashion. Spanning 1949-1971, The Ultimate Pops Christmas Party! includes two full albums: the original 1959 Pops Christmas Party in RCA’s Living Stereo splendor and 1969’s new-to-CD Christmastime in Carol and Song. The latter found Fiedler away from Boston and conducting in New York with some very special guests: legendary soprano Leontyne Price and beloved pop duo Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. The Ultimate Pops Christmas Party! premieres…

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Classical/Opera, Holiday, Popular Standards/Vocal

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The Christmas Festival: Second Disc, Real Gone Celebrate the Season with Arthur Fiedler’s “Ultimate Pops Christmas Party,” New “Great Songs of Christmas” Volume

October 2, 2023 by The Second Disc | 3 Comments

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? We’ve already filled you in on the October 13 release of Johnny Mathis’ all-new album Christmas Time Is Here, coming on vinyl from Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records. Now, we’re excited to fill your stocking with two seasonal CDs due on November 10 celebrating some of the greatest Christmas music of all time. In his 50-year tenure as conductor of The Boston Pops, Arthur Fiedler transformed the Boston Symphony Orchestra offshoot into perhaps the most renowned pops orchestra in the world. A natural showman,…

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Classical/Opera, Holiday, Popular Standards/Vocal

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Anna Moffo, Arthur Fiedler, Erich Leinsdorf, Eugene Ormandy, Eydie Gorme, Leonard Bernstein, Leonytne Price, Pablo Casals, Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill, Steve Lawrence, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, The Boston Pops, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 2

October 1, 2023 by Joe Marchese

The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 2 brings newly remastered and repressed LP versions of Joel’s final six studio albums – Glass Houses (1980), The Nylon Curtain (1982), An Innocent Man (1983), The Bridge (1986), Storm Front (1989) and River of Dreams (1993) – plus the debut vinyl pressing of Joel’s classical compositions set Fantasies & Delusions (2001) and the premiere audio release of his beloved Live from Long Island concert special, broadcast 40 years ago. All the audio has been transferred from original analog and digital sources by Joel’s longtime mastering engineer Ted Jensen, with lacquers cut at Sterling Sound by Joe Nino Hernes. As with 2021’s first…

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Formats:

Box Sets, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Classical/Opera, Pop, Rock

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Cherry Red’s El Label Celebrates Burt Bacharach, Leonard Bernstein on New Box Sets

August 15, 2023 by Joe Marchese | 5 Comments

In recent months, Cherry Red’s El imprint has turned its attention to a pair of legendary American composers. Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) and Burt Bacharach (1928-2023) were born just a decade apart, though Bacharach lived more than three decades longer than Bernstein. Neither man was born in New York City, but both created much of their remarkable work there. Both were proud Jewish Americans, and both wrote for the musical theatre. An American in New York: Leonard Bernstein – The City Scores brings together recordings of Bernstein’s musicals On the Town, Wonderful Town,…

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Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Burt Bacharach, Hal David, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim

Genres:

Cast Recordings, Classical/Opera, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Soundtracks

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The Weekend Stream: July 8, 2023

July 8, 2023 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there’s plenty of great new/old music to float you into the weekend. From Prince’s vault to a classic Talking Heads live performance and rarities from Doris Day and Duke Ellington, you’ve got plenty to choose from today! Prince, All a Share Together Now / 7 (E Flat Version) (NPG) All a Share: iTunes / Amazon 7 (E Flat Version): iTunes / Amazon It’s been nearly two years since the Prince estate…

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The Weekend Stream

Formats:

Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Genres:

Classic Rock, Classical/Opera, Everything Else, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

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Counting Crows, Doris Day, Duke Ellington, Prince, Pulp, Talking Heads

Release Round-Up: Week of May 26

May 26, 2023 by The Second Disc | 1 Comment

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today! Carole King, Home Again: Live in Central Park (Ode/Legacy) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Coinciding with the documentary/concert film of the same name, Carole King’s Home Again: Live in Central Park captures her concert – the first-ever free concert at New York City’s Great Lawn – in front of a reported 100,000 people. King opened the…

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Release Round-Up

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Classical/Opera, Jazz, Pop, Rock

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Barry Manilow, Carole King, John Coltrane, Mike Oldfield, Richard Hawley, Robert Craft, Sparks, Steely Dan, Thelonious Monk

Anchors Aweigh! “From Hollywood to the World – The Rediscovered Recordings by José Iturbi” Arrives from Sony Classical

May 17, 2023 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Conductor-pianist José Iturbi (1895-1980) broadened the audience for classical music with his appearances in such classic MGM musicals as Thousands Cheer, Anchors Aweigh, Three Daring Daughters, and the Chopin biopic A Song to Remember. Now, Iturbi is the subject of a lavish 16-CD box set from Sony Classical. From Hollywood to the World – The Rediscovered Recordings by José Iturbi features all of the recordings made by Iturbi and his sister Amparo Iturbi (also a pianist) for RCA Victor between 1933 and 1955, including many previously unissued recordings. Born in Valencia, Spain,…

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José Iturbi, Michael Feinstein

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Classical/Opera

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Release Round-Up: Week of March 24

March 24, 2023 by The Second Disc | No Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today. Elton John, Honky Château: 50th Anniversary Edition (Rocket/UMC) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Hot on the heels of his final U.S. live performances, Elton John is looking back with a 50th anniversary edition of his 1972 LP Honky Château. The reissue will feature the original album (boasting such classics as “Rocket Man,” “Honky Cat,” and “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters”) alongside nine session demos covering eight of the album’s tracks (including two versions of “Slave”) and…

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Release Round-Up

Formats:

Blu-Ray Audio, Box Sets, CD, Cassette, DVD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Classical/Opera, Country, Funk, Gospel, Pop, Rock

Tags:

Carla Olson, Elton John, Gene Clark, Jessye Norman, Junie Morrison, Lee Hazlewood, Madness, Nancy Sinatra, Pink Floyd, The Beat, The Kinks, The Specials, Whitney Houston, Willie Nelson

Goodness Gracious Me: Cherry Red Collects Early George Martin Productions on “A Painter in Sound”

February 7, 2023 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

Late producer Sir George Martin is described as A Painter in Sound on Cherry Red/El’s new collection of his Pre-Beatles Productions and Classical Influences. While Martin has been anthologized in the past, most notably on the unparalleled 6-CD set Produced by George Martin in 2001, there’s always room for another one – in this case, an eclectic 4-CD journey that’s largely far-removed from the rock which made Martin famous. The title of the set is derived from a Martin quote repeated in its booklet. “When I joined EMI, the criterion by which…

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