Email this Article Printer-friendly RELATED ARTICLES: 25 Jul 2006 -- A New Recording of the 'All-Night Vigil' Rachs the Billboard Classical Chart 06 Jul 2006 -- Silk Road Ensemble and Mormon Tabernacle Choir Climb Billboard Classical Chart 24 Jun 2006 -- Boulez's Mahler Second, Abbado's Magic Flute Hit Billboard Classical Chart 17 Jun 2006 -- Barenboim's Well-Tempered Clavier Debuts on Billboard Chart 08 Jun 2006 -- Ainadamar Moves Up Billboard Chart

By Matthew Westphal
01 Jul 2006

World Keys by pianist Joel Fan (Reference Recordings).

World Keys, a new CD by pianist Joel Fan, leapt onto the Billboard chart this week, landing at No. 3.

Fan, a member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, performs on the disc works by a number of composers from, yes, around the world, from Schumann and Prokofiev to Adnan Saygun (Turkey), William Bolcom (U.S.), Peteris Vasks (Latvia), Qigang Chen (China) and Peter Sculthorpe (Australia). The disc is a welcome success for Reference Recordings, which reopened for business late last year after the original owners regained control of the label following the bankruptcy and dissolution of Dorian Recordings, which had purchased Reference in 2003.

The only other new entry on this week's chart, at no. 22, is a Philips release of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons featuring I Musici and violinist Pina Carmirelli.

Mitsuko Uchida's Philips recording of Beethoven's final three piano sonatas, which re-entered the Billboard chart last week at no. 21, has since climbed to no. 6. Osvaldo Golijov's opera Ainadamar, starring Dawn Upshaw with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony, had fallen from second to fourth place two weeks ago; it has now returned to no. 2.

The Claudio Abbado/Mahler Chamber Orchestra Die Zauberflöte for DG, which debuted on the chart last week at no. 17, has since fallen out of the top 25; Pierre Boulez's Mahler Second, also on DG, which entered the chart last week in 10th place, has fallen to 18th.

The 5 Browns' No Boundaries remains at no. 1 for the 12th straight week; their self-titled debut disc fell from sixth to seventh place. Violinist André Rieu's The Flying Dutchman and Tuscany are currently at nos. 4 and 5.

There was little movement on this week's classical crossover chart. Andrea Bocelli and Il Divo are still dividing the top five spots between them; four film scores (including two by John Williams, for Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith and Memoirs of a Geisha) are among the five discs in spots 6-10; the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has two discs in the top 15. The East Village Opera Company's self-titled CD for Decca moved from no. 22 up to no. 15, and a third album by Il Divo, The Christmas Collection, returned to the chart at no. 17.

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