Hi-Res (or Studio Quality) downloads are the pinnacle of modern digital audio. While standard-definition (SD) FLAC files match the quality of a standard CD encoded in 16 bits at 44.1kHz, Hi-Res FLACs retain the higher definition of the files used by the sound engineers in the mastering process itself - hence the name.
The most common Hi-Res format is 24/96 - that is, a bit depth of 24 bits and a sampling rate of 96 kHz - though other Hi-Res bit depths and sampling rates exist, such as 24/192. Among other benefits, this enables them to encode a considerably greater range of both dynamics and frequencies.
Hi-Res audio files 'more closely replicate the sound quality that the musicians and engineers were working with in the studio' (What Hi-Fi? Magazine) and are playable on most devices that support the FLAC format.

Josephslegende by Richard Strauss is based on the Biblical tale of the adventures of Joseph in Egypt after he has been sold into slavery by his brothers. Strauss started the work in June 1912. However, in a letter of 11 September, he confided that Joseph isnt progressing as quickly as I expected. The chaste Joseph himself isnt at all up my street, and if a thing bores me I find it difficult to set it to music. This God-seeker Joseph hes going to be a hell of an effort! Quite characteristic for Strauss, he showed far more interest in the sexual elements of the story, in which Potiphars wife attempts to seduce Joseph and ends up committing suicide.

Essential: A masterpiece of prog-rock music collection.
ELOY's debut album is one of Germany's 70's heavy weights and one of my personal favs. This stonker of an album captures the wonderful underground 70's krautrock magic, clearly standing up though as a very different sounding ELOY than subsequent album would prove for sure.

Sixty years have passed since 12 young graduates, mainly from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory, got together to give voice to their passion. Thus was born a rarity of its time, a chamber group without a conductor. This apparent lack could have been their Achilles heel when the great Toscanini heard them, but their enthusiasm brought out the strong and affectionate words: "Bravi, bravis- simi…(very good, excellent) music wont die! … from him. Time has passed quickly, yet the sound that travelled these decades still lights up the eyes of those who were participants in this extraordinary cavalcade as if it had lasted only a moment.

Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection
Soul is dead’, stated Embryo on it’s debut album in 1970. Yet fellow Germans Kin Ping Meh might have proved them wrong with their pleasant eclectic rock debut.

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music
This record must be the dream of any music lover!!
This had been the debut by German band Hoelderlin (here still spelled with an "umlaut") and actually what an amazing one it was.

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music.
PROF. WOLFFF, a german band from Ulm, started in the early 70's and unfortunately produced only one album.

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music.
Another unknown but very good symphonic album. Point of Eruption is the only release from Troya. The music sounds both melancholic and space, and is mainly guitar and mellotron driven.

This album is released in celebration of the 300th anniversary of the birth of the composer Giovanni Pergolesi. I Musici performs compositional works by Francesco Geminiani, Giovanni Pergolesi, Antonio Vivaldi and Francesco Durante. I Musici was formed in 1952 by twelve young and promising Italian musicians, mainly Roman and mostly graduates of the at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. They chose the simple, yet nice name I Musici and they deliberately decided to shape the ensemble without a conductor.

Avalon is the eighth and final studio album by English rock band Roxy Music. Released in May 1982, it was recorded in 1981–82 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, and is generally regarded as the culmination of the smoother, more adult-oriented sound of the band's later work. It was the band's most successful studio album, reaching No. 1 in the UK (for 3 weeks) and staying on the album charts for over a year. Although it only peaked at No. 53 in the United States, Avalon endured as a sleeper hit and became the band's only million-selling record in that country, ultimately receiving a RIAA platinum certification.

Hailed for his outstanding artistry, musicianship and virtuosity, violinist Dong-Suk Kang has performed on five continents to extraordinary acclaim. Dominic Gill, a London music critic, describes Dong-Suk Kang in his book 'The Book of the Violin', as 'one of the world’s great violinists. His flawless technique and perfect bow arm certainly produce one of the most beautiful violin tones to be heard anywhere today'. Ormandy, Serkin, Menuhin, Francescatti, and other eminent musicians also have praised him as one of the most outstanding violinists of his generation and a musician of the highest order.

'Kun Woo Paik's particular qualities are best revealed in the most popular, tuneful and elegant of these concertos - the Third' (BBC Music Magazine)

Walter Piston wrote music of clarity, nobility, longing tenderness, wit and elegance. His craftsmanship was admired not only by his students at Harvard, but by all great composers of this century. Piston’s works for violin and orchestra are extraordinary examples of his musical gifts and mastery of instrumental technique. Internationally recognized violinist James Buswell imbues these works with authority and tonal strength.

Although the symphonies, string quartets and concertos represent the core of his achievement, Shostakovich had wide sympathies across the musical spectrum: hence his oft-repeated comment that he enjoyed all music from Bach to Offenbach. All the works on this album – which opens with a suite from the ballet The Bolt (the scenario of industrial espionage is a pretext for music drawing on circus-like farce) and concludes with his orchestrations of Tea for Two – attest to a composer who entered into the spirit of ‘light music’ with enjoyment and enthusiasm.

Takako Nishizaki is one of the most frequently recorded and among the best-selling violinists of all time. Her recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons was named the 8th best-selling classical CD of all time with sales exceeding 1,000,000 copies to-date.