Frank Bridge is today recognized as one of the most gifted figures in British musical life before World War I. His Piano Quintet, a work of personal significance prompted by the absence of his fiancee, is notable for its passionate, lyrical, and forceful language, the Rachmaninov-like technical demands of the piano part calling for a virtuoso pianist. Debussy described Cyril Scott's exotic harmonic language as "an intoxication for the ear", and the First Piano Quintet is a multi-faceted work that mirrors Scott's flamboyant public persona while maintaining a genuinely poetic inner beauty.
On Slow Motion Miracles, Sachal delivers a full set of multilayered gems steeped in a variety of styles, including indie pop, hip-hop, electronic, Brazilian, Afro-beat, old-school jazz and new-styled jazz. The album is produced by Michael Leonhart, best known for his work with Steely Dan and its co-founder Michael Fagen. Slow Motion Miracles is Sachal's most accomplished recording as an artist.
Trombonist Deb Scott makes her Parma debut with her new Navona release Playing Favorites, accompanied by pianist Ron Petti. She performs a variety of her favorite pieces that appeal to her background in jazz and to her considerable technical skill. She writes: “What I love about each one is its ability to engage a diverse audience making for enjoyable and exciting musical moments.” The central piece on the album is Stephen Lias’s River Runner, written in response to a paddling trip he took with Scott through Big Bend National Park’s Santa Elena Canyon. Across the piece, Lias explores nature landscapes and the excitement of adventure, culminating in the visceral and kinetic third and final movement “Rock Slide.” The album includes many additional pieces, as well. Derek Bourgeois’ crowd- pleasing Trombone Concerto, written for Christian Lindberg, appeals to pop, jazz, and classical audiences. William Goldstein’s emotional Colloquy for Solo Trombone uses elements of jazz to explore opposing feelings of positivity and angst against a backdrop of Americana. Finally, the album closes with Variations on "The Carnival of Venice" composed by Jean-Baptiste Arban. This arrangement by Donald Hunsberger was actually composed for trumpet and originally performed by Wynton Marsalis.
Faure: Requiem & Other Choral Music / Rutter, Cambridge Singers
Collegium Records
CD
$12.99Jan 01, 2010
...Rutter distils even more drama from dynamic contrasts than Dutoit, the balance between voices and instruments in his performance sounds natural, not carefully achieved, his boyish-sounding sopranos (above all the touchingly ethereal Caroline Ashton in the Pie Jesu) seem as incontrovertibly right for the colour of this work as the solitary, silvery violin that the Rutter edition employs in the Sanctus... [F]or truth to Faure's luminous conception Rutter's version is still unapproached, and it still heads my list.
Sing, Ye Heavens - Hymns For All Times / Cambridge Singers
Collegium Records
CD
$18.99Aug 29, 2000
This recording arguably contains the best representation of the Anglican hymn tradition that's possible to include on one 76-minute CD. Yes, there are hundreds of other candidates--a couple of my favorites are "missing"--but for anyone who knows and loves this vast and varied repertoire that's carried congregations and individual souls through centuries of life's trials and triumphs, prayers and celebrations, private moments and public sharing, these 21 selections will please the ear and stir countless emotions. The list is too long to mention all the hymns here, but among them are "O God, our help in ages past", "The King of love my Shepherd is", "When I survey the wondrous Cross", "A mighty fortress is our God", "Christ the Lord is risen today", "Be thou my vision", "Morning has broken", "Amazing grace", "Christ is made the sure Foundation", and my all-time favorite, "Love Divine, all loves excelling". A pleasant surprise is a hymn with words and music by John Rutter himself. Titled "Eternal God", it was composed in 1999 "with the aim of augmenting the meager stock of hymns that make mention of music . . . as gifts of God." It's a beauty, and it should easily find a home in the standard repertoire. In familiar Rutter programming fashion, the hymns are grouped in categories, such as "Hymns from the Psalms", "Invocations", "Passiontide and Easter", "Folk Hymns", and "Evening Hymns". There are several chants--"Pange lingua", "Veni Creator Spiritus", and "Let all mortal flesh keep silence"--and the arrangements by Rutter are imaginative and appropriate to each hymn's message and musical character. Some are a cappella, some use harp, others are accompanied by brass and/or organ, timpani, and percussion. Rutter's acclaimed Cambridge Singers are in top form and the acoustics of the Church of St. Alban the Martyr, Holborn, are generously responsive. Sing ye heavens, indeed. This is heavenly singing--and heavenly music. --David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com
The Prince Regent's band, featuring noted brass players, make their recording debut on Resonous Classics with a celebration of the legendary Distin Family. During the mid-nineteenth century the Distin Family blazed a traila cross Europe and North America performing countless concerts and promoting new and exciting designs of brass instruments. The Distins originally performed on a mixture of natural and keyed brass instruments but halfway through their career, thanks to a chance meeting with Adolphe Sax in Paris in 1844, they adopted the new valved brass instruments, and in particular the new "saxhorn", with which their names became synonymous. In "The Celebrated Distin Family", period brass specialists The Prince Regent's Band have recreated the lost Distin Family repertoire, performing on their unique collection of original saxhorns and other fascinating brass instruments of the period.
O Praise The Lord of Heaven - Music of Rejoicing & Reflection by John Rutter
Collegium Records
CD
$12.99Sep 24, 2013
The music on this album, was written by John Rutter for a variety of choirs and occasions, over a period of many years. From ceremonial and uplifting, to quiet and reflective, this album features 14 classic tracks from Collegium recordings, plus two previously unreleased tracks.
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REVIEW:
The Cambridge Singers and City of London Sinfonia have the lion's share of this disc. They present amazing performances: very clear diction, tuning and a great sense of blend within the choir, as well as very expressive playing from the orchestra. One thing that this compilation album highlights is the choir's consistency over nearly twenty years.
Beyond Beethoven explores four works by close contemporaries of the great master composer in the early part of the 19th century, chosen partly due to the connections between the composers, Beethoven and his Op. 17 Sonata, and partly to dispel enduring modern myths about the instrument’s limited options. Performing on original period instruments (an 1810 cor solo by Lucien Joseph Raoux, and an 1815 fortepiano by Johann Peter Fritz), Anneke Scott and Steven Devine, take us on a compelling journey through this enlightening corner of the piano and horn repertoire.
Abraham Lincoln Portraits – BACON, E. / GOULD, M. / HARRIS, R. / IVES, C. / McKAY, G.F. / PERSICHETTI, V. / TUROK, P. [2 CDs]
Naxos
CD
$29.99Feb 24, 2009
Ives Lincoln the great commoner, gould Lincoln legend, harris abraham Lincoln walks at midnight, bacon ford's theatre, copland Lincoln portrait, McKay to a liberator, turok variations on an American song: aspects of Lincoln and liberty, persichetti a Lincoln address.
Continuing their ongoing series with Resonus Classics, the Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys, Fifth Avenue, New York, and conductor John Scott release an album of celebrated as well as more recent American choral music. Featuring music from the last seven decades, this engrossing recording celebrates the very best of American choral works with music from Leonard Bernstein, Randall Thompson, Aaron Copland, Nico Muhly, Samuel Barber, Daniel Castellanos, Ned Rorem, and former Saint Thomas music director Gerre Hancock. World premiere recordings from Muhly (Bright Mass with Canons) and Daniel Castellanos (Eternal Light) are featured on this release. The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys is considered by many to be the leading ensemble of its kind in the Anglican choral tradition in the United States. The Choir performs regularly with Orchestra of St. Luke’s or with the period instrument ensemble, Concert Royal, as part of its own concert series. Its primary raison d’etre, however, is to provide music for five choral services each week. Live webcasts of all choral services and further information including recordings can be found at www.SaintThomasChurch.org.
Based at Saint Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York, the world renowned Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys - and their acclaimed director John Scott - offer a new recording of Bach's Motets. The choir is considered by major critics to be the outstanding choral ensemble of the Anglican musical tradition in the U.S. today, and one of the finest in the world. Besides offering a full concert series each year, the choir of 16 men and three dozen boys sings at five weekly principal worship services, preparing an astounding 400 pieces of sacred music a year. This album marks the first release in an ongoing relationship with Resonus Classics over the next few years.
Clarissa - The History of a Young Lady, Vol. 1 (Unabridged)
Naxos AudioBooks
CD
$81.95$163.98Save 50%Jun 08, 2018
A milestone in the history of the novel, Samuel Richardson's epistolary and elaborate Clarissa follows the life of a chaste young woman desperate to protect her virtue. When beautiful Clarissa Harlowe is forced to marry the rich but repulsive Mr. Solmes, she refuses, much to her family's chagrin. She escapes their persecution with the help of Mr. Lovelace, a dashing and seductive rake, but soon finds herself in a far worse dilemma. Lovelace is a devil in disguise: he promptly imprisons Clarissa, and is determined to break her will. Terrifying and enlightening, Clarissa weaves a tapestry of narrative experimentation into a gripping morality tale of good triumphing over evil. The recording is divided into three volumes, the present release being the first. Clarissa is one of the longest novels in the English canon; many critics agree that it is one of the greatest and most influential in English. For this first ever unabridged recording, a carefully selected cast of readers bring to life Richardson's intricate narrative.
180gm Tip-on Jacket Remastered by Bernie Grundman. 1992's A Walkin' Thing is the last of three albums the great American organist Shirley Scott recorded for Candid, and her final recording before her passing. First and foremost, Scott was a trained pianist, and it should be noted that towards the end of her life, she gravitated more to that instrument. But here, Scott returns to form, making this recording bitter sweet. Recorded in 1992 at the at the famed Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. This recording has been remastered by legendary mastering engineer Bernie Grundman.
Softpack Wallet - Remastered by Bernie Grundman. 1992's A Walkin' Thing is the last of three albums the great American organist Shirley Scott recorded for Candid, and her final recording before her passing. First and foremost, Scott was a trained pianist, and it should be noted that towards the end of her life, she gravitated more to that instrument. But here, Scott returns to form, making this recording bitter sweet. Recorded in 1992 at the at the famed Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. This recording has been remastered by legendary mastering engineer Bernie Grundman.
![Abraham Lincoln Portraits – BACON, E. / GOULD, M. / HARRIS, R. / IVES, C. / McKAY, G.F. / PERSICHETTI, V. / TUROK, P. [2 CDs]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1474210.jpg?v=1786737299&width=800)
![Abraham Lincoln Portraits – BACON, E. / GOULD, M. / HARRIS, R. / IVES, C. / McKAY, G.F. / PERSICHETTI, V. / TUROK, P. [2 CDs]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/636943937327.pt01.jpg?v=1786737299&width=800)
![Abraham Lincoln Portraits – BACON, E. / GOULD, M. / HARRIS, R. / IVES, C. / McKAY, G.F. / PERSICHETTI, V. / TUROK, P. [2 CDs]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1474210.jpg?v=1786737299&width=400)
