Double vinyl LP pressing. 2015 album from the legendary award-winning blues icon. Born To Play Guitar is the follow-up to his 2013 double disc release Rhythm & Blues, which debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top Blues Albums chart. Born To Play Guitar was produced by Grammy Award winning producer/songwriter and longtime collaborator Tom Hambridge. The recent recipient of the 2015 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Buddy Guy's incredible career spans over 50 years with just as many albums released. Career highlights include seven Grammy Awards, 28 Blues Music Awards, Kennedy Center Honors, NARM Chairman's Award for Sustained Creative Achievement, Billboard Music Awards' Century Award for distinguished artistic development, and the Presidential National Medal of Arts.

Eric Montalbetti has had a long and fulfilling music career, though not necessarily in the field of composition. He is most known for his 18 year tenure as Artistic director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. However, he began composing as a young child and has continued throughout his whole life. Montalbetti writes of this project: “Today, I am most happy to see my scores taking life thanks to wonderful conductors and soloists, and to develop new composition projects for the future.” In this music one can hear all of our most varied emotions- energy, mourning, hope, love, rage, and gratitude. Notable works on this release include “Trois etudes pares Kandinsky” for piano, and “Esprit tendre,” for oboe, which is a tribute to Helen and Elliott Carter. These works are performed by some of the best soloists in the current French music scene.

The music of Buxton Orr (b. Glasgow, 1924), was hardly over-exposed during his lifetime but has encountered even more neglect since his death in 1997. This CD takes a step in the right direction, presenting Orr’s mildly modernist, elegant and honest music in first recordings of four of his chamber works for strings.

REVIEW:

All of the performances are passionate, committed and of the highest quality as is the recording which does not get between the performers and the listeners. The music needs to be ‘Listened to’ and, more than once. It is not fashionable, it does not always come out to meet you half way but it is approachable and emotional and has its own strong rewards.

The reason why the disc has taken over a decade to emerge, and I do recall it being mentioned many years ago, is that the company which originally recorded it lost interest and abandoned the project. Well done Toccata for picking up these most valuable pieces

-- MusicWeb International

She is a piano legend, he has collaborated as a soloist with all leading conductors and orchestras around the world. Now Martha Argerich and Guy Braunstein come to the Pierre Boulez Saal with their first-ever duo program-an artistic encounter that promises to be an extraordinary musical experience.