Released in 1989 by the noted audiophile label Chesky Records, Portraits is a testament to the prodigious talent of the legendary trumpeter, flugelhornist, and jazz educator Clark Terry. The first of four albums for the Chesky label, Portraits was recorded when the St. Louis-born hornblower, then 68 years old, was a much-venerated jazz elder. By then, he had 35 albums under his belt and boasted a resume that included stellar collaborations with Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Quincy Jones, and Dizzy Gillespie. For Portraits, produced by David Chesky, Terry assembled a quartet comprising pianist Don Friedman, bassist Victor Gaskin, and drummer Lewis Nash. With Terry alternating between flugelhorn and muted trumpet while also showing off his chops as an occasional vocalist, the quartet breezes through a blend of familiar jazz standards, like 'Pennies From Heaven,' and Terry's hard-driving original tune, 'Finger Filibuster,' where he shows off his athletic scat singing. Other highlights include the Louis Armstrong favorite 'When It's Sleepy Time Down South' and 'Sugar Blues,' a nostalgic nod to New Orleans jazz. The album is reissued on SACD Hybrid Stereo in 2025.
Originally released in 2011, Carol Kidd’s live album, ‘Tell Me Once Again’ has been re-issued as part of Linn’s ECHO series. This is the most personal album Carol has ever recorded, both in terms of the song choices (which reflect different stages of her career, from the early 90’s to now) and the meaning within the songs. Carol Kidd is acknowledged in jazz circles as ‘Britain’s finest ballads singer’ (Jazz Review). Renowned for her impeccable phrasing and delivery, she has secured the British Jazz Awards ‘Best Vocalist’ title on four separate occasions and has received the MBE for Services to Jazz.
Paer: Il Santo Sepolcro / Hauk, Simon Mayr Ensemble
Naxos
CD
$19.99Dec 11, 2012
Together with Johann Simon Mayr, Ferdinando Paër counts as one of the most important opera composers of his day, and he was unable to resist filling his oratorio on Christ’s Passion, Il Santo Sepolcro with expressive extremes. Pain and grief contrast with joy and hope, and scenes including the terrible hours of the crucifixion, frenzy of the crowd, resurrection and Last Judgment are given potently descriptive music. Originally a prelude to Haydn’s Seven Last Words, Mayr’s Invito is a call to hear Paër’s incomparable narrative.
The musical tour starts in the Bernese Alps, which offer some of the finest scenery in Switzerland, with glaciers and snow-covered expanses, waterfalls, mountain lakes, and the towering Matterhorn. The Nymphenburg Palace and Park, in Munich, present a contrast, in their baroque elegance. The tour ends with glimpses of the Chiemsee, the largest of the Bavarian lakes, with it's three wooded islands, on one of which Wagner's patron, King Ludwig II, built his folly, the Schloss Herrenchiemsee. Music for the tour is taken from Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, one of the best known of all romantic concertos. This is followed by his 'Souvenir d'un lieu Cher,' three pieces originally for violin and piano, but here orchestrated by the composer Glazunov.
This debut album from the John Yao Quintet signals the definitive arrival of trombonist and composer, John Yao. Demonstrating a broad textural palette and drawing from an array of stylistic influences, Yao explores the concept of opposing forces. In the Now is a musical journey beyond conventional jazz form and structure, with the ensemble winding skillfully through a wide range of moods, colors, and textures.
A Musical Journey - France: From Marseille to Cannes
Naxos AudioVisual
DVD
$9.99$13.99Save 30%Oct 30, 2012
The Places - the places visited are on the coast of Southern France, from Frejus and Cannes to Marseille. They include the Cheóteau of King Renein Tarascon and the famous island Cheóteau d'If, where the fictional Edmond Dantes was held prisoner in the Count of Monte Cristo. There is particular attention given to the flat marshland of the Camargue, with it's wild horses and it's associated festivities in Arles. The Music - the music that accompanies the tour is all by French composers, from Saint-Saens and Offenbach to Debussy and Ravel. Included are Gabriel Faures evocative Berceuse, Sicilienne and Pavane, and Ravel's nostalgic Pavane sur une infante defunte. The tour starts in cheerful mood with Chabrier's Marche Joyeuse.
This outstanding recording features four ballet works: Liam Scarlett’s Viscera, Carlos Acosta’s Carmen, Jerome Robbins’s Afternoon of a Faun, and George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky pas de deux. Acosta’s Carmen focuses on the dramatic essentials of revenge, jealousy, and love. Not only did Acosta choreograph the production, he also dances a lead role. When Viscera was created in 2012, Liam Scarlett was the Royal Ballet Artist In Residence. Particularly interesting is Balanchine’s Pas de Deux which was based on a newly discovered movement from Swan Lake which had not been performed since Tchaikovsky’s death.
Region Code: 0 (All) Audio Format: PCM 2.0, DTS 5.1 Running Time: 118 mins
A Musical Journey - Spain: A Musical Visit to Madrid, La Man
Naxos AudioVisual
DVD
$13.99Aug 28, 2012
The Places: The musical tour of Spain starts at the present capital, Madrid, the principal city of Castile. From Madrid it is not too far to the plains of La Mancha, a region always remembered for it's association with the great hero of Miguel Cervantes, Don Quijote de la Mancha, whose windmills, mistaken by him for giants, form a characteristic element in the landscape. The varied history of Spain is seen in the city of Cordoba, once capital of a Moorish kingdom, and the gardens of the Alcazar of the Christian Kings. The Music: The music chosen for the tour of Spain may be characteristically Spanish in it's rhythms and turns of melody, but is all the work of foreigners, two of the composers, Chabrier and Massenet, French, and two of them, Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian. For France, geographically adjacent to Spain, there was an obvious connection with Spain, which continued to exercise a certain fascination over it's neighbor. Russian composers in the 19th century embarked on the creation of a new national music, but at the same time drew on remoter countries for inspiration, whether on the different regions of the vast Russian Empire or still further afield.
Serge Gainsbourg remains one of the most influential artists of the 20th century to this day. In this second volume, Olivier Julien and Frederic Regent have gathered all of Gainsbourg’s works from the period 1960-1962, a little-known period when French song was in transition, in a context where rock ’n’ roll was emerging at the same time as the beginnings of the tidal wave in French pop they called “Ye-Ye”. This 3CD set contains titles sung by not only Gainsbourg himself, but great stars of the early Sixties, including Juliette Greco, Philippe Clay, Catherine Sauvage and Petula Clark. Patrick FReMEAUX
Sound and space are two elements that emerge at the heart of Jane O’Leary’s THE PASSING SOUND OF FOREVER. The collection showcases O’Leary’s compositional gifts through a variety of her chamber compositions. O’Leary’s string writing soars in THE PASSING SOUND OF FOREVER, and demonstrates her remarkable sensitivity to the instruments’ sonic palette and expressive potential. Every color, from ethereal natural harmonics to frenetic bowing, is at O’Leary’s disposal, and is exploited beautifully to produce evocative and compelling soundscapes.O’Leary is imaginative and creative in her string writing, resonating the instruments’ strings in a wide variety of ways. Harmonics and arpeggiations create vast open spaces. In the case of A Winter Sketchbook, violin sounds are integrated with those of the alto flute, matching colors and creating new blends of sound. A Winter Sketchbook resonates profoundly as it casts the indelible image of deep winter.THE PASSING SOUND OF FOREVER’s title track is composed for string quartet, which makes it a shining and exemplary representation of O’Leary’s expressive string writing. The Passing Sound of Forever, originating from a motif found in a Beethoven quartet, plays with fragmentary gestures which emerge and disappear, echo and reflect. The work is filled with a deep yearning, which is communicated by the accumulated gestures and sounds of the quartet’s four string instruments. The Passing Sound of Forever epitomizes O’Leary’s unique ability to evoke vivid emotions from the simplest aspects of string instruments’ sound.Not every work on THE PASSING SOUND OF FOREVER features strings, but all seem to engage with the same themes of space and sound. O’Leary’s clarinet and piano duo Murmurs and Echoes, for example, creates the sense that its two instruments are communicating across great time and distance, most notably so in its last movement. When their respective gestures mirror one another’s, they do so with the distortion of an echo crossing a vast space. In this way, Murmurs and Echoes reminds of A Winter Sketchbook, as both works use modest forces to generate a surprisingly resonant musical space.
Lowak Shoppala' (Fire and Light) is a work that expresses Chickasaw identity through the medium of modern classical music and theatre. The work is in eight scenes and features orchestra, narration, children's chorus, traditional Chickasaw and modern dancers, traditional Chickasaw and classical vocal soloists and American Indian storytellers. Each scene depicts a part of Chickasaw culture and history. Lowak Shoppala' was conceived, designed and composed by Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate and premiered Saturday, November 21, 2009 at the Te Ata Theatre, East Central University, Ada, Oklahoma with Mr. Tate conducting the Oklahoma Youth Orchestra.
At first glance Tchaikovsky does not seem easily to fit the "Chill" bill. He is known for pieces such as the 1812 Overture, music which is impassioned and animated in distinctly Russian style, often fiery, even ballistic, and infused with darker moments inspired by the composer's personal turmoil. However he also wrote some of the most beautiful, fragile and ethereal ballet music that has ever been choreographed, as well as lyrical slow symphonic movements and haunting songs. His unique talent lay in his inspired and inventive use of melody, seen at it's best in works such as the Nutcracker with it's myriad infectious tunes. Many of Tchaikovsky's melodies are based on folksongs he collected, predominantly Russian and Ukrainian but also Polish, Italian, Spanish and French (this last seen in the Piano Concerto No. 1, in this collection).
Finney: Pilgrim Psalms / Clark, Choirs of Harvard University
Gothic
CD
$20.99Sep 09, 2016
Ross Lee Finney’s Psalm pieces are contemporary settings of the Ainsworth Psalter- an inspirational collection of hymns that was carried by the pilgrims to Plymouth in 1620. Finney wrote of this collection: “These melodies are among America’s greatest folk heritage, influencing sacred singing through each singing.” Andrew Clark is the Director of Choral Activities and Senior Lecturer on Music at Harvard University. He also serves as Music Director and Conductor of the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Museum. He has long been praised by critics for his ensembles’ outstanding performances. The Boston Globe called his choirs “first rate,” Opera News said his ensembles were “beautifully blended,” and the Worcester Telegram wrote that his performances achieve “passion, conviction, adrenaline, and coherence.”
Feeney: The Cellist - Robbins: Dances at a Gathering
Opus Arte
Blu-Ray
$39.99Feb 26, 2021
Internationally acclaimed choreographer Cathy Marston, previously Associate Artist of The Royal Ballet and Director of Bern Ballett, created The Cellist for The Royal Ballet in 2020. The inspiration for her first work for the Royal Opera House Main Stage is the momentous life and career of cellist Jacqueline du Pre - from her discovery of the cello and her celebrity as one of it's most extraordinary players, to her pain, frustration and struggle with multiple sclerosis. Composer Philip Feeney incorporates some of the most moving and powerful music for cello by Elgar, Beethoven, Faure, Mendelssohn, Piatti, Rachmaninoff and Schubert into an exquisite score that is itself an homage to the cello. Jerome Robbins' elegant and elegiac classic, Dances at a Gathering, is the other work in the programme.' pure dance for five couples, set to music by Chopin, is a masterpiece of subtlety and invention."
Feeney: The Cellist - Robbins: Dances at a Gathering
Opus Arte
DVD
$34.99Feb 26, 2021
Internationally acclaimed choreographer Cathy Marston, previously Associate Artist of The Royal Ballet and Director of Bern Ballett, created The Cellist for The Royal Ballet in 2020. The inspiration for her first work for the Royal Opera House Main Stage is the momentous life and career of cellist Jacqueline du Pre - from her discovery of the cello and her celebrity as one of it's most extraordinary players, to her pain, frustration and struggle with multiple sclerosis. Composer Philip Feeney incorporates some of the most moving and powerful music for cello by Elgar, Beethoven, Faure, Mendelssohn, Piatti, Rachmaninoff and Schubert into an exquisite score that is itself an homage to the cello. Jerome Robbins' elegant and elegiac classic, Dances at a Gathering, is the other work in the programme.' pure dance for five couples, set to music by Chopin, is a masterpiece of subtlety and invention."
Radulescu: Works for Organ & for Cello / Moosman, Clark, Tunnell
Mode Records
CD
$20.99May 03, 2019
Mode’s Radulescu Edition, curated with Radulescu’s widow Catherine Marie Tunnell and his publisher Lucero Press, continues with a collection of his works for organ and works with cello. Radulescu’s complete organ works are performed here by German organist Christoph Maria Moosmann, a long-time Radulescu collaborator with a great understanding of his music and sonic goals. Some of the works were written for or dedicated to him. Further definitive recordings are guaranteed by performances from cellist Catherine Marie Tunnell, Radulescu’s widow and the director of Lucero Press. The organ and its interaction with its acoustic environment compliments Radulescu’s “spectral music” palette and what he referred to as “sound plasma”— a special state of sound beyond equal temperament. "Intimate Rituals III" is presented in its version for cello and “sound icons.” During 1965-69, Radulescu had transformed his Bösendorfer grand piano into a kind of harp, putting it vertically on its side and without cover, naming it sound icon. The strings are tuned spectrally, played with a V-form bow of horse hair or with other objects like coins, spheres etc. (The keyboard is not used at all). Due to the special tuning and the bowing technique, if one just touches a string all other strings begin to resonate, creating a rich harmonic halo around each sound. In 1985 Radulescu, together with Petra Junken, recorded two improvisations, each of them on two sound icons. The superimposition of those tapes is used here to accompany Tunnell’s cello.
