This new release contains compositions from Hong Kong TV and Movie Classics. Violinist Takako Nishizaki is the featured soloist on this recording. The works are performed here by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Henry Shek, Varujan Kojian, and Kenneth Jean.

Chinese Evergreens contains timeless pieces of Chinese folk music. Performed by Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Kenneth Jean, these songs are given new life for a new generation of listeners. Songs include Plum Blossoms in the Snow, The Evening Bells from Nanping, Flowers Are Not Flowers, and many more.

Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

The Places:

The tour starts in Uzbekistan, of which there are later glimpses. There is a visit to the historic Russian town of Suzdal and scenes from St Petersburg as well as from Ukraine. It would be impossible to avoid the Russian winter, which appears in various guises, providing entertainment for some and for others a seemingly enchanted snow-bound landscape.

The Music:

The music for the tour is taken from Russian composers who were, by and large, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of their country. This is reflected in Lyadov's arrangement of a series folk-songs and his translation of Russian legend into music. Other composers represented are Ippolitov-Ivanov, Kabalevsky and Anton Rubinstein, with two well known excerpts from unfinished operas by Mussorgsky.

Our tour of Italy starts in the countryside near Orvieto, moves to the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, then to Montalcino and it's ancient abbey. We see the Tuscan landscape around Montepulciano, glimpse Siena, and finally see something of the historic building.

At the tender age of 15, Francis Poulenc was introduced to a circle of daring French composers that included Eric Satie and Georges Auric. The experience no doubt left a mark on the young composer, whose style is wonderfully eclectic and ever challenging throughout. Poulenc became a member of this circle, a celebrated group of French composers that also included such luminaries as Arthur Honnegger and Darius Milhaud. Nicknamed "Les Six," they changed the face of French music forever.
This recording, the fourth in a series dedicated to the chamber music of Poulenc, offers a healthy cross-section of the composer's work in the genre, with particular attention paid to his vocal works. Poulenc's music is dizzyingly eclectic, and this recording of chamber music includes his celebrated "cantate profane," 'Le Bal masquè.' The delicious whimsy of 'Le Bal masquè' comes to life in a superb performance by baritone Franck Leguérinel and a talented instrumental ensemble. Purely instrumental works are included as well, including the rarely heard 'Sarabande for guitar,' played by Pierre Laniau with a sensitivity that captures the work's dreamy spirit.

Take a large spoonful of Bolero, add a small amount of Pavane, simmer in the heat of Feria, then mix with a little Blues and you have the perfect Ravel. It's the recipe for success in the 'Best of' market, particularly when you have Naxos's stunning performances. What did the critics say when the discs, from which this compilation is taken, were first issued. "The whole performance, throbbing with life, makes you listen afresh", was the Gramophone's view of Thiollier's performance of the Piano Concerto. "Superbly recorded", was the Penguin Guide to Compact Discs accolade for Ma m_re l'oye, while Fanfare adds the Rapsodie Espagnole is "well conceived, executed and recorded".

Decca studio recordings made between 1947 and 1949 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, newly compiled and remastered by Mark Obert-Thorn and including material new to CD. Decca first presented it's 'ffrr' technology - full frequency range recording - in 1944, originally developed by the company's engineers as a means of detecting and identifying German submarines through their engine noises. Following the success of Stravinsky's Petrushka with Ernest Ansermet (made in 1946 and reissued by Eloquence in it's comprehensive series dedicated to the Swiss conductor) other major artists visiting London were invited to make records at the acoustically excellent Kingsway Hall. One of them was Erich Kleiber, who had attracted a considerable following in London through his concerts. 'Audiences did not merely listen and applaud,' remembered his friend, the scholar Jacques Barzun. 'They knew what they were doing.' His repertoire for Decca mirrored his concerts: symphonies by Mozart and Beethoven, overtures by Dvorak and Handel, and Strauss-family favourites, all done with superb attention to rhythmic lift and dynamic balance so that, combined with Decca's pioneering technology, listeners could (and still can) hear inside the scores to a degree still remarkable for the late 1940s. The old ideal of classical 'objectivity' was Kleiber's inspiration for Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Symphony: he was 'a conductor's conductor', observed The Spectator's reviewer, seeing Kleiber in concert at the time of these recordings, who obtained precisely what he wanted with 'instinctive ease and economy of means'. The French conductor Jean Martinon also had a short-lived relationship with Decca in London before making most of his records in the US for RCA. They include deliciously light-textured accounts of Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin and Chabrier's Suite Pastorale as well as another gramophone rarity: the farewell aria for Joan of Arc in Tchaikovsky's opera The Maid of Orleans, sung by the Polish mezzo-soprano Eugenia Zareska.

Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia - patron of the arts, collector, woman of letters and composer - was an extraordinary personality. The flautist Jean Bregnac pays her vibrant homage with a program featuring works by her proteges Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, her mentor Johann Philipp Kirnberger, and the princess herself.

I believe this project is one of the most important of my life as a keyboard player. On the one hand, because of it's extraordinary richness and prolific content, and on the other hand, because of the strong and so right relationship that Louis Couperin and his work had with the harpsichord and the organ. He knew how to make these instruments sing and vibrate like no one before him and probably no one after him either. Jean Rondeau. A monumental project unlike any other on the market today, Louis Couperin The Complete Works feature all his works, but Jean Rondeau has also selected works by composers Couperin considered his masters and students. The set comprises 10 albums and 1 DVD - a 66 minute film by Erwan Ricordeau, features Rondeau in Colmar's Unterlinden Museum, one of the locations of the recording. He explains the instrument, and his relationship and admiration for Couperin. It provides fascinating insights which are a perfect accompaniment to this Complete Works set. (DVD: region-free NTSC format- picture format: 16:9 anamorphic- sound format: stereo PCM 2.0 language: French, subtitles. English)

An ode to silence is how harpsichordist Jean Rondeau has described Bach's Goldberg Variations. "I feel they were written for silence, in the sense that they take the place of silence," he says. "All Bach is there in the Goldberg Variations... all music is there... and I will no doubt spend my life working on them." To prepare his interpretation he consulted an original printed edition of the work, containing Bach's own markings and corrections. "Through delving into this precious musicological source, I was able to make what I felt to be the most authentic choices." Rondeau performs the set of variations in it's complete form, with the indicated repeats and with judicious insertion of moments of silence.