Classical Music

Du Yun, critically acclaimed as a composer of concert music, releases her first album as her pop diva alter-ego, duYun. Recorded and produced in New York, Shanghai, and Montreal, Shark in You features duYun's broad palette, from neo-cabaret to house.

In our time, there has been no greater advocate for singing music than Alice Parker. Recipient of six honorary doctorates and the Smith College Medal, Parker has widely influenced choral music in America as a composer, conductor and teacher. She began composing early, and wrote her first orchestral score while still in high school. After graduating from Smith College with a major in music performance and composition, she completed a master’s degree from The Juilliard School where she studied choral conducting with Robert Shaw. Her arrangements of folksongs, hymns and spirituals with Robert Shaw form an enduring repertoire for choruses all around the world. She continues composing in many forms, from operas to cantatas, sacred anthems to secular dances, song cycles to string quartets. She has been commissioned by such groups as the Vancouver Chamber Chorus, the Atlanta Symphony Chorus and Chanticleer. Parker has published books on melodic styles, choral improvisation and ‘Good Singing in Church.’ Her detailed analysis, The Anatomy of Melody, was released in 2006. In 2010, as a part of the Melodious Accord 25th anniversary celebration, The Melodious Accord Hymnal was introduced. She has been recognized by Chorus America, the American Guild of Organists, the American Choral Director’s Association, The Hymn Society and Choral Arts New England for her lifetime contributions to choral music.

Thea Sharrock's irresistible new production of Shakespeare's popular romantic comedy stirs wit, sentiment, intrigue and love into a charming confection which challenges the traditional rules of romance. At it's heart, a feisty but feminine Rosalind (Naomi Frederick), in love with the endearingly naive Orlando (Jack Laskey), uses her disguise as Ganymede to counsel him playfully in the art of wooing. Distraction is provided by Dominic Rowan, a remarkably funny Touchstone, and Tim McMullan, whose sonorous tones are perfectly suited to the lugubrious wit of Jaques. Filmed in High Definition and true surround sound.

“There was something kind of inevitable about the way Bird played, and it was very direct and very melodic and it transcended the limitations of the horn.” Gerry MULLIGAN The aim of 'The Complete Charlie Parker', compiled for Fremeaux & Associes by Alain Tercinet, is to present (as far as possible) every studio-recording by Parker, together with titles featured in radio-broadcasts. Private recordings have been deliberately omitted from this selection to preserve a consistency of sound and aesthetic quality equal to the genius of this artist.

Melodious Accord

“When Bird left New York he was a king, but out in Los Angeles he was just another broke, weird, drunken nigger playing some strange music. Los Angeles is a city built on celebrating stars and Bird didn’t look like no star.” M. DAVIS The aim of 'The Complete Charlie Parker', compiled for Fremeaux & Associes by Alain Tercinet, is to present (as far as possible) every studio-recording by Parker, together with titles featured in radio-broadcasts. Private recordings have been deliberately omitted from this selection to preserve a consistency of sound and aesthetic quality equal to the genius of this artist.

« Charlie Parker did all the things I would like to do and more – he really had a genius, see. He could do things and he could do them melodiously so that anybody, the man in the street, could hear – that’s what I haven’t reached, that’s what I’d like to reach. » John COLTRANE

Classical Music

Without a Word

Carmen Braden is a composer and performer from Yellowknife Northwest Territories. In her music Carmen explores elements of the sub-Arctic environment (and humans as one of those elements) through her human senses and imaginings, seeking beauty and transformation in small details, vast landscapes and subtle soundscapes. Her works have been played by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, James Ehnes, the Gryphon Trio, the Penderecki Quartet, the Elmer Iseler Singers, Stratford Theatre Festival, Canadian Chamber Choir, the Land's End Ensemble, and the Eckhardt-Gramatt� National Music Competition. As a performer, Carmen has played intimate theatres and main stage festivals, and is "growing into the role of acoustic ambassador of the Canadian Subarctic" (Musicworks). She released her first studio album, Ravens, in 2017 on Centrediscs with the Canadian Music Centre.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Following his delightful full-length ballet Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Christopher Wheeldon continues his highly successful collaboration with designer Bob Crowley and composer Joby Talbot to create his first ballet based on a Shakespeare play, the late romance The Winter’s Tale. The story follows the destruction of marriage through consuming jealousy, the abandonment of a child, and a seemingly hopeless love. Yet through remorse and regret–and after a statue comes miraculously to life–the ending is one of forgiveness and reconciliation. It is powerful material for ballet, with a story that allows for the portrayal of intense emotions between and within the characters, and the opportunity for the Company to create not just new central characters, but the whole world around them.

ACCLAIM
“Steven McRae and Sarah Lamb lead the company in flurries of joyful movement in a buoyant Act II, as the plot turns into a hugely enjoyable caper. By the time they’re in a chase across the high seas, you’ll be hooked.” - Evening Standard

“‘A game-changer for Wheeldon’ – Christopher Wheeldon rises to the challenge of translating Shakespeare into dance, creating one of most fully achieved story ballets to be staged at Covent Garden in years. Yet Christopher Wheeldon has turned these challenges into inspiration. Together with composer Joby Talbot and designer Bob Crowley (whose mix of video, light and set design vividly illuminates the story), Wheeldon has used this play to develop the most expressive and inventive dance language we’ve yet seen from him.” - The Guardian

The three sonatas on this recording were written at the behest of violinist Cho-Liang Lin, who worked closely with each composer at their premiere performance. Paul Schoenfeld's Violin Sonata references literary influences and the composer's past as well as his Jewish heritage in the work's final Freilach or 'joyous dance.' Steven Stucky acknowledged Debussy as the source of inspiration in his work, while the alchemy of John Harbison's style creates music that is simultaneously abstract and narrative. Wryly introduced as "crazy modern music," Bernstein's brief Canon for Aaron was composed for Copland's 70th birthday celebrations.

Also available on Blu-ray

Following his delightful full-length ballet Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Christopher Wheeldon continues his highly successful collaboration with designer Bob Crowley and composer Joby Talbot to create his first ballet based on a Shakespeare play, the late romance The Winter’s Tale. The story follows the destruction of marriage through consuming jealousy, the abandonment of a child, and a seemingly hopeless love. Yet through remorse and regret–and after a statue comes miraculously to life–the ending is one of forgiveness and reconciliation. It is powerful material for ballet, with a story that allows for the portrayal of intense emotions between and within the characters, and the opportunity for the Company to create not just new central characters, but the whole world around them.

ACCLAIM
“Steven McRae and Sarah Lamb lead the company in flurries of joyful movement in a buoyant Act II, as the plot turns into a hugely enjoyable caper. By the time they’re in a chase across the high seas, you’ll be hooked.” - Evening Standard

“‘A game-changer for Wheeldon’ – Christopher Wheeldon rises to the challenge of translating Shakespeare into dance, creating one of most fully achieved story ballets to be staged at Covent Garden in years. Yet Christopher Wheeldon has turned these challenges into inspiration. Together with composer Joby Talbot and designer Bob Crowley (whose mix of video, light and set design vividly illuminates the story), Wheeldon has used this play to develop the most expressive and inventive dance language we’ve yet seen from him.” - The Guardian

Before jets and a proliferation of festivals made European appearances by American jazz musicians commonplace, it was not unusual for a trans-Atlantic tour to be preceded by six months of publicity. But such was not the case in November 1950, when Charlie Parker's arrival in Sweden literally took some fans by surprise. The trip was made on such short notice that booking negotiations virtually continued until his day of departure from the States. Rumors of impending visits from Parker had circulated from time to time, but so exciting was the prospect that one dared not believe them. Given the scarecity of live jazz in Europe at that time, and the fact that Charlie Parker, the Messiah of modern jazz, was already achieving legendary status, it was preordained that this visit would be a particularly memorable one. We hope this live album proves to be as exciting to listeners now as it was to the approximately one thousand people who crowded into the dance hall of Folkets Park in Halsingborg and the seventy-five who were lucky enough to attend the session that followed all those years ago.