Includes suite(s) by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Arts & Crafts allow children to truly express their creativity. A child needs only a little glue and glitter to come up with nothing short of a masterpiece. With classical music chosen specifically for Arts & Crafts Playtime, use the popular Williamson's Little Hands activities as a guide and watch your child use talent and ingenuity to invent, create, color and build!

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was most famous during his lifetime as a keyboard virtuoso, principally as an organist but also as a harpsichord player, and he composed a significant body of keyboard music. Many of these works (including transcriptions of his organ music) occupy a central place in the repertoire of pianists both amateur and professional, delighting players and listeners alike to this day. The keyboard music that Bach published falls into four anthologies, each titled Clavier �bung (Keyboard Practice), a rather dry title for what turns out to be an amazing wealth of music! Other works, such as The Well-Tempered Clavier Books I and II, while not published by Bach, circulated widely in manuscript form and have been influential on composers and performers: Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Reger, Schumann, Busoni and many others have fallen under Bach's spell, using his music to develop their own and their students' techniques, and inspired by Bach's extraordinary achievement when composing their own works. Books I and II of The Well-Tempered Clavier each contain preludes and fugues in all the 24 major and minor keys, from C major to B minor, and are collectively known as 'the 48'. Sometimes referred to as the 'Old Testament' of keyboard music (Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas being the 'New'), the preludes explore an astonishing variety of musical forms (including the famous toccata-like Prelude No 1 in C Major from Book I, various dance styles and concerto- or fantasia-like movements) while the fugues range equally broadly from rather formal examples in 'old fashioned' academic style to others based on more up-to-date musical forms. The term 'well-tempered' refers to the system of tuning, new in Bach's day, which allowed music to be played in any key and has become the standard in Western music. Bach's 15 two-part Inventions and 15 three-part Sinfonias BWV 772-801 were originally written as educational pieces for the notebook Bach prepared for his second wife, Anna Magdalena, herself an accomplished musician. During the Baroque period collections of 'overtures' or 'dance suites' were particularly popular. Bach composed three sets of six suites: the so-called 'English' Suites BWV 806-811, the 'French' Suites BWV 812-817 and the keyboard Partitas BWV 825-830. Each suite comprises a basic set of dances based on different national models, Allemande (German), Courante (Italian or French), Sarabande (Spanish/Latin American) and Gigue (French, based on the British Jig) with additional dances included. The Goldberg Variations BWV 988 presents an aria (that is, a song-like movement) with thirty variations based on the aria's bass line rather than it's tune (Beethoven would work similar wonders with his 'Diabelli' Variations Op. 120). The Italian Concerto BWV 971 was inspired by the exciting new music that was finding it's way north during Bach's lifetime. Bach also transcribed for keyboard several orchestral concertos by Vivaldi and other Italian composers. In addition, several shorter pieces, including the famous hymn Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring and dances from the Wilhelm Friedemann Bach Notebook are included.

'Romeo and Juliet: Love Eternal' brings together some of the most recognizable orchestral works from the past 200 years from the likes of Berlioz, Delius, Prokofiev, Svendsen, Tchaikovsky and Kabalevsky. This special compilation is presented in a unique and beautiful natural packaging.

LES PLUS BEAUX ADAGIOS

Wagner' epic music dramas revolutionized the operatic repertoire, drawing upon famous legends and history to create a completely new art form of unprecedented spectacle and intense psychological power.

Postpone whatever good deed you were just about to do, clear your mind of virtuous thoughts, indulge in the politically incorrect stimulant of your choice, and turn your stereo up really, really loud so you can incense your neighbors as you listen.

The youngest child and only surviving son of Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus was born in Salzburg in 1756, the year of publication of his father's treatise on violin-playing. He showed early precocity both as a keyboard-player and violinist, and soon turned his hand to composition. His obvious gifts were developed under his father's tutelage, with those of his elder sister, and the family, through the indulgence of their then patron, the Archbishop of Salzburg, was able to travel abroad, between 1763 and 1766, to Paris and to London. A series of other journeys followed, with important operatic commissions in Italy between 1771 and 1773. The following period proved disappointing to both father and son, as the young Mozart grew to manhood, irked by the lack of opportunity and lack of appreciation of his gifts in Salzburg, where a new Archbishop proved less sympathetic. A visit to Munich, Mannheim and Paris in 1777 and 1778 brought no substantial offer of other employment and by early 1779 Mozart was reinstated in Salzburg, now as court organist. Early in 1781 he had a commissioned opera, Idomeneo, staged in Munich for the Elector of Bavaria, and dissatisfaction after being summoned to attend his patron the Archbishopin Vienna led to his dismissal. Mozart spent the last ten years of his life in precarious independence in Vienna, his material situation not improved by a marriage imprudent for one in his circumstances. Initial success with German and then Italian opera and series of subscription concerts were followed by financial difficulties. In 1791 things seemed to have taken a turn for the better, in spite of the lack of interest of the successor to the Emperor Joseph II, who had died in 1790. In late November, however, Mozart became seriously ill and died in the small hours of 5 December. Mozart's compositions were catalogued in the 19th century by K�chel, and they are generally now distinguished by K. numbering from this catalogue. Mozart's sonatas for the fortepiano cover a period from 1766 to 1791, with a significant number of mature sonatas written during the years in Vienna. The sonatas include much fine music. In addition to his sonatas he wrote a number of sets of variations, while his ephemeral improvisations in similar form are inevitably lost to us. The published works include operatic variations as well as a set of variations on the theme Ah, vous dirai-je, ma man, known in English as 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star'. An outstanding virtuoso pianist himself, and bearing in mind that his sonatas and variations pose substantial technical challenges-not least in order to ensure that they sound completely effortless and perfectly poised-Mozart played so that the notes 'simply fell as if they were raindrops, scattering like pearls on velvet', in Carl Czerny's memorable words. Like those precious jewels, Mozart's piano music shimmers, glows and rarely fails to delight with it's subtle, sophisticated magic.

Clementi, M.: Early Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1

The son of a bookseller, publisher and writer, Robert Schumann (1810-1856) showed early abilities in both music and literature, the second facility used in his later writing on musical subjects. After brief study at university, he was allowed by his widowed mother and guardian to undertake serious study of the piano with Friedrich Wieck, whose favorite daughter Clara was later to become Schumann's wife. His ambitions as a pianist were thwarted by a weakness in the fingers of one hand, but the 1830s nevertheless brought a number of compositions for the instrument. Indeed, all of his published compositions until 1840 were for piano. The year of his marriage, 1840, was a year of song, followed by attempts in which his young wife encouraged him at more ambitious forms of orchestral composition. Settling first in Leipzig and then in Dresden, the Schumanns moved in 1850 to D�sseldorf, where Schumann had his first official appointment, as municipal director of music. In 1854 he had a serious mental break-down, followed by two years in the asylum at Endenich before his death in 1856. As a composer Schumann's gifts are clearly heard in his piano music and in his songs. Schumann exerted considerable influence throughout the 19th century and later, both as a composer and through his writing on music. His prot�g� Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) helped to spread Schumann's ideals and musical style widely. Edward Elgar (1857-1934) called Schumann 'my ideal'. Composers as different as Mahler and Stravinsky were also great admirers. The piano music of Schumann, whether written for himself, for his wife, or, in later years, for his children, offers a wealth of material. From the earlier period comes Carnaval, a series of short musical scenes based on the letters of the composer's name and that of the town of Asch, home of Ernestine von Fricken, a fellow-student of Friedrich Wieck, to whom Schumann was briefly engaged. The same period brought the Davidsb�ndlert�nze (Dances of the League of David), a reference to the imaginary league of friends of art against the surrounding Philistines. This decade also brought the first version of the monumental Symphonic Studies, based on a theme by the father of Ernestine von Fricken, and the well known Kinderszenen (Scenes of Childhood). Later piano music by Schumann includes the Album f�r die Jugend of 1848, Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) of 1849 and the collected Bunte Bl�tter (Coloured Leaves) and Albumbl�tter (Album Leaves) drawn from earlier work. Schumann achieved considerable innovations, whether in his many short character pieces or in his more substantial compositions, where flamboyance and restraint, high drama and tender lyricism, a co-mingling of literary and musical ideas are all at play. His piano music is frequently multi-layered, the melody may be embedded within a complex texture rather than being limited to the right hand, and he often moves from one idea to another with almost shocking swiftness. Harmonic ambiguity and a sense of fragmentation are frequently encountered, quintessentially Romantic ploys which often add great poignancy to his music.

Includes well-known favorites the Blue Danube and Tchaikovsky's Flower Waltz (the latter made famous in Disney's Fantasia).

'Romantic' is a term with several meanings. With a capital 'R', it usually refers to a period roughly from the 1820s until around 1900 during which the work of artists, musicians, writers, including philosophical, political and social thinkers, of the late eighteenth and early to mid nineteenth centuries became highly influential. However, music which could still be regarded as 'Romantic' continued to be composed until and even beyond the Second World War, a situation further complicated by the resurgence of 'Neo-romanticism' since the mid 1970s. With a lower case 'r', the situation is only slightly less ambiguous: 'romantic' can mean 'loving', 'idealistic', 'passionate', 'impractical', 'chivalrous', 'unrealistic', 'adventurous', 'amorous', 'deluded', and more besides! As early as 1810, E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) dubbed Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven the three 'Romantic Composers', while Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859) described parts of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as examples of 'good Romantic style'. By the early 1900s the entire 19th Century was regarded by many as 'The Romantic Era', although this all-encompassing retrospective view smoothes over many differences between the aesthetic and political trends that affected Europe in the wake of the French Revolution (1789-1799), those that arose mid-century around 1848 (sometimes referred to as the 'Spring of Nations' or the 'Year of Revolution') and later developments that would culminate in the cataclysm of the Great War (1914-18). The great French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), himself a harbinger of Modernism, wrote in 1846 that 'Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor exact truth, but in the way of feeling.' And, though 'the way of feeling' certainly changes-perhaps it's easier to hear the differences between, say, the music of Franz Schubert (1797-1828) and Richard Strauss (1864-1949) than the similarities between Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) and Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)-it's not hard to grasp why the idea of 'Romanticism' has remained so elusive, since it has constantly redefined itself. Indeed, the difficulty with settling on a definition is inherent to a style that often exalts the individual over the collective (while nonetheless evoking 'national spirit'), encourages freedom of individual expression and experimentation rather than conformity to existing models and norms, emphasizes emotion and imagination, and revels in both virtuosic display and intimate revelation... The music on this album, appropriately titled Romantic Expressions, brings together a delightfully diverse selection of piano music by composers from across Europe whose lives span the broadest period mentioned above: from Hungarian Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837), Russians Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894) and C�sar Cui (1835-1918) to Englishman Edward Elgar (1857-1934), Finnish Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), Spaniard Enrique Granados (1867-1916) and Russian Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943). The latter's remark that 'The new kind of music [what we call 'Modernism'] seems to create not from the heart but from the head. It's composers think rather than feel. They have not the capacity to make their works exalt-they meditate, protest, analyze, reason, calculate and brood, but they do not exalt' suggests the persistent power of the Romantic aesthetic. Whatever fine distinctions may be drawn, the 'Romantic' will always remain a heartfelt matter.

Kenneth Leighton' distinctive compositional voice is characterized by rich, lush harmonies, subtle dissonance, rhythmic energy and a lilting, angular lyricism. Pithy thematic ideas and syncopated rhythms are allied to a brilliant mastery of counterpoint.

A beautiful selection of the best-known operetta arias, duets & orchestral music from Vienna' golden age of operetta, including Die Fledermaus, the Merry Widow, the Land of Smiles, the Gypsy Princess, the Gypsy Baron and Countess Maritza.

The best of Eternal Strings accompanied by multiple Orchestra's under the direction of world famous artist bring such classics as Barber's Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 and orchestra) and Tchaikovsky's Serenade in C Major, Op. 48: I. Pezzo in forma di Sonatina to life.