This is the first of a new series devoted to the sacred works of Vivaldi...the engineering is clean, fresh, and open, capturing the acoustic of Grace Church on the Hill, Toronto, to pleasing effect. Mallon’s chorus immediately makes a strong impression, with vital, strongly committed and projected singing that is obviously going to provide his cycle with one of its major strengths. Much the same might be said of the soloists he fields here...his wonderful alto Nathalie Stutzmann bringing to these solos richly dignified and authoritative singing...there are many fine moments in the Irish conductor’s performance, the choruses again distinguished by vibrant, incisive singing, and soprano Jane Archibald contributing an appealing “Domine Deus, agnus Dei.” Archibald is also impressively fearless in the high-flying tessitura of the motet Nulla in mundo, singing the beguilingly blissful opening aria, taken dangerously slowly, with winning freshness, finding real dramatic significance in the central recitative and negotiating the coloratura of the demanding final aria and Alleluia with a radiant, confident security. This is, then, an auspicious beginning. Anyone attracted by Naxos’s low prices to the idea of collecting the new series can certainly go ahead in the knowledge that they are likely to be in possession of a real bargain. - Brian Robins, FANFARE

Classical Music

Around forty artists from the ACT Family make this anniversary album a celebration of the breadth, openness and inclusive power of jazz. The core of the album consists of recordings made at a summer 2022 studio session lasting several days. In reality, it is only Nils Landgren and Siggi Loch who could have brought this panorama of musical Europe into being. The influences here range from jazz, popular song and folk to classical and contemporary music, and much more. Thirty tracks from three generations of musicians marking thirty years of ACT, with Nils Landgren as driving force. Not just a retrospective, but above all an insight into the present and future of the discovery label "in the Spirit of Jazz".