Pugni: The Pharaoh's Daughter / Sotnikov, Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra
BelAir Classiques
DVD · 1 disc
$29.99Jul 21, 2017
Bel Air Classiques presents Petipa's extravaganza ''The Pharaoh's Daughter'', in a stunning production by Pierre Lacotte. Recreating the spectacular sumptuousness of the original, the ballet tells the tale of a young Englishman who dreams he elopes with a Pharaoh's daugher. Despite a desert storm, a lion hunt and an attempted suicide, the couple finally wins the Pharaoh's blessing to their marriage. From its creation in 1862, Petipa's grandiose ballet was a sensational success; its stupendous costumes and striking scenery, its exotica, romanticism and drama appealing to audiences as much as the virtuoso choreography. The Bolshoi Ballet and the two soloists Svetlana Zakharova and Serguei Filin are at their best in spite of the difficulty of Pierre Lacotte's choreography.
The first joint album from countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and guitarist Thibaut Garcia, A sa guitare takes it's name from a song by the 20th century French composer Francis Poulenc. But it's frame of reference is extraordinarily wide - both culturally and stylistically. It's 22 tracks range across 400 years and music by composers and songwriters from France, Britain, Austria, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Argentina and the USA. "The album is a journey between different cultures, different continents and different languages," says Philippe Jaroussky, "but each piece is a world in itself. The idea was to take some risks... sometimes moving to a completely different world between one track and the next." "We can evoke hugely different colours as we juggle between renaissance music and a song by Barbara," explains Thibaut Garcia. "It's our job to play with a palette of colours to produces something unique... We put a great deal of thought into the album, but we also put our hearts into it."
2024 release from banjo great Bela Fleck expands and explores George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue by paying homage to the legendary composer while redefining an American classic-just in time for it's centennial. Available February 12, 2024, a hundred years to the day Gershwin premiered the work at Aeolian Hall in New York City, Fleck's Rhapsody in Blue album includes three variations: "Rhapsody in Blue (grass), " "Rhapsody in Blue(s), " and the classic orchestration, but with banjo featured instead of piano, performed by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Eric Jacobson. The set also features Gershwin's "Rialto Ripples" and "Unidentified Piece for Banjo, " an unrecorded and unreleased gem discovered at the Library of Congress.
"We have an enjoyable disc of a range of music from two talented and influential brothers who inhabited a transitional period between baroque and early classical. Their career paths were quite different, Giovanni being born and then dying in Milan while Giuseppe eventually settled in bustling London for the last twenty or so years of his life. Giuseppe’s more cosmopolitan existence is reflected in his music on the disc which displays a pragmatic ability to adjust his style. The violoncello piccolo concerto, for example, is very italianate, clearly influenced by Vivaldi whereas his delightful oboe concerto, excellently played by Hans-Peter Westermann, is more Handelian in style. His recorder concerto is also very tuneful and is a standard repertoire piece for skilled players. Michael Schneider is a distinguished performer and I thought his playing one of the best things about the disc which otherwise contains renderings that are highly competent but not particularly special. He features also in Giuseppe’s Trio in F major for 2 recorders which for me was the most enjoyable work in spite of its three movements lasting little more than five minutes. The slow movement with the recorders’ clashing semi-tones and tones is exquisitely intense.
Giovanni died a quarter of a century after his brother and his two chamber works here (he does not get a concerto on this disc of "concertos"!) were probably written after his brother’s death and are understandably more classical in feel. Both involve transverse flute and I liked the spirited playing in works that I found neatly formed but relatively dull compared with brother Giuseppe’s contributions."
-- John Leeman, MusicWeb International reviewing DHM 77852
Andres Segovia was born in Linares on the 21st February 1893 and died in Madrid on the 2nd June 1987. His transcriptions of works by several notable composers, especially Bach, as featured here, brought him lasting world wide fame. Amongst his many disciples was a guitarist now generally acknowledged as one of the greatest ' John Williams.Collected here and recorded separately are both guitarists interpreting Bach's work based on Segovia's original transcriptions. The perfect companion to FAB CD 198 which features John Williams's earliest recordings.
Including recently discovered works recorded here for the first time. Première Recording* For the first release, Cello Classics has chosen to bring out something of a coup, in hitherto unplayed works by the first great composer for the cello to achieve universal recognition, Luigi Boccherini. Three of the sonatas on this disc have been obtained from manuscripts until recently in a private collection, and provide a wonderful addition to the classical cello repertoire. Sebastian Comberti has been involved in the period instrument revival in London since the early 1980s and has made the study of late 18th Century cello repertoire something of a speciality. This recording has been made using original instruments with a continuo team unusually comprising archlute/guitar and cello, providing a rich and yet light accompaniment to these delightful works. It is bound to be of interest to lovers of the cello and scholars alike
Violinist Benjamin Schmid, recognized among the 35 greatest violinists of the past 50 years (see “Great Violinists of the 20th c. Vol. 2. 1948-85 ”, by J.M. Molkou), and rising star Diknu Schneeberger, guitar, trace Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt on Hot Club Jazz, new from Gramola. In collaboration with Diknu’s father Joschi Schneeberger, double bass, and guitarist Martin Spitzer, the quartet interprets pieces and arrangements by Django Reinhardt, works created in succession by Lulu Reinhardt, Cole Porter or Fletcher Allen as well as arrangements of French chansons.
1949 and '51 recordings featuring Sidney Bechet, Muggsey Spanier, Don Ewell, Doc Evans and Miff Mole. Jazz Ltd. Was a Jazz club located at 11 E. Grand owned and operated by Bill and Ruth Reinhardt from 1947 into the early '70s. Bill played clarinet and led the five-piece house band at a time when many of Jazz's first creators were still out there hustling gigs. This is pure swinging traditional Jazz (some call it Dixieland) played by the pros. Thirteen songs include Maryland My Maryland, Egyptian Fantasy, Tin Roof Blues, High Society, Wolverine Blues, Maple Leaf rag, Charleston, Careless Love, Washington & Lee Swing and more. Also features a wonderful five minute interview with Bill and Ruth. (Previously deleted:7/1/07. Original release date:11/14/94)
CD reissue of this 1981 album from Stephane Grappelli, the legendary jazz violinist, and David Grisman, the highly respected Jazz-Bluegrass mandolin player. Together, they made a unique album, a blend of Bluegrass and Jazz, and one of few albums of it's kind to make the Billboard charts. Wounded Bird. 2010.
2017 release. Two absolutely superb piano players from different musical worlds: Bruno Canino, as a representative of art music, and Enrico Pieranunzi, as a representative of jazz. Two Americas, the Northern one and the Southern one, and some of the greatest composers from both. The Americas project has been conceived for two pianos intertwining like cultures and musical worlds do. Here, between Canino and Pieranunzi, it matters little who is playing "what" and "when". Listening to Americas one is again led to realize that apparent contrasts are actually bonds consisting of irresistible mutual attractions, common points, osmotic relations. Whatever the image this record conjures up in listeners' minds, Americas is definitely great music, confident that culture is not entrenching in what one already knows but breaking conventions, boundaries, mutual inflexibility. Like Bruno Canino and Enrico Pieranunzi did by playing face to face, each backed up by his own strong cultural background and, for this very reason, splendidly creative and versatile.
Andrew Armstrong's debut album for Rubicon is a fascinating recital of American piano music. The great George Gershwin is represented by his 3 Preludes, plus I Got Rhythm, and his most popular work, the sparkling Rhapsody in Blue, which unbelievably is 100 years old in 2024. Two African American composers, Julia Perry and William Grant Still feature - Still's impressive 3 Visions, and Perry's exquisite Prelude. Aaron Jay Kernis's Before Sleep and Dreams is a 5-movement suite from 1990, which depicts in music the process of putting a small child to bed. It's precedents are Schumann's Kinderszenen and Children's Corner by Debussy. It is a delightful and touching work. Finally, Andrew Armstrong's own composition, She Fell for a Flyfisher, is a beguiling, sparkling miniature.
Limited double 180 gram vinyl LP pressing of this 1997 album in a gatefold package with printed inner sleeves. Romanza is the album that launched his career. The 12 songs include "Time to Say Goodbye," Bocelli's spine-tingling #1 single with Sarah Brightman. Andrea Bocelli) is an Italian classical tenor, recording artist and singer/songwriter. Born with poor eyesight, he became blind at the age of 12 following an association football (soccer) accident. Bocelli has recorded 14 solo studio albums, of both pop and classical music, three greatest hits albums, and nine complete operas, selling over 150 million records worldwide. He has had success as a crossover performer bringing classical music to the top of international pop charts.
With Swing On This, the all-star quintet Opus 5 presents it's fifth Criss Cross album, and first since 2015, when Criss-Cross released Tickle [Criss 1383), which itself was preceded - in backwards chronology - by Progression [Criss 1369], Pentasonic [Criss 1351], and Introducing Opus 5 [Criss 1339], each recorded a year apart. The "all star" sobriquet is not an exaggeration - the collective discographies of trumpeter Alex Sipiagin, tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake, pianist David Kikoski, bassist Boris Kozlov, and drummer Donald Edwards, all international first-callers, total more than 30 Criss Cross leader dates. The Album was recorded September 7, 2021 at the Samurai Hotel Recording Studio in NY. Recording engineer Mike Marciano who also did the editing, mixing and mastering at Systems Two in NY.
The trumpet has been playing a special role as a signaling instrument throughout the centuries and accompanies mankind through war and peace. Consequentially, one associated the brilliant sound of the trumpet with the power and pomp of clerical and secular authorities. The current program of the Schwanthaler Trumpet Consort contains a representative sample of 17th-18th c. trumpet court literature. Besides trumpets, also timpani, percussion, clarinets, trombones and post horns are involved; replicas of historic instruments are paired with historically informed performance practice.
