Bayrakdarian Orbelian Kaunas City Symphony - Other Cleopatra - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

K. Goldmark - Sym 2/Ovt Penthesilea [COMPACT DISCS] date 12/01/1993

Gevorg Hakobyan is a rising star on the international operatic stage. His deep, resonant voice brings drama and color to every aria on this album. Three unusual selections in Armenian - including Mosi's Aria from Anoush, the most important opera in the Armenian language - enhance this debut recording. Drawing from favorite operas such as Verdi's Otello and Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades, Arias of Love & Sorrow joins recent Delos releases including Oksana Dyka's In Questa Reggia, Oksana Volkova's Poison D'Amour and Kristian Benedikt's Tenore di forza in bringing new and captivating voices to fans of opera.

From the first lines InchMutiny,Inch the opening tracking on William Elliott Whitmore's Anti- Records debut 'Animals in the Dark,' one can see that this is decidedly not simply a continuation of his southern trilogy that spanned his last three releases. Rather than a reflection of life and loss and the world surrounding his Iowa horse farm on the banks of the Mississippi, InchMutinyInch finds Whitmore's focus turned outward, to the state of country and the missteps of the government. Yet 'Animals In The Dark,' is by no means a political record. It has more in common with the preacher blues of Reverend Gary Davis or the romantic populism of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska than it does a Billy Bragg record. What 'Animals In The Dark' highlights is the maturation and growth of an exemplary artist. On the , Whitmore showcases his classic songwriting and mastery of the acoustic guitar and banjo, but adds elements such as strings, an organ and a pedal steel, putting the songs into full arrangements and a band context for the first time. The results are a more expansive, cultivated sound, without losing any of the palpable soul that has garnered the 30 year old such critical acclaim.