Beach / Park - Dreaming - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This was my first encounter with the music of Amy Beach, an American pianist and composer of the early 1900s. I was thunderstruck by it. I asked fellow European and American musicians, pianists, conductors, soloists and musicologists who gravitate around my Theater (Teatro alla Scala, Milano) if they had any information on her, but to no avail. No one knew her. Some had heard her name, but no one had actually listened to her compositions. Today I can say that Amy Beach is almost unknown in America. I can also say that she is unknown in Europe, given the caliber of the musicians I talked to about her, and the fact that they hadn't heard of her. Starting with manuscripts requested from the University of New Hampshire, I began transcribing four pieces and a sonata, originally written for Violin and Cello and Piano, into a version for Viola and Piano. I discovered that, not only the music, but also the incredible life of Mrs. H. H. A. Beach (that is how she signed her compositions) is a beautiful novel that remained locked in a drawer all this time. In fact, I have every intention of reopening that drawer through this CD and through the musical edition that printed my transcriptions for Viola and Piano. I believe that the instrument of the Viola and it's alto key have given a new color to this music, enhancing it, but never altering it's true essence. Born with this CD is a project of popularization and knowledge of Amy Beach's compositions and life story, a story and music that are at once incredibly modern and of other times. Matteo Amadasi

In 2019, SWEET embarked on the biggest tour of their long career to date with the 'Still Got The Rock' tour in Europe and the UK. In between, they even found time to fly to Australia to play as co-headliners on the 'Rock The Boat Cruise 2019'. The band was fired up and looking forward to the future. But suddenly in 2020, the whole world was in turmoil, triggered by a global pandemic and all wheels came to a standstill overnight. But for Sweet, there had to be a way out, otherwise musical creativity in all it's forms would be lost forever. So, in what was a new isolation for everyone, they began to produce a Sweet album with the 'new' guys Paul Manzi and Lee Small and the 'old guard' Andy Scott and Bruce Bislan. The album was given the title 'Isolation Boulevard' to suit the situation. The songs are re-recordings of 12 classics from Sweet's extensive collection. There was little time between the lockdowns in the UK to achieve the desired goal. On top of this, there were numerous technical obstacles that had to be overcome. With this in mind, the overall performance of everyone involved is all the more impressive, from the driving drums and bass to the 'in your face' guitars and stratospheric vocals. In the end, it was a pleasure for everyone to record 'Isolation Boulevard', despite being under very strict distancing rules. The result speaks for itself.

Today it has mostly been forgotten that one of the founding fathers of German music copyright, Hans Sommer, whose real name was Hans Friedrich August Zincken, was also a prolific composer. Although the close connection between music and the educated middle class was taken for granted, the act of composing- either as a dilettante or as a professional- was still considered a hazardous venture. Hardly anyone could devote himself or herself entirely to composition without additional income from performance or teaching. Sommer took his first composition lessons in the 1850s, while studying mathematics and physics. Finally, in 1881, at the age of 47, Sommer withdrew to devote himself entirely to his musical inclinations. These songs require a wide range in terms of pitch and dynamics, long breath, and a differentiated approach to the text that is not easy to combine with the long phrases and wide-ranging legato slurs, and Baritone Sebastian Noack has mastered these skills. This is the first full-length album of Sommer's lieder.