Beckman True - Suites Modernes 1 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Anna Miernik has been promoting Polish music abroad since 2013 and treats it as her artistic mission. Till now she has performed works by 37 Polish composers. Besides playing Polish music during the concerts she came up with the idea to record some of her favorite works. My Polish Reflection presents the pieces of 10 Polish composers from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Their compositions were written over the period of 185 years, ranging from Chopin's Variations in B flat major that date back to 1833, to a series of compositions by M. Papara that were created in 2018. The artist hopes that thanks to this 'musical kaleidoscope' you will see how varied Polish music is in terms of it's imagery, character, color and tone. Apart from Chopin there are many other Polish composers from which probably only a few are known - Paderewski, Moniuszko, maybe Szymanowski. In the series of compositions by M. Papara one can hear many sound clusters. Sometimes it was even necessary to use the entire piano keyboard in order to produce them. That was possible thanks to specially designed felt-padded panels that were placed on piano keys, allowing in this way a simultaneous production of all piano sounds. Their exceptional timbre is the crucial and underlying component of this series.

Karlsson Barock is possibly the most prominent string ensemble for Baroque music in Northern Europe. On this album, Two Orchestral Suites & Three Arias, the orchestra is expanded with three woodwind play-ers from another important Swedish ensemble The Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble. The first piece on this album is the orchestral suite by Georg Philipp Telemann, Ouverture-Suite in C Major, TWV 55 C6. Telemann's Orchestral Suites - also known as 'Ouvertures' like Bach's - were viewed as the pinnacle of the composer's synthesis of Italian and French styles into something quintessentially German. As an interlude before Bach's orchestral suite, we hear three arias from two tremendously popular operas at the time Alcina by Georg Friedrich Händel and Farnaceby Antonio Vivaldi. To our great joy, the soprano part is performed by Helena Ek, a much-appreciated soloist for early music in Europe. Ms. Ek has an impressively extensive repertoire that spans from early music to con-temporary and she has teamed up with Göran Karlssonin several early music productions. Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C Major, BWV 1066, concludes this wonderful album. Bach's Four Orchestral Suites have helped challenge, alter and reshape what we understand about the composer. Mostly because we don't often associate Bach, the sober Lutheran organist, with exuberant and joyful dance music. But these are works of considerable maturity and sophistication that deserve their place alongside the great scores of Bach's last decades. From Footprint Records, we wish you an enjoyable listening.

20 studio recordings of solo guitar magic from Steve Howe, including four new titles that explore the Yes and Asia guitarist's breath taking repertoire on six- and twelve-string, acoustic, classical, electric, and dobro guitars.