Bernstein / Rodrigues / Wilmaers - Gershwin & Bernstein Conne - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

M. Castello & G. Picchi - Castello & Co Venetian Sonatas for Winds & String [COMPACT DISCS] O-Card Packaging date 11/13/2012

Following their Linn debut, a 'breathtaking album of songs by Gustav and Alma Mahler' (The Herald), Karen Cargill and Simon Lepper return to fin-de-siècle Europe for a recital of songs by the 'crème de la crème' of late nineteenth-century French speaking composers. Entitled Fleur de mon âme, the album embraces the sensual soundworld of Hahn, Debussy, Chausson, Jongen and Duparc. The album opens with À Chloris which recalls the elegance of the seventeenth century before borrowing from the poetry of Ancient Greece in Chansons de Bilitis and setting sail on a calm sea with Chausson's Sérénade italienne. Guest soloists from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra add orchestral colour to Chausson's Chanson perpétuelle and Calmes, aux quais déserts by lesser-known Belgian composer Joseph Jongen. The compelling romanticism of Duparc's songs complete this bouquet of soul-searching French mélodies.

In the year of Leonard Bernstein's centenary, Sony Classical is pleased to present the perfect introduction to this legendary American musician. Many of the conductor-composer's most celebrated interpretations and works are sampled here, every track chosen to display a facet of his unparalleled dynamism and versatility. There is music by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Mahler, Shostakovich and Copland, with great soloists like clarinettist Benny Goodman and mezzo Frederica von Stade, violinists Joshua Bell and Zino Francescatti, pianists Glenn Gould and Philippe Entremont, not to mention Bernstein himself playing and conducting Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Writing about these benchmark 1960s and 1970s New York interpretations, The Guardian's reviewer declared InchThere's a raw ebullience to the performances that is typical of Bernstein at his best... They are all historic performances.Inch Bernstein the composer is represented also. InchFew composers capture their time and become the iconic voice of their age,Inch wrote conductor John Mauceri, in a tribute to his late mentor. In addition to highlights from concert works such as the Age of Anxiety, Serenade and Mass, there are selections from Bernstein's ballets and musicals, including excerpts from the original Broadway cast recording of West Side Story from 1957 as well as his later New York Philharmonic recording of the InchSymphonic DancesInch. Bernstein's friend and colleague, composer Ned Rorem, summed up Leonard Bernstein's achievement admirably when he said in 1987 InchIf he were not a composer he would not be the world's best conductor. Alone among conductors he knows that the essence of music is not what it sounds like, but what the sounds are intended to communicate. Since he too is a composer, he knows that the magic lies not in the communication of sound, but in the sound of communication.Inch