Bowers - Rational Passions - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Graupner holds in store music of the highest artistic sophistication. Flawless vocal achievements and an orchestra that savors all the color nuances of Graupner's carefully thought-out instrumentation make these Passion cantatas a genuine listening feast. This is what klassik-heute. Com wrote after the of cpo's Vol. 1 featuring cantatas by Christoph Graupner. Vol. 2 now follows, just in time for Passiontide. Once again the instrumentation is manifold in it's design, and it is here too that we find the key to Graupner's personal style he captivates his listeners not so much with catchy, easy-to-remember »melodies« as with intensive play with the various tone colors made available to him by the court chapel members and their instruments. For example, while the Cantata for the Third Sunday in Lent exclusively employs stringed instruments, for the Cantata of the Annunciation of Mary Graupner chooses a clearly more colorful instrumentation by additionally using two transverse flutes and two oboes opposing each other as pairs in the opening chorus. The instrumentation of the Bass Aria No. 5 in the cantata exhibits special finesse. Along with the pair of transverse flutes, the first violin part is given an original design it has tones held for an entire measure in the lowest register on the lowest string, while the two flutes insistently repeat their syncopated motion. This recording is new proof that Graupner was indeed the most independent-minded and individual and composer of the German Baroque.

Stone Coal White - Stone Coal White [COMPACT DISCS] date 07/12/2011

Eleanor Alberga was born in 1949 in Kingston, Jamaica. Her mother founded, and subsequently ran, her own high school in Jamaica and believed passionately in the Arts. Consequently, Eleanor was introduced to classical music at an early age. As a teenager she had piano lessons at the Jamaica School of Music and in 1968 she won the biennial Royal Schools of Music Scholarship for the West Indies, which she took up two years later at the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying piano and singing. 2001 was a turning point when she was awarded a NESTA Fellowship and chose to give up her career as a concert pianist and concentrate full-time on composition. Her distinctive creative output encompasses instrumental, chamber and orchestral pieces, as well as works for stage and film. With it's vibrant rhythms, rich harmonies and idiomatic writing for every instrument, her music has the authentic stamp of an experienced performer and an accomplished executant. (Paul Conway)