Catherine Gregory - Vent - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Solo for Tamburium is legendary minimalist composer Catherine Christer Hennix's first solo recording in nearly 50 years, since her vaunted 1976 record The Electric Harpsichord. Using a keyboard-controlled suite of eighty-eight electronic tambura, Hennix creates a sweeping and exacting drone that thrusts the listener into what the composer calls divine equilibrium, a state of spiritual contemplation. Hennix was part of the downtown music school in New York, has worked extensively with some of it's key figures, including Henry Flynt and La Monte Young, and studied closely with Pandit Pran Nath. This new major work applies the principles she developed in this important moment to a maze-like sonic landscape that will apply to fans of '70s minimalism and contemporary electronic music alike.

Melissa Sweeney - Golden Thread [COMPACT DISCS] date 11/16/2004

Die Frau ohne Schatten concerns itself with the mystery of birth and the mystery of death. For composer Richard Strauss, and librettist von Hofmannsthal, influences of Goethe and Mozart's Magic Flute played an important role in the opera's conception. This great work was Sebastian Weigle's admission ticket as Frankfurt Opera Chief Music Director; what could be more appropriate then, than to issue this performance on CD? Strauss specialist Weigle brought established singers and role debutantes to the stage, including Terje Stensvold, who made his farewell from the Frankfurt stage in 2014.