Eleni Lydia Stamellou - Honegger: Petite Chapelle, Songs - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Kurt Weill (1900-1950) was a German-born composer whose work bridged the worlds of classical music, cabaret, and theater. Renowned for his collaborations with playwright Bertolt Brecht, Weill became a defining voice of the Weimar Republic, crafting a musical language that fused biting social commentary with popular idioms such as jazz, tango, and dance-band rhythms. His songs are remarkable for their wit, directness, and deep humanity - qualities that make them as relevant today as they were in the politically charged 1920s and 1930s.Weill's complete songs for voice and piano reveal the breadth of his artistic vision. Early works show his roots in late-Romanticism and his training under Ferruccio Busoni. However, it was through his partnership with Brecht that Weill found his distinctive style. His Songs blend satirical text with deceptively simple melodies, creating unforgettable portraits of urban life and moral ambiguity. Similarly, Mahagonny-Songspiel (1927), Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (1930) and Die Dreigroschenoper offer songs of ironic beauty that expose the corruption and absurdity of modern society.After emigrating to the United States in 1935, Weill reinvented himself once again, writing in English and embracing Broadway while retaining his sharp social awareness. American songs such as InchSeptember SongInch (Knickerbocker Holiday, 1938), InchSpeak LowInch (One Touch of Venus, 1943), display a haunting lyricism and emotional clarity that transcend genre. Collectively, Weill's songs for voice and piano form a rich and multifaceted body of work -at once sophisticated and accessible, European and American, classical and popular- embodying the restless creativity of one of the twentieth century's most original musical voices.Greek soprano Eleni Lydia Stamellou was Prize Winner at the Ferruccio Tagliavini Competition in Austria, with Dame Joan Sutherl

Following on from the success of their debut album, Anglo-Scottish duo Janice Burns & Jon Doran are back with their first Christmas Album, Great Joy to the New. An album that is rooted in tradition, in all senses of the word. It draws strongly on traditional material, as well as the customs and rituals that draw people together through the winter to bring light to dark nights. These beautiful, colourful, musical traditions - born of necessity, and linked by the need to sustain us through harsh winters. It's a collection of traditional folk songs, not just about Christmas, but about looking ahead with optimism for the new year ahead.

Laments of lost and betrayed love from 17th-century Italy musical portraits to be set beside contemporary paintings by Gentilesschi in their contained power and violence. While the featured composers in this recital were born and worked in contrasting provinces of Italy, most of them shared common goals and aesthetic principles. The text came first, and the music was always servant to it. The sweet torment of a broken heart drew from them long-breathed melodies, supported by spare but painfully chromatic harmony. The melody itself was always articulated according to the shape of the text, fitting one to the other like a hand in a silk glove. Eleni Lydia Stamellou and Konstantin Shenikov have made their own selection from a rich treasury of available repertoire in this vein. The album takes it's title from the final track, 'Oblivion soave', drawn from Monteverdi's final opera, 'L'incoronazione di Poppea'. The aria exemplifies Enlightenment values of humanism which inspire self-examination as well as 'sweet oblivion'.They include perhaps the most famous lost-love song of all, at least until the age of Lieder, Caccini's 'Amarilli, mia bella', and comparably familiar masterpieces in the genre such as Monteverdi's 'Si dolce 'l tormento' and Peri's 'Tora, deh torna'. There is also space for the no less subtle art of Andrea Falconieri, as well as several songs by Barbara Strozzi, one of the most successful women composers of the time; indeed, she was the most prolific composer - of either gender - of printed secular vocal music in Venice around the middle of the 17th century.Eleni Lydia Stamellou is a Greek soprano, specialising in this Renaissance-era repertoire as well as new music and Lieder. As a member of Music Aeterna, she has sung operatic roles conducted by Teodor Currentzis including Despina (Cosi fan tutte) and Pierrot in Schoenberg's cabaret-monodrama. The luteni