Jello Is Always Red - The Jello Is Always Red - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Composer Matthew Peterson, nyckelharpist Josefina Paulson and the Uppsala Vocal Ensemble invite you deep into Swedish nature, literally and figuratively. Footprint Records is proud to present Fields of Light - an exploration of Sweden's folk traditions, it's distinctive light from dawn to dusk and the strain of melancholy that lies underneath it's national songs and dances. Peterson's mystical settings of verses by the Finnish poet Edith Södergran (1892-1923) range from nuanced, minor-key nocturnes to frolicking dances, all of them woven with the plaintive, resonant thread of Josefina Paulson's nyckelharpa - the 'keyed fiddle' that is Sweden's national folk instrument. In between, Paulson's instrument leads renditions of Swedish folk songs for all seasons, sung in evocative arrangements. Peterson is an award-winning Swedish-American composer known for his work on both sides of the Atlantic. He describes Södergran's poems as 'lyrical and free, rich in color and detail,' an apt description of his own atmospheric and deeply absorbing choral music, which uses much more than the vocal chords to evoke it's broad, luminous landscapes. His works are sung here by a radiant, precise and beautifully blended Uppsala Vocal Ensemble under musical director and principal conductor since 2011, Sofia Ågren. In Josefina Paulson, the choir collaborates with one of the most respected exponents of the nyckelharpa and 2016's World NYCkelharpa Champion. She joined the singers and Ågren in the warm acoustic of Bäringe Church to create a recording that combines atmosphere, resonance and perfection to magical effect.

17 of the Reggae master's best loved songs newly remastered.

Lively and colourful period-instrument accounts of pioneering works in the genre that later gave us masterpieces by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms. As a pupil of Mozart and contemporary of Beethoven, Hummel was esteemed for the elegance of both his playing and his music. His tone was clear and pure, his touch accurate, equal and refined, and Goethe is said to have remarked that 'Hummel handles the piano as Napoleon handles the world.' The opus numbers of these appealing quintets are misleading. The piano quintet had barely been invented as a genre - it's principal forebears being the piano quartets of Mozart - when Hummel wrote this powerful E flat minor piece in 1802, later catalogued as Op.87 when he adapted it 20 years later for a piano with a larger range. Thus the piece itself belongs to his early period, much more Classical and Mozartian in manner than the powerful Op.74 which opens with a powerful D minor statement and continues in turbulent fashion as a work belonging to 1815, by which time the composer had achieved both fame and security. A quartet of Dutch string players, experienced in the early-music scene, forms the core of the Nepomuk quintet, named after the composer on this album; they are joined by the pianist Riko Fukuda, who contributes an authoritative essay on Hummel and his piano quintets to the booklet. When this recording of the Op.87 Quintet was first released in 2008, it received an enthusiastic welcome from Fanfare magazine 'This is a very valuable ... The manner in which all five musicians construct musical phrases throughout is quite impressive. And their sound blends superbly... The refinement with which these musicians rediscover this relatively unknown music is simply astonishing... The sound of this recording is quite impressive too; the level of detail is amazing, and the spatial depth is compelling.'