Keivo / Mirzo / Kerschek / Azmeh / Rahal - Sherine - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Volume 15 of Bridge's POUL RUDERS EDITION includes Piano Concerto No. 3 InchPaganini VariationsInch, a virtuoso duo for harpsichord and piano, Cembal d'Amore, Second Book, and Kafkapriccio, an orchestral suite from Ruders's third opera, Kafka's Trial. All three works are world premiere recordings, performed by Anne-Marie McDermott, piano, Quattro Mani, and the Odensesymfoniorkester conducted by Benjamin Shwartz and Andreas Delfs. Three brilliant compositions from one of the world's greatest living composers. Paul Ruders lives a spartan life in the countryside of Denmark. The isolation has afforded him the opportunity to produce a deep and highly varied catalog which includes five operas, 45 symphonic works and concertos, and dozens of solo and chamber pieces. In July of 2019, Poul Ruders celebrated his 70th birthday with the world premiere of his newest opera, The Thirteenth Child, staged by the Santa Fe Opera. Also, on tap in 2019/2020/2021 are new productions by The Boston Lyric Opera, the San Francisco Opera and the Royal Danish Opera (Copenhagen) of Ruders's best known opera, The Handmaid's Tale, after the dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood.

In that year of 1960, Bob Azzam dominated the sales-charts with three inescapable hits made for parties InchMustaphaInch, InchFais-moi le couscous, chériInch and InchC'est écrit dans le cielInch, three titles that mixed good-natured humor with Oriental rhythms. But Bob had many other strings to his bow, as you can hear in this 'mezze' of 24 songs. Wadie George Azzam, better known by his stage name Bob Azzam, (24 October 1925 in Cairo - 24 July 2004 in Monaco) was an Egyptian singer of Lebanese ancestry. With his international hit song InchMustaphaInch, Azzam achieved success in France in the 1960s. The track peaked at No. 23 in the UK Singles Chart, spending fourteen weeks in that chart. Azzam had a degree in electronic engineering, and has been regarded as the man behind the chamber of echoes InchHors-studioInch or Inchoff-studioInch

Simon Wallfisch writes of this new InchSupressed music (or 'Entartete Musik' or 'Verfemte Musik'), music and musicians smeared by the Nazis' dark, ideologically-motivated hatred, has developed into an artificial genre of it's own, throwing together composers of completely different musical backgrounds and, it must be said, varying degrees of quality, into the same bucket. This must change. We risk missing the true qualities, nuances and pedigree of individual composers' voices, as well as the cultural preoccupations that united them (as in the case of this album, the common fascination in the early twentieth century with translations of Chinese and Persian poetry). The deliberate inclusion of Richard Strauss (whose political allegiances are questionable) is because I wish the listener to hear beyond the names, beyond the painful historical facts and savor the incredible sound world created by these musical cousins. It is my wish that, by presenting all of these neglected composers as equals, we can begin to restore them to their rightful place, where they belonged all along, in our collective musical Consciousness.Inch