Lang Lang - Piano Book 2 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

SIMPLY THE VERY BEST OF TODAY'S SMOOTH JAZZ GUITAR features the top stars of smooth jazz guitar at their very best. Such greats as the legendary Earl Klugh, Norman Brown, Peter White, Chuck Loeb, Mark Antoine, Chieli Minucci and many more make this smooth, sensuous CD a unique event.

2010 album from the British violinist and his quintet. Shhh! Confirms the maverick status and omnivorous musical taste of one of Britain's finest and most unpredictable musicians. InchI am a natural improviser. I can't just always stand up and follow a score,Inch says Kennedy, the virtuoso violinist who has been ploughing his own furrow ever since as a 16 year old student he joined the jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli on stage at the Carnegie Hall - to the alarm of his classical teachers at the Juilliard School.

Best-known for his popular Broadway musicals The Music Man and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Meredith Willson was also a highly skilled composer in a variety of concert genres, including the symphony. Willson's Symphony No. 1 is an expansive tone poem about his beloved San Francisco. Cast in the traditional four-movement scheme, but with tone painting and mood placed over motive development and unifying considerations, the symphony is rich in orchestration and melodic invention. This dynamic evocation of the city's imagery and daily activity is reminiscent at times of Vaughan Williams' A London Symphony, particularly in the juxtapositions of muscular thematic development with calm scenes of nocturnal beauty. In the Symphony No. 2, subtitled InchThe Missions of California,Inch Willson takes a historical turn and creatively summons the figure of Junipero Serra, the peaceful valley surrounding the mission at San Juan Bautista, the swallows of San Juan Capistrano, and the difficult journeys of missionaries along El Camino Real. The symphonic form is almost overloaded with this ambitious program, yet Willson's assured handling of his musical material is convincing, and the piece succeeds equally well as pure music. The Moscow Symphony Orchestra, conducted by William T. Stromberg, presents these engaging works with warmth and Polish, and Naxos' recording is superb.