Manchester Camerata - Piano Concertos Vol. 8 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Volume 7 of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's Mozart piano concerto features two of the late concertos - nos. 24 and 25 - coupled with a spirited reading of the Marriage of Figaro overture from Gábor Takács-Nagy and the Manchester Camerata. Concerto no. 24 was written whilst he was busily composing the Marriage of Figaro between October 1785 and the premier in Vienna in May 1786. One of only two of his piano concertos in a minor key, there are many unusual features in this extraordinary work, including the deliberately ambivalent tonality of the opening melody, which uses all 12 tones of the scale (a pre-echo of serialism?!). Concerto no. 25 was probably first performed in Vienna in December 1876, and was certainly a success as there were many repeated performances in the following years (including one by Beethoven in 1795). Recorded in Manchester's Stoller Hall, Bavouzet plays a Yamaha CFX nine-foot Concert Grand Piano.

The three concertos featured on this album were composed together in 1782 / 83 - shortly after Mozart had left his patron and position in Salzburg to establish himself as a freelance composer and performer in Vienna. The concertos were all performed by the composer in a series of subscription concerts that he gave in the city. All share the same form - opening movement in sonata form, slow movement in ternary form, and a bright rondo finale. Despite these similarities, though, each piece has it's own distinct character and identity; such was the extent of Mozart's genius for invention. Although formally scored for strings with wind, horns, trumpets, and timpani, Mozart also offered them to his to be performed 'a quatro' - for strings only. These would be the last concertos he wrote in which this would be possible, and it is certainly likely that it reflected a need to earn greater income as opposed to being a purely artistic decision. As in the rest of this series, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is joined by the Manchester Camerata and Gábor Takács-Nagy, who open the album with a dazzling performance of the Overture to Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which dates from the same period.

Four CD set. With 12 UK Top 10 singles, 29 Top 40 hits and a combined 280 weeks (over five years!) in the UK charts Hot Chocolate are one of the most successful chart acts of all time. This box set features every A and B-side they issued on the seminal RAK Records tag, all 36 singles. Hot Chocolate chalked up at least one hit single every year between 1970 and 1984, a rare achievement and they are among the Top 200 most successful UK chart artists of all time. Unlike many UK 'pop' acts of the day they scored chart success in the USA where 'Emma' (#3), 'Disco Queen' (#28), 'You Sexy Thing' (#3), 'So You Win Again' (#31), and 'Every 1's A Winner' (#6) were all Billboard Top 40 hits. 24 of these singles were also chart entries in Germany while eight of them went Top 20 in Australia, the band scoring hits across most of Europe as well The booklet comes complete with detailed notes on each single by 1970s expert Phil Hendriks and is fully illustrated with sleeves from across the globe.