Mercadante / Ardito / Bonfitto / Donato - Messa a Grande Orch Per Quattro Voci - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

movement-by-movement comparison makes it clear that... The Borodins win hands down... their internal balance at every point is irreproachable (Gramophone)

New light on Pergolesi! This album sheds light on a lesser-known aspect of the great Italian composer, offering two masterpieces in their first modern edition and first recording the Mass in D major and the mottettone Dignas Laudes. Both editions are the outcome of recent musicological research carried out by the Centro Studi Pergolesi in Milan, and show a facet of Pergolesi - his energetic and solemn character - that complements and amplifies the dramatic and introspective moods of his most renowned sacred works. This Arcana inaugurates a collaboration with the Ghislieri Choir & Consort and celebrates the fifteenth anniversary of the ensemble, which specialises in eighteenth-century sacred repertory and has already recorded works by Galuppi, Jommelli, Perez (Il Mattutino de' Morti) and Handel (Handel in Rome 1707) for Sony-DHM. The soloists on this recording, conducted by Giulio Prandi, are the soprano Marlis Petersen, one of the leading sopranos on the international scene, and a quintet of young Italian singers who already perform in the most important and prestigious European venues.

Political Journalist isn't a credential usually in musician's bios, but this is exactly what Anika was doing while living between Berlin and Bristol earlier this year when she met Geoff Barrow. The producer was looking for a new singer to work with his band Beak , and it was immediately clear they shared the same musical vision, including a love of punk, dub and 60s girl groups. Just a week later Anika and Beak (Barrow, Billy Fuller and Matt Williams) went into the studio to begin recording material. The resulting album was recorded in twelve days, live, with the four together in one room. Dub with no overdubs. The collaboration is political, trashy, dub, punk, funk... a cohesive sound, and experience in uneasy listening. In the tradition of short lived but deeply influential 99 Records and the NYC's 80s No Wave nexus, the nine songs on Anika run the gamut from experimental rock (InchYang YangInch, InchOfficer OfficerInch) to covers of folk (InchMasters of WarInch) and pop songs (InchTerryInch, InchI Go to SleepInch), while showcasing reverb-drenched ancient drum machine rhythms.