Strauss - Dorfschwalben Aus Osterreich (Village Swallows) - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Strauss - Waltzes Polkas & Ovtrs [COMPACT DISCS] date 06/24/2014

It's Not As Bad As it Looks is about second chances, hope, sin & redemption, the constant search for higher meaning and a path forward. And it's all delivered through Jon Dee's unique prism of pointed lyrics, searing guitar, and arrangements that sway between touching ballads and balls out rock with a punk edge. Recorded this summer at Austin's Wire Recording with Stuart Sullivan at the helm. Another stalwart compadre, Son Volt's Andrew Duplantis was on bass, and Fastball drummer Joey Shuffield held down the back beat. He's been inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame three times, in 2000 as a solo artist, in 2008 as a member of the Skunks, and in 2009 as a member of the True Believers.

This special recording of the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart under Georges Prêtre comprises two symphonic poems by Richard Strauss and his Rosenkavalier-Suite Op. 59. Richard Strauss was a pioneer in the genre of the tone poem. The tone poems that he wrote are still considered to be the high point of program music. He extended the boundaries of program music and took the concept of realism in music to an unprecedented level. He widened the expressive range of music, while depicting subjects many times thought unsuitable for musical depiction. French conductor Georges Pretre made his Paris debut at the Opera-Comique conducting the work of Richard Strauss, no doubt creating a special place in Pretre's heart for Strauss's music. This album is part of a new re- series (Century Classics) consisting of SWR music bestsellers. The series is competitively priced, optically highly attractive and contains acclaimed SWR recordings mostly of the SWR orchestras and their chief conductors.