Thomas Dunford - Eternal Heaven Handel Arias & Duos / Oratorios - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Pulitzer prize winning writer/poet Carl Sandburg was one of the greatest literary figures of the 20th century. One of America's foremost folk song collectors, Sandburg also possessed a marvelous singing voice and was a noted orator. These rare vintage recordings feature Sandburg singing some of his personal favorites from the vast catalog of American folksongs compiled throughout his career. All selections newly remastered.

With Songs of Passion, a collection of vocal and instrumental music by John Dowland and Henry Purcell - English composers born nearly a century apart - mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre, lutenist Thomas Dunford and Ensemble Jupiter have created a companion to their previous Erato albums, Eternal Heaven, Idylle and Amazone. Dowland is known for his intimate evocations of amorous melancholy in his writing for voice and for lute, while the music of Purcell - the greatest British-born composer of the Baroque era - encompasses a rich diversity of moods and emotions.

SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce a major new by Leon McCawley focusing on the piano music of Franz Schubert. The new recording is the latest offering from a highly acclaimed partnership between SOMM and McCawley that has seen earlier albums devoted to Haydn, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Rachmaninov and Samuel Barber. Leon McCawley has been one Britain's foremost pianists since winning the International Beethoven Piano Competition in 1993, when he also took second prize in the Leeds International Piano Competition. Perhaps Inchthe most enigmatic of all musical geniusesInch, as Bryce Morrison describes him, Schubert himself famously declared InchI came into this world for nothing else but to composeInch. Two masterpieces are heard here. The Drei Klavierstücke saw Schubert reaching out in a radical new direction to deliver, says Morrison, something Inchwild, feverish, disjointed and intimate... visionary music with a vengeanceInch. The Wanderer Fantasy is a luxurious display of virtuoso opulence - music the like of which wouldn't be heard again until Liszt at his most incendiary - that makes fearsome demands on the soloist. Four songs arranged by Liszt remain uncannily faithful to Schubert's originals while adding an extra dimension of drama and sophistication to show both composers at their melodic and dramatic best. Leon McCawley's previous recordings for SOMM have received wide critical praise. Gramophone hailed his complete Rachmaninov Preludes as Incha distinguished issueInch, Fanfare described his playing of Brahms as Inchmusic-making of a very high orderInch with International Record Review adding InchWhen all is said and done, it is difficult to know whether McCawley's refined piano playing, his natural yet cultivated musicality or his boundless imagination warrants the greater praise. You must hear the recordingInch. His recording of Haydn's Sonatas and