Various Artists - Confined Speak - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

'Cristiano Porqueddu is a master guitarist,' says the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, 'and one of the foremost representatives of the new generation of soloists. He brings sound to life, and then turns it into art.' Like many of the other composers in this remarkable collection, he has composed more than one piece for Porqueddu and now pays tribute with a piece which draws inspiration from the guitarist's homeland of Sardinia. Diálogo del Olivo y el Nuraga ('Dialogue of the Olive Trees and the Nuraghe') imagines a wordless exchange between two ancient features of the Sardinian landscape, the trees which have provided food and fuel and money for it's people for centuries, and the Stone-Age towers which dot the island. Each of the works here tells a vivid story Porqueddu's own Sonata III is subtitled 'The Rite of Fire' after an ancient Sardinian legend which imagines Saint Anthony and his piglet descending to Hell in order to procure some firelight. Angelo Gilardino draws on his personal memories of sights and sounds experienced when visiting the island in his Sardegna Suite (including another piece evoking the nuraghe). Francesco Morittu is a native-born Sardinian guitarist-composer, whereas Mark Delpriora is an American guitarist who heads the guitar faculty at the Manhattan School of Music; both have contributed intensely atmospheric pieces, which capture the island's wildness as well as it's sense of isolation. Born in 1988 in the Italian province of Velletria, Kevin Swierkosz-Lenart is the youngest composer featured in the collection with a suite inspired by three works of the Sardinian painter Giuseppe Biasi, who also contributes the artwork for the collection's cover.

For Several Friends - a high-baroque chamber music collection by Matthew Locke - was the inspiration for the title of this album, on which a colorful bouquet of German and English chamber music from the 18th century has been compiled. After the cultural life in England had almost come to a standstill in the years of the civil war from 1642 to 1649, it came to a new bloom by the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II in the year 1660. The courtly music ensembles Chapel Royal, Royal Music, The King's Band and The Queen's Band have been reinstated, and a lively musical life has also sprung up in London. Annette John performs in Germany and abroad, among others with the ensembles Weser-Renaissance, Orlando di Lasso, Concerto Palatino, Concerto Brandenburg, Oh-Ton Oldenburg, the Hanoverian Court Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Boston Early Music Festival, the Bremen Council Music and the Hamburger Council Music. She is interested in both old and new music. She is a lecturer at the University of Oldenburg. Since 1995 Susanne Peuker has devoted herself to freelance teaching and concert activities. As a soloist and as a sought-after chamber music partner, her concert tours took her all over Germany and Europe. She is a permanent member of various ensembles in addition to the musical Tafelkonfekt Fortunes Musicke, Musical Delight and Musical Playground, but also in ensembles such as Weser Renaissance, North German Baroque Collegium, Elbipolis, Capella Cantorum, Saxon Vocalensemble and the Philharmonic Bremen

Why Poesia? Because this album explores the cello as a lyrical instrument, with resonances close to the human voice. From the bel canto of Mercadante, a little-known but refined opera composer, to Vanherenthals' flamboyant Rhapsody on the Themes of Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, each work evokes the vocal universe, sometimes with modesty, sometimes with exuberance.