Various Artists - Talkin About Barbara - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Five organists of the Victorian Age are the focus of volume six of the Britannic Organ series from the Museum of Mechanical Musical Instruments in Sweden, Switzerland. In the entire history of the Welte manufacturing, no other national group produced as many recordings as did British organists. Amongst them were cathedral and town-hall organists - educated and celebrated in Victorian England - who stood by their traditions without compromise. They were all still in top form when they made these recordings.

The musical life in the late 18th century's Russian metropolises still needs to be researched more extensively With this recording, the musicians of the Altera Pars ensemble impressively demonstrate what masterpieces are waiting for their discovery. The international ensemble InchAltera ParsInch (in English Other Side) specializes in the performance of baroque and classical music. The musicians are leading soloists of European orchestras on period instruments. This allows for a variation of the line-up from 3 to 9 people and opens up a rich chamber repertoire from the 18th to the early 19th century. In the last four years, the ensemble initiated a much-praised series of concerts in the Oldenburg Palace.

The trio sixty1strings is indeed a unique ensemble! On their GENUIN album Ambarabà, the three young musicians Ekaterina Solovey (mandolin), Negin Habibi, and Konstanze Kuß, explore a whole cosmos of sound that ranges from baroque structures to folkloristic and impressionistic spheres. The program includes the only original work for the instrumentation by Hans-Werner Henze and transcriptions of Debussy, Ginastera, Rodrigo, and Micheev. The works, however, receive no new attire; instead, they allow let their original garments to shine in an entirely new and special way. The album thereby pays homage to the beauty of the three instruments, which we rediscover in an excitingly evocative manner.