Various - Orchestral Works - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Leonard Slatkin celebrated his 75th birthday in September 2019. Many of the selections in this program come from a concert given in his honor and are also a tribute to his remarkable musical family, both past and present. Historical recordings include Leonard's cellist mother, Eleanor Aller, being conducted by Korngold in the Haydn concerto and a 1944 broadcast of his father, Felix, as a solo violinist in Brahms. Every piece here has a deeply personal connection for the family. For his composition The Raven, Leonard used Edgar Allan Poe's poem in a work that is Inchalmost like a concerto for speaker and orchestra.Inch

Bézier ripples their way back to Dark Entries with Decompose, an LP of doomed spa music. Multi-instrumentalist Robert Yang has made numerous appearances on Dark Entries for more than a decade, with releases spanning the stylistic gamut from hi-NRG disco floor-fillers to rich ambient epics. Decompose, Bézier's second LP, is perhaps his most introspective work yet. It is an album almost ten years in the making, a deep investigation of life, loss, and the struggle of knowing oneself. If one were to pull a tarot deck for this album it would be the Nine of Swords. The album honors the lives of the fallen victims of Pulse Nightclub. It honors lives lost or suffering through the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The title track takes the form of a Buddhist chant, a brooding synth-driven meditation that scales steadily until breaking into John Carpenter-esque arpeggios halfway through. Tracks like InchEgg,Inch InchMarionette,Inch and InchA Fading Citadel Atop Black Sand BluffsInch build on this soundworld, one in which intricate melodies and cavernous reverb induce in the listener feelings of both claustrophobia and free-fall. The album's dancefloor-leaning moments, like InchCodebreakingInch and InchSplit a Path Towards the ThicketInch are spartan, tunnel-vision techno tracks speeding towards ego-death. Decompose chronicles Yang's journey to find peace with himself, as a gay Asian American. During this process, they learned to InchrepotInch long-lost parts of their identity so they could grow forth in wholesome fashion. The sleeve for Decompose was designed by Eloise Shir-Juen Leigh, and features a photograph by Frankie Casillo of Robert laying on a bed of rocks in savasana pose, resembling an ascetic, evocative of the monastic vibes of the record.

SOMM RECORDINGS is pleased to announce a celebration of Favourite Orchestral Classics by Iain Sutherland and the Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. Recorded in Munich in 1998 and Hanover in 1992, these glorious recordings bear the unmistakable stamp of the Scottish maestro's reputation for emotion, colour and drama. Sixteen composers drawn from three centuries of memorable music range from the brilliant heraldic flourish of Charpentier's Te Deum Prelude (made internationally popular as the signature tune of the European Broadcasting Union) to Stravinsky's agenda-changing The Firebird, with it's beautiful Lullaby. There is yearning romance in Prokofiev's 'The Young Juliet' and Mascagni's Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana, thrilling fantasy in Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream Scherzo, ecstatic energy in Khachaturian's Sabre Dance (Gayane), infectious high spirits in Copland's Hoe-Down (Rodeo) and the sylvan beauty of On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring by Delius. Other highlights include unforgettable classic moments from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (the delightful 'Le Caprice de Nanette'), Bizet (the lilting Minuet from L'Arlésienne with it's novel use of saxophone), Bach (the sublime Sheep May Safely Graze) and Puccini (Suor Angelica's melody-rich Intermezzo). Completing the wide-ranging recital are Grieg's festive Wedding Day at Troldhaugen and evocative Norwegian Rustic March, the haunting scenesetting introduction to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, and Debussy's vividly impressionistic en bateau. Iain Sutherland's previous SOMM releases include the Inchimpressive... fully recommendedInch (Musical Opinion) Bernstein Broadway to Hollywood (Ariadne 5002) and In London Town (SOMMCD 0117) with it's Inchsparkling performances of some of the cream of light musicInch (MusicWeb International). His two volumes of Great Classic Film Music (Ariadne 5006/5009) received wide accl