W.a. Mozart - Nozze Di Figaro for String Quartet - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

After being fired by Miles Davis and traveling to Philadelphia to combat his drug addiction, in mid-1957 John Coltrane accepted Thelonious Monk's offer and joined his band for a period of six months. They played at New York's Five Spot Café in a quartet . Despite the exquisite quality of the band's music, it yielded relatively few studio recordings. This LP was issued by producer Orrin Keepnews in 1961, four years after the sessions took place, and after Coltrane had become a leader and jazz star in his own right. THE COMPLETE ALBUM + 2 BONUS TRACKS - 180-GRAM VIRGIN VINYL - LIMITED EDITION

In a letter to his father on 13 October 1781, Mozart wrote, 'Why do Italian comic operas give such pleasure everywhere - in spite of their miserable libretti...?' Because the music reigns supreme when one listens to it all else is forgotten. Why an opera is sure of success when the plot is well worked out, the words written solely for the music and not shoved in here and there to suit some miserable rhyme... The best thing of all is when a good composer, who understands the stage and is talented enough to make sound suggestions, meets an able poet, that true Phoenix. 'Two years before he had met Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's frustration with the present condition of opera had reached boiling point. The collaboration between the two men produced three of the greatest operas in the repertoire - Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. Adapting the second play in Beaumarchais' trilogy, da Ponte skillfully navigated a risky path through the plot that had lead to Emperor Joseph II (da Ponte had become court poet thanks to an introduction from Antonio Salieri) banning it. Themes of greedy aristocrats and officials lording it up over the common man who struggled to make ends meet was dangerous stuff when the French Revolution was being observed with horror by the crowned heads of Europe. Mindful of this, da Ponte produced a wonderful libretto, informing the Emperor of it's revised 'non-offensive' content at every turn. Mozart was under no such constraints, and his wonderful score when set to da Ponte's words restores the daring satire and social commentary of the play in perhaps the most perfect opera ever composed. The premiere took place in Vienna in 1786.

?On this critically-acclaimed recording, Arabella Steinbacher brings together Bruch's world famous First Violin Concerto with Chausson's rich Poème and Korngold's Violin Concerto, which is gradually gaining ground as a twentieth-century masterpiece. Steinbacher is joined by the Orquestra Gulbenkian under the baton of Lawrence Foster, with whom she has developed a congenial musical partnership over the years. BBC Music Magazine commented that Inchthere is no doubting Steinbacher's refulgent sound or the flair of her deliveryInch while MusicWeb International praised Inchthe tingling climax of this Chausson.Inch After a temporary absence, this album now returns to the physical market in an affordable Stereo re-issue. Arabella Steinbacher is a multiple award-winner with an extensive Pentatone discography spanning more than a decade. Lawrence Foster and the Orquestra Gulbenkian are also longstanding partners of the tag.