The British heavy metal band captured live in performance at the Hammersmith Odeon Theatre in 1985. The band, who are considered one of the first proponents of thrash metal, perform songs including 'Black Metal', 'Countess Bathory' and 'Witching Hour'.
This two-disc set marks the beginning of a new project devoted to Tchaikovsky’s ballet scores. We start the survey with the complete score of The Sleeping Beauty, recorded on SACD. Swan Lake and The Nutcracker will follow in 2013 and 2014, respectively.Tchaikovsky was approached by the Director of the Imperial Theatres in St Petersburg, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, in 1888 about a possible ballet adaptation of Charles Perrault’s La Belle au bois dormant (The Sleeping Beauty). The vision was to stage the production in the style of Louis XIV, allowing the musical fantasy to run high and melodies to be written in the spirit of Lully, Bach, and Rameau. This proposal for a fairy-tale ballet rooted firmly in both the rococo and baroque periods appealed to Tchaikovsky, and The Sleeping Beauty was premiered in 1890, with choreography by Petipa, the principal choreographer of his day.Elaborately constructed, the ballet places its focus undeniably on the two main conflicting forces of good (the Lilac Fairy) and evil (Carabosse). Each has a representative leitmotif, which runs through the entire ballet, serving as an important thread to the underlying plot. Tchaikovsky’s use of what, at the time, were considered new and unorthodox instrumental combinations went on to inspire a new generation of composers, among them Stravinsky, who declared The Sleeping Beauty to be Tchaikovsky’s chef d’œuvre. The Sleeping Beauty is here performed by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under Neeme Järvi, who is celebrating two major milestones this year: a thirty-year recording career with Chandos Records, and his own seventy-fifth birthday. Orchestra and conductor are joined by the pre-eminent violinist James Ehnes, one of the most dynamic and exciting performers in classical music today.
Tracklista: 1. Devils Not Angels 2. It Came Out Of The Swamp 3. I Love You (But I Can't Stand Your Friends) 4. The Devils Tail 5. I Got The Feeling Someone's Watching Me 6. Luxury Hobo Blues 7. Robot Girlfriend 8. All Things Considered 9. Not Cool Man
The Kammerchor Stuttgart, under the direction of Frieder Bernius is one of the finest choirs worldwide. Their many prizewinning a cappella recordings have set a standard. Now Frieder Bernius presents Beethovens Missa in C major (op. 86). With its tonal language of subjective avowal, the first of Beethoven’s two masses opens up new worlds of expression for the liturgical texts of the Mass which are expressly modern and point towards the future. Not to be considered a preliminary work to the Missa solemnis, it is an entirely independent work which set standards for the further development of settings of the Mass in the 19th century. The world premiere recording of Luigi Cherubini's Sciant gentes (1892) rounds out this CD.
Whether one uses the slightly anachronistic term »cantata«, or the more appropriate geistliches Konzert (»sacred concert«) to describe the form of sacred vocal music created during the course of the 17th century in the northern German lands, one is struck, above all, on listening to this music, by the depth of feeling — a blend of humility, pain and anguish — on the one hand, and by the power of the musical composition itself on the other. The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) was the stage for bloody clashes, joined in the name of religion, attended by their cortege of atrocities, famines and epidemics, resulting not only in destruction, but also, above all, a deep demoralisation. What faith could reside in Man, when his spirit could only hope to find rest in the afterlife? It was a period for reflection on the misery of the human condition, on the precariousness of life, on the futility of engagement, somewhere between culpability and mortification, lucidity and cynicism, doubt and despair.The 17th century in Germany witnessed a power struggle between the solidly anchored traditions and a renewing musical trend, and over the course of a few decades the forces of innovation would move from a marginal position to one of dominance.Religious musical practice consisted largely of plainchant melodies, supplemented by the polyphonic repertoire from the beginning of the century, or even of the previous one. The stile antico was considered more suitable for devotional and reflective purposes. A certain hostility towards the new Italian style, generally considered to be artificial and contrived, was expressed most clearly by the Pietists, led by Johann Arndt. This group — flowing from their conviction that the scriptures and their theological commentary were at first sight impenetrable to the laity, and so were failing to fulfil their pastoral task - insisted on the need for better guidance in bible-reading, encouraged group discussion and individual study of specialist literature, and demanded simplification of the texts and their musical setting. They took issue with the inadequacy, in their ears, of Italian music, comprised as it was of »animal noises«, and recommended rather the use of polyphonic music in the sacred sphere to promote reflection and devotion. Flowing logically from their principles, they also promoted a new form of »spiritual song«, ironically inspired by the Italian strophic aria — the only concession to the stile moderno — as a melodically simple and musically sober form in exclusive service of the comprehension of the text.Opposed to the Pietists in the debate about the role music was to be afforded within the protestant liturgy was an orthodox current decidedly more open to new developments in music. The expressive content of the text as a whole, and its Affekt, were considered more important than its word-by-word comprehensibility. Music, as a gift of God, was the principal conduit for fitting homage to him. An increasingly important element in sacred music would be the representation of emotional drama, requiring a compositional method unashamedly elaborate, even virtuosic, one reinforcing further the role of instruments — and gratifying an existing predilection in Germany for instrumental music.
Tracklista: Side A 1. Devils Not Angels 2. I Love You (But I Can’t Stand Your Friends) 3. Robot Girlfriend 4. All Things Considered 5. Not Cool Man Side B 1. It Came Out Of The Swamp 2. The Devil’s Tail 3. I Got The Feeling Someone’s Watching Me 4. Luxury Hobo Blues
Although Homilius was the longtime choirmaster of the Kreuzkirche, due to its destruction, the primary center where he performed this function was at the Frauenkirche in Dresden. With sensitive arias, unsusal orchestral sounds and expressive turba choruses Homilius translated the traditional Passion into his time. Fritz Näf and the Ensemble Basler Madrigalisten recorded with his St. Mark Passion a piece that was considered by connoisseurs, like the Prussian Princess Anna Amalia, a particularly successful example of modern church music.
On this disc, the exclusive Chandos artist, Michael Collins, plays the clarinet in three works for clarinet and orchestra by Weber, as well as conducting the City of London Sinfonia. The disc also includes Weber’s horn concertino, featuring the soloist Stephen Stirling. The two concertos and the concertino for clarinet and orchestra are considered among the repertoire cornerstones for today’s clarinettists. Weber wrote the works for his personal friend Heinrich Bärmann, the principal clarinettist of the Munich court orchestra, whose own embellishments of the works (changes of articulation, extra grace notes, and even an added accompanied cadenza in the first concerto) have been incorporated in the performances recorded here. Michael Collins suggests that these changes ‘do not make the music any easier to play, but they do make it more thrilling’. Each of the works displays a well-balanced mix of virtuosity, daring, humour, and sheer beauty, and throughout, the role of the orchestra is much more than a mere accompaniment. The woodwind solos, a trio of horns, blaring trumpets, and dashing violins contribute greatly to making these works so captivating. Written in 1806, when Weber was just nineteen years old, the virtuosic Horn Concertino pushed known horn techniques to new limits, requiring the soloist among other feats to produce a ‘four-note chord’, the technique known as multiphonics. The work is today considered a gem in the horn repertoire, and our soloist, Stephen Stirling, is ‘a player gifted with the utmost sensitivity and imagination, which is shown through the beautiful way he shapes musical phrases and the extraordinary range of colours he employs’ – in the words of the late Richard Hickox.
Tracklista: Side A 1. The Supremacy of Pure Artistic Feeling 2. Certainty of Paradise 3. No Analog Nor Precedent 4. Watcher at the Well 5. Nobody Who Matters Cares Side B 1. Have You Considered Punk Music 2. Have You Considered Anything Else 3. Raw Contempt 4. Slavish Devotion to Form 5. The Right Kind of Adult
Tracklista:1. Honey Bee2. Trouble3. One By One4. Playboy of the Western World5. John Brady6. Man in the Sky7. How Sad How Lovely8. Roving Woman9. Talkin' Like You10. Sad Lady11. There Is a Vine (Feat. Jeff Tweedy and Twain)12. Witch and the Wizard13. Fortune's Child14. I Have Considered the Lillies15. Sorrow Is My Name16. Honey Bee (Version 2)