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Most of César Franck’s works received scant attention at the time of their composition and Hulda was never performed in his lifetime. The narrative is set in 14th-century Norway at the time of the great tribal kings, with marauding hordes spreading fear and terror throughout the land. Hulda is kidnapped and transferred from one tribe to the other, her family is killed and she herself is humiliated.

On ne peut que saluer un label comme Naxos qui a l’audace de publier depuis longtemps des œuvres complètement oubliées de l’histoire de la musique. Une politique d’autant plus courageuse qu’elle ne doit pas rapporter beaucoup de retour sur investissements. Cet opéra presque totalement inconnu de César Franck qui sort ici pour la première fois dans sa version intégrale, sans la moindre coupure, en est une excellente illustration.

Both Acis and Galatea and the cantata Sarei troppo felice heard here represent decisive turning points in Handel's career. The Italian cantata came at the beginning of the one and half decades spent by Handel in the service of various patrons. Acis and Galatea marks the highpoint of this phase and therefore, like the cantata before it, clearly renders recognizable the musical means available to him in the private ensembles of his employers. Moreover, Acis and Galatea contains the musical and textual seeds of the English oratorio, which after 1742 completely supplanted opera compositions.

At first glance, “49 Days” has very little going for it, especially given that it features not one, but two pop stars as leading cast members. Mercifully, neither displays their questionable singing talents, and the film turns out to be far more entertaining than expected, mainly due to some unintentional hilarity and a return to the high camp style of 1980s Hong Kong horror.
Set against a historical backdrop, the story follows Lau Sing (Stephen Fung, recently responsible for the lacklustre “House of Fury”), a medicine man who leaves his family to head down the river and start a new business in the provincial capital. Unfortunately, a few years later, just as he is about to return to his family, he finds himself framed by the villainous Pang Sei (Raymond Wong, turning in a hilariously overwrought performance) for involvement in an insurance fire which kills seven of his colleagues.

During the two decades that followed the end of World War II in 1945, independent record labels flourished. Many of these micro labels succeeded by specializing in specific types of music that the more bland-minded giants—RCA, Columbia and Decca—largely ignored. In the process, these small labels wound up establishing beachheads for new music genres and cornering the market for the genres' best musicians and singers.

Muzio Clementi achieved early success as a widely-travelled pianist, performing for nobility and meeting Mozart, his journeys reflected in the Melodies of Different Nations. The Sonata in A flat major is his earliest surviving work, and the incomplete Allegro and Finale may have been intended as part of the famous Gradus ad Parnassum (Naxos 8572325-8). Based on a popular dance form, the delightful Monferrinas reveal Clementi’s charming side, each one presenting a uniquely interesting character.

Olivier Messiaens Meditations sur le Mystere de la Sainte Trinite grew out of improvisations that he performed at the inauguration of the rebuilt organ of La Trinite in 1967. It became his largest cycle to date and marks Messiaens first use of communicable language, in which each letter of the alphabet is assigned a unique pitch and note value, thereby translating text into music. Haunting harmonies, awe-inspiring monumental grandeur and the deepest profundity of expression are contrasted by the innocence of birdsong with the recurrent call of the yellowhammer, a tranquil voice from nature amid kaleidoscopic Biblical themes.