2019|

The legendary Danish pop duo is celebrating their 40th anniversary with a new album. With a staggering record sale in the multimillion class and indelible classics like Sunshine Reggae, White Horse and Bakerman on the conscience, this year Laid Back can celebrate 40 years of fruitful collaboration. However, the stylish Danish pop duo looks ahead rather than back, which means that on the occasion of their anniversary they have made a brand new album entitled Healing Feeling. The new album is believed to have come to the world in Laid Back's own studio at Vesterbro in Copenhagen, where the duo, made up of the couple John Guldberg and Tim Stahl, have had their steady base ever since the beginning of their career.

Presented by the Festival della Valle d’Itria, this is the first modern-day staging of Leonardo Leo’s Neapolitan revision of Handel’s Rinaldo, a pastiche with a Mediterranean allure, which was composed in 1718 but considered lost until a few years ago. The story behind this rare opera is fascinating: the score of Handel’s masterpiece was brought illegally to Naples by the castrato singer Nicolò Grimaldi, who had performed Rinaldo in London. Once in Italy, the work was given a makeover by local composers, including Leo, who adapted it to the taste of the Neapolitan public, adding intermezzos and amusing characters.

Storyteller is the first new studio album in over five years from Norwegian/Irish duo Secret Garden.
On the day of release (26 April 2019), Fionnuala Sherry and Rolf Løvland have this to say in their newsletter:
“Even though we had great success and response to our “Just the Two of US” album (one of our favourites ), “Live at Kilden” and “You Raise Me Up: The Collection”; “Storyteller” is very special and means so much to us both. From the initial concept of the album to the final mix, its been a truly wonderful journey of writing, arranging, recording, producing and working with some of the most wonderful incredible artists including the incredible Czech National Symphony Orchestra. We have traveled between Norway, Ireland, the UK and the Czech Republic to produce “Storyteller”…

Beethoven’s monumental contribution to Western classical music is celebrated here in this definitive collection marking the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Surveying the totality of his career and achievement, the Complete Edition spans orchestral, concerto, keyboard, chamber, music for the stage, choral and vocal works, encompassing his most familiar and iconic masterpieces, alongside rarities and recently reconstructed fragments and sketches in world premiere recordings. The roster of artists and ensembles includes some of Beethoven’s greatest contemporary exponents, in performances that have won critical acclaim worldwide.

15 original albums with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Buck Clayton, Freddie Hubbard, Charlie Parker, Gene Ammons, Wardell Grey, Melba Liston, Ben Webster, Duke Ellington, Bud Powell, Hampton Hawes, Billy Higgins, Max Roach, Billy Eckstine and Herbie Hancock, among others…