All Things Strings

Hello – this is David from Next Level Guitar. I want to let you know that I am very proud to launch my brand new four DVD beginner course. It will get you playing guitar and getting results in the fastest and most efficient manner. This course has over eight hours of instructional materials on four DVDs. I will take you right from the start of your guitar journey all the while making it fun and easy. I make learning guitar infectious and through my proven methods you will want to pick up the guitar and practice and play more,…and more,…and MORE.

The celebrated Rwandan folk duo returns with a resonant fifth album, Rwanda Sings with Strings. The record combines their signature earthy vocals and acoustic instrumentation (guitar and hand percussion) with atmospheric cello and violin arrangements, creating a soundscape that vividly brings to life their powerful stories of resilience, memory, and longing. Recorded 100% live without overdubs in a hotel room by Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Parchman Prison Project), the album delivers an unusually intimate listening experience. Reflective, unfiltered and deeply human.

Sweden’s OPETH are preparing to release their most important record to date with »In Cauda Venenum«. Certainly, fans and critics will have their opinion, but few records in the Swedes’ oeuvre are as engaging, delicate, panoramic, intense, and musical as OPETH’s lucky thirteenth. Sporting a clever Travis Smith cover – replete with inside jokes and a nod to KING DIAMOND – a masterful Park Studios (The Hellacopters, Graveyard) production, OPETH’s usual five-star musicianship, and lyrics entirely in Swedish, »In Cauda Venenum« raises the bar markedly. While a record in Swedish is a first—there’s also an English version—for frontman and founding member Mikael Åkerfeldt, the 10 songs on offer feel and sound completely natural. As if years of listening to and being a fan of Swedish rock and hard rock has paid off. In a way, Opeth have come home. But the Swedish lyrics of the primary edition of »In Cauda Venenum« shouldn’t distract from the quality presented in OPETH’s new songs, the lot of which sneak up and take control after repeated listens. »In Cauda Venenum« is like that, tricky in its complicated simplicity, resourceful in its ability to charm with delightful if wistful melodies. Really, it’s just OPETH being OPETH.

A generous selection of 33 Overtures (or Orchestral Suites) by Georg Philipp Telemann, formerly issued separately, now collected in one 8-CD set. Telemann’s Suites are written for strings and several solo instruments such as flute, oboe, bassoon or horn (each overture has a different instrumentation), beginning with a grand Overture in French style, followed by a suite of shorter dance movements.

John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic here present a complete set of Nielsen’s symphonies, following on from the successful release a year ago of Sibelius’ complete symphonies. The two sets together celebrate the 150th anniversary this year of the birth of both composers. Several concerts devoted to Nielsen’s symphonies, played by the same forces, coincide with this release: on BBC 3 in February, at the Nielsen and Sibelius festival in Stockholm in April, during a week of celebrations at the Bridgewater Hall in June, etc.

The acclaimed Polish period band Arte dei Suonatori perform eight of Vivaldi’s concertos a Quattro. Their version of Handel’s 12 Concerto grossi Op. 6 was awarded ‘Orchestral Choice of the Month’ in BBC Music Magazine, alongside further critical acclaim from the international music press. As well as being a major composer in the formation of the solo concerto, he also was the leading exponent of the older concerto a quattro – music in four parts, with several players to a part. His works in this genre are notable not only for their beauty, but also for their experimental character and for providing the most important examples of fugal writing in Vivaldi’s instrumental music.

Orange Mountain Music presents this new limited edition 11 disc boxed set - The Symphonies by Philip Glass. This collection features conductor Dennis Russell Davies who has arranged the commission of nine of ten Glass symphonies, leading the orchestras over which he has presided during the past 15 years including the Bruckner Orchester Linz, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel, and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. This collection is the fruit of a 20 year collaboration between Glass and Davies and showcases a wide variety within this surprising body of work by Glass.