Amy Grant Legacy... Hymns And Faith

Country singers rule this soundtrack of Elvis Presley covers, which is every bit as flawed, frivolous and fun as the film from whence it came. While Billy Joel parodies "All Shook Up" and "Heartbreak Hotel," John Mellencamp labors to avoid parodying "Jailhouse Rock," and U2's Bono transforms "Can't Help Falling in Love" into an obsessive parable about hero worship, folks like Ricky Van Shelton and Trisha Yearwood just sit back and sing the things, which at least makes them pleasant after more than one plaing. Dwight Yoakam's power-chord-country version of "Suspicious Minds" and Travis Tritt's "Burning Love" rank with their best remakes. Breaking the trend are pop crooner Bryan Ferry, who sings a seductive British soul version of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and the usually trustworthy Vince Gill, whose Pat Boone-style rendition of Arthur Crudup's classic blues "That's All Right" cleans up the grammar.

Hailed by The Times for its ‘exhilarating performances’, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective was dreamed up in 2017 by Tom Poster and Elena Urioste, who met through the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme. The Collective operates with a flexible roster which features many of today’s most inspirational musicians, both instrumentalists and singers, and its creative programming is marked by an ardent commitment to celebrating diversity of all forms and a desire to unearth lesser\-known gems of the repertoire. This ethos is clear in their repertoire selection for this their début recording. The Piano Quintet is one of Amy Beach’s better\-known works, which the KCC collectively fell in love with during a residency at the Cheltenham festival. Composed in 1907, the work reflects the strong influence of the music of Brahms.

You might accurately describe this program as a compilation of "great hits of Christian church music", including as it does Franck's Panis angelicus, Finzi's God is gone up, Mozart's Laudate Dominum, Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine, Lotti's Crucifixus, Howells' Magnificat, and the overrated, overwrought, overlong (and usually excruciatingly-sung) Hear my prayer by Mendelssohn. We also get a couple of Purcell anthems, O God, Thou art my God and Remember not, O Lord, Stanford's glorious motet Justorum animae, Duruflé's tiny masterpiece Ubi caritas et amor, and the choral setting of Elgar's "Nimrod" orchestral variation (Lux aeterna).

The brand-new album from The Dream Syndicate blends vintage Krautrock, Eno-like ambience, Neu-inspired rhythmic groove and a Californian sun baked sheen into the their classic psychedelic, melodic, hue. The Dream Syndicate have moved well past their early Velvet Underground influences and taken on British glam, German prog, and more.

Robert Shaw was a Fred Waring protégé who, by the end of his 17-year tenure heading The Robert Shaw Chorale, had fashioned arguably the most widely-known and respected professional choral organization in the United States. The Chorale recorded a number of charting albums, all for RCA Victor, but the one that will always be considered their definitive recording is this Christmas album, presented here in its 1957 re-recorded stereo version (like a lot of popular Christmas albums of the day, Christmas Hymns and Carols had several incarnations, first appearing in the ‘40s as a box of four 78 rpm discs). The album went to #5 on the charts in 1949 and 1957, then hit the charts another three times during the ‘60s; one could argue that, with its seamless medleys and majestic harmonies, it is to this day the gold standard for choral Christmas recordings.

We released Volume I of the Robert Shaw Chorale’s Christmas Hymns and Carols to rapturous response from lovers of Christmas music everywhere, so following it up with Volume II was a natural. Indeed, this second volume of Christmas carols—presented, like on its predecessor, in a series of medleys—perfectly complements the first volume by casting its eye a bit farther afield in search of repertoire suited for the brilliant arrangements of Fred Waring protégé Shaw and his longtime collaborator, Alice Parker. So, instead of the well-worn “O Come All Ye Faithful”/”The First Nowell”/”O Little Town of Bethlehem” medley that led off Volume I, here a medley of “I Saw Three Ships”/”O Tannenbaum”/”Allon, Gay Gay Bergeres”/”The Holly and the Ivy” leads off, followed by “Fum, Fum, Fum”/”Hacia Belén”/”Ya Viene La Vieja”/”La Virgen Lava Pañales,” and more relatively unfamiliar fare, all flawlessly and fervently rendered by The Chorale.

A beautifully-recorded album from master violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata, Baltica, spanning a wide range of music, all of it broached with conviction. Hungarian composer and pianist Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer from the Serbian province of Vojvodina has written eight hymns in commemoration of the film director Andrei Tarkovsky, an artist he has called a homo moralis whose remarkable visions cast a small but significant light on the tragic world of the previous century. Georgian composer Giya Kancheli contributes a silent prayer for two of his most important musical associates: the cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and the violinist Gidon Kremer.