Anthony Harkins Meredith Mccarroll

Esoteric Recordings releases of a newly remastered 5CD clamshell boxed set comprising the two original ‘Archive Collection’ albums by celebrated composer and Genesis founder member Anthony Phillips. Aside from his work as a solo artist, Anthony has been a composer of music for television for many years, going back as far as 1976 and those compositions form the backbone of these collections.

Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Gil Rose present the world premiere recording of The Lord of Cries, a breathtaking opera by John Corigliano and Mark Adamo. Telling the story of Euripides’s The Bacchae with the characters of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the piece explores the power of sexual desire and humans’ need to blame and attack others for what they can neither resist nor accept in themselves. Corigliano returns to opera for the first time since his The Ghosts of Versailles, introduced by the Metropolitan Opera, made an international sensation in 1992. The brilliant cast—most of whom introduced their parts in the world premiere in 2021—is led by star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo in the title role.

This project represents a starting point in gently opening up the possibilities of incorporating an element of improvisation into the oeuvre of Bach's chamber music. Given that both Toshi and Anthony are improvising musicians, able and willing to extemporise in a variety of genres (jazz, folk music, early music, etc.), but also being devotees of the repertoire and musical language of Bach, it seemed natural to use certain works of Bach’s as a basis for new invention. The result is a fresh approach to Bach, where improvisation is part of the overall soundscape, whether through ornamentation, basso continuo or entire passages opened up for ‘jamming’. The instrumentation for this programme is also diverse, with Toshi and Anthony using two instruments each; broadening the timbral spectrum. This project is, for them, a crucial way in exploring just how we can be both faithful to the score and true to ourselves as creative musicians interested in mastering this musical language.

The three sections of this Triptych can be described as follows: the left-hand panel — Misery — depicts the vale of tears; Transitio on the right-hand panel represents a transformation in everyday life, whilst Transfiguratio , the central panel, portrays the brilliant colours of transcendental bliss.

Braxton released a number of solo alto saxophone albums in the wake of his extraordinary For Alto recorded in 1968, all of which are both fascinating documents in their own right as well as glimpses into the mechanisms which underlie his music. This live set from Wesleyan University in 1992 is no exception. One evolutionary difference here is that around this time Braxton began incorporating into his solo concerts a strategy he had developed during the '80s for his quartet: collage procedures. This means that, while initially playing one composition, he allowed himself the option of interpolating others as he saw fit, making for an even wider array of "sound spaces" available for exploration. Indeed, the range he covers is amazing…

The band Anthony Braxton assembled for this unique exploration of the compositions of Thelonious Monk is one of the wonders of the composer's retinue. Braxton, pianist Mal Waldron, bassist Buell Neidlinger, and drummer Bill Osborne use six Monk tunes and go hunting for harmonic invention; in order, they are "Brilliant Corners," "Reflections," "Played Twice," "Four in One," "Ask Me Now," and "Skippy." From the jump, the listener can tell this is no ordinary Monk tribute. The music is fast, skittering along at a dervish's pace on "Brilliant Corners," and Braxton's horn - an alto on this album - moves right for that street where interval meets modulation and sticks his solo in the center, careening over the arrangement - which is what the tune is in essence, an arrangement rather than a "song"…

Anthony Ventura is the only big-band instrumantalist who could rightly rival the orchestras of Paul Mauriat & James Last. The only reason why many of our contemporaries have not heard of Anthony Ventura & his orchestra is because the albums that were released originally, many years ago, in the vinyl version, are no longer burnt into cds by the big record companies today. Since most people nowadays no longer own a record/vinyl player - it's all cds & more in today's days - these wonderful albums are fast disappearing with the mists of Time. Ventura's music selections are marked by style, romance & sophistication and by his harmonious & nostalgic melodies of very familiar tracks that have trickled down to us through the decades. ~ Sherna Bhumgara, Amazon