Art Times April 2021

No artist of the rock & roll era compares to singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Prince. He was the rare combination of a visionary pop conceptualist and master musician who could capture the sounds he imagined. This quality fueled his remarkable success throughout the 1980s, a decade in which he authored a string of nine gold, platinum, or multi-platinum albums that included 1999 (1982), Purple Rain (1984), and Sign 'o' the Times (1987). Ideas came to Prince so quickly that they couldn't be contained on his own records. He masterminded albums by the Time and Sheila E. and gave away hit songs to the Bangles and Sheena Easton, shaping the sound of popular music in the process.

No artist of the rock & roll era compares to singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Prince. He was the rare combination of a visionary pop conceptualist and master musician who could capture the sounds he imagined. This quality fueled his remarkable success throughout the 1980s, a decade in which he authored a string of nine gold, platinum, or multi-platinum albums that included 1999 (1982), Purple Rain (1984), and Sign 'o' the Times (1987). Ideas came to Prince so quickly that they couldn't be contained on his own records. He masterminded albums by the Time and Sheila E. and gave away hit songs to the Bangles and Sheena Easton, shaping the sound of popular music in the process.

Georg Friedrich Händels Messiah wurde am 13. April 1742 erstmals in Dublin aufgeführt und danach mehrmals umgearbeitet. Doch es existiert eine frühere Fassung von 1741, die auf den beiden autographen Partituren des Komponisten basiert. Der Musikwissenschaftler Malcolm Bruno hat diese Urfassung rekonstruiert. So agiert hier nun ein eigenständiger Holzbläsersatz aus zwei Oboen und Fagotten, und auch bei den Arien kann man Neues entdecken. Bruno ist von der Ersteinspielung des „Ur-Messiah“ begeistert und hoff t, „dass der Zuhörer die Erfahrung macht, den Messiah so zu hören, als ob er zum allerersten Mal aufgeführt würde, als ob die Tinte von Händels Manuskript noch feucht wäre.“ George Frideric Handel‘s Messiah was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and subsequently reworked several times. However, an earlier version from 1741 exists, based on the composer‘s two autograph scores. The musicologist Malcolm Bruno has reconstructed this original version and published it with Breitkopf & Härtel. In this version, an independent woodwind section consisting of two oboes and bassoons can be heard, and there are also new discoveries to be made in the arias. Bruno is enthusiastic about the first recording of the „Ur-Messiah“ and hopes „that the listener has the experience of hearing the Messiah as if for a fi rst time, as if the ink of Handel’s manuscript were still wet“.

Elliot Ho Yat Leung is a widely sought-after composer who has composed for the highest-grossing international blockbusters and productions. His music has been described as being "audio-graphically visual" by The Standard, and being able to "tug the audience's heartstrings" by Sina News. The South China Morning Post observed Mr. Leung as "a seasoned composer who enhances the magic of cinema."

American experimental musician and producer Katie Gately is up to mischief on her new album Fawn / Brute, 11 songs of innocence and experience exploring the light and dark of childhood energy following the birth of her first daughter. It is an album of two halves, that moves from the effervescence of early years to the defiance and turbulence of teenage angst. “When I got pregnant, I had a lot of energy at first, but later on, my pregnancy was stressful and worrying, so the music got darker and darker: I was making angry music while I was supposed to be feeling maternal." The album is dedicated to her young daughter Quinn, born in 2021 – the track 'Fawn' is a love letter to her.

In this powerful new collection of oil paintings and stories, President George W. Bush spotlights the inspiring journeys of America's immigrants and the contributions they make to the life and prosperity of our nation.