John Baldwin was a lay clerk at St George’s Chapel, Windsor in 1575 and became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1598. The so-called ‘Baldwin Partbooks’, held at Christ Church, Oxford, were his creation – a very personal collection, representing his individual tastes and interests from a wealth of English and Continental polyphony and consort music.
As in their previous collaboration, an exploration of the similarly conceived partbooks of Robert Dow, the Marian Consort and Rose Consort of Viols have kept faith with Baldwin’s own intentions, bringing to light some of the rarer gems preserved by this great advocate and music-lover and providing the listener with ‘such sweete musicke: as dothe much delite yeelde’.
Miles Davis’ 20-year association as an artist at impresario George Wein’s renowned Newport Jazz Festival is a thriving tradition celebrated with the release of MILES DAVIS AT NEWPORT 1955-1975: THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 4, released 60 years to the date since Davis’ breakthrough performance at Newport in 1955. The four-CD box set is comprised of live performances by Miles’ stellar band lineups in 1955, 1958, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973, and 1975, in Newport, Rhode Island, New York City, Berlin, and Switzerland. (All tracks previously unreleased, except where otherwise indicated).
This beautiful programme, recorded in 2014, brings us back to the Golden Age of the Netherlands, the 16th and 17th century, in which cultural life blossomed thanks to the economical prosperity brought by the overseas trade. Wealthy merchants commissioned works by artists like Rembrandt, Vermeer, Ruischdael and others. Also musical life flourished, and musicians from all over Europe came to hear and study with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. Organist Matthias Havinga selected a beautiful bouquet of works by Dutch composers: Sweelinck, Van Noordt, Schuyt, Havingha (an ancient ancestor of the artist..?) and others. Havinga plays a magnificent Faber/Blank organ from 1651, located in the Jacobuskerk in Zeerijp. Matthias Havinga won several international organ competitions and his two previous recordings for Brilliant Classics (Bach Italian Concertos BC94203 and Passacaglias BC9269) have won great critical acclaim in the international press. The booklet contains extensive liner notes written by the artist, information on the organ and its specifications and an artist biography in English, Dutch and German.
One year after winning the 2018 Gramophone Classical Music Award for Early Music for the fifth album in its series Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, and just one month after releasing the world premiere recording of Cipriano de Rore’s I madrigali a cinque voci, Blue Heron announces the release of the first in a new series of recordings dedicated to the music of Johannes Ockeghem and his contemporaries. Johannes Ockeghem: Complete Songs, vol. 1 is the first of two releases which will present all of Ockeghem’s songs in a complete set; the second is planned for release in 2022. The songs have not been recorded complete since the early 1980s.
Set 3: Pennsylvania - July 22nd, 1992. 2008 repressing of this deluxe eight CD box set, subtitled From The Manticore Vaults. Four epic concerts make up this suitably extravagant box set by the unchallenged kings of Pomp-Rock, whose majestic three-way instrumental interplay laid down the blueprint for the Progressive '70s. Features shows from Hartford Civic Center (1977), Chicago (1978), Pennsylvania and Jones Beach (both from 1992), 61 tracks. Volume #4 seemed to have completely caught me by suprise. Out Of The blue[excuse the unintended pun]. I was indeed unprepared; Since I own volumes I-III; I had no choice but to buy this ELP set. Volume IV contrasts dodgy to somewhat good -great audio performances of ELP specifically comparing/contrasting the ELP years of 1977/1978/1992. It is a true sucessor to volumes I-III.