Born, Max

Following years of buildup and a whopping eight singles, Ava Max finally delivered her first official studio full-length, Heaven & Hell. Well worth the extended promotion, the album is a masterful pop debut, one of those might-as-well-be-a greatest-hits collections like Lady Gaga's The Fame, Dua Lipa's self-titled LP, or Katy Perry's One of the Boys. Indeed, Max is a kindred spirit with those hitmakers, both in vocal delivery and her knack for picking out an effective earworm, of which there is an embarrassing abundance on Heaven & Hell. Thematically divided into those two titular sides, the album takes that well-worn dichotomy and splits the track list between energetic bops and moodier – but no less catchy – doses of dark pop, all bound together by primary producer Cirkut (Marina, Katy Perry, Kim Petras).

Following years of buildup and a whopping eight singles, Ava Max finally delivered her first official studio full-length, Heaven & Hell. Well worth the extended promotion, the album is a masterful pop debut, one of those might-as-well-be-a greatest-hits collections like Lady Gaga's The Fame, Dua Lipa's self-titled LP, or Katy Perry's One of the Boys. Indeed, Max is a kindred spirit with those hitmakers, both in vocal delivery and her knack for picking out an effective earworm, of which there is an embarrassing abundance on Heaven & Hell. Thematically divided into those two titular sides, the album takes that well-worn dichotomy and splits the track list between energetic bops and moodier – but no less catchy – doses of dark pop, all bound together by primary producer Cirkut (Marina, Katy Perry, Kim Petras).

For today s audiences, Vivaldi s name exemplifies Venetian opera in the early 18th century but he was not the only composer to shape the distinctive musical aesthetic of the great trading city known as La Serenissima. In this release of arias by Vivaldi and his contemporaries, countertenor Max Emanuel Cencic further explores Venice s contribution to world s rich store of Baroque opera. Cencic recreates the Venetian ambiance with the support of Italian violinist/conductor Riccardo Minasi and his ensemble Il Pomo d Oro.

Global pop sensation Ava Max releases her highly-anticipated debut album Heaven and Hell. The record features eight new tracks alongside her previously released hit singles Sweet But Psycho, Who’s Laughing Now, So Am I, Salt and Kings and Queens. Heaven and Hell represents light and dark, good and evil, and the devil and angel on your shoulder,” said Ava on the meaning behind the album. “I’m discussing the dualities of the challenges we face each day. Some songs have darkness; other songs are more positive. Heaven and Hell is the middle ground.

Having made a gradual switch during the 15 years since his first album was published from electronica to instrumental variations on ambient and minimalism, Max Richter is among the most commercially successful composers of our time. This album of his solo piano music belongs in the genre explored so thoroughly for Brilliant Classics by Jeroen van Veen, whose prolific recording history includes hugely popular albums of Philip Glass (BC9419) and Michael Nyman (BC95112), Ludovico Einaudi (BC94910) and Yann Tiersen (BC95129) and his fellow Dutch musician Jakob ter Veldhuis (BC94873) and himself (BC9454). The appetite for slowly moving, unchallenging, post-Minimalist music is apparently infinite, and so this new album is sure to be a success.