Carlos Riz Safón

In his first American album, Antonio Carlos Jobim presents a dozen of his songs, each one destined to become a standard - an astounding batting average. Jobim, who claimed to have been out of practice at the time of the session, merely plays single notes on the piano with one hand, punctuated by chords now and then, sticking to his long, undulating melodies with a few passages of jazz improvisation now and then. Yet it is a lovely idea, not a gesture is wasted. Arranger Claus Ogerman unveils many of the trademarks that would define his Creed Taylor-produced albums with Jobim - the soaring, dying solo flute and spare, brooding unison string lines widening into lush harmony; flutes doubling on top of Jobim's piano chords - again with an exquisitely spare touch.

A fantastic recording of a live concert conducted by Carlos Chávez in May 1940 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The program representis an important period in Mexican history, and ranges from a special arrangement of music for Aztec instruments of the 16th century to the popular Huapangos, the gay love songs of the Mariachi and the traditional Yaqui music.

Soli I is the first of a series of four works by the Mexican composer Carlos Chávez, each called Soli and each featuring a succession of instrumental solos. Three of these compositions are chamber music, and the remaining one is a sort of concerto grosso for four soloists and orchestra. This first work of the series is a quartet for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and trumpet.

Carlos Chávez is one of Mexico’s most important and prolific 20th-century composers. He championed the symphony form at a time when it was generally neglected by other Latin American composers, and the results are magnificent: when his first symphony Sinfonía de Antígona was premiered in 1933, invoking the best of Mexican tradition in a revived symphonic form, it received a rapturous reception, and led to a burst of inspiration for Chávez, who went on to compose five more symphonies before his death in 1978. He became a master of the symphony, developing and improving his style over the course of his life to great effect; the last movement of his Symphony No.6, a breathtakingly rapid Passacaglia, contains an astonishing 34 variations. This recording also includes his work Sinfonía india, arguably Chávez’s best-known piece, which features his use of indigenous Mexican instruments, played here with extraordinary lyricism and sensitivity.

South African pianist Thandi Ntuli traveled to Los Angeles in 2019, where she recorded this album of bare, explorative piano and voice pieces at a Venice Beach studio with International Anthem artist Carlos Niño in the producer chair. An absolutely stunning, intimate listen, with Ntuli’s prowess as a pianist and singularity as a vocalist on vivid display as much as her fearlessness, vulnerability and adventurousness during occasional experiments with synthesizers and percussion. Niño colors open minimalist soundscapes with overdubbed percussion, cymbals and plants.

Carlos Kleiber was perhaps the most highly regarded conductor of the late 20th century, but his relatively few excursions into the studio have left the musical world with a frustratingly small number of recordings. Thus we are particularly fortunate that, from among the relatively few appearances in his career, several concerts, one operetta and two operas were filmed. This concert with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester from Munich's Herkulessaal in October 1996 was on of his last.