Cecilia Bartoli recreates the 1828 triumph of the legendary Maria Malibran - original star and dedicatee of Halévy's "tragi-comedy", Clari. Tracing the love of a callow country-girl for a duplicitous Duke, this hugely entertaining and first-ever modern production of Clari proved the overwhelming hit of the Zurich Opera season. Zurich Opera's own period-instrument orchestra, La Scintilla, under Adam Fischer, contribute a thoroughly researched, stylistically and historically well-informed accompaniment, yet without neglecting the liveliness and spirit of Italian opera.
In this tribute to the great nineteenth century mezzo-soprano, Maria Malibran, Cecilia Bartoli sings selections from the repertoire for which Malibran was known. Malibran also ventured into soprano roles, and Bartoli bravely and entirely successfully follows her into that territory. In fact, the primary impression the CD creates is astonishment and awe at the extraordinary range of these selections, and Bartoli's ease, absolute security, and seamless delivery, from above the treble staff to the middle of the bass staff.
AVID Jazz here presents three classic Joe Bushkin albums plus, including original LP liner notes on a finely re-mastered and low priced double CD. 'After Hours'; 'Piano Moods'; 'Brad Gowans and his New York Nine' plus radio transcriptions, plus three tracks from 'The Jazz Keyboards' plus several tracks from the 78 era. Joe Bushkin plays jazz from the old school having come up in the late thirties where he began playing at the Famous Door on 52nd Street, New York before going on to play with the likes of Bunny Berigan, Muggsy Spanier, Eddie Condon, Bud Freeman, Tommy Dorsey and Louis Armstrong to name but a few greats! Across our selections Joe can be heard playing with the likes of Barney Kessel, Harry Babasin, Buck Clayton, Jo Jones, Sid Weiss and Morey Feld. All three albums plus have been digitally re-mastered.
Truly inspiring and intriguing combination of spiritual lyrics in latin with different electronic and acoustic instruments, as well as electric guitar. In 1999 in Latvia this album won the award "Album of the year", and very well deserved.
Starting from the magisterial trios of Beethoven and Brahms, clarinetist Daniel Ottensamer, cellist Stephan Koncz and pianist Christoph Traxler began a journey to explore the influences these works exerted on other composers. As they moved further and further away from their point of departure, their search took them through several centuries and across every continent and their project burgeoned into a comprehensive anthology. “Our initial idea was to juxtapose these mainstream works with contemporary pieces, but our work on this project eventually got so out of hand that there was no end to the works that we discovered for our ensemble,” Koncz explains. “In all of them the tonal variety of the clarinet and the interplay between the three instruments is explored in completely different ways.”