Don Juan

As early as 1761, a year before his masterpiece Orfeo ed Euridice, Gluck largely renewed another musical genre, the ballet, with his adaptation of a work by Molière for Viennese audiences: Don Juan. Another work, Sémiramis, followed a year later. These two works are innovative in that they offer, for the first time, a coherent narrative in which all the resources of the orchestra are put at the service of expressiveness. Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations bring out all the nuances of these scores, reminding us that a quarter of a century before Mozart, the stages of Europe were treated to all the evocative power of music by another outstanding figure: Christoph Willibald Gluck.

Joni Mitchell - Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (1977) {Asylum Records}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC+CUE+LOG -> 342 Mb
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© 2005 Asylum / Elektra | 8122 74664-2
Jazz / Folk / Fusion / Vocal

Canadian songstress Joni Mitchell never really considered herself a folkie. While adding jazz textures to her literate lyrics in the mid-'70s may have confused her fans and infuriated jazz purists, to her it was as natural as rain. On DON JUAN'S RECKLESS DAUGHTER, she collaborated with the cream of the '70s jazz crop including Wayne Shorter, Don Alias, Airto, Larry Carlton and a young bassist by the name of Jaco Pastorius.

Jeanne lives in Paris and believes she is the reincarnation of Don Juan. She visits a priest and tells him she has killed a man. He comes to her elegant flat - her father has died leaving her rich - and she tells the priest stories about men she has seduced. The seduction is easy, she tells him, it's destruction that takes planning. We watch her with an upright elected official, a wealthy boor, and a folk singer. She describes herself as a spider. Her friend Léporella tries to be Jeanne's conscience. What does Jeanne want?