Dance For You Nr.6 2016

Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) only began composing symphonies after fleeing the Nazis into American exile in 1941. He was of a generation that saw the symphony as passe Bartok was born in 1881 and Stravinsky in 1882, and Martinu was born in 1890 while Mahler was born in 1860, and Sibelius and Nielsen in 1865. Modernism entailed new forms and styles, and while Martinu was never a modernist he did inhabit a soundworld with a lighter touch full of dance rhythms, not heavy, four-square symphonies.

In the '80s there were those listeners who thought that Heinrich Schiff might redeem cello performance practice from fatal beauty and lethal elegance. Aside from the burly and brawny Rostropovich, more and more cellists were advocating a performance style whose ideals were perfect intonation and graceful phrasing. In some repertoire, say, Fauré, these are perfectly legitimate goals. In other repertoire, Beethoven and Brahms, say, it is a terrible mistake. In Bach's Cello Suites, as the fay and fragile Yo-Yo Ma recordings make clear, it was a terminal mistake. Not so in Schiff's magnificently muscular 1984 recordings of the suites: Schiff's rhythms, his tempos, his tone, his intonation, and especially his interpretations were anything but fay or fragile. In Schiff's performance, Bach's Cello Suites are not the neurasthenic music of a composer supine with dread and despair in the dark midnight of the soul, but the forceful music of a mature composer in full control of himself and his music.

Nun aber erscheint Dieter feat. Bohlen – Das Mega Album zur Tour. In diesem Album geht es allein um den Pop-Titan, der gerade in seinem Studio die letzten Songs zur Tour komplett neu produziert und eingesungen hat. Alle seine großen Hits - vom Pop-Titan selbst gesungen. Hits wie »You're My Heart, You're My Soul« gibt es hier in einer einzigartigen Klassik-Version mit großem Orchester. Als erste Single zum Album erscheint »Brother Louie« mit passendem Video. Außerdem haben sich die angesagten Jungs von Stereoact diesen Titel als Remix-Version neu vorgenommen. Weitere Highlights wie »Midnight Lady« oder »Now Or Never« beinhaltet dieses Mega-Album. Natürlich darf der große Erfolg zu »Cherry Lady« von Capital Bra nicht fehlen - Dieter singt auf den Beat der CB-Version. Ein rundum gelungenes Album des Pop-Titans mit 12 starken Versionen seiner Nr. 1 Hits.

Add 3121 to the mounting pile of evidence: Prince is the black Beck. He's a whole lot sexier, no doubt, but there's more to both musicians than image. All-out weirdness for one. Edginess for another. And a fine-tuned sense of how to combine the two to create some of the decade's most vital music for a third. Prince–looking ageless in videos for the first two singles, the controversy-courting "Black Sweat" and the sauna-steeped "Te Amo Corazon"–proves fearless as ever here, folding fat slabs of disco-funk into rock, heaping measured doses of hip-hop atop soul-tinted jazz supports, and slamming Latin rhythms against old-school R&B riffs. Nothing sounds as slinky-stylish-smart. And nobody delivers quite so deliciously, especially when what they're delivering is ultimately a madcap sonic mash. The usual hype surrounding a Prince release attended this one; over the long-term, expect a few standouts within a way worth-it set to emerge. They include the danceable "Love"; the gospel-lite falsetto feast "Satisfied"; and the summer-breezy "Beautiful, Loved & Blessed".