Daniel Murray

Born in 1981, Brazilian guitarist Daniel Murray began his musical studies at an early age. After dedicating himself to the classical guitar, he studied the instrument and composition in Brazil and formed a duo with Paulo Porto Alegre, dedicated to modern and avant-garde repertoire for two guitars.

Mozart's fourth opera - written when he was only 14 - displays all the hallmarks of the fresh, inventive writing that was to flourish into extraordinary genius in his later works and, with a cast as good as this, The Royal Opera's production takes Mitridate, re di Ponto to the highest levels of operatic achievement. Based on a play by Jean Racine, it is a story of jealous love and political intrigue.

Prolific saxophonist, composer, and arranger David Murray has made a number of tribute recordings during his career to jazz luminaries such as Albert Ayler and Don Pullen, among others. Nat King Cole may seem an unlikely choice initially, and it might never have happened if Murray had not been recording at Cuba's Studio Egrem and saw a photograph of Cole with Armando Romeu from a pre-revolution session. Cole recorded a pair of Latin-inspired records, Cole Español and More Cole Español, in 1958 and 1962 respectively - one in Spanish and one in Portuguese (the singer spoke neither but learned standards and folk songs phonetically). The audiences these albums were directed at were already Cole fans, and while they weren't very good, they thought them amusing and flattering. Murray draws from these records here…

Involving, as it does, three master musicians and a fine chamber orchestra this was never likely to be be other than rewarding. It may not correspond with the ways of playing Mozart at the beginning of the twenty-first century which are fashionable at the beginning of the twenty-first century, but it has virtues – such as high intelligence, sympathy, certainty of purpose, grace, alertness of interplay – which transcend questions of performance practice. Looking at the names of the pianists above, we might be surprised by the presence of Sir Georg Solti, so used are we to thinking of him as a conductor. But the young Solti appeared in public as a pianist from the age of twelve and went on to study piano in Budapest, with Dohnányi and Bartok.

Thank you Kathleen Battle for making another masterful recording.Mozart's requiem is an excellent work,and this particular version is well recorded too.I just wish mozart wrote more music for the soprano to sing in his requiem.I must say that Verdi's requiem is the greatest ever composed,but thus far of all the requiems i've listened to,mozart's requiem must come in second.Mozart,you go boy!!Kathleen,you go girl!!!! Ps,requiems should be listened to especially on rainy evenings & nights with some introspective thoughts.Perhaps,mozart is now composing an anti-requiem for the afterlife..