Delights 2016

Deutsche Grammophon proudly presents the most authoritative Schubert project ever made, featuring all the masterpieces in timeless recordings plus many rare gems that manifest Schuberts genius. This first edition comprehensively covers Schuberts vast orchestral, chamber and piano output, containing all the masterworks in definitive recordings by legendary artists: Abbado (symphonies), Kempff (piano sonatas), Melos Quartett (string quartets & string quintet the latter with Rostropovich), Pires (piano works), Gidon Kremer (violin works) Beaux Arts Trio (trios). Individual recordings of famous works include the Trout Quintet with the Amadeus Quartet and Emil Gilels, and string trios with the Grumiaux Trio.

Apostolic was many things: a label, a collective, a state of mind even. But before all of that, it was a recording studio set up by New Yorker John Townley. As a member of the Magicians, (you recognize that name from the Nuggets albums), Townley worked in some of the finest studios in the USA, but he felt he was on a conveyor belt. “You had to do the creation ahead of time, which is not my idea of a good time,” he says now. "You had all this stuff to play with, and you weren’t allowed to play with it.” When Townley came into an $85,000 inheritance he immediately invested in a loft building on 10th Street, New York, against the advice of, well, “everybody”. But there were fellow believers. Friends Matt Hoffman and Michael and Danny Weiss, heirs to the Weiss jewelry fortune, helped assemble the studio, which was built to bleeding-edge specifications and even had a 12-track recorder.

This recording of lute music may be of most interest to fans of the lute and of the Renaissance-Baroque transition era, but it will be of considerable interest to them: it marks the first recording of the Libro d'intavolature di liuto, or Book of Lute Tablatures, of Vincenzo Galilei (1584). Galilei was the father of none other than astronomer Galileo. The work is given the title The Well-Tempered Lute here; that was not Galilei's title, but the music was apparently the first collection intended to demonstrate the possibilities of equal temperament that Bach would exploit so dramatically a century and a half later. Some scholars have opined that this was a primarily theoretical work; as music, it is both technically difficult and a little monotonous, consisting of groups of dances that may or may not have been danced to. Lutenist Žak Ozmo makes a good case for these little pieces as performer's music, differentiating learned counterpoint from works of a more expressive character.

This final LOiseau-Lyre set presents some of the most significant Medieval & Renaissance albums recorded by one of the most authoritative Early Music labels.

Mick Softley - Any Mother Doesn't Grumble (1972) {Morello Records MRLL65 rel 2016}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 231 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 98 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 6 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1972, 2016 Morello Records / Sony Music | MRLL 65
Folk Rock / Folk / Singer/Songwriter / Guitar

Mick Softley's 1972 album released for the first time on CD. Born in 1941 in South Woodford, Essex, Mick Softley was at the forefront of the folk revival scene of the early 1960s. Mick helped Donovan with guitar-picking styles when they were both involved with the folk club in The Cock pub in St Albans. Later, Donovan would record two of Mick's songs 'The War Drags On' and 'Goldwatch Blues'. Recorded at The Manor in Oxfordshire and at Sound Techniques, Chelsea, musicians included Jerry Donahue (Fotheringay / Fairport Convention), Gerry Conway (Fotheringay), Pat Donaldson (Fotheringay), Barry de Souza (Curved Air) and Lyn Dobson (Manfred Mann / Soft Machine). Produced by Tony Cox, talented keyboard player who played with Sandy Denny and Mike Heron. 'Disc and Music Echo' magazine probably captured the essence of this unique recording most succinctly when they reviewed the album and stated that 'listening to it, one almost feels an intruder into the man's soul'.

Philippe Jaroussky as Ruggiero is in thrall to Patricia Petibon as the sorceress Alcina in Katie Mitchell’s virtuosic production of Handel’s opera from the 2015 Aix-en-Provence Festival, described by Bachtrack as “a night of a thousand delights”. Conducted by Andrea Marcon, this was, in the words of Opera News, “musically … a performance of the highest festival level”. The production of Alcina, by the British director Katie Mitchell, was welcomed by the Financial Times as “meticulously executed …, rich in detail, consummately polished”. Like Mitchell’s Aix-en-Provence staging of George Benjamin’s hugely successful Written on Skin (first seen in 2012), it offers simultaneous action in multiple zones of the stage, with Alcina’s elegant boudoir taking pride of place. As the New York Times wrote: “It involves a huge sorcery machine for turning people into animals (or whatever). And Ms. Mitchell works magic of her own onstage, constantly showing the enchantresses Alcina and Morgana alternating between glamorous public personas and their ‘real life’, older, private selves …There are also bits of simulated sex, mingling genders and suggesting, among other things, inventive new ways to hit high notes.”