John Cale's 1992 live Fragments of a Rainy Season holds a special place in the hearts of longtime fans. Cale was no stranger to concert sets. Among his most notorious are the snarling Sabotage/Live from CBGB's and 1986's howling Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Fragments captures Cale completely solo. His iconic singing voice, rainbow variety of melodies, and poetic lyrics are accompanied only by his piano or acoustic guitar. It's easily his most welcoming album, the one that provides a solid introduction as he ranges through his back catalog.
This double cd pack is more than a simple anthology. It starts with a complete John Cale-overseen remaster of the long out-of-print 1982 album "Music for a new society", along with 3 exclusive new tracks. But the real meat of the work is M:Fans, a complete reworking of the entire original 1982 album, to which the remastered "Music for a new society" serves merely as preface. "John Cale re-contextualises the original songs into radical new forms to resonate with the digital age. Includes a new recording of 'Back To The End' - a previously lost track from the original session."
Bernstein leads the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra through Mahler's Symphonies Nos. 8-10 and Das Lied von der Erde . Special highlight: the breathtaking vocals on Symphony of a Thousand !