Dulcinea

The Catalan Roberto Gerhard studied piano with Granados, and was the only Spanish composer to study with Arnold Schoenberg. It was, however, over twenty years before he committed himself to writing twelve-tone music. In the interim, his output brought a new focus and precision (owing more to Stravinsky and Bartók) to the Spanish style. All the works on this album were composed in that period. Dating from the early 1940s, his ballet Alegrías was originally conceived for two pianos, but soon evolved into the four-movement suite heard here.

Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and during World War II he conducted at the Berlin State Opera. Generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, he was a controversial but dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate, he was the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time, having sold an estimated 200 million records.

Pianist Eliane Elias follows her Latin Grammy win for 2017's magnificent Dance of Time with this set of tunes from the iconic musical Man of La Mancha. During the mid-'90s, Elias was approached by Mitch Leigh, the Tony-winning composer of her musical; he'd followed her career and greatly admired her work. Accompanied by Neil Warner, arranger for the original musical, he commissioned the pianist to rearrange songs from the show. Elias was given complete freedom to choose which songs she wished to record. She hired two rhythm sections: One featured drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Eddie Gomez; the other bassist Marc Johnson, drummer Satoshi Takeishi, and master percussionist Manolo Badrena (who plays with both groups). Elias and her sidemen recorded nine songs live in studio. Unfortunately, the completed album was shelved due to contractual issues and seemed doomed to obscurity. Leigh passed in 2014 and never saw its release. Concord rescued the album and added it to their catalog some 23 years after recording.

Long considered a holy grail of British jazz, trumpet legend/iconic composer Kenny Wheeler's classic 1969 Fontana leader debut, Windmill Tilter, has remained curiously out of print - never, in fact, appearing legitimately on CD.
Until now. Thanks to Andy Gray and BGO Records - a label responsible for a wealth of 1960s and '70s British jazz reissues - Windmill Tilter is finally available on CD and it's been worth the wait. Not only does it find Wheeler - listed here as "Ken," a Canadian expat who, emigrating to England in the 1950s, quickly made it into the British jazz elite, despite an introverted nature that might have been self-limiting, had he not been such a remarkable player - in early fine form as a composer, but with the participation of saxophonist/bandleader John Dankworth's Orchestra, it's a window into the early careers of a couple other younger players destined for greatness…