Outstanding performances of de Falla's, Granados and Albeniz's works.Unmistakable quality of a past standard of excellence that is hardly matched today.Rodzinski's austere conducting and his vitality and precision refined and developed some of the major orchestras of the time.These Rodzinski's memorable recordings include the Maestro's farewell to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at his last recording session for Westminster.
Valentin Silvestrov composed Requiem for Larissa between 1997 and 1999 as a memorial to his wife, musicologist Larissa Bondarenko, who died in 1996. It is a big and unceasingly somber work, scored for chorus and orchestra. Understandably, this Requiem is to a degree reflective, incorporating musical themes drawn from older works that had special meaning to the couple. While Silvestrov's typically glacial tempos are in evidence here, some of the opening half of the piece has an angular spikiness that recalls serial techniques without actively engaging in them. Instrumentally, Requiem for Larissa is dark, atmospheric, and even a little cinematic; the choral parts are sparse and minimally applied. In the fourth-movement Largo, the voices take over and settle down into an ethereal texture that leavens the gloom somewhat, but by this time 25-and-a-half minutes have gone by and some listeners will have already tuned out owing to the toughness of the opening section.Requiem for Larissa is an intensely personal piece performed with respect and care by the Ukrainian National Chorus and Symphony Orchestra under conductor Vladimir Sirenko.
Grammy Award winner and Hall of Famer, GLORIA GAYNOR was born on the 7th of September 1949 in Newark, N.J. and sang as young girl in her school choir, mixed chorus and the her school’s girl glee club. While she knew she one day wanted to have a career in music, GLORIA GAYNOR still went to school with the aim of having something to fall back on and studied beauty and business courses.
A pair of albums from the overlooked George Hamilton IV – back to back on a single CD! First up is Abilene – a seminal album from the great George Hamilton IV – a richly-voiced singer on 60s RCA, and one who was maybe a key link between Nashville and some of the folk boom of the time! George's music is definitely country, but it's also got maybe some of the younger appeal of the other scene – still given some of the RCA polish that Chet Atkins could bring, but delivered with a voice that might have been equally at home in a coffee house. Titles include the classic "Abilene", plus "The Little Lunch Box", "The Everglades", "Tender Hearted Baby", "Jimmy Brown The Newsboy", and "Come On Home Boy".