Contralto & conductor Nathalie Stutzmann is an exciting new signing, having left Deutsche Grammophon/Universal to join the Erato roster. Considered to be one of the most outstanding musical personalities of our time, she has parallel careers as both a contralto and an orchestra conductor. She sings regularly with the world’s greatest conductors and orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle, Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, the LSO and Rotterdam Philharmonic under Yannick Nézet-Séguin. She currently is in residence with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP).
The Masters of the French Organ - from Louis XIII to the Monarchy of July: from Jehan Titelouze to Alexandre-Pierre-François Boëly, from the early seventeenth century to the end of royalty in 1848, an anthology of the French organ in box 8cds, elaborated from the records of the Temperaments collection.
Stunning limited edition box set by this great Swiss neo prog band. Box set includes all 4 studio CD's that are remastered with bonus tracks, booklet with biography and photos as well as an autographed certificate of authenticity. Hand-numbered edition of 1,000.
Many aspects feature in their beautiful music, mainly the outstanding voice of Aluisio Magini, which fits perfectly on top of a well structured instrumentation. Although this band continues the path signed by IQ or Pendragon, they do it in a more bombastic and powerful way, keeping the sense of melody and beauty at the same time. Listener won't find tons of originality, but this album guarantees an excellent hour, specially to neo-prog fans.
Coming off his Grammy-nominated 2013 album, The World According to Andy Bey, vocalist/pianist Andy Bey delivers the equally compelling 2014 release Pages from an Imaginary Life. As with its predecessor, Pages finds the jazz iconoclast returning to his roots with a set of American Popular Song standards done in a ruminative, stripped-down style. This is Bey, alone at the piano, delving deeply into the harmony, melody, and lyrics of each song. But don't let the spare setting fool you. Bey is a master of interpretation. In his seventies at the time of recording, and having performed over the years in a variety of settings from leading his own swinging vocal trio, to working with hard bop pioneer Horace Silver, to exploring the avant-garde with Archie Shepp, Bey has aged into a jazz oracle who doesn't so much perform songs as conjure them from somewhere in the mystical ether of his psyche.
With the subtitle "Songs from the Vault," you'd be forgiven if you thought 24 Karat Gold was an archival collection of unreleased material and, in a way, you'd be right. 24 Karat Gold does indeed unearth songs Nicks wrote during her heyday – the earliest dates from 1969, the latest from 1995, with most coming from her late-'70s/early-'80s peak; the ringer is a cover of Vanessa Carlton's 2011 tune "Carousel," which could easily be mistaken for Stevie – but these aren't the original demos, they're new versions recorded with producer Dave Stewart. Running away from his ornate track record – his production for Stevie's 2011 record In Your Dreams was typically florid – Stewart pays respect to Nicks' original songs and period style by keeping things relatively simple while drafting in sympathetic supporting players including guitarists Waddy Wachtel and Davey Johnstone and Heartbreakers Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell.