In Principio

Italian symphonic metal kings RHAPSODY OF FIRE will release their new studio album, "Into The Legend", in January 2016 via AFM Records.Comments RHAPSODY OF FIRE keybaordist Alex Staropoli: "After two years of intense work, including composing and arranging, after seven months spent in four different studios, this huge and ambitious production is coming to an end. We are right now mixing the songs, going through hundreds and hundreds hours of recordings to make an album that will feature over 65 minutes of breathtaking music, an album that will gather and exploit the best elements this band ever had in a modern way, and to build a musical landscape that will have no equals in the world's heavy metal scene."

“Into The Legend” – a title for an album to expect something huge and also fitting perfectly to RHAPSODY OF FIRE. Because when it comes to “Symphonic Epic Metal” the Italian music pioneers are one of the top names. After 2 million sold records and almost two decades in the music business they are still inspired and hungry for more - as always. Two years after “Dark Wings” and the fulfilled split with Luca Turilli it is time to present “Into The Legend” - the new RHAPSODY OF FIRE masterpiece. Hymns like “Distant Sky”, “Into The Legend” and “Realms Of Light” will for sure reach the classic magnum opus status.

Italian pianist and composer Ludovico Einaudi describes his album Nightbook in this way: "A night-time landscape. A garden faintly visible under the dull glow of the night sky. A few stars dotting the darkness above, shadows of the trees all around. Light shining from a window behind me. What I can see is familiar, but it seems alien at the same time. It's like a dream – anything may happen." Although such language may sound like it has little if anything to do with music, it communicates the mood of this album as well as can be done with words.

These performances are not, to be sure, historically informed, nor are they fashionably chamber-like. The Thomanerchor is traditionally large (and all male), and it is accompanied in four of the 11 discs by the Gewandhaus Orchestra and in the remaining seven by the Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum. The roster of the latter is not listed, but, like the Gewandhaus Orchestra, its players use modern instruments and are not adverse to vibrato. On the other hand, Rotzsch does avoid, for the most part, languid tempos and extravagant gestures. The young men of the Thomanerchor are well trained and attentive and make, collectively, a joyfully controlled noise. The orchestral players and instrumental soloists, too, are beyond reproach. Similarly, Rotzsch’s soloists are top-drawer. Among the latter, Arleen Augér, Otrun Wenkel, Peter Schreier, and Hermann Christian Polster make the most frequent appearances, but the others, including the likes of Regina Werner, Doris Soffel, Theo Adam, and Siegfried Lorenz, are splendid as well. Rotzsch, himself, sings on two of the discs (he is a tenor).

–George Chien

PRJCT Amsterdam and its artistic director Maarten Engeltjes present two of the greatest vocal works of the baroque era: Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus. While Vivaldi’s virtuosic piece contemplates the helplessness of people when God does not support their efforts, Pergolesi’s portrait of the weeping Mary at the Cross embodies what the “nameless” parents of a deceased child go through. In the Stabat Mater, Engeltjes’s counter-tenor blends together seamlessly and soothingly with Shira Patchornik’s soprano voice, resulting in an interpretation that is both profound and deeply relatable.

Kurt Redel conducts unaffectedly but with passion and is beautifully supported in this with an excellent orchestra and beautifully balanced choir of faultless intonation. The story moves at a good pace as the the tragedy unfolds and is interspersed with some stunning arias, many of them affording moments of still reflection as is befitting for a passion. The singers are faultless and often superb with Sena Jurinac at the height of her artistry, Theo Altmeyer a fine evangelist who knows how to tell a story. Franz Crass always was a lovely, musical singer with a well-rounded, rich voice.