Insight February 2011

Few ensembles can come to Bach's St John Passion with quite the degree of performance-based insight that Gardiner and his musicians have done. Written for Good Friday in 1724, the passion was the centrepiece of Bach's year-long cycle of liturgical cantatas. Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir spent 2000 performing and recording these surrounding cantatas, before recording this disc in 2003. The result is a little slice of musical heaven. In sound, it's a masterpiece of technical precision and musical beauty. In tone, it perfectly balances the theatrical with the devotional. The English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir expertly build and release tension, their phrases shaped to sound natural, instinctive, and emotionally complete. The work's many dramatic contrasts are also brilliantly done.

The scope and grandeur of Handel's operatic output – the musical variety and inventiveness, the depth of psychological insight, as well as the sheer volume of works – continue to astonish as new operas are brought to light and more familiar works are given productions and recordings that do justice to the material. Ariodante, written in 1735, is nowhere nearly as frequently performed as the more famous operas like Giulio Cesare, but neither is it entirely obscure, and there have been several very fine modern recordings. This version with Alan Curtis leading Il Complesso Barocco can be recommended without reservation to anyone coming to the opera for the first time or for anyone who's already a fan.

Almost everyone is familiar with Carl Orff's Carmina burana - this extremely popular work belongs to classical music programs all over the world. The work appears twice on this compilation: one version was conducted by Eugen Jochum, who devoted a great deal of his attention to Orff's music. The composer himself considered Jochum's interpretations to have set the standard for performances.

Zoroastre was first performed in Paris in 1749 and was, by and large, well received. But the librettist, Cahusac was taken to task by some for relegating the love element in the opera to a secondary place. When it was revived in 1756 Cahusac made shifts of emphasis within the plot and it is this version as it first appeared, rather than that which involved yet further small changes later in the season, which is performed here. The libretto deals with the conflict between Good and Evil or Light and Darkness central to Zoroastrianism. Oromases, King of the Genies, represents the former and has Zoroastre as his high priest, while Abramane, high priest of the Temple of Darkness represents the latter. The chief protagonists in the drama are Zoroastre and Abramane who vie for power, glory and love; their characters are skilfully and often strikingly portrayed by Rameau, whose score is richly endowed with bold dashes of colour.

John Foxx - The Golden Section (1983) {2CD Deluxe Remastered Edition Edsel EDSD2015 rel 2008}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 789 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 265 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 33 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1983, 2008 Metamatic Records / Edsel Records / Demon Music | EDSD2015
Synth-Pop / New Wave / Electronic

John's third solo album was released in 1983 and charted at number 27 in the UK. Disc 2 includes 16 bonus tracks: non-album a- and b-sides, rarities as well as eight previously unreleased tracks. The booklet contains the lyrics to all the songs as well as rare photos, and the singles sleeves.

Bill Withers: The Complete Sussex and Columbia Albums celebrates the timeless artistry of an American master. The set includes the nine albums that Bill released between 1971 through 1985…