Jaclyn Swedberg Moulin Rose

Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia – patron of the arts, collector, woman of letters and composer – was an extraordinary personality. The flautist Jean Brégnac pays her vibrant homage with a programme featuring works by her protégés Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, her mentor Johann Philipp Kirnberger, and the princess herself.

Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia – patron of the arts, collector, woman of letters and composer – was an extraordinary personality. The flautist Jean Brégnac pays her vibrant homage with a programme featuring works by her protégés Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, her mentor Johann Philipp Kirnberger, and the princess herself.

Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia – patron of the arts, collector, woman of letters and composer – was an extraordinary personality. The flautist Jean Brégnac pays her vibrant homage with a programme featuring works by her protégés Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, her mentor Johann Philipp Kirnberger, and the princess herself.

Nicole Kidman playing a singing prostitute? Ewan McGregor channeling the Police? If the soundtrack to director Baz Luhrmann's freakish musical Moulin Rouge has its way, we'll all be wearing corsets and swinging from the ceiling while the former Mrs. Tom Cruise becomes our favorite new pop sensation. As daring as Luhrmann himself, the compositions test Kidman–who could have easily used a league of backup singers and studio knob-twiddlers to hide her inexperience–and she actually passes. She's no Olivia Newton-John, but she capably mixes Madonna's "Material Girl" with "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" (which is as breathy as Marilyn would've wanted it to be) and goes full throttle on any medley thrown her way. Her cover of "One Day I'll Fly Away" is especially poignant given her much-publicized personal tragedies. Ewan, though, is a real star; his giggly schoolboy brogue morphs into a fun cradle for Paul McCartney's Wings as well as U2's Bono on "Elephant Love Medley." Beck's cover of David Bowie's "Diamond Dogs" is a hit waiting to happen, while Pattie LaBelle's '70s staple "Lady Marmalade" (remade by an all-star cast of divas, Lil' Kim and Christina Aguilera among them) already is. A delicious, racy soundtrack that is equal parts cabaret, glam rock, and trip-hop, Moulin Rouge doesn't disappoint. -Kristy Martin

For this second part of his anthology of seventeenth-century German harpsichord music, Yoann Moulin takes as his starting point the famous competition organised when Weckmann and Froberger met at the court of Dresden. It was in the 1650s that the influences of the French style were grafted onto models drawn from Italian music. The compositions of this period appear to us in their infinite variety, as illustrated here by the notion of stylus luxurians.

In this opus, Yves Moulin tells us about his life path. His first competition at the age of 9 where he performed the romance I met you, the discovery of the accordion with a capital A through the music of Yann Tiersen and that of Astor Piazzolla, his travels in Eastern Europe, the encounter with classical music and in particular Rossini who amazes him. Then to finish, he opens a small window of his intimate life with his composition for his godson Florent.