John Lily

Glitzy showmanship is what fuels Caribou, a less successful album than its early-'70s predecessors. Though the shiny surface of the album is alluring, only a few tracks rank among John's best work. "The Bitch Is Back" is one of his best hard rock cuts and "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" is one of his classic ballads, but the album tracks tend to be ridiculous filler on the order of "Solar Prestige a Gammon" or competent genre exercises like "You're So Static."…

Sir Elton Hercules John CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is an English singer, pianist, and composer. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriting partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date. In his five-decade career Elton John has sold more than 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world…

This is a beautiful selection of arias from Handel’s oratorios composed in the latish 1740s. Each one is a gem and David Daniels again proves himself the leading “operatic” countertenor of our day. He possesses one of the few countertenor voices that might be called “sensual”, not to mention one of the few with any respectable volume. He even puts pressure on it occasionally–as opposed, say, to Drew Minter or Alfred Deller, who aim (aimed) for a diaphonous sound.

–Robert Levine

Although accorded a substantial article in the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, the German-born composer John Frederick Lampe (1702/3-51) remains largely unknown except to connoisseurs of 18th-century English music. Yet on the evidence of this disc, such neglect is hardly deserved, since Lampe possesses a rare gift for writing genuinely comic opera. The basis for his Pyramus and Thisbe of 1745 (subtitled ‘a mock opera’) is the famous play-within-a-play sequence from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The Binchois Consort - The Lily & The Rose: Adoration of the Virgin in sound and stone (2018) {Hyperion CDA68228}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44.1kHz - Official Digital Download (hyperion-records.co.uk) -> 362 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 187 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) -> 144 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2018 Hyperion Records | CDA68228
Classical / Medieval / 15th Century / Sacred / Vocal Music

In the "long" 15th century, which lasted from 1380 to 1520 and represented the transition from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance, there was increased attention paid in England to setting Marian devotional texts in increasingly complex counterpoint, and a corresponding growth in religious images carved in alabaster. This Hyperion release is part of an ongoing project to bring together the plainchants and choral works of early English composers, of whom John Dunstaple is the best known, and images of the alabaster sculptures that adorned English cathedrals and churches, adding substantially to the solemnity and mystery of Catholic worship.