Justice un Love Nicholas Wolterstorff

This matchup between trumpeters Doc Cheatham (91 at the time) and Nicholas Payton (just 23) is quite logical and delightful. Cheatham, one of the few survivors of the 1920s, was still in remarkably fine form, while Payton (a flexible New Orleans player capable of ranging from Dixieland to Freddie Hubbard) is both respectful and inspiring. With Doc contributing occasional vocals and the settings ranging from a quartet to an octet with clarinetist Jack Maheu and pianist Butch Thompson, the brassmen explore a variety of 1920s and '30s standards, including a couple of obscurities ("Do You Believe in Love at Sight?" and "Maybe"). The interplay between the co-leaders, the many subtle tributes to Louis Armstrong, and the consistent enthusiasm of this swinging set make this a historic success and a very enjoyable outing.

The US composer Stanley Grill was strongly influenced in his writing by his passion for music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. He already has a long-standing collaboration with the original sound ensemble Pandolfis Consort, and many of his works have been dedicated to the orchestra founded by violist Elzbieta Sajka-Bachler; the Pandolfis Consort's album "Und das Lied bleibt schön" now presents several works by the composer, who was born in New York in 1954. In alternating instrumentation with soprano Lisa Rombach and countertenor Nicholas Spanos, songs and song cycles based on poems mainly by R. M. Rilke, but also Heinrich Heine, Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger and Rose Ausländer are interpreted. In addition to these vocal works, there are also three songs without words for two violas, violoncello and theorbo on this recording.

Composing Floridante was not a happy experience for Handel. He had recently acquired a popular rival, Giovanni Bononcini, and was forced to work with a new librettist that was more interested in the poetry of his material than its stageworthiness. However, the most serious problem occurred halfway through writing the opera, in October 1721, when the soprano whom Handel had cast as Elmira fell ill. The directors of the opera house (the Royal Academy of Music, patronized by King George I) decided to replace her with a contralto, Anastasia Robinson, whose voice was more limited in range and agility, but who possessed strong political credentials: she was both Roman Catholic, and the mistress of the Earl of Peterborough. These were important assets to the aristocratic Roman Catholic faction that held sway in the Academy at that time. In turn, her former scheduled part, that of Rossane, was to be given to a soprano, Maddalena Salvai.