King Ludwig 16

The performance of Leonore Overture No. 3 tells you what to expect: the wonderfully flowing introduction, organically related to the tempo of the ensuing allegro, establishes a chamber-music-like balance between strings and winds. Brass and timpani cut through clearly, but never forcefully. The main body of the movement is fleet and graceful, yet also lacking in rhetorical emphasis and the kind of grandeur that many listeners prefer. David Zinman clearly takes his cues from the period-instrument crowd, but he also takes advantage of modern timbral smoothness to achieve singularly beautiful results. While you may not like the comparative dearth of weight, there’s no question that the orchestra fully realizes his approach, and it is excellently recorded to boot.

Marco Ceccato and Anna Fontana are well-known performers on the international baroque circuit and familiar faces thanks to their recordings for Outhere labels Alpha, Arcana and Zig-Zag Territoires (including Marco's 2015 Diapason d'or Award winning recording of Boccherini with Accademia Ottoboni). Now they have come together to tackle the two revolutionary works for piano and cello composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1796 and dedicated to King Frederick William II of Prussia. Their interpretative approach deepens our understanding of the final years of that century when a young Beethoven, a child of the 18th century, was grappling with one of his most extraordinary stylistic innovations. These two expert performers have set out to reconstruct historically reliable versions of the works, linking Beethoven’s revolutionary harmonic solutions with the 18th-century stylistic features that were still in vogue, from phrasings to Beethoven’s meticulously notated articulations.

On Saturday, August 16th, 1980 Rainbow took to the stage to headline the first rock festival to be staged at Castle Donington. It was the culmination of the band s tour in support of the hugely successful Down To Earth album, released in 1979, and would prove to be the last live show featuring this particular line-up of the band: Ritchie Blackmore (guitars), Don Airey (keyboards), Graham Bonnet (vocals), Roger Glover (bass) and Cozy Powell (drums)…