La Religieuse The Nun (2013) [repost]

The calling card here is the use of an Amsterdam edition of Haydn's Op. 33 string quartets that reverses the order of some of the inner movements. It's never made clear why this edition should get priority over the dozens of others that circulated around Europe, with and without Haydn's consent, but so be it; there are some tempo novelties here that shed some light on how Haydn's music was received, at least in some quarters. There the good news ends.

Although the great historical opera in five acts by the composer Daniel Francois Esprit Auber was able to experience its 500th performance in 1880, the opera is almost forgotten today and is rarely performed. In April 2010 the work premiered in the original language at the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau under the direction of GMD Antony Hermus and is finally available on cpo.

Performances of Bach's St. John Passion, BWV 245, with these forces or close to them have become an annual Eastertime tradition in London, and this recording is guaranteed an appreciative audience. Certain details relate specifically to this tradition: several chorales are sung unaccompanied, but an accompanied version is included at the end for those who reject the dramatization.

This album features 50 minutes of progressive, melodic music. For fans of Progressive, Space and Ambient music, Detlev creates lush musical soundscapes and moving songs.

The unjustly neglected piano quartet (J76) was completed in September of the year 1809, which the 22-year-old Weber spent in Stuttgart. It was originally offered to the publisher Hans Georg Nägeli, but he rejected it, advising the composer that it created wanton ‘confusion in the arrangement of its ideas’ and indeed too obviously imitated the ‘bizarreries’ of Beethoven. However, the work was issued a year later by the Bonn firm of Beethoven’s friend and admirer Nikolaus Simrock, whose ears were more receptive to the peculiarities of the score than Nägeli.

Buika is a critically acclaimed jazz-influenced flamenco fusion singer from Spain who broke through to mainstream success in 2006 with her second solo album, Mi Niña Lola. Born Concha Buika in 1972 in Palma, a city on the Balearic Island of Majorca, Spain, she is the daughter of a political exile from the former Spanish colony Equatorial Guinea, a small country in Africa. Influenced by her mother's love of jazz, she began her singing career in the clubs of Majorca and the neighboring Balearic Island of Ibiza. She also performed in Las Vegas for a while.

The 1980s new wave movement introduced a large number of stylish, artful bands from the U.K. and Europe to American audiences, but the opposite was also true, and Cock Robin were one act from the U.S. that found a larger and more loyal audience outside their homeland. While "When Your Heart Is Weak" was a modest hit in the U.S. in 1985, the single fared better overseas, and over the next five years, Cock Robin would enjoy consistent success in France, as well as in Italy, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, while attracting only a cult following in their homeland. Cock Robin was formed in 1982 by Arizona-born Peter Kingsbery, who was establishing a career as a tunesmith in Los Angeles when he relocated to San Francisco and formed the group.

A contemporary of Mozart, Johann Christoph Vogel also died at an early age. Forward looking in approach, this composer of a tormented disposition, sought to extend the operatic revolution undertaken by Gluck in the 1770s. First performed in 1786 at the Opéra de Paris, 'La Toison d’or' reveals that search for an expressive art which demanded an all-embracing involvement from the performers and supplied the music with a sometimes unbearable intensity for audiences of the time.

"Balearic Beauty" brings to life 14 Sunlounger recordings. Through them Roger has involved the vocal talents of many, including ‘A Beach Side of Life’ album alumni Inger Hansen, Yoav (of ‘Beautiful Lie’ fame) and EDM singer/songwriter/hit-maker JES. Also on board are an ensemble of newly discovered male and female vox talent, including Sason Bishope Parry, Chase, Alexandra Badoi, Kingseyes and Suzie Del Vecchio. Arriving in its now customary Album and Chillout versions, ‘Balearic Beauty’ picks up exactly where ‘Beach Side’ left off… So bring your pulse rate to resting, find your spot in the sun, hit recline and prepare for the Lounger.

Swedish clarinetist Martin Fröst is one of the world's top players, with a creamy, utterly consistent tone that is the envy of many a young player. It may be a surprise to see him take up Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622, once again; he recorded it in the early 2000s with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, along with its usual partner on disc, the Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581. But there are several new things this time around.