Lawrence Van Vlack

Handel came to the city of Hamburg in the summer of 1703 and played as a violinist in the theatre at the Gänsemarkt, the local market place. On later occasions, he also played the harpsichord in the orchestra. His first opera – announced as a Singspiel although it has no spoken dialogue – was premiered on 8 January 1705, after being composed in the months directly preceding this. An Italian libretto was written by Giulio Pancieri in Venice in 1691 for Giuseppe Boniventi's opera L'Almira. The German translation used by Handel was made by Friedrich Christian Feustking. The recitatives of the opera are in German, while some of the arias are also in German, others in Italian, as was the custom at the opera house in Hamburg. Almira is the sole example among Handel's many operas with no role for a castrato.

On "Transit", Lawrence English surveys a variety of radically different sonic environments and sets them against a rich array of textured electronics. Pulling together abstracted fragments from these settings, he creates an impressionistic sound portrait of his movement across Australia, Japan and the UK. Not content with representing the overt sounds of these environments, Lawrence English seeks out less apparent sound elements, such as a moment of rare quiet amidst Tokyo's Shinagawa district, movement of snow underfoot in the Scottish border country, and the deafening tones of Australia's cicada, he invites listeners to create their own narrative.

While nominally Lawrence Marable is a leader, the star is the Texas Tenor James Clay. But this 1956 LP is a classic not only because of Clay (who here was a fresh faced 20 year old) but because of presence of the always great Sonny Clark. Rounding out band is Jimmy Bond on bass and the titular leader Lawrence Marable.