Lindsay String Quartet

Perhaps not amongst the best known of Haydn's quartets, these three from Op. 50 really turn out to be a pleasant surprise, although all of this composer's music is quite outstanding with nothing that can be honestly described as second rate! The Lindsays bring their usual panache and sense of style to proceedings, continuing to confirm their status as one of the finest quartets around.

If it is true that the best and most lasting innovations draw much of their deep strength from the past, then Vinicius Cantuaria may have a lock on the future of Brazilian music. Here the Brazilian singer/songwriter/instrumentalist conjures up a fascinating record, deeply rooted in the bossa nova yet infused with a cool, studied Generation X sensibility, a willingness to explore new combinations of sound, and the ability to lose itself in strange places. Many of these songs are incantations where the European and contemporary spices are applied ever so subtly – a string quartet darkly colors the title track, Erik Friedlander's cello adds warm undercurrents, Cantuaria's electronic samples delicately add mysterious shadows. Yet at the same time, the bossa nova rhythm is almost always there swinging away, gently driving the music underneath Cantuaria's warm Portuguese vocals.

To mark the 40th anniversary of Barbirolli's death, EMI created this magnificent set, which includes notable Pye recordings along with all the EMI Classics ones. He conducts Manchester's Hall Orchestra (which he elevated to world-class standing) on many of these, with particular emphasis on the great English composers.

In order to bear witness one must believe what one sees and belief, of course, is subjective. Knowledge is essentially faith. And the flexibility of human memory, our blind spots (whether empathetic or optic) and our great imaginations don’t make truth any easier to contain. This becomes more evident over time as the pages of history weather and the cataracts of progress cloud our collective “knowledge”. Humans love to forget and to repeat. We fall subject to confirmation bias, sway to suggestion, take the easy way out and allow ourselves to be governed while adamantly broadcasting our independence. Naturally it takes followers for a leader to exist, but like anomalons or quantum particles that change when being observed, the psychological battle within each of us changes depending on who is bearing witness. We are the worst portrayers of truth as we have no idea what it is. Everyone is a hypocrite. Everyone is wrong.

Leonard Bernstein was a musical titan of the 20th Century as a composer, a conductor and a communicator. This Limited Numbered Edition boxed set is the largest of DG’s suite of beautifully-conceived albums and sets marking the 2018 centenary of a remarkable human being and musical legends.
“The greatest pianist among the conductors, the greatest conductor among composers, the greatest composer among pianists … He is a universal genius” - Arthur Rubenstein.