Literature 1971, Part 2

Recorded in 1970, Panna Fredda's lone work is one of the earliest pioneers of the ISP genre, one of the trailblazers of the distinct style of festive experimentation that would characterize so many great Italian bands. It's really an overlooked title in the Italian progressive rock universe. Heavy and dark with a distinct baroque twist and an emphasis on exploration, "Uno" was right there with other first wave titles from Orme, The Trip, and Osanna. The origins of Panna Fredda (translates to Cold Cream) date back to 1966 Rome and the Italian beat when members were playing in a group called I Figli Del Sole. These nightclub gigs evolved into a 6-piece funk/R and B/brass outfit called Vun Vun.

When English soprano Emma Kirkby began her professional career in the mid-'70s, period performance practice was just beginning to make its way into the realm of vocal music. Kirkby, mentored by Jessica Cash, became a pioneer of period practice for Renaissance and Baroque vocal soloists. She studied classical literature at Oxford and took vocal lessons, but did not plan on becoming a singer. She joined the Taverner Choir in 1971, and a couple of years later, she began a long-lasting collaboration with the Consort of Musicke.[ [/quote]

While it never quite got the attention that the Mahler revival of the 1950s and 1960s got, the music of Franz Schubert, particularly with respect to the early symphonies and his choral works, saw an upsurge of its own beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As such, it went a long way to prove that this composer, who lived a tragically short life, was every bit as important to classical music as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. The revival of the choral works, in particular, were a big factor in this; and a good deal of the credit for all of it could be ascribed to the series of recordings made of them for EMI by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus during the 1980s, with Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting.