Live

Handel’s Messiah is already very well-represented on the CD market, with dozens of existing recordings and new productions appearing at regular intervals. Yet this is a very special version, carefully crafted, by the Prague-based Collegium Vocale and Collegium 1704 under the baton of Vaclav Luks, founder of the ensemble and one of the most exciting conductors of the Baroque and Classical repertoire.

The great success of the 15-CD set Ancerl Live Recordings (2022 - Choc de Classica, Diapason d'Or etc.) and of the series Ancerl Gold Edition (2002-2008) is indicative of Karel Ancerl's firm standing among the most important conductors of the post-war world. The present album tiesin with the boxed set mentioned above; this time, our selection from the Czech Radio archive contains live recordings with the conductor Ancerl in the role of an accompanist. The list of soloists he invited for collaboration is imposing.

Christian Thielemann writes: I see Die Meistersinger as the pivot and central point of Wagners entire oeuvre. On the one hand it is a reaction to Tristan; on the other, he had found himself in a blind alley with Siegfried, and together those two works showed him the way out of it. The fascinating thing about Die Meistersinger is that you can find everything in it. Hero and anti-hero, comedy and tragedy, upperclass and lower-class lovers, burlesque and reflection, the old and the new, in short a whole world. The magic words summing it up for me are atmosphere and poetry. How can I, as a conductor, make the music glitter in its exaggerations and parodies, and at the same time lend it authority? Conversely, how can I make its emotionalism sound not false but genuine, emphasizing the deeply felt popular note in the music? Wagner is fundamentally asking his interpreters to square the circle, which is what makes Die Meistersinger such a difficult work to perform. Perhaps it can succeed only by osmosis, if we open ourselves up entirely to all its moods, colours and aromas, inhaling them so deeply that they naturally emerge from us again at the right moment.

Bright Midnight Archives was a specialty sublabel at Rhino Entertainment the sole mission of which was to release full live recordings of the Doors' performances from the band's vast archives. These releases were usually made available through the band's official website. Set the Night on Fire is an Internet-only collection that puts together several full-show recordings released previously through the Bright Midnight Archives imprint, namely a performance in Detroit and both homecoming shows at the Aquarius Theatre in Los Angeles in 1969.

Tom Jones live als Gast bei der BBC. Zwischen 1965 und 1968 trat der Sänger diverse Mal bi der BBC auf, Insbesondere Soul und erdiger Rhythm & Blues standen im Mittelpunkt der Sets. 2CD-Set im wertigen 6 Panel-Digipak mit umfangreichen Linernotes. Mit den Hits ›Can I Get A Witness‹, ›It's Not Unusual‹, ›Once Upon A Time‹, ›Little By Little‹, ›Thunderball‹, ›Spanish Harlem‹, ›Long Tall Sally‹, ›Stupidity‹, ›Living, Loving Wreck‹ u. v.a.

Pentatone continues its "American Opera Series" with Houston Grand Opera’s world premiere recording of Tarik O’Regan’s The Phoenix (2019), an opera on the life of Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart’s favorite librettist. Da Ponte (1749-1838) was an adventurer, who not only travelled the world, but in a way also through time, living across what seem to be impossible moments of history that never should have aligned in somebody’s life. Together with librettist John Caird, O’Regan has designed The Phoenix as an opera within an opera, exploring Da Ponte’s life in the US, and as such providing a fascinating perspective on America as a nation of immigrants. The young and elder Da Ponte are created by Luca Pisaroni and Thomas Hampson, respectively. Music director Patrick Summers conducts the Houston Grand Opera.

Live at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO, USA, Oct 10, Oct 11 and Nov 2 2022

Between August 15-18, 1969, more than 400,000 people converged on Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm in upstate New York for Woodstock. Thirty-two acts performed including some of the most popular and influential musicians of the era such as Joan Baez, The Band, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Who.