Mantovani

This was the first time that Mantovani turned his attention to the music of the Latin countries. The persuasive waterfalls of its strings take on a new role on this record and arrangements help to create gloss atmospheres, overflowing warmth, dramatic intensity and an impressive attraction and beauty. The story of this album is that its repertoire grew out of a contest organized by the record company in America to select 12 items for Mantovani unreleased until now. The winner could move to London with his wife, with all expenses paid, to meet Mantovani and asist to one of the recording sessions.

Conductor, composer, violinist, and pianist Mantovani was one of the most popular and prolific easy listening artists of all time. His trademark "cascading strings" (or "tumbling strings") effect gave him an instantly recognizable sound, and his heavy reliance on the string section in general helped map out the blueprint for much of the light orchestral music that followed in his wake. His repertoire did feature original compositions, but was built chiefly on lush adaptations of familiar melodies: TV and movie themes, show tunes, pop hits (chiefly of the MOR variety), classical material, and the like. Starting his career in the '20s, Mantovani was very much a product of the recording age: he focused almost entirely on recording, instead of live performance; he was one of the first artists to utilize the LP as a primary medium for his releases…

Talking Mantovani music has always been about quality music. Only the great conductors have managed to transform the somewhat monotonous musical landscape of light music. And Mantovani was one of the highlights. He has brought a new field of excellence to the music with the idea of holding the melodic lines of the issues with repeated waves of sound. And that has become his interpretations as unique. Forty top musicians gather under his baton to interpret twelve selected topics.

Based in Paris, Ensemble Intercontemporain is one of the leading performance organizations devoted to new music, and is closely associated with composer/conductor Pierre Boulez, a leader of the European avant-garde establishment. Boulez developed the idea of the Ensemble during the planning stages for IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique).