Music For Summer

Ritual music populated by angels and demons, mystical incantations, unheard-of percussions and supernatural harmonies, the work of American composer George Crumb is a spectacular experience that remains etched in the memory of its performers and its listeners. With Black Angels and Music for a Summer Evening, B Records brings together in one album two great moments of the 2021 Deauville Festival and a host of renowned artists: pianists Théo Fouchenneret and Philippe Hattat, artists from the Hanson Quartet and those from the Trio Xenakis…

Experience a staple of the Oxford calendar in this set of works inspired by the May Morning tradition, with music spanning from the traditional to contemporary. Starting with The College Clock welcoming in the sunrise, this special recording displays The Magdalen College Choir in radiant form, shining in the glorious acoustics of the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Oxford.

The Workout Mix: Set For Summer – Three energy packed playlist CDs rammed with tunes to make your workout fun. Enjoy a Dance Classics Workout, A Disco Classics Workout or an R&B Classics Workout with songs by The Black Eyed Peas, Calvin Harris, Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars, Earth, Wind & Fire with The Emotions, Baccara, Boney M, Whitney Houston, P!nk and many more. 3CDs packaged in an attractive card fold out digipack.

"America's First Lady of Roots Music", Maria Muldaur, returns to her original roots - Jug Band Music! Maria first recorded in the early 60's with both The Even Dozen and The Jim Kweskin Jug Bands. Here she has reunited with several of her former jug band mates and recorded many tunes from the classic jug band era (early 30's), as well as two hilarious newly penned gems by Dan Hicks. Special guests include John Sebastian, David Grisman, Taj Mahal, Dan Hicks, Fritz Richmond and sensational discovery Kit Stovepipe.

Lawrence Power makes the second of his appearances in this month’s release lists, this time with his regular pianist partner Simon Crawford-Phillips in the chamber music of Shostakovich. The centrepiece is the Viola Sonata, Shostakovich’s last completed work, premiered posthumously, on what would have been the composer’s sixty-ninth birthday. Its ravishing slow finale reworks the opening of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata—a tribute to a composer he revered. Shostakovich the film composer also takes a bow, in the form of The Gadfly, with its famous ‘Romance’ beloved of violinists everywhere. That this works just as compellingly on the viola is triumphantly displayed in the arrangement made by Vadim Borisovsky (founding violist of the Beethoven Quartet), one of the Five Pieces he recast from Shostakovich’s original. Shostakovich’s 24 Piano Preludes have also proved irresistible to transcribers and here we have the seven brilliantly reworked by a pupil of Borisovsky, Yevgeny Strakhov.

Bassoonist Eric Van der Veer Varner enjoyed a rich and varied musical career. Varner was the principal bassoonist with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra from 2004 through 2015, appearing as a soloist with them on numerous occasions, his playing with them described as being “of ineffable liquid beauty.” Previously, Varner held positions with the Ann Arbor Symphony, Michigan Opera Theater and Sarasota Opera Orchestra. He performed in numerous summer festivals, including the Bellingham Festival of Music, the Michigan City Chamber Music Festival and the Glickman-Popkin Bassoon Camp.

In the aftermath of punk rock, and inspired by the glamour of the likes of David Bowie, young elites in England’s major cities threw off the shackles of grey, damp and dreary turn-of-the-80s Britain and sought something more refined and cultured than punk’s primal howl. Armed with wardrobes full of colourful and outrageous second-hand clothes, cheap make-up, extensive record collections, their own extroverted imaginations and an urge to dance (not pogo), a collection of DJs, dancers and junkshop fashionistas would frequent clubs such as The Wag in London, Pips in Manchester and The Rum Runner in Birmingham. The resulting scene would famously go on to spawn countless 80s pop scene faces and trigger what became the New Romantic movement.

Rachmaninov’s two Suites for two pianos are among the most original works for the medium, no less inspired or tuneful than the better known concertos. The early Suite No. 1 ‘Fantaisie-tableaux’ shows the influence of Chopin, Liszt and Tchaikovsky, but is no mere bloodless imitation of their music. Written while Rachmaninov was working on his Second Piano Concerto, the Suite No. 2 represents a maturer idiom.