Patrick Quattlebaum

Le Destin du Nouveau Siècle (‘The Fate of the New Century’): what a pertinent idea for a libretto for the year 1700! This unknown opera-ballet by Campra, premiered at the College Louis-le-Grand, foreshadowed the century that was opening in France, where Louis XIV had been King for… 57 years!

In Great Scott, the Kansas-born mezzo-soprano, one of today’s best-loved classical singers, creates a role conceived specifically with her in mind. The character she plays, Arden Scott, just happens to be an opera star, and she is the lynchpin of what Fred Plotkin of WQXR, the USA’s leading classical music radio station, welcomed as a “deeply moving and musically brilliant work” that “should enter the standard repertory just as Heggie’s two previous masterpieces – Dead Man Walking and Moby-Dick – already have”.

Immortal Memory is a collaboration between vocalist Lisa Gerrard and Irish composer Patrick Cassidy. Billed as a cycle of life and death and rebirth, Immortal Memory is better described as an orphaned film score. Cassidy's warm arrangements allow the former Dead Can Dance singer to step out of the dark medieval world that she's called home for nearly 20 years – though there is much of that world within these castle walls – and focus on the simplicity of love, faith, and loss with a grace that's bereft of the icy perfection of her previous work. Gerrard, whose voice has aged like the finest oak, displays an almost supernatural mastery of the material. Her effortless contralto wraps itself around the ten Gaelic, Latin, and Aramaic spirituals like an evening prayer, making each stunning entrance the equivalent of audio comfort food.

Patrick Moraz is a Swiss musician, film composer and songwriter, best known for his tenures as keyboardist in the rock bands Yes and The Moody Blues. After playing a role in the success of Yes' Relayer album in 1974, Moraz launched a solo career and became one of the more celebrated keyboardists of his age. During the '70s, when Moraz reached his prime as an artist, the keyboard was still a new and complex instrument. Technology was still evolving in the age before the personal computer. For this reason, Moraz's trailblazing keyboard work startled his audience. He practiced a new and exciting sound that was ahead of its time, owing a bit to the era's prog rock sound…

Patrick Gowers' score for the Grenada Television series about A. Conan Doyle's consulting detective has become almost as closely linked to Sherlock Holmes in the minds of fans as star Jeremy Brett (1933-1995). But those with no interest in Holmes can also enjoy this recording. Gowers' musical eloquence is richly displayed in these widely diverse, yet cohesive, tracks. Gowers begins the recording with "221B Baker Street," the vivacious theme (performed on Holmes' instrument, the violin, by Kenneth Sillito) that brings to mind Holmes' classic alarm call, "Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot. Not a word!" The cohesiveness of the album comes from Gowers' variations on this theme found throughout the rest of the recording. But the diversity within this cohesiveness is what is remarkable.

Patrick Molard has played a large part during recent years in the revival of Breton culture and has performed on concert platforms throughout the world. In these recordings he demonstrates the scope of his pìobaireachd repertoire. The Waking Of The Bridegroom (Dusgadh Fir Na Bainnse) is a collection of ceol mor. Having learnt under the renowned Bobs of Balmoral, this highly respected piper plays seven superb pieces.

This finely-focused and witty production of Jacques Offenbach’s Orphée aux Enfers with sets, costumes and lighting by the director Herbert Wernicke, is a visual and musical delight. The burlesque – conducted by Patrick Davin – is situated in a famous fin de siècle café and with a stupendous coup de théâtre the ensemble makes its entry into hell in a steam locomotive, which crashes through the ceiling. Elizabeth Vidal and Alexandru Badea in the main roles are supported energetically by the La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and Offenbach’s famous “can-can” is, as ever, an intoxicating highlight.