Pierre Johnson

Exploring 20th-century repertoire – both acknowledged masterpieces and new discoveries – this 14-CD anthology reflects the diverse aesthetic strands of Pierre Boulez’s programming over the course of his ground-breaking and influential career. These Erato recordings, made between 1966 and 1992, feature composers otherwise absent from Boulez’s discography – Xenakis, Donatoni, Grisey, Dufourt, Ferneyhough, Harvey and Höller – and the first CD release of the interpretation of Stravinsky’s incantatory Les Soucoupes in the version for female voices and four horns.

The three works presented here reveal distinctly different phases of Arnold Schoenberg's development, each a critical point of departure. In the Pieces (5) for Orchestra (1909), Schoenberg's atonal language appears full-blown and marks a clear break with tonality. For the first time, Schoenberg places content over form and dispenses with any pretenses toward classical objectivity or balance.

Graham Johnson is simply the greatest living authority on French song; an artist whose innate feeling for the music is combined with prodigious scholarship. He also has the ability to discover and nurture singers who here prove to be matchless performers of this repertoire. Following his many wonderful recordings in Hyperion's French Song Edition, Johnson turns to the complete songs of Francis Poulenc, released also to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the composer's death. Each of the four CDs presents a programme of songs in an order that is chronological for that disc alonesignifying four different journeys through the composer's career. Disc 1 features a substantial appearance, recorded in 1977, of Pierre Bernac (Poulenc's long-term collaborator)narrating L'histoire de Babar, a story known to children throughout the world. The singers include Dame Felicity Lott, acclaimed as one of the foremost performers of Poulenc, and many other stars from previous recordings.

Singer, songwriter, arranger, and producer Syleena Johnson is the daughter of unsung soul and blues great Syl Johnson ("Different Strokes," "Is It Because I'm Black"). Born in Harvey, Illinois, she grew up listening to Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Tina Turner, the Dells, and Mavis Staples. She performed in local bands and sang in her church choir at Greater Christian Unity, and later worked in classical and gospel choirs as well as in jazz ensembles at Drake University and Illinois State University, where she majored in music.

Traditional music for Tai Chi classes (the Great Limit) is a Chinese soft martial art, one of the Wushu species. Currently, Tai Chi has become most common as a health gym. The main features of Tai Chi are a soft, rolling step with smooth and continuous movements and "pushing hands" (tui-show). It is not unimportant for the lessons to be made and the sound (music) accompaniment that helps to create the right inner mood.

This 50 CD Box Set includes Archiv Produktions finest analogue recordings made between 1959 and 1981, representing a Golden Age of a pioneering label that defined the way early music should be performed and recorded. Featured artists include Karl Richter, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Pierre Fournier, John Eliot Gardiner, Trevor Pinnock and other icons of the Archiv label.