Prayer

In every regard this is an outstanding CD. The recording quality is impressively clear yet warm, the orchestral playing well-boned and incisive, and the repertoire extremely varied. Sol Gabetta shines at every turn. Her technical command is absolute – as a pupil of Monighetti and Geringas, the legacy of Rostropovich seems firmly in place. More importantly, her nuance on shaping phrases is tasteful and expressive, and her sense of line always follows for a forward impetus in the music. Her impassioned playing of Respighi Adagio con variazioni fully exploits the music’s lyrical aspects, while Dvorak’s Waldesruhe is particularly evocative, and she brings a sense of rustic verve to the same composer’s Rondo, again delivered with impeccable assurance.

Warm, ambient textures flow like a river through a forest of emerging ethnic rhythms while being tamed by soulful, romantic heartfelt piano melodies to relax and inspire the listener on a journey to another place and time within. Brian BecVar's music is a journey through ambient landscapes of sound with romantic, soulful piano melodies. The songs will warm the heart and inspire the soul of the listener as ancient drums move with a river of warm orchestral textures and soulful piano melodies to take the listener on a journey of inner peace and tranquility.

“What are your thoughts on corporates investing in the music industry? Well, as far as we can remember, corporate people, corporations, patrons of the arts, sponsorship have always been involved in the artistic life even centuries ago in the eras of the western “renaissance”, romanticism or classicism…

While better known as an actor thanks to his immortal role as television's bumbling Gomer Pyle, Jim Nabors also enjoyed a successful career as an easy listening balladeer. Born June 12, 1930, in Sylacauga, Alabama, he graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in business administration, but later found himself working in TV as an apprentice editor; at much the same time, he also pursued a career as a cabaret singer. In 1963, Nabors was hired to guest star on an episode of the popular Andy Griffith Show; although his role as the hayseed Gomer was originally intended as a one-shot, the character proved such a hit with audiences that he went on to become a featured player for the next two seasons. In 1965, Nabors even received his own spinoff series, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., in which Gomer appeared as a hapless Marine Corps private. During a 1964 guest appearance on The Danny Kaye Show, Nabors first displayed his vocal prowess; his baritone subsequently graced dozens of albums, including a number of gospel and country efforts. He also had an opportunity to sing on his Gomer Pyle show; during the program's fourth season, in an episode entitled "The Show Must Go On" which aired on November 3, 1967, Nabors sang "The Impossible Dream" from Man of La Mancha, and the song subsequently became a popular part of his repertoire as a performer.

Gunshot Blue is the culmination of thousands of hours of dedication to craft, a fermentation of many uniquely different, yet strangely familiar stories, distilled, steeped and soaked in folklore and tradition. A mysterious and hypnotic blend of the gentle, psychedelic infused blues that occasionally meets the explosive high energy, electricity of rock and roll head on.

In barely a decade of existence, Merton College’s new choral foundation has ambitiously redefined the choral landscape of the great university city of Oxford through its twin commitment to excellence & innovation. Now, focusing entirely on American music of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, this latest in a series of thematically conceived recordings begins as a striking ‘double portrait’ of two composers who have written or arranged works especially for the choir.David Lang’s austere choral postminimalism, informed by a background of Jewish liturgy and thought, provides a striking foil to Nico Muhly’s more richly referential approach; Muhly fell in love with the Anglican tradition as a young chorister in Rhode Island. Two solo organ works by Muhly, and a transcription from his mentor Philip Glass’s opera Satyagraha, widen the expressive gamut still further – from whimsical allusiveness to meditative calm – and are set in context alongside the more stylistically eclectic yet no less powerfully communicative sound-worlds of Libby Larsen and Abbie Betinis. Two final choral items draw on pre-existing traditions of the spiritual and the Baptist hymnal in moving demonstration of the New World’s ability to honour its past while gazing Firmly ahead.