Scanteu Chorias Keiser

Recent musicological research tends to suggest that the 'Markuspassion' is not the work of Reinhard Keiser, essentially for stylistic reasons. However, it has not yet proved possible to attribute it positively to any other contemporary composer, such as Nicolaus Bruhns, or to Gottfried Keiser, Reinhard’s father, and so its paternity is currently uncertain.

His colleague Georg Philipp Telemann, who was only a few years older, described him as “the greatest spirit of his time”. Reinhard Keiser is a striking example of a musician who was held in the highest esteem in his time, but is hardly present today. He wrote numerous stage works for the Hamburg Opera at the Gänsemarkt.

Seeking to interpret trumpeter/composer Kenny Wheeler's music with the boundless sense of adventure and nuance needed to honor his unique writing, Bay Area guitarist Jason Keiser was particularly intrigued by Wheeler's penchant for assembling unusual instrumental configurations as he made preparations for Kind of Kenny.

Northern Europe was a fertile ground for lyrical music: it has borrowed many memorable historical figures but is also indebted to it for many masterpieces by Baroque composers. Handel and Bach come to mind, of course, but we would be forgetting the Heinichen, Schürmann, Keiser and Telemann, whose brilliant opera music is so rarely performed. Many of them have portrayed monarchs, terrible or majestic, in their operatic works - roles that, unlike their southern colleagues, the composers of the Septentrion do not hesitate to entrust to lower voices.

A brief history of 20th-century American music and a valuable, offbeat addition to the comprehensive Brilliant Classics library of guitar music.

Andrew Staniland (b. 1977) has established himself as one of Canada’s most important and innovative musical voices. His music is performed and broadcast internationally and has been described by Alex Ross in The New Yorker magazine as “alternately beautiful and terrifying.

A mandolin for all seasons: accompanied by accordion, harpsichord and a backing band drawn from the strings of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Jacob Reuven brings us Vivaldi’s and Piazzolla’s ‘Seasons’ as you’ve never heard them before.

GRAMMY Award-winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato joins conductor Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco for this electrifying program of royal arias from the 17th and 18th century. It features compositions by luminary figures including Handel and Vivaldi, as well as, lesser-known composers including Orlandini and Porta. Her previous album for Virgin Classics, Diva, Divo, won a GRAMMY® Award in February 2012. DiDonato calls this themed recital her “most exciting recording project to date…high drama, profound emotion, fearless vocal writing, time-stopping passages, historical significance and real discovery”.