Sconfitta Dei Semidei

Heavily rooted in the romantic tradition of the best Italian progressive rock, Il Paese Dei Balocchi blends beautiful instrumental passages with heavy classical orchestration. This is pure symphonic prog the way it was meant to be played and heard. This album dives from the gentle touch of the softest symphonic prog to a medium tempo jazz influenced atmosphere. Like Banco, PFM and Le Orme, Il Paese Dei Balocchi displays awesome keyboard driven progressive creating the most interesting melodies and warm atmospheres. This album is not unlike a grand epic soundtrack really and offers the listener a deep conceptual atmosphere to get lost in. This album also varied widely from the chimes of a nursery to the deep gothic pillars of a church organ. Outstanding and clever recording.

"La Biblia" is the second and most popular album of Argentine rock band Vox Dei, originally issued in 1971 as a double vinyl LP by Disc Jockey, a small local company that boasted the slogan "the young label". This is a conceptual album (also deemed a rock opera) where the biblical theme is developed, from Genesis (Génesis) to Revelation (Apocalipsis), with inspired songwriting, and a mixture of blues rock and hard rock a la Led Zeppelin with beautiful acoustic sequences, also including some jam band excursions (Las guerras), and poems penned by guitarist Ricardo Soulé, often inspired by the book itself. In spite of its technical defects and dated sound, "La Biblia" is yet an excellent rock album, and the quality of the music contained is above average, making up an imperfect, pretentious, little masterpiece.

Under Director Richard K. Pugsley, the US-based choir Gloriæ Dei Cantores has gained a reputation for its impeccable vocal blend as well as bold programming, including its recent championing of the music of Jewish composer Samuel Adler. Adler and his family escaped Nazi Germany in 1939, settling in the United States, where he went on to compose more than 400 works. European and American influences unite in his choral music, most notably in Choral Trilogy, an ambitious work for choir and organ that nods to both Herbert Howells and Adler’s teacher Aaron Copland. In “Psalm 23”, Adler sets Hebrew and English texts, acknowledging both his heritage and adopted home in music of mesmerising beauty. To Speak to Our Time, commissioned for the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, brings the plight of refugees across the world into powerful focus.

Argentinean group Vox Dei started playing by the end of the 1960s. After signing up to independent label Mandioca, the band released "Azucar Amarga" and "Presente" in 1969; a year later, they issued the album Caliente. Vox Dei's conceptual album La Biblia, released in 1971, consolidated the band as one of the major local rock numbers. When Juan Carlos Godoy decided to leave the act, Ignacio Smilari joined in. Soon after Jeremias, Pies De Plomo came out, Vox Dei participated in a movie called Rock Hasta Que Se Ponga El Sol. In 1974, guitarist Carlos Michelini replaced Ricardo Soulé. The group disbanded after a live performance at Buenos Aires' Obras Sanitarias in 1981, returning in 1988 to make a new record called Tengo Razones Para Seguir.

The opening Overture (Suite) in A minor is one of Telemann's most ambitious concerted works, running to seven distinct dance movements in 30 minutes. The rhythmic shifts in the "Air à l'Italien" are pretty abrupt and really catch your attention. Of the three concertos, the Double Concerto in A minor for flauto dolce and viola da gamba is a standout, owing to its occasionally explosive gestures and knotty emotionalism. All of these works have been recorded numerous times, but most commonly on the standard transverse flute, but only the F major concerto was originally written for flute, and many versions of the Overture in A minor show signs of having been somewhat condensed.

Dan Laurin has made a name for himself as an intrepid musician who never hesitates to venture into uncharted territory, as testified by his numerous recordings of contemporary recorder works, as well as by his monumental achievement in recording the complete (10 hours!) 17th century Der Fluyten Lust-hof by Jacob van Eyck. As he now turns to one of the most recorded works in Western music, his approach is as fresh and original as ever. With the aid of the highly praised Polish ensemble Arte dei Suonatori, Laurin gives us Vivaldi’s humming insects, pounding summer rain and drunken village revels in a way we’ve never before heard them.

For the 300th anniversary of C. P. E. Bach’s birth, Alpha proposes discovering the work of one of the Cantor’s sons from an original angle: that of the Alexis Kossenko’s flute.
In this boxed set, Alpha has brought together the complete Flute Concertos as well as the marvellous Trio Sonatas, masterpieces that allow for discovering Carl Philipp Emanuel’s close connection with the traverso, and also perceiving Alexis Kossenko’s strong ties with this brilliant composer.

Johann Forkel, the biographer of J.S. Bach, numbered Müthel among the most remarkable of Bach’s pupils. Another of the great chroniclers of 18th century music, Charles Burney, described Müthel's works as 'so full of novelty, taste, grace, and contrivance, that I should not hesitate to rank them among the greatest productions of the present age.’ In Müthel's five concertos for keyboard and strings we nevertheless meet a distinctly individual composer, displaying sophisticated rhythms and harmonic playfulness. Presenting them on this set of two CDs, the young Polish harpsichordist Marcin Świątkiewicz makes his début on BIS. He is supported by his compatriots in the acclaimed period band Arte dei Suonatori, who clearly relish the often intricate and always eventful orchestral parts.