The Queen

Jewels In The Crown is a duets compilation album by American Soul singer Aretha Franklin. It was released in 2007 by Arista, and comprises a combination of classic duets spanning Franklin's career, and two newly recorded duets with Fantasia and John Legend. It also contains two live duets, one from 1993, the other from 1998. The album concludes with Franklin's noted rendition of "Nessun Dorma" from the Grammy Awards of 1998, when she filled in last minute for Luciano Pavarotti. The album peaked at a moderate #54 on the Billboard main album chart and at #7 on the US R&B Album Chart, reportedly selling close to 20,000 copies during its chart run. As of October, 2009 the album has reportedly sold 107,000 copies in the US and about 140,000 worldwide.

Purcell and the majority of the British public were genuinely fond of Queen Mary, who with William replaced King James on the throne when he fled to the continent. London musicians breathed a collective sigh of relief at the Glorious Revolution and Purcell composed six of his finest Odes to honour his new Queen’s birthday.

This programme reflects the full flavour and richness of English music and the instrumental and vocal repertory it inspired in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The rhythmic impulse of this repertory – sometimes making use of ostinato – culminates in the grounds, jigs, contredanses and so on that were all the rage at the time and led to the publication of John Playford’s collection The English Dancing Master in 1651. Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, showing their familiarity with early sources from England, Scotland and Ireland, also emphasise the melodic aspect of these dances, which in the course of time became sung airs – the soprano Fiona McGown and the baritone Enea Sorini complete a colourful instrumentarium.

Antonio Caldara composed during the most flourishing period of the Baroque. While his contemporaries - Handel, Bach, Scarlatti and Vivaldi - are today held in higher esteem, in his own day, Caldera's vocal output was much celebrated. 18th century music critic Charles Burney called him "one of the greatest professors both for the Church and the stage that Italy can boast," and rated Caldera second only to Handel for his vocal writing. He was born in Venice to musical parents. He was a working musician from an early age as both contralto chorister and cellist at St. Mark's in Venice, at the same time composing vocal music.

First off, no, this box set doesn’t contain the Complete Smiths, not even in its super-deluxe edition containing vinyl replicas of the group’s singles and LPs. Stray B-sides don’t appear here, nor do the scrapped sessions for the first album and a few other heavily bootlegged numbers, but what is here are sterling remasters – allegedly supervised by Johnny Marr – of the band’s four albums, three compilations, and lone live album, all released during the band’s exceedingly brief lifespan…