Themes And Variations Calvin Abdiel

The Unknown Russia: “For me it has been a great joy to conceive and record the programme featured on this album. The idea that inspired it was twofold: on the one hand, it is made up of variation cycles (with the exception of the Rondo brillante on a theme from Bellini’s opera ‘I Capuletti ed i Montecchi’).

"Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom" is the two time Grammy Award-winning album from composer Ted Nash and his Big Band. Featuring recordings of great speeches from leaders such as Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela, and John F. Kennedy, as read by contemporary figures such as Glenn Close and Douglas Brinkley, each of the movements in Nash's composition respond to the themes and musical features of each speech, producing a creative and inspiring reflection on the idea of freedom.

The Swiss oboist, composer and conductor Heinz Holliger is without doubt one of the "grand old men" of the European classical music scene. Now in his 83rd year, the busy all-round musician is still bursting with verve, curiosity and the desire to make music. His latest album is called "Les Roseaux Chantants" ("The Singing Reed Flutes"), an allusion to the double reed with which the notes on the oboe and the cor anglais are made to sound. Works were chosen that were composed for the unusual combination of two oboes plus English horn. A tonally attractive combination, as the works by Beethoven, Wranitzky, the Swiss composer Rudolph Ganz and, last but not least, Heinz Holliger himself, impressively demonstrate.

The Hungarian Dances (German: Ungarische Tänze) by Johannes Brahms (WoO 1), are a set of 21 lively dance tunes based mostly on Hungarian themes, completed in 1879. They vary from about a minute to five minutes in length. They are among Brahms's most popular works and were the most profitable for him. Each dance has been arranged for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles. Brahms originally wrote the version for piano four hands (piano duet: two players using one piano) and later arranged the first ten dances for solo piano.

Franz Clement was the first soloist to perform Beethoven's Violin Concerto - 'nature and art vie with each other in making [Clement] a great artist', wrote Beethoven

Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine traverses Paganini’s ground breaking set of 24 Caprices with virtuosic flair and, in equal measure, reverence for the bel canto – or “beautiful singing” – style of the composer’s generation. Playing on the ‘ex-Bazzini, ex-Soldat’ Guarneri del Gesù violin from 1742 – made by the same Cremona-based maker in the same year as Paganini’s own violin – Rachel channels the composer’s own technical wizardry as well as his love for beautiful melodies.

Not much else can be said about this album other than this is Tom Waits at his best. Tom Waits is one of the most innovative artists in popular music. His singular vision embraces everything from blues to tin-pan-alley to jazz to just about anything else you can think of. Grammy winner, actor, poet, a master of the musical collage and lyrical surprise, Tom Waits is simply a giant. "Mule Variations" offers the most complete picture of Tom Waits of any of his albums. Edgy stomps, humor and experimentation are interspersed with some of the most beautiful and personal songs he’s ever written.

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Anna Besson is a flautist with a passion for traditional music, who has already made an album of Irish folk music, The Dubhlinn Gardens (ALPHA447).

Sweden’s influential and long revered heavy metal giants IN FLAMES are celebrating two major milestones in 2020 with their 30th anniversary as a band, and 20th anniversary of their seminal, critically acclaimed album, »Clayman«. In honor of this monumental occasion, Nuclear Blast Records presents a special 20th Anniversary Edition of »Clayman«, to be released on August 28th.