Verse – 08 六月 2021

Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s revelatory interpretation of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, recorded live at Walt Disney Concert Hall (30/31 May & 2 June 2019) will be released in June 2021. Their new album documents a landmark performance that brought the LA Philharmonic’s centennial season to a triumphant conclusion in 2019. Mahler’s extraordinary ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ spans a universe of emotions, channeled through everything from passages of intimate reflection to overwhelming outbursts of choral and orchestral sound.

Arc Of Life is the new band from current Yes members Billy Sherwood and Jon Davison, with Jay Schellen (Yes’ unofficial touring drummer), Jimmy Haun (who played guitar on the 1991 Yes album “Union” and worked with former Yes bassist Chris Squire in Conspiracy) and Dave Kerzner (keyboardist formerly with Sound Of Contact) rounding out the lineup…

Even as a serious-minded singer/songwriter, Cat Stevens never stopped being a pop singer at heart, and with Teaser and the Firecat he reconciled his philosophical interests with his pop instincts. Basically, Teaser's songs came in two modes: gentle ballads that usually found Stevens and second guitarist Alun Davies playing delicate lines over sensitive love lyrics, and up-tempo numbers on which the guitarists strummed away and thundering drums played in stop-start rhythms…

Pasquale Plays Duke, is the second of a three-part trilogy which follows the early 2021 digital release of Solo Ballads. For this particular album he introduces his working trio of bassist Ari Roland and drummer Keith Balla, and is joined by special guest vocalists Samara Joy and Sheila Jordan.

This is the second album pairing Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Pärt from the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. The first, released in 2018, brought the group a Gramophone Award, and the BIS label and conductor Kaspars Putniņš have apparently decided to stick with what works. Both albums are superb. Schnittke and Pärt haven't often appeared together on recordings, Schnittke's stylistically allusive language being miles away from Pärt's minimalism, a fine example of which is provided by the Seven Magnificat Antiphons heard here.