Val Cliburn

Box set containing a compilation of great piano concertos performed by the pianist Van Cliburn. It includes, amongst others, 'Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor, Op. 23' by Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, 'Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18' by Sergei Rachmaninov, 'Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15' by Johannes Brahms, 'Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16' by Edvard Grieg, 'Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37' by Ludwig van Beethoven, 'Concerto No. 1 in E Flat Major' by Franz Liszt and 'Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26' by Sergei Prokofiev.

Deep in the heart of the Cold War, there was once a miracle in Moscow – Texas-based classical pianist Van Cliburn, of whom no one had heard, conquered at the First Tchaikovsky Competition, an event set aside to showcase Soviet talent. Cliburn was warned by his own government not to go, given the tense political relationship between the United States and Soviet Union at the time, and once he arrived he was greeted as a party crasher, subject to hostile stares and animosity of the kind he had never dreamed of back in Texas. And it was Cliburn, at the end, which brought down the house, and held the award. Back in America, he was greeted with a ticker tape parade and was the subject of a best-selling biography by Abram Chasins, The Van Cliburn Story, copies of which continue to clog the shelves of American thrift stores five decades hence. Ultimately, though, Cliburn's celebrity lost its luster. Nerves, ultra-picky perfectionism, and mishandling by management led to his early retirement from the concert scene; his greatest latter-day achievement being the force behind the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, America's most prestigious such event.

Van Cliburn’s legendary 1958 performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no.1 with Kirill Kondrashin conducting the RCA Symphony Orchestra (New York Philharmonic Orchestra?) still remains remarkably fresh as if it had only just recently been recorded live in concert. This was his first recording on returning to the US from winning the first Moscow Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in March 1958 and it became the first classical record ever to sell over a million copies.

Nite Bjuti (pronounced night beauty) is a US-based, Afro-Caribbean, woman-led improvised experimental trio of vocalist Candice Hoyes, GRAMMY-nominated sound chemist Val Jeanty and bassist Mimi Jones - who weave together multiple strands of storytelling using voice, bass, electro percussion, turntables, Haitian drums, dance and visual projections. The trio was formed in 2018 after Hoyes performed an Afrofuturism concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center where she is a lecturer, inviting Jeanty to play and collaborate. This performance revealed a powerful chemistry that led to extended studio improvisations and an invitation to Mimi Jones - a fellow Berklee professor with Jeanty.

Gabrielle De Val is a Spanish Singer, Songwriter and Voice-Over Actress, known for her role in The Val and most recently guesting on Bruce Mee’s concept album Circle Of Friends. 'Kiss in a Dragon Night', is Gabrielle's first solo album, organised and arranged by Bruce Mee. Together with producer Khalil Turk (Escape Music), he shaped the idea and created an album involving vocalists such as Steve Overland (FM), Mick Devine (Seven), Robin McAuley (MSG), Mark Boals (Yngwie Malmsteen) and Terry Brock (Strangeways) as well as musicians such as Gary Pihl (Boston), Eric Ragno (Joe Lynn Turner), Johan Kullberg (HammerFall) and Fredrik Folkare (Nordic Union).