Virgin of e

…The great F-Major Quartet, op. 59/1, is a highlight on the Virgin set: the Borodins take a lyrical, symphonic view with moderate tempos throughout the opening movement. Sforzandos and accents are never harsh; the dolce moments have memorable sweetness. In the Allegretto vivace, the Russian quartet realizes this somewhat unusual tempo marking without artifice or exaggeration, as 16th notes nimbly chase each other around the ensemble, perfectly matched and effortless…. Michael Fine, FANFARE

Having seen the promotional announcements, I ran to my local store this week to pick up a copy. When some of the contents sounded familiar, I glanced down to the copyright date - © 2006, © 2010. The 2006 cautioned me not to buy, since I've got every Jaroussky Virgin Classics release, so I decided to check my catalogue at home…
By Arthur Leonard (New York, NY USA)

The four concerti in The Four Seasons of Antonio Vivaldi have probably earned the distinction of being the most frequently recorded classical works in the digital era. Originally published as part of a set of 12 concerti as Vivaldi's Opus 8, the other eight concerti also get some attention, particularly La tempesta di mare, but the set as a whole is comparatively seldom recorded. In Europa Galante's Virgin Classics release, Vivaldi: Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, violinist Fabio Biondi, who has recorded The Four Seasons at least once before for Opus 111, leads his expert ensemble in the whole of the Opus 8 set.

Limited 10 CD set. Original members of Sheffield's Human League, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh left after the first two albums and formed Heaven 17 in 1980. Named after a fictional band in Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, they recruited Glenn Gregory on vocals (who had been the original choice for lead singer of the Human League). Signed to Virgin Records, debut single "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" attracted a lot of attention in March 1981, and a BBC Radio 1 ban. Debut album Penthouse And Pavement was released in September 1981 and was certified Gold the following year…

The four concerti in The Four Seasons of Antonio Vivaldi have probably earned the distinction of being the most frequently recorded classical works in the digital era. Originally published as part of a set of 12 concerti as Vivaldi's Opus 8, the other eight concerti also get some attention, particularly La tempesta di mare, but the set as a whole is comparatively seldom recorded. In Europa Galante's Virgin Classics release, Vivaldi: Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, violinist Fabio Biondi, who has recorded The Four Seasons at least once before for Opus 111, leads his expert ensemble in the whole of the Opus 8 set. The 12 concerti fit comfortably onto two CDs, with some reshuffling of the pieces into a different order than that assembled by Vivaldi, though not through splitting up the "big four."

Although frequently classified as an oratorio, C. P. E. Bach's Auferstehung und Himmeelfahrt Jesu is really a cantata. There are no named dramatis personae and it is evident from Emanuel Bach's own comments that he intended the work to have a partly didactic function. He also considered it, in his own words as "pre-eminent among all my vocal works in expression and in the composition". The author of the text was Karl Wilhelm Ramler, an important poet of the German Enlightenment whose texts had earlier attracted Telemann. Ramler and Bach engaged in a close collaboration over the Auferstehung and between Bach's setting of it in 1774 and the eventual publication by Breitkopf in 1787, composer and poet entered into a lively correspondence concerning the details and shape of the cantata. The first performance took place in Hamburg in 1778 when it was warmly received. Many subsequent performances were given culminating in three directed by Mozart in Vienna.