Where New York From May 2015

Kenny Werner improvised ballads that reflect his impressions of New York City for this 2009 solo piano session. The Brooklyn native's lyrical touch is present throughout this delightful recording, capturing the stillness of early morning in his moving "First Light/East River." Anyone who has visited the World Trade Center and since returned to view the starkly empty spot where it once stood can't help but be moved by Werner's poignant "Ground Zero," a piece conveying anguish at the terrible loss of life.

Rising from the ashes of the legendary British post-punk unit Joy Division, New Order triumphed over tragedy to emerge as one of the most acclaimed bands of the 1980s; embracing the electronic textures and disco rhythms of the underground club culture many years in advance of its contemporaries, the group's pioneering fusion of new wave aesthetics and dance music successfully bridged the gap between the two worlds, creating a distinctively thoughtful and oblique brand of synth pop appealing equally to the mind, body, and soul.

Shafran became something of a legendary figure amongst cellists. He made a fabled child prodigy debut at ten, playing the Rococo Variations with the Leningrad Philharmonic conducted by Albert Coates. In later years, though, he toured abroad very seldom – making sporadic visits in the 1960s to Rome, New York and London and a succession of visits to Japan where he was immensely popular and had a number of students. Towards the end of his life he gave two celebrated recitals at Wigmore Hall.

Legendary Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore (b. April 14, 1945, Weston-super-Mare, England) shifted his musical focus away from hard rock in the late '90s and started concentrating on his love of Renaissance-era music. He formed Blackmore's Night with his fiancée, vocalist/lyricist Candice Night (b. May 8, 1971, Hauppauge, Long Island, New York), and recruited other musicians from around the world to combine elements of world music, Renaissance, new age, folk, and rock & roll…

Rising from the ashes of the legendary British post-punk unit Joy Division, New Order triumphed over tragedy to emerge as one of the most acclaimed bands of the 1980s; embracing the electronic textures and disco rhythms of the underground club culture many years in advance of its contemporaries, the group's pioneering fusion of new wave aesthetics and dance music successfully bridged the gap between the two worlds, creating a distinctively thoughtful and oblique brand of synth pop appealing equally to the mind, body, and soul.