Worlds of Music : an Introduction to The Music of

Bliss: The Decca Originals: a new collection of Decca recordings of Blisss music, including tracks previously unreleased on Decca CD as well as the complete version of the Violin Concerto with Alfredo Campoli. The career of Arthur Bliss was launched in London in the 1920s with provocative ensemble pieces such as Rout, but it was established by the Colour Symphony which Sir Edward Elgar invited him to write for the Three Choirs Festival. Bliss gradually became an establishment figure, appointed Master of the Queens Music in 1953 and a fluent maker of music celebrating Englishness (such as Welcome the Queen, 1954) at a time when notions of national identity were coming under scrutiny as never before.

Cardamar's second journey is about worlds within worlds of music. Melodic chillout goodness pushed to its boundaries. A more than worthy follow-up to "Steam", which will satisfy all fans of an emotional journey beyond the boundaries of your imagination.
"Where the Skies End" is a hypnotic assembly of ambient compositions. Throughout this entire collection, listeners are induced into the trance of an impressive combination of sound effects held together with well-arranged percussion…

Gunn’s composition’s always aspire to Grand Canyon-style grandeur. Heroic themes, vocal chants, and African-influenced percussive rhythms propel Gunn’s flute through expansive compositions with synthesizer orchestrations and a filigree of acoustic guitar and piano. I’ve been a big fan of Malkin’s music since I reviewed his terrific Thousand Pieces of Gold over a year ago. An Emmy award winner who has scored many television shows and movies, Gary brings a wealth of thematic genius to this latest in the National Park Series from Real Music.

The trio format has always been something of an ideal for Jan Lundgren. That particular buzz when communication between the musicians in a trio is direct, immediate and ever-present…when the trio keeps a constant sense of forward motion and development…when the players collectively remain open to the inspiration of every millisecond. These are the virtues which Lundgren sees as the recipe for the kind of openness, freedom, subtlety and excellence of a trio at its best.

The profane and the profound, the lurid and the saintly, rub elbows in Menotti's operas. In The Saint of Bleecker Street, religious faith and disbelief are interwoven with drunken outbursts, taunts, and a stabbing. It's as if Puccini's Suor Angelica and Il Tabarro had been crossed with Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. The plot concerns the fragile Annina, a girl revered in New York's Little Italy because of her supposed ability to heal the sick. She hears voices, sees visions, and receives the stigmata as she vicariously relives the Passion of Jesus Christ. Her obsessively devoted brother Michele rejects these phenomena, believing them simply to be mumbo-jumbo imagined or thrust upon her by others.