Andrea Bochcelli

Beauty blooms in adversity. It’s one of the undying clichés of art. Sometimes, it’s a damaging one. It can lead unsuspecting audiences to believe that performers and the emotions they embody are one and the same, and that torment is a necessity for creation; it can lead performers to disregard their own health, believing that their discomfort supposedly serves and ennobles their art; and it glosses over the fact that creativity emerging out of adversity or hardship is generally the exception rather than the rule.

The four chamber works by Austrian Thomas Larcher recorded here show that's he's a composer to watch out for. His compositional voice is strikingly unencumbered by adherence to any orthodoxy, and his work is direct in its emotional and intellectual communication. My Illness Is the Medicine I Need, for soprano, violin, cello, and piano, is particularly effective; its aphoristic texts come from a Benetton "Colors" magazine that included photographs of psychiatric hospitals and quotations from their patients. Larcher's understated text setting allows the voices of the patients to be heard with unaffected bleakness and it is strongly moving. Even though it uses a contemporary harmonic language, the string quartet Ixxu (1998-2004) is old-fashioned in its emotional clarity. Its last movement, "ruhig," is genuinely peaceful and brings to mind the serenity of Arvo Pärt's Fratres. His 1990 quartet Cold Farmer is similarly direct and generous in inviting the listener in, and here again the slow movement is especially deeply felt and engaging.

Two groups perform here, the first (represented on seven tracks) is from a fascinating session with Italian percussionist Andrea Centazzo, Austrian trumpeter Franz Koglmann, and British soprano saxophonist Lol Coxhill, and the second (on four cuts) has Italian trombonist Giancarlo Schiaffini replacing Koglmann…

"Passione" is a lush collection of Mediterranean love songs featuring duets with Jennifer Lopez and Nelly Furtado. Bocelli is an international superstar with a myriad of breathtaking career achievements to his name. Here, Bocelli reunites with 16-time GRAMMY Award-winner David Foster. Foster produced his 2006 collection of romantic songs, "Amore", which sold over 2.5 million copies and debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200. Passione is essentially the second volume. It features several beloved classics including “Love Me Tender,” “Quizas, Quizas, Quizas,” “Il Nostro Incontro,” “Corcovado (Medley)” and more. It is a repertoire of endless beauty that collects some of the most intense songs of all time.

Internationally renowned Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli releases breathtaking new album, Believe, celebrating the power of music to soothe the soul. It follows his record-breaking `Music for Hope' performance at Easter from Milan's historic Duomo cathedral. Features classic favorites, a previously unreleased track from late Italian composer Ennio Morricone, Gratia Plena (from acclaimed film Fatima), duets w/ Alison Krauss & Cecilia Bartoli and interpretations of Ave Maria and Cohen's Hallelujah.