Similar to 2000's Hoagy Carmichael-based Stardust, Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein finds pianist Bill Charlap continuing his exploration of great American composers. A longtime fan of Bernstein's work, Charlap conveys a very personal feeling throughout the album. Some may ask, why is another jazz trio album of standards necessary? Charlap answers this admirably with highly sophisticated yet direct arrangements and his usual stellar improvisational skills. Many of the songs from West Side Story work astonishingly well in a modern jazz format. Notably, "America" receives an expansive McCoy Tyner meets Tito Puente treatment, while "Jump" is serious post-bop Raymond Scott. Joining Charlap are his longtime collaborators bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington. Together, the trio showcase an uncanny sense of timing and group interplay that only comes from years of performing together.
To mark her highly publicised performance at the 2011 Classic Brits, DG are releasing this stunning 2CD set of some of her very best recordings. Arranged chronologically, the compilation’s sequence offers a comprehensive look at Anne Sophie Mutter’s Deutsche Grammophon career — from her Mozart debut in 1978 to her Brahms Sonatas in 2010, with all of her musical partners.
Hector Berlioz, France’s greatest Romantic composer, exemplifies the spirit of his age – yet his genius was also ahead of its time. Reflecting his colourful life, his music is astonishing for its originality and ambition, and for orchestration of groundbreaking brilliance. This, the first-ever complete Berlioz edition, comprises carefully selected recordings and even includes works completely new to the catalogue. The accompanying booklet, lavishly illustrated, contains a fascinating commentary from Berlioz biographer David Cairns, whose words bring the composer’s music still more vividly to life.
In his 1985 BBC
Television essay examining the roots of Mahler's inspiration, Leonard Bernstein talks,plays and conducts the London Symphony, Vienna
and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras.
"Mahler himself is the doomed little boy from the Knaben Wunderhorn longing for redemption…"
Classical musicians have always recognized the musicality and originality of The Beatles’ songs, Leonard Bernstein declaring the Lennon-McCartney composing team ‘the Schuberts of our time’. This sequel to Peter Breiner’s multi-platinum Beatles Go Baroque(Naxos 8.555010) takes the original concept even further, keeping 18th-century masterpieces such as Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Bach’s famously stylish and beautiful Violin Concerto No. 1 largely intact, elegantly combining them with The Beatles’ most enduring melodies to create a joyously genuine 21st-century mashup. Peter Breineris one of the world’s most recorded musicians, with over 200 albums released and multiple streams and downloads. Known as a conductor, composer, pianist and arranger, he has conducted, often doubling as a pianist, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bournemouth, Jerusalem, New Zealand, Moscow and Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France, to mention just a few. His compositions and arrangements have been played in concerts and broadcast worldwide, and some of the most prestigious ballet companies have used his music in numerous performances.