Bouquet

Recorded at the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum, Prague, 17-19 December 2016 (Martinů – live) and on 24 August 2017 (Novák). Bohuslav Martinů and Jan Novák shared similar fates – both of them left their country and wandered around the world. The two composers also had a relationship as a teacher and pupil. Novák referred to his studies with Martinů in New York in 1947 as having had a major impact on his development as a music creator and human. Martinů’s influence is palpable in Novák’s Philharmonic Dances (Choreae Philharmonicae, 1956), three symphonic fantasies that provide wide scope for showcasing the virtuosity of both the soloists and the groups of instruments. The present recording of the work (the very first made in a studio) helps us to pay off our great debt to Novák, an artist who gave preference to being a “free exile” against having to breathe the oppressive air in his homeland, reigned over by a dictatorial regime.

For his latest solo recording, acclaimed organist Simon Nieminski returns to Resonus with this pairing of two late organ works by the unjustly neglected twentieth-century French organist, pianist and composer Eugène Reuchsel.Both completed in the year before his death in 1988 these compelling collections, La Vie du Christ and Bouquet de France, sum up Reuchsel’s illustrious career as musician and composer and are here performed on the celebrated Rieger organ of St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh.

This recording brings together music from some of Leonard Bernstein's best-loved scores with seldom heard occasional works and premiere recordings. From the iconic musical West Side Story, the hot-blooded dance number Mambo embodies the show's dramatic tensions. Slava! celebrates Bernstein's friend and colleague, the cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, in music reworked from the daring show 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, from which the Suite rescues further highlights. CBS Music has not been heard since the broadcasting giant's 50th birthday celebrations in 1978, while the Birthday Bouquet takes the for of affectionate musical tributes from eight composer colleagues to one of the 20th century's greatest musicians. Marin Alsop's long association with Bernstein gives her unique insights into his music.

This two-fer set combines the Percy Faith albums Country Bouquet and Disco Party on one compact disc. Both albums offer up what Faith's fans have come to expect: the Percy Faith Orchestra dishing out heady arrangements of popular songs of the time, with this set focusing on songs from the mid-'70s. It cannot be argued that Faith was less than a talented arranger; his subtlety and attention to detail are remarkable and rampant over the course of both of these recordings as he runs through hits such as Marty Robbins' "El Paso" and Neil Diamond's "Cherry, Cherry," and while Country Bouquet is about as safe as any Percy Faith recording, on Disco Party Faith embraced a slightly more experimental edge by employing distorted electric guitars and analog synthesizers…

Icy strings swoop and sway in an ocean wave of sound on Percy Faith's Bouquet, one of this talented conductor/arranger's most popular albums. Piano chords swell and xylophones delicately plink in the distance, but Faith's arrangements are really all about the massed strings: the melodies, the counter-melodies, the gorgeous undulation of violins (32 of them!). If you have a good stereo system, find a CD or clean vinyl copy of Bouquet and turn up the volume – immerse yourself in the glorious flux and reflux of pure sound. This is one of the most beautiful and distinctive mood music albums ever made, and if hearing it does not give you a new appreciation for the genre, then there is no hope for you. Highly recommended.