Cardi

In recent decades, Johann Sebastian Bach's (1685–1750) works have undergone numerous transcriptions and adaptations. Since the 1960s, the guitar repertoire has seen the addition of several Bach pieces originally intended for the lute, an instrument that is undoubtedly among the most akin to the modern six-string guitar. Following the increasingly in-depth study of Bach's work and the spread of the classical guitar, several harpsichord pieces have also been transcribed and performed. This album magnificently displays these pieces by exploiting the rich dynamics and full polyphonic capacity of the guitar.

Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow,” the most chantable song of 2017, introduced the Bronx MC’s lively around-the-way-girl persona to the world. Her debut album, Invasion of Privacy, reveals more of Cardi's layers, the MC leaning forcefully into her many influences. “I Like It,” featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin, is a nod to her Afro-Caribbean roots, while “Bickenhead” reimagines Project Pat’s battle-of-the-sexes classic “Chickenhead” as a hustler’s anthem. There are lyrical winks at NYC culture (“Flexing on b*tches as hard as I can/Eating halal, driving a Lam”), but Cardi also hits on universal moments, like going back and forth with a lover (“Ring”) and reckoning with infidelity (“Thru Your Phone”).

Any new album by Vladimir Ashkenazy is cause for celebration and attracts worldwide attention. First as a pianist and latterly as a conductor in a performing career of over six decades, Ashkenazy was recognized early on as having all the virtues of a great performer: musicianship, intellectual perception, technical perfection and musical instincts that never failed to make his fingers say something. He has an individual but expressive conducting technique, but he made the transition to the podium with complete success during the late 70s and early 80s, and his orchestral recordings are now as numerous as his piano albums, and the best of them as masterly.

When they began playing together in 2017, Stefano Cardi and Enrico Pieranunzi went in search of repertoire which would harmonize with their disparate musical backgrounds, that of a classical guitarist with a passion for jazz and blues, and a jazz pianist with a thorough grounding in the classics. They turned quickly to America, both north and south, and found there a well-stocked but little-known library of pieces by composers who moved easily and skillfully between popular and classical idioms. This unique recital opens with one of Joplins best-known piano rags, The Easy Winners, and follows it with a pair of waltzes, also in arrangements for guitar and piano. Cardi and Pieranunzi then sail down to Buenos Aires for a trio of tangos by Joplins Argentinian contemporary, Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934).

This is Emanuele Cardi’s fourth album for Brilliant Classics after recordings which display this talented organist’s wide musical sympathies and talents, ranging from music by Bach’s contemporary Tunder (94901) to still more obscure delights from Naples (94622) and exuberant arrangements of Tchaikovsky and Saint‐Saëns for organ four-hands (94881). ‘He is a great connoisseur of Baroque repertoire,’ noted the Spanish magazine Codalario of Cardi’s Neapolitan disc, ‘and it shows in his ability to give these pieces such native colour: this is a remarkable album.’ On this occasion he has recorded an album which concludes with Bach’s most famous yet possibly most spurious work for organ, the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, whose Italianate flourishes surely have their origin in a work for violin, whether or not by Bach himself.

Franz Tunder (1614-1667): another of those superbly schooled North German musicians whose name was quickly eclipsed by the great Johann Sebastian, but whose music has happily been rediscovered by the historically informed performance movement. Indeed he studied with Frescobaldi, the forebear to whom Bach himself owed much, and the Florentine influence is apparent in some of the stile antico harmony of the chorales and the dancing rhythms of the Canzona in G major.

Popular folk songs and dances by an early-Romantic guitar pioneer, performed on a notable instrument from the era.
A series of Brilliant Classics albums has uncovered the beguiling output of Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) and revealed his importance to a modern audience. Concerto (BC92621), duos (BC93381), songs (BC94479) and arrangements of Rossini, Cimarosa and others demonstrate Giuliani’s verve and versatility in marrying Spanish guitar traditions to the emerging Italian bel canto style.

Written with his trademark blazing speed and within an astonishingly short time frame, the Mozart violin concertos have become a staple of the violin repertoire. Though written quickly, they were not hastily composed. The concertos are a model of elegance and refinement and already began breaking new ground on what was thought to be standard concerto writing.

Look Alive is a song by American rapper BlocBoy JB featuring Canadian rapper Drake. Gods Plan is a song by musician Drake from his Scary Hours. Freaky Friday is a song recorded by American rapper Lil Dicky, featuring guest vocals from singer Chris Brown. Written by Dicky, Brown, Wilbart McCoy III, Ammo and its producers DJ Mustard, Benny Blanco and Twice as Nice. Woman, Amen is a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Dierks Bentley.