Cecilia Sala

This release features a duet between Christian Fennesz (guitar/lapop) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (piano/laptop) - the first collaboration between two highly regarded composers. ‘Sala Santa Cecilia’ is a 19 minute overture from their live performance in Rome in November 2004. Bill Meyer in Magnet (US) wrote: “Cross-generational encounters are never a sure thing, but this one strikes sparks” and Max Scaefer in Cyclic Defrost (USA): ” a moment of much beauty, not to mention anticipation for the promised full-length effort to come.” Tom Sekowski adds in Gaz-eta (USA): “We can only hope this astonishing collaboration will turn into something more tangible, more permanent.”

Tchaikovsky’s most famous work, The Nutcracker, is presented in this stunning new recording by the world’s greatest orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker, under the baton of their celebrated conductor Sir Simon Rattle. This musical fairytale follows Clara and her unusual prince and protector, The Nutcracker, through adventures and exotic delights in the magical Kingdom of Sweets.

Of the eight pieces in program, all for small groups of performers, six are of recent years, one in 1995 and "Song of Farewell" even in 1966. These tracks have in common some key characteristics: the parts of different instruments often move in apparent independence from one another, in a contrapuntal way, also rely mostly on sequences of small intervals. The dominant dynamic is "piano", mostly the "pianissimo", the times are generally slow or very slow. All this combines to create a "timeless", an inner feeling of suspension or extension of time, almost of fixity, which is essentially and strongly contemplative.

The Verdi Messa da Requiem is probably the best known Requiem in the repertoire. Many great conductors have recorded it. I’m thinking of Toscanini at New York/1951, Victor De Sabata at Milan/1954 and probably the best known of all Carlo-Maria Giulini at London/1964-65. Some more recent versions have proved popular notably John Eliot Gardiner using period instruments in London/1992, Claudio Abbado at Berlin/2001 and also Nikolaus Harnoncourt at Vienna/2004.