David Sprintzen Camus

Pianist and educator David Witten's career has included numerous concert tours in Europe, Israel, Russia, China, and South America. He is the editor of Nineteenth-Century Piano Music: Essays in Performance and Analysis, which includes his landmark analytical study of the Chopin Ballades. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, SUNY Buffalo and Boston University, he is on the faculty of Montclair State University. Witten has chosen four works by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who was born in Florence, but whose ancestry traces directly back to a Sephardic Jewish family that escaped the Spanish Inquisition. Castelnuovo-Tedesco's musical style is filled with colorful harmonies and a penchant for modal melodies. Coming to the United States in the mid-1930s, he found work at MGM and other studios, ultimately composing soundtracks for more than 200 films. This recording features both his early and late piano works – two concert suites from 1924 and works from his later years in California.

The greatest diva of the Netherlands, Fay Claassen, joins forces with gifted Belgian singer-composer-lyricist and longtime Parisian David Linx on 'And Still We Sing', a magnificent collaboration with the WDR Big Band, conducted by Magnus Lindgren. The title of this reunion of Claassen and Linx (they sang together on 2005's 'One Heart, Three Voices') is a paraphrase of one of Maya Angelou's most famous poems: "…And Still I Rise." Claassen brings her crystal clear delivery and adventurous scatting chops to the program, blending beautifully and organically with Linx, a singular talent who has gained notoriety throughout Europe while still flying under the radar on the United States jazz scene. Produced by WDR tenor saxophonist (and Claassen's husband) Paul Heller, 'And Still We Sing' features stellar big band arrangements by Heller, Lindgren, Bob Mintzer and Michael Abene.

In 1906, Komitas gave a concert and lecture in Paris. Debussy came on stage after the concert and knelt before the Armenian composer (who was also a priest, a singer and a pioneer of ethnomusicology), exclaiming: ‘I bow before your genius, Reverend Father.’

Music that makes the ears grow' -this is how lutenist David Bergmuller characterises the music he has chosen for his solo recital. The charm of this album lies in its complexity, in the quiet, near-silent tones, in its meditative character. This is precisely why this repertoire still fascinates us today, because it forms a calming counterpoint to our overstimulated world. French lute music combined with David Bergmuller's own arrangements.

David Geyra is one of Israel’s premier dance music composers and producers and his music is performed worldwide by some of the leading dance and theatre companies. His very original and highly individual music encompasses elements of jazz in combination with a Gershwin style of composition, modern dance music, ballett and Middle Eastern pop influences.

The audio companion to David Toop's excellent book advances the case he made, that Les Baxter, Aphex Twin, The Beach Boys, Herbie Hancock, King Tubby and My Bloody Valentine are all related by their effect on sound pioneering. A double-disc set, Ocean of Sound impresses not only with its incredible diversity of musical styles, but with how easily these artists work next to each other. The second disc includes consecutive contributions by Paul Schütze, the Velvet Undergound, Holger Czukay of Can, The Beach Boys, African Headcharge and Sun Ra. Besides illustrating Toop's point beautifully, the album is an excellent addition to the collection of any wide-ranging ambient fan.