Diana's Duets

Violinist, violist and conductor Cláudio Cruz and cellist and arranger Raïff Dantas Barreto meet in Beethoven: Duets, an album that will be released in digital format by Azul Music this Friday (18). Ludwig Van Beethoven is present in the musical formation and career of the two musicians: in recordings, CDs, classes, concerts, arrangements, memories and transcriptions. But it is the three duets for clarinet and bassoon WoO 27 that make up the album's repertoire. The works were transcribed by the two musicians for violin and cello. The CD also includes the original piece for viola and cello Eyeglasses WoO 32, known as the “Eyeglasses Duo”.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Frank Sinatra's groundbreaking and highly successful album, Duets, Capitol/UMe will release a newly-remastered Sinatra Duets - Twentieth Anniversary 2CD Deluxe Edition bringing together the original Duets, and the follow-up Duets II, together in one deluxe package. Included on the 2CD deluxe edition are two never-before-released recordings: 'One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)' featuring Tom Scott and 'Embraceable You' with Tanya Tucker plus the rare bonus tracks 'Fly Me to the Moon' with George Strait and two versions of 'My Way' one recorded with Luciano Pavarotti and the other with Willie Nelson.

Jewels In The Crown is a duets compilation album by American Soul singer Aretha Franklin. It was released in 2007 by Arista, and comprises a combination of classic duets spanning Franklin's career, and two newly recorded duets with Fantasia and John Legend. It also contains two live duets, one from 1993, the other from 1998. The album concludes with Franklin's noted rendition of "Nessun Dorma" from the Grammy Awards of 1998, when she filled in last minute for Luciano Pavarotti. The album peaked at a moderate #54 on the Billboard main album chart and at #7 on the US R&B Album Chart, reportedly selling close to 20,000 copies during its chart run. As of October, 2009 the album has reportedly sold 107,000 copies in the US and about 140,000 worldwide.

Soprano Katharina Konradi and mezzo soprano Catriona Morison, together with their accompanist Ammiel Bushakevitz, perform duets by various composers including Schumann, Brahms, Chausson, Viardot, Faure and Saint-Saens.

Tony Bennett’s first album of celebrity duets (2006's Duets: An American Classic) featured an impressive cast of superstars answering the call from the dean of pop vocalists, but the arrangements were overly safe – virtually all of them ballads with soft strings or brassy finger-snappers. Duets II follows the first by five years and features, surprisingly, a cast just as star-laden, but also arrangements that are much more dynamic, and suitable for each song and its participants…

Gems: The Duets Collection may bear a title that suggests it’s a compilation, but this 2011 effort is a brand-new album containing nothing but new collaborations between Michael Bolton and similarly minded travelers of the middle of the road…

Dvorák has written extensively for voices. Somehow we hardly ever hear any part of this repertoire. This 3 CD set offers the complete music for two and more voices including the choral works by this composer. Most duets are accompanied on the piano. They are rather a mixed bag with a large number of Moravian songs and some Russian and Irish ones.