Koudelka Terra Santa

As disco became an important part of the international music business, European producers began working in exotic flavors into the disco beat to create unique and competitive recordings. A good example of this trend is Santa Esmeralda, a Spanish-themed studio group that wove elements of flamenco, salsa, and other Latin musical styles into its Euro-disco sound. Although the group's sound was about as genuinely Spanish as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass (Santa Esmeralda was the brainchild of French record producers), the result was a crossover success that spawned several club-favorite albums and a notable pop hit in the band's Latinized cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood".

The CD, unreleased as always, is dedicated to three rare masterpieces by the Taranto composer, of the "Neapolitan school", Giovanni Paisiello and his Concerti n. 6, 7 and 8 for piano and orchestra. They are interpreted by the great Catania pianist Francesco Nicolosi (2nd prize in Geneva, 1980, first not awarded) and the refined Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Sofia.

Antonio Pappano conducts Rome’s Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in two works from the earlier phase of Richard Strauss’s career: a comparative rarity, the mercurial, virtuosic Burleske for piano and orchestra, with Bertrand Chamayou as soloist, and the epic autobiographical tone poem Ein Heldenleben, one of the composer’s orchestral masterpieces. “Strauss always thought dramaturgically,” says Pappano. “Recording this music in Italy, the link has to be through opera, with all its theatricality, temperament, contrast and colour …You need a certain charisma in the sound, which these players achieve.”

This 66 minute CD has 16 tracks of highly interesting electronic music. The material does not have the wall of sound density like that of Kistenmacher but is closer in sound to that of Exchange. Several songs are light in texture and sparse in complexity. This gives them a pop-jingle sound that can fool the listener, but several playings will show the composers working for an overall diversity. Several tracks are notable - "Icefields", "Banana", and "Polarlight" by J. Mohn; "Lhasa" by K. and M. Buntrock. This first release album shows a lot of promise for the musicians. A nice change from the work of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze.