Léonard

Other Minds is proud to announce the release of Antarctica: Music from the Ice, a collection of works fourteen years in the making, by San Francisco composer Cheryl E. Leonard.

No figure in 20th century American classical music had as prominent or controversial a career – or did more to sell classical music to the general public as something genuinely exciting, and worth getting into a sweat over – than Leonard Bernstein. For more than 30 years, from his assumption of the post of Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958 until the final concerts that he conducted in obviously failing health near the end of his life in 1990, he was the most prominent and widely recognized American-born conductor in the world, and the dominant personality in American classical music as both a conductor and, to a lesser degree, a composer. A flamboyant public figure, he burst three different times on the musical world – twice in classical with a rush of success on Broadway in between – in a blaze of glory, in the space of 15 years; and over a career lasting from the early '40s until the beginning of the '90s, he never lost an opportunity to advance his reputation as well as the cause of music.

Pure gold is how the New York Times once described the playing of Leonard Rose. To mark the centennial of the renowned American cellist s birth, Sony Classical is pleased to announce a comprehensive HighRes reissue of his concerto and solo chamber discography. Made for American Columbia over a quarter century from 1949 to 1974, the recordings include Rose s collaborations with three of America s finest orchestras those of New York, Philadelphia and Cleveland under their iconic conductors Dimitri Mitropoulos, Bruno Walter, George Szell, Leonard Bernstein and Eugene Ormandy.

The new edition features two bonus tracks recorded during the original sessions for the album, "Store Room" and "Blessed Is the Memory," and while neither is a major discovery, they're fine songs and worthy additions to the set. The album's audio is subtly but noticeably improved.

The UK’s finest interpreter of song, Barb Jungr returns to the songs of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen with the release of Hard Rain. Oft referred to as “the politicised chansonnier” and cited as one of the world’s best performers of Dylan’s material, Barb turns to six of his most politically hard-hitting songs along with five of Leonard Cohen’s most impassioned songs of conscience. Barb’s selection for Hard Rain reflects her despair with the political times that we live in and she has deliberately chosen songs that resonate as strongly today as they did when they were originally written: “Blowin’ In The Wind” is now 51 years old and its sentiments are as relevant today as they ever were.

No figure in 20th century American classical music had as prominent or controversial a career – or did more to sell classical music to the general public as something genuinely exciting, and worth getting into a sweat over – than Leonard Bernstein. For more than 30 years, from his assumption of the post of Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958 until the final concerts that he conducted in obviously failing health near the end of his life in 1990, he was the most prominent and widely recognized American-born conductor in the world, and the dominant personality in American classical music as both a conductor and, to a lesser degree, a composer. A flamboyant public figure, he burst three different times on the musical world – twice in classical with a rush of success on Broadway in between – in a blaze of glory, in the space of 15 years; and over a career lasting from the early '40s until the beginning of the '90s, he never lost an opportunity to advance his reputation as well as the cause of music.