Lass Dounia

Everything about this 1967 recording is promising. Highly acclaimed Austrian soprano Rotraud Hansmann, the regal contralto Helen Watts, the effortless legato singing of tenor Kurt Equiluz, the equally wondrous baritone Max van Egmond. Famed for helping pave the way to informed historical performance practice, these excellent singers are joined by Concerto Amsterdam as Early Music performance pioneers often conducted by Frans Brüggen in the 1960s.

Boubacar Traore (born 1942 in Kayes, Mali) is a renowned singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Traoreqq also goes by the nickname Kar Kar, "the one who dribbles too much" in Bambara, a reference to his soccer playing: "a nickname I got from playing soccer when I was young. People would yell 'Kari, Kari' - dribble, dribble - the name stuck with me"

The ultimate collection of the complete music of J.S. Bach. Having all of Bach's music at my fingertips is a dream come true. This astonishing collection of music is a historic event. Teldec has compiled an excellent collection of all the works of J.S. Bach, from well-known to the obscure, performed by a wide variety of highly respected musicians. There are many, many treasures included in this collection, for example: the cello suites performed by Nikolaus Harnoncourt now on cd for the first time. And the 4-cd set of chorales is stunning.

Throughout most of his professional life, Johann Sebastian Bach composed cantatas for use at church services: it is thought that he probably wrote at least 300 such works. Some 200 of these are still extant, of which the earliest hail from Bach's time as organist in Arnstadt (1703-07) and the last were composed only a year or two before his death in 1750. In 1995, when Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan began the monumental journey of recording the cantatas, they decided to follow in Bach's footsteps.

The 200th anniversary of Haydn's death arrived in 2009, and this mammoth box boasts one CD for every year that's passed! Well, not quite, but only a composer as prolific as this Viennese-classical master could even come close: 150 CDs of symphonies, concertos, operas, chamber music, oratorios and more beautiful music that have challenged performers and inspired composers for centuries.

Rokia Traore has changed direction once again, with dramatic results. In the five years since her last album, Bowmboi, she has toured the US celebrating the life of Billie Holiday, and written a new work - an African response to the life of Mozart - for the maverick director Peter Sellars. Now comes an intriguing, sophisticated and often intimate set that is quite unlike any of the other great music Mali has produced. Many of the songs are built around her subtle and bluesy electric-guitar work, but also make use of the classical western harp and African ngoni, though no longer the balafon. The result is an exquisitely recorded set that manages to sound contemporary but still distinctively African. It's remarkable mostly because of the quality and range of her singing, which can be quietly slinky and personal, rousing, as well as breathy.

Illness and death constantly disrupted the security of Bach's childhood and adulthood.We do not know when or for whom the "Actus tragicus"BWV 106 was written. Bach was in the habit of using compositional devices to illustrate theological points. In the central movement of BWV106 the earnest plea "Ja komm, Herr Jesu!" (Come, Lord Jesus!") is repeated more than 15 times, and the music demonstrates that the plea is not in vain. A spiritual longing for eternity with Christ emanates from the text and the music of the motet :'O Jesu Christ, mein's Lebens Licht' BWV118/231(O Jesus Christ, light of my life). The motet was first given in 1736 at a Leipzig memorial service; we don't know for whom. Gardiner guides his chorus through the nine movement long motet with gentle confidence. His knowing control of the pace sustains both the long lines(reminiscent of the opening chorus to St. Matthew Passion)and the harmonic tension. This is truly a heart-rendingly beautiful motet.