Nazi Best Music

Édith Piaf is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Still revered as an icon decades after her death, "The Sparrow" served as a touchstone for virtually every chansonnier, male or female, who followed her. Her greatest strength wasn't so much her technique, or the purity of her voice, but the raw, passionate power of her singing. (Given her extraordinarily petite size, audiences marveled all the more at the force of her vocals.) Her style epitomized that of the classic French chanson: highly emotional, even melodramatic, with a wide, rapid vibrato that wrung every last drop of sentiment from a lyric. She preferred melancholy, mournful material, singing about heartache, tragedy, poverty, and the harsh reality of life on the streets; much of it was based to some degree on her real-life experiences, written specifically for her by an ever-shifting cast of songwriters.

Nobody is better suited to undertake such a challenge than Valery Gergiev and his Mariinsky Orchestra. Over a period of a year all 15 Symphonies and 6 Concertos have been recorded at Salle Pleyel in Paris. What an adventure for the artists and the big production team! Never before in the history of television has something like this been undertaken including the very first "Ring" for television at Bayreuth.

Édith Piaf is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Still revered as an icon decades after her death, "The Sparrow" served as a touchstone for virtually every chansonnier, male or female, who followed her. Her greatest strength wasn't so much her technique, or the purity of her voice, but the raw, passionate power of her singing. (Given her extraordinarily petite size, audiences marveled all the more at the force of her vocals.) Her style epitomized that of the classic French chanson: highly emotional, even melodramatic, with a wide, rapid vibrato that wrung every last drop of sentiment from a lyric. She preferred melancholy, mournful material, singing about heartache, tragedy, poverty, and the harsh reality of life on the streets; much of it was based to some degree on her real-life experiences, written specifically for her by an ever-shifting cast of songwriters.

“An absolute must for children young and old (Háry János)”– Grammophone
“The Psalmus Hungaricus receives a bright and forceful performance under Kertész, dramatically sung by tenor Lajos Kozma.”– Gramophone Classical Good CD Guide
"Committed and idiomatic performances recorded in three-dimensional sound. The highlights from the collection are the Suite, the sets of orchestral dances and the Peacock Variations – one of the finest sets ever written; but there is interest too in the rarer Concerto for Orchestra – earlier than Bartók’s and equally nationalistic – and the three-movement Symphony of 1961. – George Hall, BBC Music Magazine
"It’s marvellous to have Kertész’s brilliantly idiomatic performances of Kodály’s best-known works. Peter Ustinov’s narration of Háry János threads the whole together." – Jan Smaczny, BBC Music Magazine
"In Dorati's hands the passionate Andante [from the Symphony] is strong in gypsy feeling and the jolly, folk-dance finale is colourful and full of vitality." – Penguin Guide

This is a gem of a CD. It's a well-chosen, well-performed and well-presented anthology of mid-Baroque German sacred cantatas. Bass Peter Kooij and the seven-person L'Armonia Sonora are directed by gambist Mieneke Van der Velden. They have a close and warm affinity not only with one another, but also for the music; it's music as varied as it's beautiful. Its rich, sustained sonorities will stay with you long after you have finished the uplifting experience of listening to the CD. Released on the enterprising Ramée label De profundis clamavi comprises seven sumptuous examples of the music written in the north German Länder in the period after the Thirty Years War. It's music which not so much 'reflects' that profound conflict, as is 'affected' by it – weighed down with detached regret and unselfconscious resignation.

Even though he came from the theater himself, Bob Fosse, when he came to make a film of Harold Prince's musical Cabaret, did what most movie directors do, taking the 15-song score and cutting two-thirds of it to leave five songs – "Wilkommen," "Two Ladies," "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," "If You Could See Her," and "Cabaret." (In addition, "Sitting Pretty" was performed instrumentally and "Married" in German.) He then allowed the show's songwriters, John Kander and Fred Ebb, to add material to emphasize the film's two musical stars, "Mein Herr" and "Maybe This Time" for Liza Minnelli and "Money, Money" for Minnelli and Joel Grey.

One of the best-kept secrets of twentieth century Russian music is the work of Polish-born Soviet composer Moisey (Mieczyslaw) Weinberg, often spelled as Vainberg. Weinberg was born in a Warsaw ghetto to a family of itinerant Jewish theatrical performers. He made his debut as pianist at the age of ten, and by age 12 was studying at the Warsaw Conservatory. With the outbreak of war in 1939, Weinberg fled to Minsk, enrolling in the conservatory and studying with Vasily Zolotaryov. In 1943 Weinberg sent the score of his first symphony to Dmitry Shostakovich, who was impressed and arranged for Weinberg to be invited to Moscow under official approval. This was the beginning of their long friendship and of Weinberg's career as a Soviet composer.
Weinberg was the only member of his immediate family to survive the Nazi Holocaust. His father-in-law was executed as ……..

From Allmusic

D.A.F. - Fünfzehn Neue DAF Lieder
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 428 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Superstar Rec. # 0670602 | Country/Year: Germany 2003
Genre: Electronica, Pop | Style: EBM, Synth Pop, Neue Deutsche Welle

"…Though their impact on the emergent forms of house and techno was huge, D.A.F. has never achieved the recognition they so richly deserve. Nevertheless, for the longest time even Kraftwerk weren't recognized for their contribution to hip-hop, and perhaps ultimately D.A.F. will get their due: they represent one of a very few direct links between avant-garde punk and techno, and flung their lance into the future farther even than Throbbing Gristle."