Paul Davids

Bassist Mick Paul, best known for his work with the David Cross Band, is releasing his new album “Parallel Lives” on June 9th. The album features guest appearances by David Cross (King Crimson) and David Jackson (Van Der Graaf Generator). Says Mick about the new album, “I’m interested in the way our lives tend to mirror each other without us realising it, hence the title ‘Parallel Lives’. Two of the songs relate to my children who are now grown up, I can see how their lives echo mine and of course how my life has parallels with my parents and the way they saw things and reacted to events- and how it goes on through the generations. It is not a concept album in the traditional sense of having a story as such but I think there is cohesiveness to the overall content of the lyrics that tell some of my story. I also feel that the moods and general feel of the album very much reflect how I felt when I was writing it.”

Heinrich Schütz's Christmas Story, besides being a historical milestone, has always been one of 17th-century music's crowd-pleasers–the former because it's the ancestor of Christmas oratorios by Bach, Charpentier, and even Berlioz; the latter because it presents engaging depictions of the characters in the Nativity story with a cornucopia of colorful instruments (piping recorders for the shepherds, a galumphing bassoon (representing the gait of the camels?) for the three wise men, regally blaring cornets for King Herod, and pompous trombones for his priests).

German composer Michael Praetorius, whose life bridged the 16th and 17th centuries, was one of his era's most prolific writers, both of musical works and of works about music. His "Syntagma Musicum" remains one of the most important treatises on instruments and performance practice; he composed many volumes of Protestant hymn-based works, motets, psalms, works for multiple choir, and Latin music for the Lutheran service. The "Magnificat" performed on this program is one of 14 that Praetorius included in his Megalynodia Sionia, published in 1611. Its polyphonic style and rich instrumental writing–particularly for brass–is occasionally reminiscent of Gabrieli, whose works Praetorius studied; or Schutz, with whom he traveled throughout Germany.

The third volume of our complete recording of Bach's cantatas comprises works drawn from three different categories. First comes a group of seven sacred cantatas from the years 1714-17, the majority of which were written for the Weimar Schloßkirche. Taken together with the cantatas contained in Volumes 1 and 2,these seven works - Cantatas 54,63,155, 161,162,163 and 165 - form the group of 23 sacred cantatas that have survived complete from the years leading up to the end of Bach's term of office as Konzertmeister to the Weimar court in 1717.

VIVARTE is the legendary Sony Classical period music label known for producing outstanding recordings on period instruments. The recordings by legendary producer Wolf Erichson are made with the best recording technologies available and by one of the best production teams in the world (Tritonus Music Production, Stuttgart). The collection contains a perfect overview of VIVARTE's legendary catalogue ranging from Vivaldi to Brahms including recordings with specialists in historically informed performance practice such as Anner Bylsma, Gustav Leonhardt, Tafelmusik, Huelgas Ensemble, L'Archibudelli among others. Many of the recordings received critical acclaim all over the world and won prestigious awards. This box set includes CDs presented in paper sleeves with the original artwork, a 250 page booklet with track listings and the original liner notes for each recording.

Following on from and designed along the same lines as the Guide to Period Instruments, this boxed set includes an exhaustive introductory text as well as a great quantity of music excerpts on the set’s eight CDs. These extracts have been taken from the extensive repertoire recorded by Ricercar over many years, with excerpts from recordings kindly provided by our colleagues from Harmonia Mundi, Gimell, Accent, Alpha and Sony supplementing our programme where necessary. The Lutheran repertoire of the Renaissance has remained for all intents and purposes unrecorded up until now; the tracks illustrating this repertoire together with other excerpts have been recorded specially for this compilation by Vox Luminis.