Richard Byrd

From the liner notes: Byrd, in this album, has taken a rather wider view in exploring the guitar's possibilities in jazz. His use of finger style on the unamplified Spanish guitar reveals all the delicacy of shade and colour to be wrought from the instrument and the way Byrd infuses a rich jazz flavour into his playing makes really beautiful listening. In the years since this LP was recorded, Byrd has passed through several important phases – he was one of the main contributors to the bossa nova explosion of the early '60ies when he partnered Stan Getz on the million-selling Desafinado – and his musical presence has continued to make itself felt in many diverse areas of music, yet "Blues for Night People" remains the high spot of this recording career. In short, one of the great jazz guitar records of our time.

Tasteful, low-key, and ingratiatingly melodic, Charlie Byrd had two notable accomplishments to his credit – applying acoustic classical guitar techniques to jazz and popular music and helping to introduce Brazilian music to mass North American audiences.

Glorious Majesty Music for English Kings and Queens is a 3CD collection of classical music written for English Kings and Queens through the ages. From Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II (via Queen Mary II, Queen Anne, George II, Edward VI, and George V) the collection includes the much-loved classics Handel s Zadok the Priest and Music for the Royal Fireworks, Parry s I was glad, Elgar s Coronation March, Walton s Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre, and not forgetting Elgar s arrangement of the National Anthem

The sound of choirboys singing laments and death songs had enormous appeal to our Elizabethan and Jacobean ancestors – the childish expression of adult emotion apparently sharpening the music’s poignancy. How apt, then, to hear the young Connor Burrowes perform this repertoire, and with such affecting candour and musical maturity. He’s accompanied not by a viol consort – as would have been more common – but recorders, whose inherently vocal quality weaves a light tapestry of sound. They’re particularly effective in the group of pastoral pieces, played here with charming grace and agility.