Saint Saens Carnival

Cellist Guy Johnston and pianist Tom Poster first met at the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition in 2000, and have been firm friends and frequent collaborators ever since. During their many recitals together, Johnston and Poster have foundthemselves returning again and again to certain works, associating these pieces with key moments in their lives, or simply deriving great pleasure from the sheer quality of the music.

This disc is sort of Yo-Yo's virtuoso collection. The album is comprised largely of fairly mindless music, but at least Ma manages to make things interesting. Most of these works are played extremely well - his cello arrangement of the Dvorak-Kriesler "Songs my mother taught me" is stunning, and if the octaves (and a bit of other passagework) in the Paganani 24th caprice are out of tune, that track still serves as a tribute to his incredible technical skill.

Composers: Albinoni, Tomaso (1671-1751); Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750); Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770-1827); Brahms, Johannes (1833-97); Dukas, Paul (1865-1935); Gounod, Charles François (1818-93); Grieg, Edvard Hagerup (1843-1907); Handel, George Frideric (1685-1759); Mendelssohn, Felix (1809-47); Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-91); Pachelbel, Johann (1653-1706); Rimsky Korsakov, Nikolay Andreyevich (1844-1908); Saint-Saëns, Charles Camille (1835-1921); Smetana, Bedrich (1824-84); Tchaikovsky, Piotr Ilyich (1840-93); Vivaldi, Antonio (1678-1741); Wagner, Richard (1813-83).

Prepare to be enchanted by André Rieu’s new album, “Jewels of Romance”, a wonderful collection of musical treasures. Scheduled for release on November 17th 2023, this album is set to captivate audiences worldwide with its magnificent melodies and timeless romanticism. The album includes 16 famous songs such as a new interpretation of the Moody Blue’s “Nights in White Satin”, Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” and Cat Steven’s “Morning has broken”, as well as Bryan Adams’ “Everything I Do” and Billy Joel’s “Lullabye”. It also sets the mood for romantic evenings with tunes such as “The Rose” by McBroom, “Nocturne” by Løvland and Skavlan, “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from the opera Orfeo ed Euridice and the “Aquarium” from Camille Saint-Saëns The Carnival of The Animals.