"Gemeaux" (1971-1986) is one of Takemitsu's grandest works in terms of musical arc, scoring and length of gestation. It is written for two orchestras with two conductors, and with solo trombone at one orchestra and solo oboe at the other. As half of it was written during Takemitsu's "modernist apogee" of the turn of the '70s, we find a host of extended techniques, and at one point the soloists even speak through the mouthpieces of their instruments. As the other half of the work belongs to Takemitsu's late period, we find a successful of elegant self-contained gestures, his musical "gardens". The synthesis of two creative periods, however, makes for a piece singular in its impact in Takemitsu's oeuvre.
Ernst Krenek (1900-1991) was a prolific, stylistic chameleon of a composer, who made 'good enemies' on all sides and remains hard to evaluate. This is a valuable collection of three concertos involving the violin, played with impressive assurance by Peter Rosenberg, who is joined by his brother Gabriel (they were a prize-winning duo) in the Double Concerto Op 124 of 1950, perhaps the most attractively accessible of the three. The compact first concerto Op 29 (1924)…….Peter Grahame Woolf @ musicweb-international.com
Born in Chicago in 1949, Gil Scott-Heron became one of the inspirators of Rap Music. With very much of a political viewpoint, Gil became a mouthpiece for the Black Person in America during the Seventies and Eighties. Gil was the son of a Jamaican professional soccer player and a college graduate mother who worked as a librarian. His father played for the Scottish football side, Celtic. Both parents divorced whilst Gil was still a child and he was despatched off to his grandmother in Lincoln, Tennessee. His grandmother helped Gil musically, however, early racial tensions at school, in Jackson, led him to relocate again to the Bronx during his adolescent years to live with his mother and he later moved again to the Spanish neighbourhood of Chelsea.
At the age of 13, Gil had already written a book of poetry. Gil attended college in Pennsylvania and then left to concentrate on writing his first novel entitled 'The Vulture' in 1968. It was at college he met Brian Jackson, who was later to be a long time musical collaborator.
He released his debut album, 'New Black Poet: Small Talk at 125th and Lennox', in 1970, the title of which was influenced by a piece of poetry written by his mentor, Bob Thiele. The album contained the powerful 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised', a damning political attack on the media and the treatment of Black People in the U.S.
The most complete Judas Priest collection all in one bundle! Contains ALL 17 Judas Priest albums featuring the classic line up of: Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, K.K. Downing and Ian Hill. Newly Re-mastered versions of 'Rocka Rolla' and 'Sad Wings Of Destiny'. Each individual album is packaged in a replica mini-LP sleeve reproducing that album's original cover art. Also contains a 40 Page booklet with photos, liner notes & album credits