Song of Loss And Separationsour

From the iconic groove of his Take Five to the infectious melody he composed in Blue Rondo à la Turk and beyond, Dave Brubeck was an innovative musical figure who left an indelible footprint on the history of jazz. His groundbreaking approach to composition stretched far beyond the barriers of genre, however.

From the iconic groove of his Take Five to the infectious melody he composed in Blue Rondo à la Turk and beyond, Dave Brubeck was an innovative musical figure who left an indelible footprint on the history of jazz. His groundbreaking approach to composition stretched far beyond the barriers of genre, however.

John Philip Sousa personified turn-of-the-century America—the comparative innocence and brash energy of an advancing nation. His ever-touring band represented America across the globe and brought lively and entertaining music to hundreds of American towns. Sousa’s name is eternally connected with famous marches such as The Stars and Stripes Forever, but his exceptional inventiveness also saw the creation of popular operettas such as El Capitan. This program also includes Sousa’s adaptations of humorous songs and popular ballads as well as his Good-Bye, based on the idea of Haydn’s ‘Farewell’ Symphony but with a modern twist.

When we last left Harry Christophers and his cracker jack a cappella chorus the Sixteen, they were making fabulous recordings for the wonderful Collins label. But that was back in the halcyon days of the CD boom, those far off times called the '90s, when everyone with a little capital and a lot of taste could start a record label. Back in the '90s, Christophers and the Sixteen made more than a dozen wonderful recordings for Collins, among them one of the most moving recordings of Henry Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary ever made. But the digital boom went bust and so did Collins, taking with it all of Christophers and the Sixteen's discs.

Recorded in 1995, this Esther was first issued as Collins Classics 7040-2 early the following year. Like Hogwood, Harry Christophers recorded the original 1718 version of what has gone down in history as Handel’s first English oratorio.
In point of fact, the complex and still largely unresolved history of Esther suggests that it was not originally composed as an oratorio at all, but rather as a staged work that would have formed a companion to the near-contemporary Acis and Galatea.

Following their acclaimed recording of songs by Robert Schumann, the baritone and piano duo Simon Wallfisch and Edward Rushton return to Resonus Classics with an evocative selection of songs by Johannes Brahms. Entitled Songs of Loss and Betrayal, this intoxicating programme sees Brahms using his settings of poetry as a powerful channel for his own feelings, recalling his own personal memories of unrequited love, loss and betrayal.

Earth and Fire are legends of the Dutch rock scene, first making an impression with their debut single in 1969. They quickly established themselves as an international act thanks to the excellence of their material and the powerful vocals of Jerney Kaagman. In 1971 the band released arguably their finest work, 'Song of the Marching Children', a Mellotron soaked masterpiece that was a major selling album throughout Europe.