Total av 2019

The Palladian Ensemble's very first recording featured a number of pieces by Nicola Matteis…and for a while they used one of them almost as a signature tune. Now they have drawn more items from his huge ragbag of short pieces for two melody instruments and continuo - Ayres with a whole range of titles from Adagio to Jigg to Aria Burlesca con molto bizzarie and Giga Al Genio Turchescho - and made them the main subject of their latest disc, borrowing its title from Roger North's description of Matteis's playing: flaming as I have seen him, in a good humour he hath held the company by the ears…for more than an hour together.

This delectable work, premiered in 1721, shows composer Alessandro Scarlatti at his most brilliantly varied. Solo passages are punctuated with choral interjections and vice-versa, an antiphon duet for oboe and the lovely soprano Suzanne Ryden at first seems like one between two singers; Scarlatti fools the ear. Soprano Dominique Labelle brings a grace to her fluent singing in both solo and ensemble passages which manages to be energetic and tender at once. The setting of the Dixit Dominus never rests; a tenor solo is interrupted by the chorus; an intricate soprano-soprano-counter-tenor trio in the "Dominus a dextris" is rendered even more complex by the chorus, which then, in an entirely different meter, nervously jumps its way to the end and then melts into a gentle baritone solo, with long, legato lines.

If you think you've heard Handel's "Ombra mai fu" (known as his "Largo") so often, and in so many different arrangements, and sung by so many different voices, that you can no longer be moved or surprised by it, think again. This CD of Handel arias, mostly from his Theodora or the cantata La Lucrezia, ends with "Ombra mai fu," and as sung by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, it is so tender, so beautiful, so impeccably shaded, that you'll think you're hearing it for the first time. But that's only four of this disc's 67 minutes–-a follow-up to Hunt Lieberson's extraordinarily successful CD of Bach cantatas. There's not a dull or disinterested moment to be heard anywhere. As the violated Lucrezia, Hunt Lieberson alternately rages against the man who raped her and turns her grief inward; the former is terrifying in its intensity, the latter makes us almost feel as if we're eavesdropping.

Adrian Chandler and La Serenissima s 10th release for Avie coinciding with the label s 10th anniversary has all the hallmarks that have made the Vivaldi specialists one of the best-selling and acclaimed period-instrument bands performing today. As with the chart-topping French Connection 2 (AVR 2218), which featured the world-premiere recording of the flute concerto Il Gran Mogol, Adrian has once again unearthed numerous works from this period, recorded for the first time.

In 2014, original Kaipa members Roine Stolt, Ingemar Bergman (drums) and Tomas Eriksson (Bass) re-grouped under the name Kaipa Da Capo to play the old music from the first three albums as well as brand new music. To complete the team they called Mikael Stolt (vocals, guitar), brother of Roine, and Max Lorentz (keyboards). After a series of concerts in 2015 the group started the recording of a new album in June 2016.
Each track has its own idiosyncrasies, each its own classic prog band reference point - so the influence of Yes, Caravan, King Crimson, Genesis and Camel can be heard at various points…

For her third disc, the young Korean violinist Sueye Park has explored the repertoire for solo violin, and chosen works spanning exactly 100 hundred years – from Max Reger’s Prelude and Fugue from 1909 to Penderecki’s Capriccio, composed in 2008. Framing the 20th century, the programme starts as a relay race of famous violinist-composers; Reger dedicating his piece to Kreisler, who dedicated his Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice to Ysaÿe, who wrote his Sonata No. 6 for the Spanish virtuoso Manuel Quiroga. In this series of names, that of Richard Strauss may come as a surprise, but his little-known Daphne-Etüde from 1945 is also dedicated to a violinist – his young grandson.

Anglabarn was a Swedish duo comprised of guitarist Dan Tillberg and bassist Sven Ohlsson, both of whom sang. Their lone 1973 release, made with the aid of eighteen (!) session musicians, fairly defines the term "vanity production". Due to a mix of different styles, recording techniques and the presence of a couple of tracks that were transparently recorded live, one gets the idea that this was recorded over the course of several years. Particularly as much of the material is rather dated for 1973, fuzz-psychedelia on one or two tracks and lots of hippie folk. The album is capped off by a lush, string-laden rendition of Nights In White Satin with Swedish lyrics entitled Ur drommen (Nights in white satin). Remastered by danish hippielegend Tomrerclaus and the two tracks from their only 7:inch as bonus.

Comparisons with Amy Winehouse, Bette Midler, Tina Turner, Janis Joplin or whoever may flatter the singer from Hamburg. It is indeed like the new blues voice summoned.