wB Music

Essential: a masterpiece of country rock music
On their first four albums, the Eagles were at pains to demonstrate that they were a group of at least near-equals, each getting a share of the songwriting credits and lead vocals.

Above the opening notes of The Protecting Veil, John Tavener wrote Transcendent With Awesome Majesty, communicating the scale of this universal, timeless, structurally perfect and emotionally powerful work.

It's Hard is the tenth studio album by English rock band The Who. Released on 4 September 1982, it was their last album until 2006 Endless Wire, and therefore the last to feature bassist John Entwistle, who died in 2002…

Two CDs containing talented guitarist, comedian and writer Mason's five albums for Warner Bros Records, dating from 1968 to 1971. Originally featured on 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' US TV show, 'Classical Gas' as performed by Williams became a US No.2 hit and a Top 10 hit in the UK and Canada. Williams has had a varied career, from recording with Mannheim Steamroller to bluegrass with Byron Berline, to writing comedy for 'Saturday Night Live'.

Transcendent With Awesome Majesty. John Tavener wrote these words above the opening cello notes of The Protecting Veil, immediately communicating the scale of this universal, timeless, structurally perfect and emotionally powerful work. In the composers words The cello represents The Mother of God and never stops singing. Indeed, the cello sings without stopping for the entire 46 minutes of the piece, requiring huge mental and physical stamina. Matthew Barley leads Sinfonietta Riga in this exploration of Taveners musical works and inspirations, interspersing performances with readings of WB Yeats and Frithjof Schuon by renowned actors Julie Christie and Olwyn Fouéré.

Claude D'Anna's film of Verdi's Macbeth is a gloomy affair, stressing the descent into madness of the principal villains. It's acted by the singers of the Decca recording of the opera (with two substitutions of actors standing in for singers) and the lip-synching is generally unobtrusive. The musical performance is superb, conducted by Riccardo Chailly with admirable fire, and sung by some of the leading lights of the opera stages of the 1980s. Shirley Verrett virtually owned the role of Lady Macbeth at the time, and she delivers a terrific performance, the voice equal to the role's wide register leaps and it's suffused with emotion, whether urging her husband on to murder or maddened by guilt in the Sleepwalking Scene.

Grieg was inspired to write his Piano Concerto in A minor op.16 as a student when he heard Clara Schumann play her husband Robert's piano concerto in Leipzig in 1858. He became a great admirer of Schumann. Grieg chose the same key as Schumann, A minor, for his own piano concerto, which was written 10 years later in Denmark. When Grieg met Franz Liszt in Rome in 1870, the latter played his piano concerto - a great honour and joy for Grieg - and the piano concerto and the two Peer Gynt suites are among the most beautiful and popular piano works of Romantic music. Margarita Hohenrieder has known the Icelandic composer Hjalmar Helgi Ragnarsson and his music for several years.