William Shawwcross

William Orbit is a British musician and record producer, best known to the public for producing Madonna's album "Ray of Light", which received four Grammy Awards.
His speciality is atmospheric keyboard electronica although much of his work features accomplished guitar playing.
Like its predecessor, "Pieces in a Modern Style 2" is a collection of classical music "covers": from Puccini to Elgar, Bach to Tchaikovsky. Special Bonus CD: 6 bonus tracks from William Orbit plus 8 remixes by Ferry Corsten, John Digweed & Nick Muir, Jakwob, Timo Maas & Santos, Alex Metric, Rockdaworld.

Ida Haendel’s sinewy and athletic reading of the often under-rated Britten combines toughness with a cumulative dramatic impetus which is hard to resist. Berglund and the Bournemouth players respond with a terse and argumentative vigour, suitably balanced between resignation and defiant rhetoric, especially in the closing Passacaglia. The Walton Concerto, also dating from 1938-9, is played with an apposite blend of inscrutable panache, as in the irrepressibly brilliant central movement, and elsewhere, a sensuous, if occasionally over-indulgent languor. Rare lapses in the finale can be safely overlooked, in a performance of eloquence and undisputed stature.

Poised at the convergence of 18th-century French and Italian schools, Leclair and Senaillé were the French Paganinis of their day. Technically challenging yet full of poetry, rhythmically varied and always dance-like, their sonatas find two fervent advocates in Théotime Langlois de Swarte and William Christie. Transcending generational differences, the “venerated elder statesman of early music” (Opera News) and the youthful violin prodigy join forces to help us rediscover these still unjustly neglected pages.

Commissioned by the Comte d’Ogny for the Le Concert de la Loge Olympique, the ‘Paris’ Symphonies form a key milestone in Haydn’s output.

Iconic veteran Southern soul man William Bell has been in the business of making records for 66 years, and was with Memphis’ fabled Stax label for virtually its entire 15-year existence (1960-1975). In that time, he composed and recorded many songs that are rightly regarded as classics, from his Stax debut ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water’ to the classic blues song ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’ to his hit duet with Judy Clay, ‘Private Number’.

The first collaboration ever between conductor William Christie and director Luc Bondy with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, this production of Hercules has been a major event. Hercules returns from the war with Iole, a princess he fell in love with. Mad with jealousy, Déjanire, his wife, ends up totally insane after poisoning her husband. Half theatrical performance, half secular oratorio, Hercules wasn’t originally meant to be performed in front of an audience. Luc Bondy chose to show the dramatis personae as ordinary people, victims of their passions. The superb Chorus of the Arts Florissants, both mediator and prosecutor, is the main witness of this tragedy of women’s jealousy.

The tension between David Paton's pop songcraft and Billy Lyall's art rock aspirations is one of the things that made the band Pilot so interesting. Lyall left Pilot because he felt that Paton's twee power pop ditties were overshadowing his arty songs, but the split was amicable enough that his former bandmates played on his lone solo album, Solo Casting…