Updates from the world's leading classical music label
I live in the city of Canterbury, in the south east of England. It attracts many visitors, principally for its magnificent cathedral and plentiful other reminders of mediaeval life, from its city walls and towers to 14th-century pubs and Dane John, a strategic defence mound cited in the Bayeux tapestry. Step inside the 15th-century Three Read More …
I never tire of listening to the voice of Peggy Lee (1920-2002), the American jazz and popular music singer who was also a songwriter, composer and actress. And with an active career that spanned some six decades, it seems I’m not the only one in her fan club. Her unique vocal timbre was apposite to Read More …
Mermaids, part woman, part fish. Sirens, part woman, part bird. Their natural environs, water. While mermaids swim with a gentler reputation, sirens are branded by their seductive powers, luring seafarers to their destruction on treacherous rocks. How are they represented in the recording catalogue? Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of The Little Mermaid, first published in Read More …
#MyFreedomDay takes place on March 14. It’s a project conducted in partnership with CNN, during which young people around the world will be holding events to raise awareness of modern slavery. If you thought that human trafficking was neatly tucked away into history’s dark chapter on the African slave trade, then you will have to Read More …
Mediaeval religion held to a belief in the perfect essence of the Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and so it followed that notated music in triple time was announced by the symbol of perfection for its time signature: a circle. Music in duple time shattered that notion of perfection and was represented by a shattered circle, Read More …
Raymond Bisha introduces a new release of three highly contrasted orchestral works, unified by the quintessentially American styles of the three composers. The optimism of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring and the sparkling colour synesthesia of Michael Torke’s Bright Blue Music stand in stark contrast to John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1. The latter is an intensely Read More …
John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan Garners Two Wins: Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Classical Vocal Performance; The Pacifica Quartet Wins Best Chamber Music Performance for Elliott Carter’s String Quartets Nos. 1 & 5; The Los Angeles Opera Production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny Read More …
On January 27, Naxos releases the latest recording by Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy®, and Grawemeyer winner John Corigliano, Symphony No. 3, ‘Circus Maximus’ (Naxos 8559601). Scored for a large concert band encircling the audience, the work is performed here by the University of Texas Wind Ensemble, led by Jerry Junkin. The recording also features Corigliano’s 1979 Read More …
Note: This post is over a month old. You may want to check later in this blog to see if there is new information. The Recording Academy® honored artists from labels Naxos, Chandos, EuroArts, CPO, Naïve classique and Artek-with a combined 15 nominations across 11 categories this year, thus capturing 23% of the available classical Read More …