This documentary contextualizes Eric Clapton’s role in contemporary music and cultural history. Told through his own words, it reflects on his traumatic childhood, his difficult struggle with drugs and alcohol, the loss of his son and how he always found his inner strength and healing in music. It features extensive interviews with Clapton himself, along with his family, friends, musical collaborators, contemporaries and heroes – including late music icons B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix and George Harrison…

All these compositions originate from Polish folk culture. They are based on well-known, less known, or sometimes completely forgotten songs from various regions of Poland. For the musical notations of some particular pieces, we are indebted to Oskar Kolberg and his 19th century monumental work.

The ‘sheer visual sophistication’ of Annabel Arden’s Barbiere serves ‘a triumphant celebration of Rossini’s musical genius’, featuring de Niese’s ‘powerfully sung’ Rosina, Bürger’s ‘gale-force’ Figaro and Stayton’s ‘pure and mellifluous’ Almaviva – a leading trio ‘musically and dramatically beyond compare’ (The Independent ★★★★★). Contributing to the ‘ensemble precision’, the rest of the cast includes a ‘scene-stealing’ Berta in Kelly, a ‘suavely unctuous’ Basilio from Stamboglis and Corbelli’s Bartolo, ‘an object lesson in comic understatement’ (The Guardian). With Enrique Mazzola at the helm of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, ‘the score bubbles along on a Puckish current of merry mischief’ (The Telegraph).

The music of Joonas Kokkonen (1921–96), one of the most important Finnish composers after Sibelius, radiates warmth and light. His limited output is largely introvert in character but also contains moments of grandeur and rhythmic energy. Kokkonen’s Requiem (1980–81), written in memory of his first wife, is both a powerful choral symphony and a tender, moving embodiment of consolation. Originally scored for large orchestra, the Requiem is heard here in a new version for organ intended to bring the work within the reach of smaller forces. This first recording is complemented by the first complete recording of Kokkonen’s four works for solo organ.

Charles Ives’s ‘Concord Sonata’ is often described as one of the greatest of American piano works. Published in 1920, at the composer’s own expense, it contains radical experiments in harmony and rhythm and would have to wait until 1939 for its first public performance. In the course of its four movements, Ives depicts some of the famous inhabitants of the small town of Concord in Massachusetts, a centre of the mid-19th century transcendentalism movement. Luminaries of the movement such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are alluded to in various ways in music that includes references to Beethoven, religious and patriotic hymns and circus marches, as well as brief ‘guest appearances’ by a viola and a flute. Lasting 47 minutes on the present recording, Ives’s second piano sonata is a massive work of a staggering complexity, and a true challenge for any performer – a challenge more than readily accepted by the young Finnish pianist Joonas Ahonen, who has previously recorded Ligeti’s piano concerto for BIS.

This Savoy CD is a duplicate of the original LP although it lacks the fine liner notes included on the Arista/Savoy 1978 LP. The four selections (which unfortunately total under 34 minutes) are excellent, particularly a fun version of Horace Silver's blues "Opus De Funk" in which vibraphonist Milt Jackson, flutist Frank Wess and pianist Hank Jones have a long tradeoff. The quintet (which also includes bassist Eddie Jones and drummer Kenny Clarke) swings nicely throughout the three blues and lone ballad ("You Leave Me Breathless"). This is not essential, but it is enjoyable music.

Unbeatable 13-track set of key singles from 1980 to 1990! Features "The Killing Moon", "Seven Seas", "The Cutter", "Bring On The Dancing Horses", "People Are Strange" and more.

eune groupe musicale crée en 1999, Lindigo est l’un des fleurons des nouvelles scènes Réunionnaises. Avec déjà une expérience impressionnante (plus de 150 Concerts), Lindigo séduit de part ses représentations scéniques explosives et sensationnelles. En mélangeant les instruments traditionnels du Maloya avec les polyphonies Malgaches, le Groupe bouleverse les règles du genre: les rythmiques rejoignant celles de la transe, des arrangements lyriques « Volt-Face », un engagement physique, une forte personnalité du chanteur, Lindigo suit le chemin d’une performance musicale exigeante, qui leur demande de pousser leurs limites toujours plus haut et plus loin.

Pianist Yulianna Avdeeva performs three keyboard masterpieces representing three important stages in Bach's creative life. In them, dance rhythms, extravagant improvisations and lyrical beauty combine to showcase the composer's genius. „Yulianna Avdeeva not only has impeccable technique, she “knows” her Chopin, and conveys his music with intensity and tenderness. She loves its furore, its melancholy and fragility.“ (Der Westen)

With his violin and alto sax, Zied Zouari make born in us the reminiscences of an ancestral song with contemporary rhythms. For this audacious tale, the artist surrounded himself with Julien Tekeyan at the drums and at the armenian percussion instrument, and Abdurrahman Tarikci at the bass, at the Saz and vocals.

Borderlands Trio, the collective effort of bassist Stephan Crump, pianist Kris Davis and drummer Eric McPherson, has luck on its side. Less than a year old, its chemistry is unusually deep. And while I don’t often use the term, it’s also a band that boasts a bit of magic.

Guitarist and composer Zacc Harris, named City Pages 2017 Twin Cities Best Jazz Artist, is most known for his work with acclaimed group Atlantis Quartet, winners of the 2015 McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians, as well as the Zacc Harris Group. City Pages says, "In the 12 years since he first moved to Minnesota from southern Illinois, this remarkably fluid guitarist has positioned himself at the center of the Twin Cities jazz world." Harris has toured throughout the US and UK, and released or performed on more than two dozen records. He was awarded the 2016 Minnesota Emerging Composers Award from the American Composers Forum.

Brahms was 48 years old and at the height of his powers when he completed his Piano Concerto No. 2. The Olympian B flat Concerto is, famously, not only one of the most technically challenging of all piano concertos to play but also one of the longest and a supreme test of the soloist’s technique and stamina. Not far behind it in terms of the challenges it presents the soloist with, is the early Burleske for piano and orchestra by Richard Strauss. Dedicated to Hans von Bülow as a thank-you present, Bülow however, refused to learn it, considering it to be ‘unplayable’. This may have had something to with the fact that Bülow’s hands could barely span an octave – an insuperable obstacle in a work that demands superlative, stamina-sapping octaves - but which begs the question why the composer should write something so physically unsuitable for his mentor. This is repertoire in which Joseph Moog excels.

Five classic albums on CD from Tiny Grimes, all digitally remastered and enhanced for superior quality. Includes the albums Blues Groove (1958), Callin' the Blues (1958), Tiny in Swingville (1959), Big Time Guitar with Organ and Rhythm (1962), Hawk Eyes (with Coleman Hawkins) and bonus tracks from the album The Swingville All Stars(1961).

Seit Februar 1987 existiert das Palast Orchester mit seinem Sänger Max Raabe und lässt die Musik der 20er, 30er und 40er Jahre neu auf- und erleben. Mit seiner charmanten Art hat das Orchester die Tanzmusik eines umstrittenen Zeitalters wieder salonfähig gemacht. Die zurückhaltende Strenge und die grotesk anmutende Ernsthaftigkeit ihres Auftretens lassen der Ironie und der süffisanten Doppeldeutigkeit den angemessenen Raum. Jedoch spürt man den großen Respekt der Interpreten vor den Komponisten und Textdichtern ihres Repertoires.