The Arie Antiche compiled by Alessandro Parisotti are known to each and every student of classical singing. But with Quella fiamma, Nathalie Stutzmann and Orfeo 55 breathe new fire into this primer for the voice, performing these songs and arias with original orchestrations, as they would have been heard in their day. Before they were lessons, they were high art. This album is a selection of pieces from Arie antiche, a 19th Century collection of songs edited by Alessandro Parisotti to be a vocal primer. Though now more famous as the editor of Arie antiche, Parisotti was also a composer, and he managed to slip one of his own works into the book by attributing to Giovanni Pergolesi his song "Se tu m'ami". The collection was very much a part of the trend to rediscover old and forgotten works, and the popularity of the three-volume set has endured to this day. For this album the musicians of Orfeo 55 have worked painstakingly to source original scores and to edit the parts as necessary. While the instrumental works are not part of Parisotti’s primer, they provide brief musical interludes between the songs to enhance the overall listening experience and bring these works together into a coherent programme.

"Brace yourself for some exquisitely dizzy spells, at the hand of Jupiter," the booklet notes here confidently proclaim. The simple album title Vivaldi is confident in its own way, and indeed, among all the thousands of Vivaldi releases on the market, this one by the chamber group Jupiter stands out. There are some exceptionally strong soloists, both vocal and instrumental. Sample Peter Whelan in the lovely slow movement of the Bassoon Concerto in G minor, RV 495, and there is mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre, who is not to all tastes but strongly to some.

Aladdin: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack for the 1992 Disney animated feature film, Aladdin. The album was released by Walt Disney Records on CD and cassette tape on October 27, 1992. The soundtrack was intertwined with demos, work tapes and unreleased masters, as well as original scores in 1994 in a four-disc box set entitled The Music Behind the Magic: The Musical Artistry of Alan Menken, Howard Ashman & Tim Rice. A remastered reissue with altered lyrics and new artwork was released in 2001. A special edition reissue featuring two previously released demos and new artwork was released in 2004.

The songs of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson could occupy a whole Hall Of Fame to themselves. There can’t be any students of popular music who are not familiar with at least a few of their classics, be they their own hits like ‘Solid’ or those they wrote for Motown’s ‘A’ list artists, such as ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ and ‘Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing’ for Marvin & Tammi and ‘Reach Out And Touch (Somebody’s Hand)’ for Diana Ross.
These and many like them are as much a part of our lives as getting up in the morning. Less well known outside of connoisseur soul circles are the songs they wrote in the years immediately leading up to ‘Ain’t No Mountain’, with their original collaborator Joshie “Jo” Armstead. Between 1964 and 1967, the trio collaborated on a significant number of superior songs to provide hits for artists including Chuck Jackson and Maxine Brown, Betty Everett, Aretha Franklin and scores more.

Grammy® Award winners Ian Bostridge and Sir Antonio Pappano have been working together on the stage and in the recording studio for over 20 years. Together they have produced award-winning recordings and played sold out concert halls all over the world to huge critical acclaim. Now they embark on a project marking the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare with a new album out in September. Shakespeare Songs celebrates the four centuries of music and performance that his plays and sonnets have inspired. Shakespeare’s peerless feeling for the music of the English language has inspired countless composers, from those who set the Bard’s verse during his lifetime to musicians as diverse as Britten, Finzi, Korngold and Stravinsky.

Yet another fine early music ensemble pops up for the holiday season, courtesy of Analekta. Masques has assembled a charming program of Christmas music from the Baroque period, which of course basically sounds like any other kind of Baroque music, but it's pleasing and spunky nevertheless. The highlights are the two sets of instrumental Noëls by Charpentier and Delalande, which present a festive garland of Christmas tunes in colorful instrumental garb, recorders well to the fore. They are delightful. Schiassi's Concerto for Strings ends with one of those wonderful pastoral numbers, thus establishing its seasonal credentials in the Corellian tradition.

Angel Baby by Rosie & The Originals is one of those oldies around which an entire legend, if not a career, has been built, such is its lasting impact among a generation of a certain age. Rosie Hamlin's primordial squeak, with its pangs of earnest yearning, was a sound with which every adolescent female in America could identify because they knew instinctively that she was one of their own. As Phil Spector used to ask his flunky, Sonny Bono, when the latest Spector masterpiece was blasting back at them over the studio monitors - "Is it dumb enough?" "What he meant was, did it grab the kids at their level enough to make them go out and buy it," Bono later remarked.

‘Beauty for Ashes’ is a unique collection of unrecorded music from some of the UK’s foremost choral composers. Whilst the programme includes well-established names from classical music such as Bob Chilcott and Judith Weir, it also includes newer voices such as Alison Willis, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Judith Bingham, Sarah Macdonald and Roxanna Panufnik. Six of the contemporary composers featured on the recording are women, and their work exemplifies the enormous contribution female composers are making to the English choral tradition, in a genre where they have been historically under-represented and under-recorded. The principal aim of the recording is to enable these compositions to find new audiences and to promote the creation of new choral works. At a time when the sacred choral tradition is under severe threat from budget cuts, Beauty for Ashes reveals the vibrancy and variety of contemporary composition.

I believe that great art is often the product of great difficulty and tribulation, in many cases for the artist themselves. I also think art borne out of a time of societal turmoil can be even more profound, and can shed light today on what it was like to live and endure through tragedies of the past.

Giuseppe Martucci (1856-1909) stands as a prominent figure in Italian musical history, celebrated for his contributions as a composer, conductor, and pianist. Born in Capua, Italy, Martucci demonstrated remarkable musical talent from a young age. His early studies in Naples under Beniamino Cesi and Paolo Serrao paved the way for a career marked by innovation and artistic depth. Martucci's compositions reflect a synthesis of Romantic and classical influences, showcasing a deep understanding of form and harmony. His orchestral works, including symphonies, piano concertos, as well as his chamber music, reveal a mastery of orchestration and a commitment to exploring new expressive possibilities.

Pairing the music of Schoenberg with the composer’s own paintings, "Expressionist Music" is a new album featuring remarkable interpretations of Schoenberg from soprano Claire Booth with pianist Christopher Glynn. This evocative album explores the expanses of human emotion through Arnold Schoenberg's captivating songs, each corresponding to Schoenberg's paintings. The particular works chosen for this recording encompass themes of expectation, flesh, nocturne, hatred, satire, thinking, and tears, providing a comprehensive journey through the complexities of human nature.

Few twentieth-century creators have been as inventive as Berio in their relationship with popular and ancestral traditions – drawing material as he did from the hits by The Beatles and the soundscapes of urban streets and markets. Here Geoffroy Jourdain paints the portrait of an explorer with a passion for the human voice. Truculent and volcanic in Sequenza III (performed with panache by French mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardot), lyrical and caressing in E si fussi pisci, solemn and spellbinding in Cries of London.

This 2nd album focuses on the iconic Bologna musician musician and adds a great Soprano singer Nulia from Catalonia by illuminating the musical music as well as the voice work of the time. The 3 song voice works have an image of "air" and figuration repeatedly. In other words, the anxiety of a lover who struggle to find peace of mind as if it is moving in the air (Aria Colona), or the story of angels coming from heaven to save people (Perti's Kantha "Vieni pur con i tuoi vezzi") or Aura breathing in the sacred place (Pololo motto Aurae sacra e amati ardores) These Soprano self-chanting works are alongside the collaboration of Jusppe Trelli, born in Venice since 1684, lives in Boronia and has career as composer.

The ultimate 70s-80s classic city pop compilation now available in vinyl! Includes 14 tracks from the CD version released on March, plus 6 new tracks which add up to 20 tracks in 2 vinyl. Hitoshi Kurimoto, the author of 'The Basics Of City Pop Guide Book With 100 Discs' (Seikaisha Shinsho), is the planner, selected songs, and wrote the commentary for the product.

On this BR-KLASSIK recording of sacred music by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935), the regularly award-winning Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, conducted by Peter Dijkstra, is joined by the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, a frequent occurrence in their concert series that regularly include sacred music from the 19th through the 21st c. The present three compositions were written in 1984 and 1990 in the composer's own tintinnabulation style of composition (from the Latin word for the 'ringing of bells'). In his Te Deum, Pärt makes a conscious departure from the traditionally powerful and festive sound of such precursors as Charpentier, Bruckner and Verdi. The restraint of the Wallfahrtslied (Pilgrims' Song), a setting of Psalm 121, evokes the ancient Judeo-Christian tradition of psalm recitation. The Berliner Messe (Berlin Mass) is so named because it was first performed in the city's St. Hedwig's Cathedral (1990) to mark the German Katholikentag (Catholics Day).