It is to the distinctive compositional voice of Jan Dismas Zelenka that Ruben Jais and la Barocca turn for their latest release from the Glossa label with a new recording of the Missa Omnium Sanctorum. For more than thirty years Zelenka worked as a composer and as a double-bass player at the Dresden Court, the musical establishment which – in the first half of the eighteenth century – was regarded as one of the glories of its age. Zelenka finished this mass, an expansive, dynamic multi-movement work (notably the Gloria) scored for soloists, chorus and orchestra, in 1741; by this time the composer was in his sixties, and the mass stands as one of the summations of his creative endeavours.

The Sonatas for piano & violin, K. 378, 454 and 526 represent the pinnacle of Mozart’s creativity for keyboard and string ensemble. Their composition is inscribed in the artistic and personal life of Mozart and mark a stage in his development at decisive moments of his life: remarkably, they were not specially commissioned. They were composed in a free style yet the music speaks of the musician’s internal tension at the time when he decided to break free from his links to Salzburg and from the burdensome tutorship of his father to take control of his own creativity. On this release, the Sonatas are performed by violinist Stephane Rougier and pianist Sophie Teboul.

ATMA Classique is proud to announce the digital release of the first in a new series of recordings devoted to the symphonies of Jean Sibelius, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the helm of the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal.

In March 2019, the penultimate part of the Wiener Symphoniker’s first recorded Beethoven cycle will appear with Symphonies No. 6 and 8. This CD is the continuation of the orchestra’s Road to Beethoven project, an undertaking in preparation of the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Viennese by choice and patriarch of classical music in 2020. Following the huge success of the respective releases of the cycle so far, the expectations are high indeed. The third part featuring Symphonies No. 2 and 7 received numerous accolades and ranked high in the annual best lists of international critics.

The musical richness of Scarlatti’s sonatas has already produced memorable performances at the harpsichord as well as at the piano, and both options will remain open for sure in the future. Eva Badura-Skoda, in her recent 2017 book The Eighteenth-Century Fortepiano Grand and Its Patrons, underlines once more the option to consider both the harpsichord and the piano, even the modern piano, as suitable instruments to play Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas.

In a new recording of music by Alessandro Scarlatti, Josetxu Obregón’s La Ritirata parades its dazzling vocal and instrumental talents in presenting the four cantatas which involve recorders and violins, together with an additional standalone soprano aria, for a further Glossa Neapolitan-flavored release. Drawn from his well over 800 secular cantatas these works combine fully-integrated, imaginative recitatives, expressive and dramatic arias and colorful and exacting instrumental sinfonias and ritornelli into elegant and compact wholes, and featuring poetic texts which typically followed the aspirations of the Accademia degli Arcadi literary circle initiated in Rome around the turn of the eighteenth century.

SOMM RECORDINGS’ coupling of string quartets by teacher and pupil William Alwyn and Doreen Carwithen offers a revealing glimpse – in illuminating performances by the Tippett Quartet – into the relationship between a master composer and his promising student who became one of the great ‘what might have beens’ of British 20th-century music.

Winner of the Berliner International Music Competition, the Prix Jeune Soliste des Médias Francophones Publics, and the International Manhattan Music Competition, young cellist Christoph Croisé debuts on AVIE performing the two Cello Concertos by Franz Joseph Haydn. His fresh and fervent approach is matched by his collaborators, the Eurasian Soloists Chamber Orchestra, as they recreate the original set up of the works’ first performances in the Esterhazy Castle when the composer directed from the harpsichord alongside the first violinist and the soloist. Christoph concludes the album with Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for Violin and Cello, RV 547, joined by the orchestra’s founder and director, Kazakh violinist Sherniyaz Mussakhan.

The city of Boston has been known by various nicknames over time, not all of them related to beans: “the Cradle of Liberty” or “Birthplace of the American Revolution” come to mind. And then there’s “The Hub.” This was a shortened version of “Hub of the Solar System,” a phrase used to characterize Boston’s central position in the early social, cultural and political life of the United States, first applied by the 19th century writer and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. While that role may have diminished as the nation expanded westward, Boston has certainly remained “The Hub” in at least one way: as the epicenter of activity for New England’s large and avid contingent of Dead Heads for more than a half-century, beginning with the Grateful Dead’s first shows in the city, at a short-lived venue known as the Psychedelic Supermarket, in December of 1967.

Ed Ames is an American popular singer and actor. He is known for playing Mingo in the television series Daniel Boone, and for his pop hits of the 1960s including "My Cup Runneth Over", "Who Will Answer?" and "When the Snow is on the Roses". He was also part of the popular 1950s singing group with his siblings, The Ames Brothers. Album "A Time For Living, A Time For Hope", RCA Victor 4128 original released 1969 year.

A pleasing vocalist with a warm delivery reminiscent of Andy Williams or Tony Bennett, John Gary unfortunately came along just at the beginning of the British Invasion and never managed to make much of an impression on the adult vocal audience. Born in 1932 in Watertown, New York, he was a singer on Don McNeill's radio show Breakfast Club before signing a contract with RCA Records in 1962.