The former lead singer of La Barberia del Sur and Sabicas, Enrique Morente set the pace for modern flamenco experimentalism as a soloist, with an affinity for lyrics written by modern and classic poets. Morente's album Cantando a Federico García Lorca y Leonard Cohen, recorded with Lagartija Nick, applied the sounds of flamenco to the words of Spanish poet Lorca and Canadian poet Cohen. Morente's vocals were sometimes accompanied by a series of Andalucian orchestras from Morocco. The singer died at age 67 in December 2010 after lapsing into a coma following an ulcer operation.

Niña Pastori is one of the more accomplished cantaoras among the generation of young pop-flamenco singers to emerge around the turn of the century. She was born María Rosa García García on January 15, 1978, in San Fernando, a city in the province of Cádiz, Spain, and her mother is a successful flamenco singer, La Pastori. She began her career at a young age, often traveling and performing with her mother hence her performing name, Niña Pastori, a reference to her relationship to her well-known mother. Niña made her recording debut in 1996 with Entre Dos Puertos, which was produced by Paco Ortega and Alejandro Sanz, the latter Spain's best-selling artist ever.

Singer and songwriter Joaquín Sabina was born in Úbeda, Spain, in February 12, 1949. At the age of 14, he started writing poems, connecting with music as a member of a teenage rockabilly band called Merry Youngs. Sabina's poetry and music skills were extended to acting while being part of Juan Panadero's theatrical company. In 1976, his book Memorias del Exilio was published and its lyrics were Sabina's inspiration to record his first album in 1978. El Inventario was followed by Malas Compañias, his first album for CBS. While the artist's popularity as a songwriter was growing, Sabina's lyrics started being requested by well-known Hispanic singers.

“Conducted with sharp insight and unfaltering authority under Storgårds’ baton, the impeccably prepared Helsinki Philharmonic exhibits their commitment to the music. The playing glows with expressive force and a palpable sense of concentration.”

These world premiere recordings combine two recent concertos from notable Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara with an orchestral piece from his early Modernist period. The Percussion Concerto 'Incantations' features percussion soloist Colin Currie, to whom the work is dedicated and who himself wrote the virtuoso cadenza to the final movement. Rautavaara's Cello Concerto No. 2 'Towards the Horizon' was composed for cellist Truls Mørk who plays continuously in one 20-minute movement. Under chief conductor John Storgårds, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra builds on its long-time pedigree performing the music of a compatriot.

While Copland’s hugely successful celebration of the American West, Rodeo, has become an American classic, Dance Panels is barely known despite working beautifully as a concert work. Based on popular Mexican melodies, the glittering, even exotic El Salón Mexico is one of Copland’s most frequently performed works. Of his rhythmically complex Danzón Cubano, inspired by a visit to a dance hall in Cuba, in which there were two orchestras playing at both ends, the composer himself wrote: “I did not attempt to reproduce an authentic Cuban sound but felt free to add my own touches of displaced accents and unexpected silent beats.”

In 1925, Béla Bartók told interviewer Dezso Kosztolanyi that his first instrument was not, as might have been expected, the piano, but a drum he was given at the age of 2. At the age of 4, he was attracted to the piano, picking out Hungarian folk songs with one finger. These twin instrumental influences converged in one of the composer's most remarkable works, the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (1937), composed on a commission from the Basle chapter of the International Society for Contemporary Music. Bartók had previously explored similar instrumental combinations: the middle movement of the Piano Concerto No. 1, for instance, is a dialogue between the soloist and percussion. In this work, however, Bartók decided that, for purposes of balance, the percussion section was better offset by two pianos.

Lo and behold: The »Dawn Of The Dragonstar« is here! Three years after their spellbinding quest aptly called »Heroes Of Mighty Magic«, the epic metal brotherhood TWILIGHT FORCE is about to unleash their most ambitious, most epic and most daring adventure yet. Sharpen your blades, brew your potions, mend your shields and brace yourselves: A storm is coming. And this time, it will leave no stone unturned.