The Music for the Royal Fireworks (HWV 351) is a suite in D major for wind instruments composed by George Frideric Handel in 1749 under contract of George II of Great Britain for the fireworks in London's Green Park on 27 April 1749. The music celebrates the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in 1748. The work was very popular when first performed and following Handel's death. Mozart called the work a "spectacle of English pride and joy".

Verdi was on a war footing with the Catholic Church from a very early age. It is true that he was brought up to believe in God, as was usual in Italy at that time, and it is no less true that his first music teacher, Ferdinando Provesi, was the organist at the Church of San Bartolomeo in Busseto, but when the then sixteen-year-old composer applied for the post of church musician in the town in 1829, his application was rejected – not because his musical abilities were in any way deficient but because he was regarded as a protégé of Antonio Barezzi, a local businessman with a reputation for his anti-clerical views. He fared little better when he submitted his first sacred works – a Laudate pueri, a Qui tollis and two settings of the Tantum ergo – in the early 1830s, when the Church authorities complained that the music sounded “theatrical, lascivious, bellicose and indecorous” . In short, it was hardly calculated to foster a sense of piety and devotion.

With Christ lag in Todesbanden, in the old Easter key of Dorian, the section of Easter chorales begins in Bach’s Orgelbüchlein (composed probably between 1713 and 1718). There is little sign of the jubilation of the resurrection, however: chromatic and descending figures convey a somber mood, a musical image for the bonds of death.

Little is known about the cellist and composer Johann Stiastny, and what is known contradicts each other in the sources. It begins with his name: František Jan Št’astný, also known as Jean Stiasny or, indeed, Johann Stiastny, was probably born in Prague around 1764, as the son of oboist Jan Št’astný (and as younger brother of cellist Bernard Václav Št’astný). Fétis gives his birth year as 1774. He was a member of the Prague Theater Orchestra, a cellist in Mainz and Frankfurt, and a music director in Nuremberg. Given the English dedicatees of some of his works, it seems likely that he traveled – in addition to Paris – as far as London.

British sci-fi drama Ashes to Ashes, a follow-up to the popular Life on Mars series, follows the adventures of a time-traveling female police officer who suffers a gunshot wound in 2008, and is mysteriously transported back to 1981. The soundtrack for the show’s first season is appropriately retro, offering up one of the better U.K.-themed, early-'80s pop compilations. Highlights from the 24-track collection include cuts from the Teardrop Explodes (“Reward”), Dexy’s Midnight Runners (“Geno”), Ultravox (“Vienna”), and Joe Jackson (“It’s Different for Girls”).

Three selected readings from the Lamentations of Jeremiah are sung during the First Nocturn at Tenebrae on each of the last three days of Holy Week. In this recording we hear the Lamentations for Good Friday from the third of Palestrina's four settings, wonderful, sensitive compositions for four, five and six voices. Musica Contexta, under Simon Ravens, responds well to the music and its dark harmonies and unexpected modulations. In particular, the third Lamentation, with its repeated Hebrew letters ('Aleph, Aleph, Aleph'), was sung with power and understanding. I noted with pleasure that the singers had followed Guidetti's 1587 notated edition of the florid responsories that follow each of the Lamentations.

The Appointment was a 1969 drama starring Omar Sharif as a lonely Italian attorney who romances and weds a beautiful model (Anouk Aimee)—all the while suspecting that she is a highly priced prostitute. Although directed by Sidney Lumet, The Appointment was a troubled production that led to its receiving three fully recorded scores by four composers. FSM's premiere release of the original soundtrack features selections from each—making for a rare and fascinating look at three different approaches for a single film.

Oft-recorded Bernard Herrmann masterpiece finally gets complete release in dynamic stereo from new masters! Previous release on Rhino label was spectacular album, albeit several major set pieces (including main title & climactic Mount Rushmore sequence) were transferred from damaged elements, all that was then available. Thanks to Warner Bros., new stereo mixes have been made available for first time ever, revealing spectacular sonics (for 1959) and illuminating new details of magnificent score never before captured. While score has also been digitally re-recorded twice under different conductors, neither version can match crisp, exciting performance of MGM Studio musicians under baton of Herrmann himself. Hear harp arpeggios, castenets, wood blocks, snare drums like never before. Get entire climax with punch of bass trombone, thrilling trumpets amidst swirling variety of tempos that keep tension, excitement of Hitchcock's incredible action set-piece moving at fierce pace.