Editorial Product Review: essential recording:How's this for a concept: 'True love may exist only outside of marriage, and a man must subject himself totally to the will of his beloved, whether or not her requests seem rational.' If you think these ideas strange, be glad you weren't looking for love in France in the Middle Ages. These precepts course through thousands of song lyrics and love poetry during the 12th and 13th centuries and some of them appear on this exceptional recording by Anonymous 4. Specifically, these four women perform 13th century French motets ...
Editorial Product Review: essential recording:This was a seminal recital album: Dawn Upshaw not only came of age artistically but showed the world she wouldn't be maintaining the status quo repertoire. The program is a carefully sequenced succession of darkly mysterious exotica, including Maurice Delage's Four Hindu Poems, Stravinsky's Three Japanese Lyrics and Ravel's Three Mallarme Poems, all abstractly poetic and couching the voice in chamber ensembles with unusual instrumental combinations. What makes Upshaw so perfect for this is that her clarity of voice and purpose keep it all from becoming puzzling and obscure. --David ...
Editorial Product Review: essential recording:This was a seminal recital album: Dawn Upshaw not only came of age artistically but showed the world she wouldn't be maintaining the status quo repertoire. The program is a carefully sequenced succession of darkly mysterious exotica, including Maurice Delage's Four Hindu Poems, Stravinsky's Three Japanese Lyrics and Ravel's Three Mallarme Poems, all abstractly poetic and couching the voice in chamber ensembles with unusual instrumental combinations. What makes Upshaw so perfect for this is that her clarity of voice and purpose keep it all from becoming puzzling and obscure. --David ...
Editorial Product Review: essential recording:This was a seminal recital album: Dawn Upshaw not only came of age artistically but showed the world she wouldn't be maintaining the status quo repertoire. The program is a carefully sequenced succession of darkly mysterious exotica, including Maurice Delage's Four Hindu Poems, Stravinsky's Three Japanese Lyrics and Ravel's Three Mallarme Poems, all abstractly poetic and couching the voice in chamber ensembles with unusual instrumental combinations. What makes Upshaw so perfect for this is that her clarity of voice and purpose keep it all from becoming puzzling and obscure. --David ...
Editorial Product Review: :This is a compilation of superb concerti--six in all--taken from four of remarkable violinist Andrew Manze's previously released CDs. The 'Tempesta di mare' of Vivaldi is chock-full of picturesque sounds of nature familiar from the composer's Four Seasons; his Sinfonia for strings, though without a violin soloist, is a veritable festival of strings textures. The two Handel Concerti Grossi remain perfect examples of the genre, with a full string section offering fun-filled, energetic, and beautiful accounts of this music, and the Bach concerto for two violins (one of the few he wrote ...
Editorial Product Review: :This is a compilation of superb concerti--six in all--taken from four of remarkable violinist Andrew Manze's previously released CDs. The 'Tempesta di mare' of Vivaldi is chock-full of picturesque sounds of nature familiar from the composer's Four Seasons; his Sinfonia for strings, though without a violin soloist, is a veritable festival of strings textures. The two Handel Concerti Grossi remain perfect examples of the genre, with a full string section offering fun-filled, energetic, and beautiful accounts of this music, and the Bach concerto for two violins (one of the few he wrote ...
Editorial Product Review: essential recording:As one would expect, Robert Shaw's rendition of the Requiem is magnificently polished, with choral singing that is beyond compare. The drama is not quite as pronounced as with Davis and Munch, but the work's majestic architecture stands clearly revealed. For once, Telarc's thunderous, bass-heavy pickup adds something to the sonic picture. --Ted Libbey
Editorial Product Review: essential recording:The huge success of Anonymous 4--four women who sing nothing but chant and polyphony from the Middle Ages--is one of the remarkable musical phenomena of the '90s. What this ensemble has proved is that, when it comes to music, time is insignificant and arbitrary. Art, and certainly that which is spiritual, is timeless and transcendent. Humans relate to the elemental forces of music the same today as they did last year or last millenium. This latest release is a return to the musical sources featured on the group's first, sensational ...
Alienware's flagship gaming laptop, the Area-51 m9750, has plenty of appeal for high-end gamers, but the alien head aesthetic seems dated, and newer components are right around the corner.
Thanks to a rich set of features and some great new additions, Evite maintains its stature as the top service for issuing e-invitations —but competitors are catching up.
