Editorial Product Review: :You want relaxing classical music that'll soothe your soul but won't lull you into sleep? Here's a double CD for you. The Most Relaxing Classical Album in the World ... Ever! does its best to cover both well-worn classical favorites (Bach's 'Air on the G String,' Pachelbel's 'Cannon,' Debussy's 'Clair de Lune') and some eclectic left-field choices (an excerpt from Górecki's Symphony No. 3, Jocelyn Pook's 'Blow the Wind,' and Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. The performances of most ...
Editorial Product Review: essential recording:This album, which catapulted Polish composer Henryk Gorecki to into the international spotlight, takes texts born in pain and turns them into statements of affirmation through the use of music that ebbs and flows in mystic minimalism. The clear voice of soprano Dawn Upshaw, singing the Polish texts, is a large part of the success of this particular recording, but the music, contemporary without either dissonance or movie-music mawkishness, clarifies and uplifts the words. This is a ...
Editorial Product Review: :Beyond this recording's new age packaging and title is a splendid sampling of some of the world's finest choral music, sung by one of the world's outstanding choirs. This 'anthology of sacred choral music' spans 400 years and includes such masterpieces as Allegri's Miserere, Bach's 'Jesu, joy of man's desiring,' and Barber's exquisite Agnus Dei, which is the composer's choral setting of his famous Adagio for Strings. Along the way we also hear Mozart's sublime 'Ave verum corpus,' Elgar's ...
Editorial Product Review: :This new release is somewhat mistitled: while most of the pieces are, in fact, from the Renaissance (or early Baroque), there are works here also by Samuel Barber, Poulenc, John Tavener, Bruckne,r and Gorecki. What they all have in common is their beauty and serenity. Perhaps the CDs subtitle, 'Music for Inner Peace,' also refers to a type of renaissance, i.e., spiritual re-birth: in which case, they're right on the money. The Sixteen, led by Harry Christophers, is one ...
Editorial Product Review: :This new release is somewhat mistitled: while most of the pieces are, in fact, from the Renaissance (or early Baroque), there are works here also by Samuel Barber, Poulenc, John Tavener, Bruckne,r and Gorecki. What they all have in common is their beauty and serenity. Perhaps the CDs subtitle, 'Music for Inner Peace,' also refers to a type of renaissance, i.e., spiritual re-birth: in which case, they're right on the money. The Sixteen, led by Harry Christophers, is one ...
Editorial Product Review: :This new release is somewhat mistitled: while most of the pieces are, in fact, from the Renaissance (or early Baroque), there are works here also by Samuel Barber, Poulenc, John Tavener, Bruckne,r and Gorecki. What they all have in common is their beauty and serenity. Perhaps the CDs subtitle, 'Music for Inner Peace,' also refers to a type of renaissance, i.e., spiritual re-birth: in which case, they're right on the money. The Sixteen, led by Harry Christophers, is one ...
Editorial Product Review: :The current Schwann catalog lists nine versions of Górecki's phenomenally popular Symphony 3 (Sorrowful Songs) composed in 1976. During his early career, Górecki embraced serialism and concentrated on instrumental sonorities in the vein of Messiaen. But in Symphony 3, his atonality disappears into a strategy of gently mounting thematic pitches, taking the strings through all possible registers. All three movements are marked lento, rare for any symphony. The Elektra Nonesuch recording has tended to be the bestseller, but give ...
Editorial Product Review: :William Orbit's Pieces in a Modern Style is an ambient album that rejigs 11 works by classical composers in a particularly tacky fashion. Even though Orbit has proved his mettle as an innovative and exciting producer for others--Blur's 13 and Madonna's Ray of Light--this is an ungainly meeting of the sublime and the absurd that, frankly, doesn't work. Samuel Barber's 'Adagio for Strings,' Ludwig van Beethoven's 'Triple Concerto,' Henryk Gorecki's 'Piece in the Old Style I,' and Antonio Vivaldi's ...
Editorial Product Review: :William Orbit's Pieces in a Modern Style is an ambient album that rejigs 11 works by classical composers in a particularly tacky fashion. Even though Orbit has proved his mettle as an innovative and exciting producer for others--Blur's 13 and Madonna's Ray of Light--this is an ungainly meeting of the sublime and the absurd that, frankly, doesn't work. Samuel Barber's 'Adagio for Strings,' Ludwig van Beethoven's 'Triple Concerto,' Henryk Gorecki's 'Piece in the Old Style I,' and Antonio Vivaldi's ...
Editorial Product Review: :William Orbit's Pieces in a Modern Style is an ambient album that rejigs 11 works by classical composers in a particularly tacky fashion. Even though Orbit has proved his mettle as an innovative and exciting producer for others--Blur's 13 and Madonna's Ray of Light--this is an ungainly meeting of the sublime and the absurd that, frankly, doesn't work. Samuel Barber's 'Adagio for Strings,' Ludwig van Beethoven's 'Triple Concerto,' Henryk Gorecki's 'Piece in the Old Style I,' and Antonio Vivaldi's ...
India expects to see rough diamond supplies fall by up to a fourth after the Diamond Trading Co (DTC), the distribution arm of De Beers, cuts down on Indian clients, an industry body said on Wednesday.
Hundreds of internet users from across the globe are signing an online condolence book offering their tributes to the slain former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto,