Le Comte Ory tells the story of a libidinous and cunning nobleman who disguises himself first as a hermit and then as a nun ("Sister Colette") in order to gain access to the virtuous Countess Adele, whose brother is away at the Crusades. The 2011 Met production was directed by the Tony Award-winning Broadway director Bartlett Sher, who in recent years has also staged Il barbiere di Siviglia and Les Contes d'Hoffman for the Met. Sher presented the action as an opera within an opera, updated the action by a few centuries and giving the costume designer, Catherine Zuber, the opportunity to create some particularly extravagant headgear.

With the belief that “No opera loses so much as Die Zauberflöte if one strips it of its drama and that means, above all, the spoken dialogue,” René Jacobs’ agenda in Die Zauberflöte is to rehabilitate the reputation of Schikaneder’s libretto. At the heart of his reassesment is the idea that Schikaneder and Mozart’s Masonic message is deeper and more carefully presented than we have thought. He suggests that seemingly silly or inconsistent aspects of the story are put there as intentional false paths as the audience, not only the prince and the bird catcher, undergoes its own trials of initiation. The opera’s symbolism and structure are explained in convincing detail in an essay in the booklet by the Egyptologist and Mozart researcher Jan Assman.

This is the second instalment in our series devoted to Tchaikovsky’s three great ballets. The first recording, of The Sleeping Beauty, was praised upon its release, described by a reviewer in American Record Guide as ‘one of the finest I’ve heard’. Here Neeme Järvi and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra present the complete version of Swan Lake, with the pre-eminent James Ehnes lending his magic to the violin solos. This was Tchaikovsky’s first full-length ballet, but its premiere in 1877, staged at Moscow’s Bolshoy Theatre, was by no means a resounding success. According to most accounts, the choreography was inept, the shabby sets and costumes were borrowed from other productions, and the orchestral playing was poor. Most ballet companies today base their productions on the 1895 revival by the distinguished choreographer Marius Petipa.

Previously unissued concert from an under documented period in King's career at the 1977 Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival. Includes new liner notes by French author Jean Buzelin and stunning photographs from Jean-Pierre Leloir, Ozier Muhammad, and from King's actual Nancy performance by Jean-Marc Birraux.

Recorded live at Osaka Festival Hall, Osaka, Japan on 29th September 1971. Soundboard recording from the Master tapes.

The 2024 Specialized album ” Skank Up The 80’s ” is coming.
For the thirteenth album of our themed series, this years theme is the 1980’s Unapologetically nostalgic and fun, Skank up the 80’s will include some of the most iconic singles that achieved international acclaim. So, all that padded shoulders, big perms and ankle warmers along with the cheesy pop and rock of that era, thats what we’re doing, all wrapped up in a ska and reggae style from bands all over the world!

Wilderness America/A Celebration of the Land, is a musical exploration of our place within the cycle of living things. All compositions were specially commissioned for this album and blended with natural sounds recorded in the wild." Recorded and mixed at Beggs/AZ, San Francisco. Additional recording done at: Golden West Recorders, Los Angeles; Different Fur Music, San Francisco; Wally Heider's Studio C, San Francisco.

A PRETTY SONG is Teensville's twelfth offering in their acclaimed Sunshine, Soft & Studio Pop compact disc series. Featuring an array of 31 never-before-on-CD cuts spanning the era 1966-1972, the disc highlights the neglected side of well produced but non-hit commercial material.

Billy Strayhorn's music has been an essential part of DiMartin's repertoire since the beginning of his forty-five year professional music career. He recalls, "My first encounter with Strayhorn's music was through an older cousin who gave me a recording of Chet Baker and Russ Freeman's version of Lush Life and requested that I learn the tune." DiMartino was just 15 years old at the time (ironically, Strayhorn's age when he wrote the piece0> John has been entranced with the composer's music ever since.

This collection includes demos of songs recorded by The Kingston Trio and for Stewart’s classic California Bloodlines album.

ESP-Disk' has a little bit of history with Argentina – we issued Gato Barbieri's first international release, and our Steve Lacy album was recorded there – so we couldn't resist putting out this compilation of 2012-17 recordings (most previously unreleased) from the Buenos Aires scene. In his liner notes, compiler Jason Weiss writes, "In June 1966, just as General Juan Carlos Onganía was leading a military coup d’état, Steve Lacy’s quartet arrived in Buenos Aires: not exactly safe harbor for free jazz. Despite opposition the group gained a small following, appearing on television, at a museum, in private homes, but they couldn’t earn enough for their return flights. When the quartet—Lacy, Enrico Rava, Johnny Dyani, Louis Moholo, a supergroup in retrospect—played at the venerable Instituto di Tella, whose experimental music center was directed by the composer Alberto Ginastera, Lacy instructed the group to do two free improvised sets of twenty minutes each; it proved to be their only document of the whole adventure, released by ESP the following year as The Forest and the Zoo."

Jonas Seeberg has studied in Munich, Berlin, and in the United States with Bernard Greenhouse - cellist of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio and pupil of Pablo Casals. He has held principle positions with various European orchestras; since 2023 he has performed exclusively as a soloist and chamber musician. His cellist personality and tonal language is influenced by the legacy of Pablo Casals and Bernard Greenhouse as well as by the Baroque cellist Anner Blysma, with whom he worked in the Netherlands. Seeberg is particularly interested in tracking down the special sound of the cello in the context of the time of the respective composition: he uses plain gut strings not only for Baroque music, but also for later eras. The intensive study of Bach's solo Suites resulted in the publication of a newly conceptualised three-volume Urtext edition of the Suites in 2023 with Edition Walhall, which is regarded internationally as a milestone and base of a new critical occupation with the Suites.

EXTRAORDINARY 1979 BROADCAST, HOT ON THE HEELS OF THE SHEIK YERBOUTI ALBUM Largely recorded live during 1977 and 1978, Frank Zappa s 1979 double, Sheik Yerbouti, was the first release on the musician s newly formed Zappa Records, following Frank s departure from Warner Bros Records. Featuring the Grammy nominated Dancin Fool , as well as the controversial Bobby Brown , a track banned from US airplay. Released on March 3rd 79 - at the time Zappa was touring Europe, where his audience had long outweighed his domestic fan-base - the album became his best-selling album of all during his lifetime. On March 19th, the band performed at the Parc de Penfeld, in Brest, France, for a show that was recorded for live FM Radio Broadcast, transmitted across continental Europe and synched too on many US stations. Featuring a line-up which included, Ike Willis and Warren Cuccurullo on guitars, Tommy Mars and Peter Wolf on keyboards, Ed Mann on percussion, Arthur Barrow on bass and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, the musicianship was, as always, second-to-none, and the gig a roaring success with many describing it as among the fines Zappa played during this era.

Phish The preeminent jam band of the 1990s and early 21st century, Phish have built not only a wide-ranging and inventive body of work, but also inspired a unique and devoted fan culture similar to that of their forebears, the Grateful Dead. Formed in Vermont in the mid-'80s,

Bruce Springsteen Comme Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Neil Young et quelques autres, Bruce Springsteen dépasse les frontières du genre musical dans lequel on tenterait de l’encager. Au fil de ses albums, le kid du New Jersey est devenu un symbole, tant musical qu’idéologique. Marchant sur les traces de son idole Dylan, le Boss s’est lancé dans des instantanés souvent poignants de cette bannière étoilé froissée, de l’american dream souvent maltraité, bref la chronique d’une Amérique de la marge, dont il reste l’un des plus étincelants ambassadeurs… Rares sont les musiciens ayant une aura aussi développée auprès de leur public que lui.