Schubert: Trout Quintet; Arpeggione Sonata; Notturno / Anner, Bylsma Jos Van Immerseel, Jurgen Kussmaul, Marji Danilow, Vera Beths

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Schubert: Trout Quintet; Arpeggione Sonata; Notturno / Anner, Bylsma Jos Van Immerseel, Jurgen Kussmaul, Marji Danilow, Vera Beths

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

In the six years since this female quartet astonished the music world with its clear- voiced, impeccably sung renditions of medieval chant and polyphonic music, chant rose from the dark and dusty corners of classical music to enjoy a phenomenal run at center stage. New and reissued chant recordings achieved sales figures normally reserved for popular music. This is the recording that started it all (that Spanish monks disc came later), winning awards and earning near- permanent resident status on the national charts. Spiritually moving and vocally revelatory, this program re-creates a kind of mass sung in English churches during the 13th and 14th centuries. With their warm tone and perfect intonation, these four singers achieve an expressiveness that is rare among chant interpreters, most effective in the seductive, highly ornamented "Kyrie." The sound is exemplary—although a studio recording, it perfectly conveys the atmosphere of an English cathedral. —David Vernier

Antonin Dvorac, Slavonic Dances, OP.46 & 72 American Suite, Op.98b Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ANTAL DORATI. Recording location Kingsway Hall, London. January, September, October,1983 CD 1 Tracks 1-8 Slavonic Dances Op.46 Tracks 9-11 Slavonic Dances Op.72 CD 2 Tracks 1-5 Slavonic Dances Op.72 Tracks 6-10- American Suite Op.98b

Antonio Carlos Jobim—the Brazilian composer, arranger, singer, and pianist and one of the creators of bossa nova—left an extraordinary legacy when he died of heart failure in 1994 in New York at age 67. Many of his songs—including "The Girl from Ipanema," "Chega de Saudade" ("No More Blues"), "Samba de Uma Nota So" ("One-Note Samba"), "Corcovado" ("Quiet Nights"), and "Insensatez" ("How Insensitive")—were not only hits in their day, but have become part of the American pop-music canon. Often easy on the ear, this is music of deceptive simplicity. In fact, a closer listening reveals sophisticated miniatures full of subtle power and grace, combining poetic lyrics, willfully naive melodies, and cool-jazz harmonies played to highly stylized, oblique variations of the samba beat. Packaged like a spiral notebook, this three-disc set, while neither complete nor definitive, offers useful, intriguing insights into the man and his music. The notes include a biography and interviews with Jobim, producer Creed Taylor, and arranger and producer Oscar Castro Neves. Musically, the 55-song collection is organized in three parts: a disc of vocal performances (revisiting classics such as Jobim's duet with Elis Regina in "Aguas de Marco"), a disc of instrumental versions, and a volume featuring several readings, by different groups, of some of Jobim's best-known works. Even after countless lounge cover versions, even after countless soul-deadening arrangements for background music in dentist offices, supermarkets, and elevators seemingly the world over, Jobim's work remains a pop rarity: a music of beauty, substance, and intelligence that rewards repeated listening. —Fernando Gonzalez

"Casa" is the Portuguese word for "house." It's also the title of this melodic and moving tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim by the Oscar® and Grammy award-winning pianist-composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, Brazilian cellist Jaques Morelenbaum, and his vocalist wife, Paula. The Morelenbaums, who cofounded Quarteto Jobim-Morelenbaum, both worked with the maestro, and almost all of the tracks here were recorded in Jobim's Rio home. The CD contains fluid and florid renditions of bossa nova-era classics from the Jobim canon, from "Amor em Paz"—with Jobim's son Paulo on guitar—and "Bonita" to "Vivo Sonhando." It also unveils rare songs like "Chanson pour Michelle," a short and sweet composition written for a soap opera, and a never-before-heard work, "Tema para Ana," an intimate piano/cello duet. Sakamoto's spare and splendid pianisms ring from Jobim's piano. Morelenbaum's singing cello tones complement his wife's angelic Portuguese and English vocals. Together this talented trio—with occasional accompaniment by percussionist Marcos Suzano, guitarist Luiz Brasil, vocalist Ed Motta, and bassist Zeca Assumpçao—beautifully exposes the French influences of Satie, Ravel, and Chopin in Jobim's music. —Eugene Holley, Jr.