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"A fascinating set from almost every aspect...the artist is Dan Laurin, one of the best recorder players. His work establishes a standard to compare all others to. His playing is warm, facile, and expressive; and he achieves an unusually full, round tone...This is a wonderful set to own; the music is restful for listening, and the notes are copious, informative, educational, and written with Dan Laurin's characteristic warmth and humanity."

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'Hickox has a wonderful feel for this music…In short I would put Hickox at the top of the list… Seasoned collectors may well have the major Haydn masses well covered, but if you want the less-known early works, along with interesting fillers, all superbly done and neatly put in a single box, you’ll want this as well. There is splendid music here, full of vitality as only Haydn could express it.'American Record Guide

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Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born, and generally known in English-speaking countries, as Felix Mendelssohn (February 3, 1809 – November 4, 1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. The grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, he was born into a notable Jewish family, although he himself was brought up initially without religion, and later as a Lutheran Christian. He was recognized early as a musical prodigy, but his arents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his abilities. Indeed his father was disinclined to allow Felix to follow a musical career until it became clear that he intended seriously to dedicate himself to it. Early success in Germany was followed by travel throughout Europe; Mendelssohn was particularly well received in England as a composer, conductor and soloist, and his ten visits there, during which many of his major works were premiered, form an important part of his adult career. His essentially conservative musical tastes however set him apart from many of his more adventurous musical contemporaries such as Liszt, Wagner and Berlioz. The Conservatory he founded at Leipzig became a bastion of this anti-radical outlook. Mendelssohn's work includes symphonies, concerti, oratorios, piano and chamber music. He also had an important role in the revival of interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes and antisemitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his creative originality is now being recognized and re-evaluated. He is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era.

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‘50 Years in Music' is a series of new orchestral recordings of Morricone's most famous themes, due for release in 2010, and this Society of Sound release is a unique preview of this spectacular work surveying one of the most illustrious careers in the history of cinematic music.

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, seven symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin.

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But Yesterday is Not Today is a survey of the American art song over a period of almost fifty years. Eight composers are represented here, the well known (Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Paul Bowles, and Roger Sessions) and the not-so-famous (Theodore Chanler, John Duke, Israel Citkowitz, and Robert Helps). The choice of composers and songs illustrates the variety and vitality of a genre that in a previous generation could count among its exponents Leontyne Price, Phyllis Curtin, and Jennie Tourel. The songs encompass the broadest spectrum of emotions couched in musical language that mirrors their joy, sorrow, sadness, nostalgia, and humor. They are sensitively interpreted by two of the genre’s most authoritative exponents, baritone Donald Gramm and soprano Bethany Beardslee. The accompanying 32-page program booklet by Ned Rorem contains one of the best available essays on American song as well as brief critiques of the composers and the songs, all written in his lucid and elegant style.

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Beniamino Gigli, (March 20, 1890 - November 30, 1957) was one of the greatest Italian operatic tenors of the first quarter of the 20th century. The most famous tenor of his generation, he was renowned internationally for the great beauty of his voice and the soundness of his vocal technique. His lyric tenor voice was remarkable for its power, mellowness, and smoothness of production. Gigli is considered to be one of the very finest tenors in the recorded history of music. ~ Wikipedia

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