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Willi Boskovsky (16 June 1909 – 21 April 1991) was an Austrian violinist and conductor, best known as the long-standing conductor of the Vienna New Year's Day Concert. Boskovsky's New Year's Day 1979 concert was recorded live by Decca, the first commercial use of their proprietary PCM digital system. The resulting 2-LP set was well-received. Quoting Gramophone magazine: "This is a riotous issue ... the first recording to be manufactured and released in the UK utilizing digital recording ... astoundingly vivid and atmospheric ... the results are phenomenal." The album was most recently released as part of the Decca Legends series, remastered in 96k/24-bit PCM.

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Stylistically, de Monte's Madrigali are closer to those of Palestrina than to the madrigals of Orlando di Lasso. One rarely finds the 'modern' stylistic elements of 'word painting' and chromaticism that are so characteristic of di Lasso's madrigals. De Monte tends to be more conservative in approach, which may in part be explained by the rather cautious taste of the German (Holy Roman) Emperors.

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This is a wonderful(double)CD, and great value for money. Anyone who loves early music would enjoy this. I'd been looking for Hesperion xx or xxi music for ages, as I'm always hearing them on Radio 3, and I just never came across their recordings in any shops, so this is a real treat...

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Because the Capella Antiqua Bambergensis is something of a family affair, it's not really surprising that its members should all have a professional background in music: Andreas Spindler works as an instrument maker, Anke as a music teacher (she has also co-operated in establishing the Digital Network for early music in Bavaria), Professor Dr. Wolfgang Spindler teaches music and social work at the University of Bremen and Thomas is the manager of C.A.B. Records. Together with the three remaining musicians Markus Sperlein, Stephan Hänisch and Thomas Zapf, they have made the Capella something of an institution in early music, which has been playing for almost 15 years now. The reason for their success is simple: Instead of "singing the blues", they have been highlighting the more joyful aspects of medieval music - a most welcome change to the scene.

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The most striking visual feature of organs in Spain and Portugal is undoubtedly the array of horizontal reed pipes cantilevered from the façade of the main case. Yet, this peculiar invention did not arrive until the last third of the 17th century, well toward the end of the great age of early Iberian organ music (c1550-c1700)...

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From the moment a baby is born, lullabies are a mother’s indispensable ally in soothing her child for whom everything in the big, wide world in new and frightening. The baby recognizes in the song his mother’s voice, her presence and her expression. The intimacy of the moment creates a space rich in ancestral symbols, in which words and music create a bond of pure emotion and truth. It is in this space that the child experiences his first dialogue, his first story, his first contact with the teachings of tradition, experience and culture, which over time build into an essential part of our collective memory.
Whoever sings a lullaby is moved by a desire to give of their very best, which in itself is an expression of love, and so the child begins to experience the essence of life.
Montserrat Figueras–Nina Nanna artist’s introduction

This CD keeps getting sweeter the more you listen. Recommended. --Robert Levine

Music by Tomaso Albinoni, Alessandro Marcello, George Frideric Handel, Johann Pachelbel, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Philipp Telemann, Henry Purcell, Luca Pianca, Johann Sebastian Bach.

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The Swingle Singers are a mostly a cappella vocal group formed in 1962 in Paris, France with Ward Swingle, Anne Germain, Jeanette Baucomont and Jean Cussac. Christiane Legrand, the sister of composer Michel Legrand, was the lead soprano in the original French group. There are a total of eight members in the group: two sopranos, two altos, two tenors and two basses. In 1973, the original French group disbanded and Ward Swingle moved to London and re-formed the group with new members as Swingle II. They would later perform and record under the name The Swingles and then, The New Swingle Singers and eventually, simply, The Swingle Singers. Since the London group's incarnation, the group has never disbanded. Members have come and gone and the other members have re-auditioned for the voice part that has left.

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The album "Journey to the New World", by Sharon Isbin with Joan Baez and Mark O'Connor, won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance.

The songs recorded on "Voce mea ad Dominum" (quotation from Psalm 77) are part of the repertoire that in recent years has enriched the liturgical life of the Basilica di San Marco in Venice, thanks to the art of the Cantores Sancti Marci, a music ensemble active in St. Mark's since the XIII-XIV century, and thus one of the oldest, still active, institutions of music in the world.
These compositions are a glimpse of the Venetian sixteenth century through its greatest composers: Croce, Willaert, Bassano and Gabrieli. It is music born in the liturgy for the liturgy, in a unique place where, over time, prayer and diplomacy, Church and State concurred to support and promote artistic experiences that have enriched not only Venice, but the whole world. The sounds, the contrasts, the harmonic colour, the praxis of double choirs are among the most recognizable features of the Venetian music at the end of '500, a point of convergence of the best composers in Europe, still able to inspire emotions in the XXI century.