Anne Sofie von Otter

Following the best-seller 'Love Songs' with Brad Mehldau and a new recording of Berlioz’s 'Les Nuits d’été' with Marc Minkowski, 'Sogno Barocco' is the third project from eclectic Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter on naïve, which she toured 2010-11.

Dedicated to early Italian opera protagonists such as Poppea, Penelope, Diana and Helena, this clever programme gathers baroque hit duets such as “Si Dolce è’l tormento” or “Pur ti miro” and the previously unreleased Provenzale cantata or Rossi’s Lamento of the Swedish Queen . . . This delicate and subtle series of baroque jewels is performed with an amazing cast, starring French soprano Sandrine Piau, in 3 breathtaking duets, and baroque rising-star conductor Leonardo García Alarcón, one of the current darlings of Italian baroque.

This new release is offered with a 76-page booklet including complete sung texts and essays by Von Otter, Alarcón and musicologist Vincent Borel. It also includes 3 instrumental pieces by Cavalli in world premiere recordings.

Anne Sofie von Otter, accompanied by Bengt Forsberg and joined by baritone Fredrik Zetterström for two duets, performs works by four Swedish composers whose works were all composed within a century of each other.

These works provide a broad image of the early development of a Swedish Lied tradition and paved the way for the great generation of Swedish song composers, including Stenhammar, Peterson-Berger and Rangström.

The simple grace and tunefulness of Adolf Fredrik Lindblad and Erik Gustaf Geijer’s works are coupled with the works of Franz Berwald that are more intent on breaking new ground with his relatively complex songs. August Söderman, finally, searches for new forms of musical expression in his songs, with the aim to create a broader narrative with a greater dramatic force.

Le Concert d’Astrée, under its founder and conductor Emmanuelle Haïm, celebrates its 10th anniversary in style with a charity concert in Paris featuring 23 of the world’s most distinguished singers of baroque repertoire.

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Le Concert d’Astrée, under its founder and conductor Emmanuelle Haïm, will give a concert entitled ‘Fête Baroque’ at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Elysées on 19th December 2011. Joining Haïm and the orchestra are no less than 23 of the world’s most distinguished singers of baroque repertoire. Among the sources of the evening’s arias and ensembles are Giulio Cesare, Alcina, Rinaldo, Tamerlano, Come Ye Sons of Art, Thésée, Dardanus, Hippolyte et Aricie, and Les Indes galantes. The recording of this spectacular concert will join 15 discs that Haïm and Le Concert d’Astrée already have in the Virgin Classics catalogue.

The concert also benefits a good cause as will this CD. Under the patronage of Madame Simone Veil, the former President of the European Parliament, the proceeds of the concert will go to the Révolution Cancer 2010-2013 programme of the Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, south of Paris. The institute, with a staff of 2,600, is the leading oncology centre in Europe.

PART OF THE PROCEEDS FROM THE SALE OF CHILDREN FIRST WILL BE USED TO SUPPORT THE WORK OF UNICEF TO IMPROVE CHILDREN’S LIVES

Featuring artists such as Antonio Banderas, Anne Sofie von Otter, Rebecca Caine, Barbara Hendricks, and the Sylvia Young Theater School Children’s Choir, UNICEF’s Children First is a recording for, about, and in the benefit of children around the world. The recording will be released on January 11, 2011, one year after the anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti and proceeds from its sale will support the activities of UNICEF around the world. Founded in 1946 in the aftermath of WWII, UNICEF continues to provide services in disaster ravaged countries like Haiti and petitions for children’s right in 190 countries around the world.

Children First, whose goal is to be an integrated sequence of songs that describes the human life cycle in music and text, includes an official song of UNICEF sung by Antonio Banderas and Anne Sofie von Otter. That song, “Children First”, and other tracks such as “All of These Things You Are to Me” and “Heaven’s Lullaby” have lyrics written by American lyricists Amy Powers, Lisa Freeman and Richard Rudolph and music by Danish composer Carsten Mørch.

UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Friends with Mendelssohn, the Schumanns, Brahms, Dvorák, Liszt, Bruch, and others, Joachim was a revered violinist, conductor, and composer of the Romantic Era. The central piece is Bruch’s Violin Concerto, its violin part completely reworked, at Bruch’s request, by Joachim into the form we know today. Daniel Hope plays the concerto with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Sakari Oramo.

In this double album, the greatest vocal artists of the present day offer their own vision of the singing of their legendary predecessors.

The extraordinary adulation accorded to castrati during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is still today one of the most fascinating phenomena in the history of music. During this golden age of the castrato, these male singers endowed with high voices that combined incredible refinement, amazing power and superhuman virtuosity took the musical world by storm. The whole of Europe was overcome by infatuation for these vocal prodigies. In the absence of the castrati themselves, the singers of today face the formidable challenge of reviving their repertoire. Both male and female singers now undertake the task of bringing back to life the wondrous voices of their androgynous forebears, in music that is by turns unsettling, deeply moving and of a dizzying virtuosity.

A 2CD-Compilation for the Price of 1 + 1 Bonus DVD - Digipack Format