trad.: Amazing Grace

Bryn Terfel is one of Britain’s best-loved singers, as comfortable in popular musical repertoire as he is in the great roles of opera. Ahead of his curated BrynFest appearances at London’s Southbank Centre, and his career-defining role as Wotan in Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Royal Opera House this autumn, Deutsche Grammophon is proud to release this 2CD career retrospective.

Past and present come together in this vibrant release from Sono Luminus, But Not Forgotten: Music by African-American Composers for Clarinet & Piano, as clarinetist Marcus Eley, and pianist Lucerne DeSa display the timeless class and musical stylings of composers whose music runs rich with the knowledge and desire of gifts to be returned through the notes on a page, and the instrument in one’s hand.

Marcus Eley writes, “For many years, I have had the privilege of performing recitals featuring African-American composers for clarinet and piano. I have felt these composers needed a format, a champion, to make certain their compositions for my instrument were not ignored. In current classical or “art music”, there is little representation in mainstream recorded music of the African-American composer. Vocal music tends to be the exception. However, for solo wind instrument, especially the clarinet, there is nothing. I want this CD of clarinet and piano music to celebrate these African-American composers. Further, it is my desire that their unique voices are heard and not forgotten.”

Marcus Eley is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Music in clarinet, and studied at the Hochschule fuer Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria. Eley has performed as a soloist with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (Germany), the Louisville Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Edmonton (Canada) Wind Sinfonia and the National Army Military Band of the People’s Republic of China (Beijing). He has also given numerous recitals in major cities of the United States. On his New York debut recital in Weill Recital Hall, The New York Times cited his performance as “ ...expert, songful, and straightforward.” As a special honor, Eley was chosen to perform on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Lucerne DeSa, pianist, has performed extensively as both solo recitalist and chamber musician. Her enthusiastically received solo recitals have been heard in such diverse locations as Middlebury College in Vermont, the Bera Concert Series in Brookhaven, New York, McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas, and the University of California, Irvine. She has performed with clarinetist Marcus Eley in recital at the Cité Universitaire de Paris; at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as part of the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series; and on the Old First Church Concert Series in San Francisco. Ms. DeSa and Mr. Eley have also performed for radio WFMT Chicago, KUSC Los Angeles, and for the National Public Radio series, “Performance Today”. Their most recent collaboration was a recital of music for clarinet and piano composed by African-Americans at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa. Regarding her collaborative playing, Cue Magazine declared, “DeSa’s pianism is out of the top drawer with her vast array of touches, huge dynamic vocabulary, exceptional control over nuances and phenomenal digital accuracy”.

Recorded live at the Great Lawn in Central Park, New York on 15th September 2011

The latest release from Wells Cathedral Choir, directed by Matthew Owens – judged by an international panel of leading critics in Gramophone January 2011 the No. 1 choir for children and No. 6 in the world's best choirs.

The choir’s fourth recording with Regent Records.

An uplifting and inspiring collection of great choral music sung in the radiant acoustic of Wells Cathedral.

Includes favourite works by John Rutter, Howard Goodall (including ‘The Vicar of Dibley’), Handel and Vivaldi.

Sold in support of the work of St Margaret’s Hospice, Somerset – one of the largest charitable organizations working in Somerset and parts of neighbouring counties to provide care to those who have a terminal or life-limiting illness – www.somerset-hospice.org.uk

Hot on the heels of the wonderful Beauty and the Beatbox, a seasonal offering of 16 Christmas arrangements as only the Swingles can do.The free-flowing, almost scattish jazz interpretation of classical music that first made them famous is evident on Corelli's Christmas Concerto, while Darke's In the Bleak Midwinter is more traditional a cappella. Different, but equally powerful interpretations are given to classic Christmas songs and carols. Expect lots of media attention.

Blue Train is a collection of arrangements and compositions from Ensemble Dreiklang Berlin with a musically nostalgic twinkle of the eye. The pieces tell of love and desire, touch on the fascination of foreign cultures and evoke a fairytale atmosphere. Blue Train embraces great film themes and popular hits, familiar classical compositions and traditional melodies from Latin America, England and the USA