trad.: Down by the Salley Gardens

When Eastern and Western musical cultures meet, an original blend is created. This CD features the Chinese flautist Chen Yue and the Danish guitarist Lars Hannibal. Coming from different traditions, the two artists decided to see what comes out of the dialogue when musicians from the two traditions play together. The idea was not to try to play like musicians from other parts of the world, but to listen and learn, and try to transfer, what the two musicians have experienced into their own lives and playing.

Chen Yue describes their meeting the following way: “A guitar and a bamboo flute was how we expressed ourselves to each other in music. Mr. Hannibal’s delicate, dynamic and experienced playing led me to the magic world where Western and Oriental cultures are wonderfully blended. When mystic plain Oriental music is mixed with a romantic Western classical style, what do you feel? This is our sincere love for beautiful music!”

The graduate choir, nz has earned a reputation for the performance of choral music at its best, for programming which is accessible and universal in appeal, for the musical integrity it brings to this repertoire, and for the warmth and breadth of its sound.

This varied programme ranges from sacred music of the 19th and 20th centuries through to art songs, folk-songs, spirituals and jazz; the choir sings in no fewer than six languages, there is a mixture of unaccompanied and accompanied music – in short, something for everyone!

At a time when we are going farther and farther afield in the quest for new musical experiences, it is good to know that a source of popular music existed in England that sufficed to beguile every phase of life, to enrich the experience of serious composers through whom it influenced all of Europe, and that even today many of the tunes at the top of the Hit Parade are heavily indebted to it.

In addition to the 15-disc boxed set, Decca is also presenting a 2-CD collection of Ferrier’s best-loved recordings.

June 16th is Bloomsday - the day Leopold Bloom journeys through Dublin in Joyce's novel Ulysses. The book is bursting with musical references and the characters almost sing their way through the novel. Their minds are filled with the musical culture of the early 20th century - popular drinking songs, opera arias, and ballads imbue the pages; there are over 40 references to songs in the Sirens chapter alone. RTÉ lyric fm celebrates this very important anniversary with JOYCESONGS - JAMES JOYCE'S MUSICAL DUBLIN containing music referred to in Ulysses, several of which have never been recorded before. The CD features emerging Irish artists Owen Gilhooly, Elizabeth Woods, Emmanuel Lawler, Daire Halpin, and Franck Dunne recorded variously with pianist Pádhraic ó'Cuinneagáin, and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra conducted by Robert Houlihan.