Gershwin: Bess, you is my woman now (from Porgy and Bess)

Jenny Lin’s latest release on the Steinway & Sons label is a spectacular collection of showtunes arranged by Greg Anderson, Marc-André Hamelin, Stephen Hough, Dick Hyman, Stefan Malzew, Christopher O’Riley, André Previn, Stephen Prutsman, David Saperton, Cy Walter, Alexis Weissenberg and Earl Wild.

Including new commissions and world premiere recordings, this is Steinway’s top priority release for 2012!

Jenny Lin's previous release on the Steinway & Sons label, Silent Music, was chosen as one of the best albums of the year by the New York Times in 2011.

Get Happy includes brand-new arrangements by Marc-André Hamelin (David Raskin’s “Laura”), Stefan Malzew (“Eliza in Ascot” from My Fair Lady) and Greg Anderson (Cole Porter’s “So In Love”).

World premiere recordings include Christopher O’Riley’s gorgeous arrangement of “Johanna” from Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and Alexis Weissenberg’s exquisite version of “Lover” from the Rodgers & Hart musical film, Love Me Tonight.

First release to include all four of Stephen Hough’s arrangements of the music of Rodgers & Hammerstein.

Bonus track for iTunes of Uri Caine’s arrangement of “Honeysuckle Rose by” Fats Waller.

Following the enormous success of the album OPERA 2009, EMI Classics is releasing OPERA 2010. Great voices of today and legendary singers of the past, from the EMI and Virgin Classics catalogue: the home of opera.

With 40 tracks, and over 2½ hours of operatic arias and duets, this double album features the best and most popular names in opera from the catalogues of both Virgin Classics and EMI Classics, ranging from the newest arrivals on the operatic scene, as well as many present day superstars, to iconic legends. This is an unmissable collection of the best in opera that will have a wide appeal.

Present day superstars include Angela Gheorghiu, Natalie Dessay, Sarah Brightman, Barbara Hendricks, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Jessye Norman, Placido Domingo, José Carreras, Rolando Villazón, Roberto Alagna and Bryn Terfel.

Rising new artists are strongly represented by Joyce DiDonato, Diana Damrau, Elina Garanca, Vivica Genaux, Véronique Gens, Patrizia Ciofi, Philippe Jaroussky, Jonas Kaufmann, David Daniels, Max Emanuel Cencic and Laurent Naouri.

The programme also contains tracks by some of the world’s greatest singers of the past such as Victoria de los Angeles, Teresa Berganza, Mirella Freni, Lucia Popp and Franco Corelli as well as the legendary Luciano Pavarotti and the unique Maria Callas.

All the most popular operatic composers are represented, from Baroque masters like Vivaldi, Rameau and Handel, through Gluck and Mozart to Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, Mascagni, Cilea and Gershwin, as well as French favourites Gounod, Massenet and Offenbach.

Described as “The most exceptionally gifted young violinist I have ever encountered” by Ruggiero Ricci, Tamsin Waley-Cohen explores her European/American heritage in her debut disc, 'An American in Paris'.

Tamsin says of this project: 'Song is one of the primary connections between all the works on this disc; folk songs, cafe songs, blues songs, traditional songs. I grew up with many of them; the Ives and the Gershwin, and even the Blues in the Ravel, from my American Mother. Some, such as the cafe songs of the Poulenc, are part of my European heritage. The juxtaposition of the beauty of these songs with the sardonic humour and the macabre, which in particular inhabit both the Ives and the Poulenc, adds power and poignancy to the content of these works.'

Poulenc’s Violin Sonata, written while the composer was coming to terms with life under Nazi occupation, is dedicated to the memory of Federico Garcia Lorca, the poet and playwright who was murdered by opposition forces in the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

Ravel’s Sonata, composed between 1923 and 1927, contains long periods of refined, rather reserved music punctuated by moments of full-blooded passion and although influenced by blues is far from mere pastiche.

Decoration Day was first composed by Charles Ives in 1912 woven with themes from part-fictional, part-autobiographical recollection of personal childhood memories. The piece was reconstructed by the pianist and scholar John Kirkpatrick from surviving sketches after 1919.

George Gershwin visited Paris in 1928 and met, among other composers, Ravel, Poulenc, Prokofiev and Berg. Although Porgy and Bess (1935) attracted mixed reviews, songs such as the lullaby ‘Summertime’, ‘It ain’t necessarily so’ and the heartbreaking ‘My man’s gone now’ became instant hits. The arrangement by Heifetz heard here of half a dozen numbers from Porgy and Bess is testament to the high esteem in which the legendary violinist held his music.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen was born in London in 1986. She is currently associate artist with Orchestra of the Swan and performs as a soloist with others, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of St John's, London Concert Orchestra. Since 2007 she has played the 1721 ex-Fenyves Stradivarius violin.