Satie: 3 Gymnopedies; 6 Gnossiennes CD

Satie: 3 Gymnopedies; 6 Gnossiennes Track Listing of songs: Dialogues; Boston Concerto; Boston Concerto; Boston Concerto; Boston Concerto; Boston Concerto; Boston Concerto; Boston Concerto; Boston Concerto; Boston Concerto; Boston Concerto; Boston Concerto; Boston Concerto; Boston Concerto; Cello Concerto; Cello Concerto; Cello Concerto; ...

Satie: 3 Gymnopedies; 6 Gnossiennes  

Satie: 3 Gymnopedies; 6 Gnossiennes What would happen if members of Savatage decided to write some Christmas songs? Easy: Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This "supergroup" is the brainchild of Jon Oliva and Paul O'Neill (respectively the leader-keyboardist and the producer of Savatage). They hired Al Pitrelli (Asia, Savatage) to play guitars, Robert Kinkel to help with keyboards, John Middleton (also a member of Savatage) on bass, and Jeff Plate on drums. Lead vocals are shared by six vocalists, while some of the backing vocals are handled by Savatage lead singer Zachary Stevens. Christmas Eve and Other Stories is a concept album: all the songs are built as chapters of a book, each telling part of a larger story. The plot here is of a young angel sent down to Earth to find and bring back to the Lord "the one thing that best represents everything good that has been done in the name of this day." The angel's quest takes him all over the world, through Russia and Sarajevo, until he finally hears the prayer of a father. This last piece is the strongest moment on the album and makes for a miniature story within the larger story. It is basically told in a trilogy of songs: in the first, "Ornament," we hear the father's prayer, explaining how he hasn't seen his daughter in many years. In "Old City Bar," the angel finds the daughter, standing alone outside a bar, and talks to the bartender who, out of a random act of kindness, takes all the cash from his register drawer and gives it to the girl so she can go home. The third song, "This Christmas Day," has the father praising God, thanking him for bringing his daughter back to him on this night of all nights. It is a very touching story, pondering the thought that "If you want to arrange it/This world you can change it/If we could somehow make this/Christmas thing last/By helping a neighbor/Or even a stranger." Musically, the band has taken some traditional Christmas songs ("O Come All Ye Faithful," "O Holy Night," "The First Noel") and mixed in some modern rock music. The result is stunning and very impressive. It is filled with energy that simply blows you away. The already classic "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" is a gripping instrumental based on "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" (although you might have to listen carefully to hear it). Fans of progressive music should like this one. And if you're into the more recent works of Savatage (like Handful of Rain or Dead Winter Dead) you'll really love this. ~ Alex S. Garcia Trans-Siberian Orchestra includes: Paul O'Neill (conductor).

Satie: 3 Gymnopedies; 6 Gnossiennes This disc includes a recording of Leonard Bernstein discussing the musical and dramatic structure of the St. Matthew Passion. The 'Saint Matthew Passion' represents the culmination of Bach's achievement as a church musician and commands a reverence and respect almost without parallel in western sacred music. A dramatic, quasi-operatic oratorio on an epic scale, it calls for six soloists, two choirs, two orchestras and organs, combining arias, recitatives, chorales and concertato passages united by the imposing central religious theme. This recording documents an unusual performance from 1962 of an abridged English language version. While one might not think of Leonard Bernstein as a likely conductor of this material, he did perform nearly all the great sacred choral works from Haydn onward, recorded a pretty good 'Messiah' and indeed, brings a lot to this music. The orchestra is big but tempos are not unduly cumbersome and rhythmic detail, not to mention much of the beautiful woodwind writing, comes freshly to the fore. What really is winning is the sense of occasion and theatricality--this is Bernstein, after all--and the recitatives being sung in English will add to the immediacy of the communication for many listeners.

Satie: 3 Gymnopedies; 6 Gnossiennes Yoyo Ma,Janos Starker, Ofra Harnoy,Steven Isserlis

Satie: 3 Gymnopedies; 6 Gnossiennes Live Recording

Satie: 3 Gymnopedies; 6 Gnossiennes Track Listing of songs: Erniedrigt; Erniedrigt; Erniedrigt; Erniedrigt; Erniedrigt; Erniedrigt; Erniedrigt; Erniedrigt;

Satie: 3 Gymnopedies; 6 Gnossiennes Since moving to Lopez Island in Puget Sound last year, Liam Bailey has learned to simplify. "I want to sing about the mystery of our brief and beautiful time on earth together. Its not that I want to understand it or define it for anybody else, but I need my listeners to know that I am in awe of our earthly circumstances and that they should be too. There's a party going on and we're all invited." Sometimes Bailey's dissection of the mystery can come across as religious examination, or at least flirting with those concepts, but really it's just more evidence of the way that bluegrass, blues and other American music has seeped under his skin. While Bailey has always been comfortable playing a range of styles, he's now loose enough in his interpretive abilities to experiment with instruments he's not proficient in. He has abandoned the electric guitar for the mandolin, and has been playing the three-string tres in a Cuban band on Lopez. After attending high school in Holland and the USA, Bailey attended college in Boston. " I was shamed out of my heavy metal passion and my tastes changed very quickly," Bailey recounts. "I got right into jazz and then bluegrass after that." His biggest influence has been guitarist Bill Frisell. "He wasn't ashamed of his roots in rock and roll. He incorporated them into his jazz playing and melded them with bluegrass and Americana. He has a unique approach and so do I." Like Frisell, Bailey didn't want to be limited to one genre of music. "I became passionate about everything I heard," Bailey admits. "If I listened to Django then I wanted to play swing, if I listened to Dave Douglas I wanted to play jazz and if I listened to Jeff Buckley then I wanted to play rock. It's still that way."In addition to guitar, he took on the fiddle as well as the mandolin. He also began to sing. His first label-released album, "Flesh and Armor" was released in early 2006 on Mad River Records in Connecticut. "The record is literally that," Bailey says, "A record of that week. I always wanted to make a live recording and I feel that the magic of music is in the moment that you create with a live performance." Bailey formed a band from musicians he'd played with in various guises previously and went into the studio after two days of rehearsal. "I'm so into performing now," he says. "Music is a real-time art form and my relationship with my audience is where the magic happens. I want everyone to feel this on my recordings." Mad River Records 58 Sidecut Road • Redding, CT • 06896 • 203 938 3707 Photographer: Chris Kehoe. Arranger: Liam Bailey . Personnel: Liam Bailey (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Jimmy Ryan (mandolin); Judd Fuller (fretless bass); Rohin Khemani (drums, percussion). Audio Mixer: Paul Avgerinos.