Nayler&Co Boekhandel & Modern Antiquariaat*Ramsj-on-Line

Today Antonio Caldara, 1671-1736, is not a name many would recognize let alone ragard as one of the great composers of the Baroque, yet in his own lifetime he was held in high esteem by composers a.o. Here Philippe Jaroussky revives a number of forgotten works by Caldara. All the arias come from his operas, such as L´Olimpiade, Demafoonte, La clemenza di Tito, Temistocle, with librettos by Metastasio, whose texts defined the opera seria genre.

This box contains 4 albums by mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli - Mozart Portraits, 1994, Rossini Arias, 1989, An Italian Songbook, 1997, Chant d'Amour, 1996.

French composer Lili Boulanger, 1893-1918, the younger sister of the noted composer and composition teacher Nadia Boulanger, was the first woman composer to win the Prix de Rome. This CD includes Lili's work -Theme et variations for piano, the song cycle Clairieres dans le ciel, Pie jesu, Chants a.o.- but also works by her sister Nadia such as In memoriam Lili Boulanger, Le Couteau, Lux aeterna, and Pieces for Cello and Piano.

The hit CD Kiri Te Kanawa Sings Porter, 1994, includes Ev´ry Time We Say Goodbye, I´ve Got You Under My Skin, Night and Day, I Love Paris, Just One of Those Things a.o. The other CD Kiri Te Kanawa Sings Gershwin, 1990, features Love Is Here to Stay, Embraceable You, Nice Work If You Can Get It, , Summertime, Someone to Watch Over Me a.o.

This recording features Mahler's greatest champion, Bruno Walter, in collaboration with one of his favourite artists, the English contralto Kathleen Ferrier. It was Walter who introduced Ferrier to Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, a work that they were to perform several times together. Desi Halban is the soprano soloist on the 1945 recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 4.

Jaroussky is supported by Ensemble Artaserse -- two violins, viola da gamba, baroque guitar, theorbo, and organ/harpsichord. The instrumentalists get their chance to display their art on Giovanni Battista Bassani's Sonata Prima. This is a gifted young ensemble, whose work will merit future attention.""

Baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's association with the British accompanist Gerald Moore spanned more than 2 decades. The 1972 Schwanengesang recording for Deutsche Grammophon documents the Fischer-Dieskau-Moore partnership in its maturity. Schwanengesang is a refreshingly varied group of songs composed in Schubert's final year to texts by 3 different poets. Their readings of the great Schubert lieder eloquently traverse the entire spectrum of early Romantic emotions.

Richard Strauss' large output of more than 200 Lieder testifies to his familiarity with this small-scale expressive medium. This familiarity is based on the rich 19th-century tradition of German songs with piano accompaniment. More than half the songs with piano accompaniment included in this 1991 recording by Kiri Te Kanawa and Georg Solti date from the 1880s.

Amongst all the orchestral songs writien by Richard Strauss in the course of his long life, The Four Last Songs occupy a special place. Strauss was 84, tired of wandering, he looked back on a life full of triumphs, but latterly clouded by anxieties and illness. This CD is completed with orchestral versions of 6 favourite Strauss songs -Morgen, Cacilie, Wiegenlied, Ruhe, meine Seele, Meinem Kinde, Zueignung-

Orch.; William Walton, cond.; a.o.

William Walton was born in Oldham, Lancashire, on March 29 1902, the second child of Charles and Louisa Walton. Both Walton's parents were talented musicians -his father made a modest living as a singing teacher and choir master at the local church and his mother had a good contralto voice - and young William's earliest musical experiences would have been a mixture of the Anglican anthems and the domestic music-making popular at this time.