Content tagged 'Classical'

Since 1996, there hasn’t been a holiday season that hasn’t featured the Trans-Siberian Orchestra as part of its soundtrack: the musical collective founded by Paul O’Neill took the world by storm with its debut album, CHRISTMAS EVE AND OTHER STORIES, and they’ve continued to keep fans happy by touring on a regular basis as well as releasing new albums when the spirit moves them. Sorry, did we say “spirit”? In this case, the more appropriate term is “ghost.” THE GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS EVE, the soundtrack to the band’s much-cherished 2001 PBS special, hits stores this Friday, allowing you to get you

If you aren’t familiar with Scala & Koalcny Brothers, then it’s time to change that. After all, they’re celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, so it’s not like they haven’t been around long enough for you to notice them. As it happens, though, their new album, Solstice , is so musically diverse that it’s really about as strong an entry point into their catalog as you could hope to find. First, a quick bit of back story for those of you who are new to the group, brothers Steven and Stjin Kolacny hail from Belgium, Scala is the name of their choir, and with Steven on piano and Stjin condu

50 years ago this month, a gentleman who was – at least at the time – arguably better known for his work as a comedy writer than a musician released an album which made its way into the top 20 of the Billboard 200 and spawned a single that came within a stone’s throw of topping the Hot 100. Just to backtrack for a moment, let’s not undercut Williams’ accomplishments as a musician prior to the release of his PHONOGRAPH RECORD: he released his first single in 1960 (“Little Billy Blue Shoes”), and he was performing and recording throughout the ‘60s. When he teamed up with the Smothers Brothers to

20 years ago today, the Kronos Quartet released a tribute to a noted Russian composer which can best be described as “startling.” That’s not a critique of the Kronos Quartet, mind you, but a descriptor of the string quartets they’re performing on the LP. Produced by Judith Sherman, KRONOS QUARTET PERFORMS ALFRED SCNITTKE: THE COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS has a decidedly self-explanatory title, particularly if you’re familiar with Schnittke’s work. Born in Engels, a city in the Volga-German Republic of the Russian SFSR, Schnittke was an acclaimed composer, but his work wasn’t exactly beloved by the

46 years ago today, Jack Nitzsche quietly released an orchestral album which took its title from the location of its recording. Although he first came to the attention of music fans for his 1963 song “The Lonely Surfer,” Nitzsche soon became known predominantly for his contributions to the arrangements of other artists’ material, including songs by The Rolling Stones, Buffalo Springfield, and Neil Young. Indeed, it was his work on Young’s HARVEST that provided Nitzsche with the opportunity to record a new solo LP for Reprise Records. The result, ST. GILES CRIPPLEGATE, was recorded at St. Giles

If it seems like the vinyl release of LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING - THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS has been a long time coming, well, that’s only because it has. But what did you expect, really? It’s the last chapter in the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, after all. It’s not like we were going to release it second, you know? But enough tomfoolery: let’s get down to serious business. And by that, we mean that we’ve made a very specific point of selecting this particular release date, as it falls not only within International Tolkien Week but also within a day of International Hobbit Day. Sorr

We know the past few weeks have probably been as much of a blur to you as they have been to us, but if you search your mind (or at least this website), you’ll recall how Rhino recently announced the release of the expanded edition of Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s THE CHRISTMAS ATTIC digitally and on CD. When we did so, we also mentioned that the reissue would soon be making its way to vinyl as well, and while you may not remember this to be case, we can assure you that we really did say this, and we also assured you that the LP release was set for November 23. You just checked your calendar, didn

When it comes to epic cinematic adventures, they don’t come much more memorable than Peter Jackson’s LORD OF THE RINGS, so when the time came to secure a composer to pen the score, Jackson made sure to find someone who was capable of delivering an appropriately epic sound. As music and film history reveal, he found that someone in Howard Shore, and now you can pick up a limited-edition set filled with the original soundtracks to all three LORD OF THE RINGS films on vinyl. LORD OF THE RINGS: THE MOTION PICTURE TRILOGY SOUNDTRACK is a 6-LP set, with each of the LPs pressed on 180-gram vinyl, and

There’s been a lot of buzz around Martin Scorsese’s new Netflix film, The Irishman , but most of it thus far has been about the actors participating in the film, which is not in any way unreasonable. That said, it’s time to contemplate some of the songs in the film, and since Scorsese has a longstanding reputation for amazing utilization of music in his motion pictures, you won’t be surprised to discover that the soundtrack is top-notch. For our part here at Rhino.com, we’re going to be spotlighting a certain song by Edith Piaf, one which – in case you’ve forgotten – also gets a moment to shin