NI 5704

Benjamin Britten, Suites for Solo Cello

"No one could miss the extraordinary eloquence and projection of British cellist Paul Watkins... his playing had such personality and urgency" Philadelphia Inquirer

NI 5636

Ram Narayan

Ragas Alhaiya Bilaval and Mishra Bhairavi

Due to its imitation of the voice, the sarangi has traditionally been the preferred instrument to accompany singers in North Indian and Hindustani classical music. However players such as Ram Narayan, who has championed the solo sarangi in recent decades, are exposing its performance quite justly as a worthy solo career.

NI 5714/5

Stravinsky - The Firebird Suite, The Rite of Spring
Petrouchka, Symphony in Three Movements

The first performance of The Rite of Spring on May 29th 1913 in Paris constituted one of the most notorious premières in the history of music. Slavonic tribes gather at the foot of a hill to celebrate the Spring Rites. A witch predicts the future, an elder places a kiss on the earth, young virgins dance in a circle and choose a victim who will dance her last before the company of ancients.

NI 7910

Prima Voce - Emmy Destinn (1878 - 1930)

Of Destinn's London debut at Covent Garden on 2 May 1904 in Don Giovanni singing Donna Anna, Hermann Klein, a contemporary critic, commented that "Destinn is an actress of consummate ability, a splendid Mozart singer, in a word, the admirable, very nearly perfect Donna Anna, and with no lack of ‘freshness’ in her round and penetrating Tones".