DECCA & PHILIPS CLASSICS NEWSLETTER

Cecilia Bartoli is currently in the USA delighting audiences with her acclaimed new album The Salieri Album. The album has also been a great chart success in Europe, entering the pop charts in Germany in the same week as a great appearance on a German TV chat show.

Hayley Westenra continues her rise to global fame. Her latest album 'Pure' has now been at #1 in New Zealand for 15 weeks (a new NZ record) and gone platinum in the UK. A single of Amazing Grace has just been released in Japan and literally flown off the shelves, and the USA are starting to take notice ahead of the album's release in Spring 2004. Finally, to all classical music fans in Germany - look out for a the first 'Sunday Night Classics' this Sunday (16th Nov) a major new classical music TV gala featuring many of our top artists

That's all for this month, read on for all the latest news.

Wim Jenkins, Site Editor, Decca Music Group, London

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In this month's newsletter...
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In the Studio

Arcadia - Andreas Scholl
Kathleen Ferrier Tribute
New German TV Show - Sunday Night Classics
Cecilia Bartoli's Salieri Album is a hit!
Hayley Westenra news from Japan
New Soundtracks - Master & Commander, The Cat in the Hat

>> NEW RELEASES <<

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NEWS
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>> In the Studio <<

Renee Fleming is in the studio in Watford, UK this month, recording Great Handel Arias - opera and oratorio - for her next studio album, provisionally due out next autumn.

>> Arcadia - Andreas Scholl <<

Arcadia is the latest album from counter tenor Andreas Scholl, featuring world premiere recordings of vocal cantatas by Italian composers associated with the Arcadian Academy of Rome. This sumptuous disc of cantatas, telling of the simple love of nymphs and shepherds in an ideal pastoral landscape, presents Scholl's uniquely beautiful countertenor voice in ravishing music of great sensuality. The music on the disc is easily accessible, relaxing and enchanting. Scholl himself has described the music, with great affection, as "Baroque easy-listening". That was the aim of the Arcadian composers - simplicity, beauty and direct musical appeal.

Arcadia is out now on CD and SACD. Our new website feature showcases the album, and features audio extracts from the album, a video interview with Andreas and more information about the album. Go to http://www.deccaclassics.com/andreasscholl and click the rotating cd cover at the top of the page.

>> Kathleen Ferrier Tribute <<

The new Decca album Kathleen Ferrier: A Tribute captured the UK public's imagination who, following the BBC's portrait of the great British contralto who, despite little formal musical training, rose from humble origins to become an internationally acclaimed artist before her tragic early death in 1953.

http://www.deccaclassics.com/newsandnewreleases/august2003/475078.html

>> New German TV Show - Sunday Night Classics <<

Calling all German classical fans - don't forget to watch the brand new show "Sunday Night Classics". This new German classical gala features performances and interviews with Pavarotti, Renée Fleming, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Bond and is due for broadcast on Sunday 16th November 03 at 22.00hrs.

(The show will also be broadcast on French/German culture channel ARTE and on national culture channel 3 SAT).

>> The Death of Klinghoffer - award-winning opera released on DVD <<

This month we release the acclaimed film of John Adam's opera The Death of Klinghoffer. This winner of the 2003 Prix D'Italia is a original and deeply moving film adaptation of John Adam's critically acclaimed opera The Death of Klinghoffer by Award Winning filmmaker Penny Woolcock= . The synopsis of the opera deals with the hijacking of the Achile Lauro, the Mediterranean cruise-ship, by Palestinian terrorists in 1985. The tragedy culminated in the murder of a wheelchair-bound Jewish American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer. Adam's controversial but highly acclaimed opera plays out against the turbulent emotions and violence that are as ancient as a biblical text and as contemporary as today's headlines.

Award winning British filmmaker Penny Woolcock, working with John Adams, has ingeniously reworked the original opera, using the techniques afforded by film to imbue the narrative with realism. While shooting the main action entirely on location in the Mediterranean, Penny Woolcock has also used actual and recreated archive footage to tell the broader story of the characters before and after the hijacking. The film has already won rave reviews;

"The Death of Klinghoffer is nothing short of stunning. Filmed naturalistically by the director Penny Woolcock it comes sensationally alive. There are brilliant flashback recreations of the seizure of Palestine in 1948 and sequences that explore the hinterland of the terrorists' actions. The solo voices were recorded live on set (a real cruise ship at sea), so there's none of the phoney dubbed-in acoustical effect that mars many opera films." - Daily Telegraph

For more information about this DVD Video, see
http://www.deccaclassics.com/music/dvd/074189.html

>> Cecilia Bartoli's Salieri Album is a hit! <<

A new album from Cecilia Bartoli is always a major musical event. With the release of The Salieri Album, Cecilia looks destined to bring her unique music to her widest audience yet. The Salieri Album has been spotted riding high in the pop charts in Germany (#33), and has lodged firmly in the #1 position in the Classical Music charts in France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Mexico! The New Yorker Magazine ran a great article earlier this month about The Salieri Album (extract by Peter G. Davis, courtesy of The New Yorker Magazine)

"The Italian mezzo's latest venture into the unknown is called The Salieri Album, surely the most prominent attention this composer has received since Amadeus revived the ancient fiction that he had poisoned his younger rival, Mozart. Actually, Salieri was a composer of immense talent, success, and culture, whose reputation for generosity was legendary among a coterie of students that included Beethoven, Schubert, and Liszt= . His 39 completed operas covered nearly all the genres of the day, most of them undergoing fascinating transitions as the new century (1800) approached, and Bartoli offers a varied assortment of thirteen arias with Adam Fischer conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Salieri may be no Mozart, but his range is just as wide, his invention equally diverse, and his sense of theater unfailing. On this disc, he runs the gamut from a dizzy, mocking minuet to a serenely tragic contemplation of death written when he was only 21. In between, there are virtuoso showpieces, hilarious buffo send-ups, and elegiac romances, all enhanced by imaginative instrumental accompaniments. Bartoli has an uncanny ability to catch the distinctive musical and dramatic character of each aria, and her voice has never been more responsive. Some may be put off by the sheer ferocity of her coloratura and expressive devices, but I find them apt, thrilling, and awesomely accurate. This is a great singer at the peak of her powers."

Find out what all the fuss is about by visiting Cecilia's official site at
http://www.ceciliabartolionline.com

>> Hayley Westenra news from Japan <<

Hayley has also just got back from a promotional trip to Japan where Amazing Grace is featured in one of Japan's most popular soap operas "Shiroi Kyoto". Hayley has released the track as a single, and it has already sold 40,000 copies and is #1 in the international singles chart!

In the UK, Hayley's latest album Pure continues its amazing success in the UK - the album has now gone platinum with sales of 300,000.

For information about Hayley, go to her site at http://www.hayleywestenra.com

>> New Soundtracks - Master & Commander, The Cat in the Hat <<

Two brand new soundtracks are out this month. First up we have Master & Commander: an epic seafaring adventure featuring Russell Crowe ("Gladiator"). Set during the Napoleonic Wars, Crowe is Patrick O'Brian's Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, renowned as a fighting captain in the British Navy. The soundtrack has been composed by trio of noted Australian musicians - Iva Davies, Richard Tognetti and Christopher Gordon. They previously collaborated on "The Ghost of Time," a piece commissioned for the Millennium celebrations in Sydney. Find out more here >> http://www.deccaclassics.com/music/soundtracks/masterandcommander.html

The Cat In The Hat is the highly anticipated live-action feature film adaptation of the beloved literary classic by Dr Seuss starring Mike Myers, in the title role. The Cat in The Hat by Dr. Seuss was first published in 1957 and remains one of the Top 10 best-selling hardcover books of all time. The soundtrack features original music composed by David Newman as well as "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "The Clean-Up Song" written by the Tony Award winning songwriting pair from Hairspray, Marc Shaiman and Scott Whittman, performed on-screen by Mike Myers. The album also inlcudes a new version of the Beatles classic "Getting Better" performed by Smash Mouth. This is a brand-new, exclusive track available only on our soundtrack. Find out more here >> http://www.deccaclassics.com/music/soundtracks/thecatinthehat.html

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NEW RELEASES
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Andreas Scholl - Arcadia - Scholl ·Accadamia Bizantina.·Dantone
http://www.deccaclassics.com/newsandnewreleases/november2003/470296.html

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique - Wiener Philharmokier, Gergiev
http://www.deccaclassics.com/newsandnewreleases/november2003/475095.html

Beethoven: The Symphonies - LGO·Masur
http://www.deccaclassics.com/newsandnewreleases/november2003/475272.html

Debussy: Orchestral Works - Ansermet·Dutoit·Chailly
http://www.deccaclassics.com/newsandnewreleases/november2003/475313.html

Bruckner: The Symphonies - DSOB·RCOA·Chailly
http://www.deccaclassics.com/newsandnewreleases/november2003/475331.html

Heavenly Adagios - Various
http://www.deccaclassics.com/newsandnewreleases/november2003/475345.html

New Era - CBCO·Clayderman
http://www.deccaclassics.com/newsandnewreleases/november2003/475328.html

>> DVD VIDEO <<

Adams: The Death of Klinghoffer - LSO·Adams
http://www.deccaclassics.com/music/dvd/074189.html

>> SOUNDTRACKS <<

Master & Commander - Original Soundtrack- Davies·Tognetti·Gordon
http://www.deccaclassics.com/music/soundtracks/masterandcommander.html

The Cat in the Hat - Original Soundtrack
http://www.deccaclassics.com/music/soundtracks/thecatinthehat.html

>> SACD <<

Andreas Scholl - Arcadia - Scholl ·Accadamia Bizantina.·Dantone
http://www.deccaclassics.com/music/sacd/470630.html

Essential Tavener Collection -Temple Choir·Layton
http://www.deccaclassics.com/music/sacd/470636.html

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique - Wiener Philharmokier, Gergiev
http://www.deccaclassics.com/music/sacd/470632.html

>> REISSUES - TRIOS <<

Verdi: Don Carlo - Gorchakova·ROH·Haitink
http://www.deccaclassics.com/newsandnewreleases/november2003/475252.html

Tchaikovsky: Complete Concertos - Haas·Accardo·Gendron
http://www.deccaclassics.com/newsandnewreleases/november2003/475256.html

Shostakovich: Complete Concertos - Mullova·Kremer·Schiff
http://www.deccaclassics.com/newsandnewreleases/november2003/475260.html

Hindemith: Orchestral Works - SFS·LGO·Blomstedt
http://www.deccaclassics.com/newsandnewreleases/november2003/475264.html

Schubert: Song Cycles - Schreier·Schiff
http://www.deccaclassics.com/newsandnewreleases/november2003/475268.html]

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