$8.99
Sold by music on Tradebit
The world's largest download marketplace
3,251,435 satisfied buyers
The world's largest download marketplace
3,251,435 satisfied buyers
MP3 Red Priest - Nightmare in Venice
25 MP3 Songs in this album (65:41) !
Related styles: Classical: Baroque, Classical: Vivaldi, Instrumental
People who are interested in Il Giardino Armonico Michaela Petri Roby Lakatos should consider this download.
Details:
Over and above the humorous content the music-making is simply stunning. The tightness of ensemble, charm of their arrangements and the technically flawless Piers Adams on the recorders draw one in.
International Record Review
Replete with hissing and catcalls, this disc is a chiller....musical brilliance.
All About Jazz
Sparkling and energetic versions of Vivaldi, Purcell and LeClair works...... if Red Priest is a musical dream for your ears, you might want to check out theirearlier CD, Priest on the Run.
Audiophile Audition
These players believe in bringing 21st-century sensibility to these old pieces, which in their hands don''t seem nearly as ancient as we''ve come to accept. Ornaments are plentiful, extravagant expressions are common, and no one seems afraid to add a momentarily-felt improvisational enhancement. There are many more moments of surprise and "demonic" influence in this program--but you''ll have to experience them for yourself, because to describe them all would spoil the fun.
https://www.tradebit.com
With an impish sense of humour and astonishing virtuosity......there is a whole load of fun being had here, and a listener would have to be a most unresponsive character not to let out the odd gasp and guffaw...Red Priest also show they can engage at a deeper level; the Vivaldi in particular is movingly shaped.
Gramophone
Daring and breathtaking virtuosity......not to be missed!
Hi Fi News and Record Review
Never a dull moment...admiration bordering on incredulity at the helter-skelter wizardry of the playing.
Music & Vision
the Cirque du Soleil of baroque performance ensembles is back
MusicWeb
every nuance is carefully and precisely articulated (almost to the point of caricature in places), so that one finds it hard to believe that there are only four musicians making this sound...... spectacular tour de force..... some wonderfully intense showmanship that makes one proud to be British.
Recorder Magazine
Red Priest''s larger-than-life approach only enhances the music''s energy and lets its spirit fly. Magnificent playing, too.
The Times
Welcome to the dark side of the baroque!
This was an era when composers were fascinated by themes of the night - by ghosts, demons, witches and fairies, by the strange, the ethereal and the fantastic. Indeed the word ‘baroque’ means bizarre and irregular, and with this album we hope to give a glimpse into the feverish minds of 17th and 18th century masters...
We start in Venice, home to the original Red Priest: celebrated composer, virtuoso violinist and reluctant clergyman Antonio Vivaldi. A vibrant and prosperous city, Venice hosted an eclectic mix of eastern and western cultures, which would come together for several months every year in wild celebration under the guise of the famous Carnival. Yet behind the festivities and the masks lurked the more sinister face of a beaurocratic republic ruled by inquisition and execution, with rumours of occult ritual and sexual excess. Vivaldi’s Night Concerto captures vividly the shadow side of the city, and sounds as shocking today as it must have done in the 18th century; jagged rhythms and weird harmonies conjure up a night of ghosts and fitful sleep, and the effect is reminiscent of a Hammer House of Horror movie score. Another fine example of Vivaldian wizardry is the Concerto Grosso in A minor, from a collection entitled L’Estro Armonico - although in this case the musical theatrics are contained within a more formal concerto structure.
A century before the time of Vivaldi, Italy had given birth to a brand new kind of musical alchemy, known as the Stylus Phantasticus, which marked the beginning of the Baroque era. The innovative instrumental compositions of this time, usually called sonatas or canzonas, combined elements of dance and operatic gesture in wild and unpredictable fashion, and one of the earliest examples of this extraordinary style is the Sonata à Tre by the Milanese organist Giovanni Paulo Cima, composed in 1610. The Sonata Decima by the Venetian ‘ Wind Master’ Dario Castello, written 15 years later, carries the genre to its logical conclusion, producing some of the most freakish chamber music of the era.
Shakespearean England too was home to its share of musical fantasy, especially in the masque tradition, where the impossible was made possible in the dramatization of mythological tales, featuring a cast of mystical characters - represented here in a collection of theatre pieces by Robert Johnson and Nicholas Le Strange. A generation later the great Henry Purcell developed this tradition through his operatic works, notably the Fairy Queen – based on Shakespeare’s popular fantasy, A Midsummer Night''s Dream – from which we have extracted a magical suite of dances.
French baroque music is known less for bursts of fire and fancy than for a cultured, subtle refinement and delicate ornamentation. Jean Marie Leclair, however, was one of the few composers of his day who successfully combined this sensual style with the flamboyance of the Italian school, in which he had trained as a violinist - a synthesis which is superbly displayed in the three mischievous Demon Airs and brief concluding Symphonie from his only operatic work, Scylla et Glaucus.
As our finale we have taken the 18th century ideals of musical fantasy, invention and transformation, and added to the mix some modern-day madness. Maybe the resulting adaptation of Arcangelo Corelli’s famous variations on the ancient theme of La Folia falls outside the currently accepted boundaries of ‘authenticity’, but we hope that it will be taken as it is intended - in the true, grotesque spirit of the baroque!
RED PRIEST is the only early music group in the world to have been compared in the press to the Rolling Stones, Jackson Pollock, the Marx Brothers, Spike Jones and the Cirque du Soleil. This extraordinary acoustic foursome has been described by music critics as ‘visionary and heretical’, ‘outrageous yet compulsive’, ‘wholly irreverent and highly enlightened’, ‘completely wild and deeply imaginative’, with a ‘red-hot wicked sense of humour’ and a ‘break-all-rules, rock-chamber concert approach to early music.’
Founded in 1997, and named after the flame-haired priest, Antonio Vivaldi, Red Priest has given several hundred concerts in many of the world’s most prestigious festivals, including the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Moscow December Nights Festival, Schwetzingen Festival, Prague Spring Festival, Bermuda Festival, and in most European countries, Japan, Australia, and throughout North and Central America. The group has been the subject of hour-long TV profiles for NHK (Japan) and ITV (UK) - the latter for the prestigious South Bank Show in 2005, which documented the launch of the Red Hot Baroque Show, an electrifying marriage of old music with the latest light and video technology.
Red Priest’s latest venture is the launch of its own record label, Red Priest Recordings, distributed globally by Nimbus. Alongside the re-release of the group’s highly acclaimed back-catalogue – Priest on the Run, Nightmare in Venice and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – is the brand new recording, Pirates of the Baroque. Many exciting projects are planned for the coming months, including solo recordings from group members, an all-Bach CD, a DVD of the Four Seasons and downloadable sheet music. For further details please visit https://www.tradebit.com.
Piers Adams was recently heralded in the Washington Post as ‘the reigning recorder virtuoso in the world today’. He has performed in numerous festivals and at premiere concert halls throughout the world, including London’s Royal Festival, Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls, and as concerto soloist with the Philharmonia, the English Sinfonia, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music, the Singapore Symphony and the BBC Symphony. Piers has made several solo CDs reflecting an eclectic taste, ranging from his award-winning Vivaldi début disc (Cala) to David Bedford’s Recorder Concerto (NMC) - one of many major works written for and premiered by him. He has also researched, arranged and recorded many classical, romantic, impressionist and folk-influenced showpieces, which are a mainstay of his recital programs. Full details of his performing activities can be found on https://www.tradebit.com.
Julia Bishop is one of the outstanding baroque violin specialists of her generation, with a virtuoso style described in the BBC Music Magazine as ‘psychedelic’. She has toured the world with most of the UK''s leading period instrument orchestras, including the English Concert, of which she was a member for six years. Julia has worked extensively as an orchestral leader and soloist, in particular with the celebrated Gabrieli Consort, with whom she has performed internationally and appeared on numerous discs for Deutsche Grammophon. She has also appeared as concerto soloist with Florilegium, the Brandenburg Consort and the Hanover Band.
Angela East is widely respected as one of the most brilliant and dynamic performers in the period instrument world, praised in The Times, London, for the ‘elemental power’ of her cello playing. She has given numerous concerto performances in London''s Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls, and has performed as soloist and continuo cellist with many of Europe''s leading baroque orchestras. Among her impressive list of concert credits are La Scala, Milan, Sydney Opera House, Versailles and Glyndebourne. In 1991 Angela formed ‘The Revolutionary Drawing Room’ which performs chamber works from the revolutionary period in Europe on original instruments, and whose first eight CDs have received glowing reviews world-wide. Her long awaited disc of Bach’s Cello Suites is due for release on Red Priest Recordings in 2009, together with a recital disc of popular baroque cello sonatas.
Howard Beach’s uniquely wide-ranging style of keyboard playing has been developed through years of partnering fine musicians in many different fields of music, as well as his own experience as an accomplished singer and violinist. Since 1989 he has worked regularly with Piers Adams in concert and in the recording studio as both harpsichordist and pianist - including several performances in London''s Wigmore Hall and tours throughout Europe, Canada and the Far East. He has also performed and recorded as a concerto soloist and continuo player with Les Arts Florissants, the Apollo Chamber Orchestra and the London Mozart Players. Howard broadcasts frequently on radio and has been consultant and performer for Channel 4 TV.
File Data