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January 2003
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Luciano Pavarotti
Gavin Bryars - a portrait
Decca Festive Competition - Winners
Luciano Pavarotti
The daughter of Luciano Pavarotti and Nicoletta Mantovani, named Alice, was
born on Monday 13 January, at the hospital of Sant'Orsolo in Bologna.
The little girl, weighing 3.8lbs, was born in the 31st week of pregnancy by
caesarian section. Tragically, it proved impossible for doctors to save the
life of her male twin.
As the couple try to come to terms with the loss of one of their babies,
Nicoletta (age 34) is recovering from the operation and Alice, despite her
birth weight, is surprising doctors with her strength.
Nicoletta was closely monitored by her specialist in Italy right from the
start of her pregnancy and, very early on, had been told the pregnancy was a
high risk to her own health. She was trying to stay well and hoping to
continue the pregnancy for as long as possible but, yesterday, developed
complications and was taken into surgery to undergo an emergency caesarian
operation.
The Decca Music Group would like to offer it deepest symaphy to Maestro Pavarotti and Nicoletta Mantovani.
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Gavin Bryars - a portrait |
To celebrate the 60th birthday (on 16th January 2003) of Gavin Bryars, we're releasing a double album celebrating this incredible musician, as well as his career to date as one of the most prolific, innovative contemporary composers.
During the 1990's, many of Gavin Bryars' most important works were released or re-released on the Point music label, and his most popular work, his 1993 reworking of Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (with Tom Waits) captured the public's imagination, and introduced Gavin Bryars to an even wider audience.
The original Jesus' Blood emerged from a trip by a camera crew to Waterloo Station in London, 1971 in order to tape interviews with homeless people. When the producers got back to the studio they realised they had caught the singing of an unidentified homeless man in the background of their footage and Gavin Bryars recorded multiple versions of this haunting vocal track
Gavin Bryars talks about his Cello Concerto (also included on this album):
"I have a great fondness of the lower string instruments: I am a bassist, my mother was a cellist, as are both my daughters. When Julian Lloyd-Webber asked me for a concerto he thought it might form a companion piece to one of the Haydn concertos, and this is the reason for the relatively restrained orchestration"
Read more
here
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Decca Festive Competition - Winners
Many thanks to those of you who entered our annual Festive Competition. We had many hours of most interesting reading sorting through your entries. Happily some of the suggestions are already scheduled for release in the coming year, and the remainder were passed on to the marketing and A&R departments here.
Here is a very small selection of some of the comments we received in answer to the question
"If you were in charge, what would you release on Decca & Philips in 2003?"
"Definitely I would release a gigantic Arrau Edition, as he was the greatest pianist ever" - from Cristobel Perez in Chile. Look out for a new Arrau box in the next few months, Cristobel!
"Massanet's Manon with Renée Fleming" (we had a few requests for this)
"The 1955 Bayreuth Ring - with some of the finest post-war Wagner singers it would be a landmark recording and is currently in the Decca Vaults" from David Harbin, UK
"A Russell Watson Christmas album" (again we had lots of requests for this)
There can only be a few winners however, and their names are
* Classical Prize
Derek Inglis - Winnepeg, Canada
Hamish Eliott - New Zealand
* Classical runner up prizes
Jack Horne - United Kingdom
Lam Yu Kan - Hong Kong
Alexander Laskurain - Spain
* Crossover Prizes
Villelo Soon - United Kingdom
Sharlene Hunter - Colorado, USA
Sebastian - Chile
Martin Yambao - Philippines
Janine Rolland - France
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