Engelbert Humperdinck
"Engelbert Humperdinck says that he cheated with over 3,000 women, and his wife of over 40 years is fine with it, because she said it was less work for her. And today, Bill Clinton got an autographed copy of the book for Hillary."
- Jay Leno, The Tonight Show

Carousing crooner Engelbert Humperdinck tells story in new autobiography
TORONTO (CP) - In the beginning, radio DJs mangled his outrageous moniker, calling him Engeldink Humperbump, Dinkeldink and even Pumpernickel.
But Arnold Dorsey's decision to change his name to Engelbert Humperdinck proved a case of classic music marketing, turning the ultra-tanned crooner into an international singing sensation who has sold 130 million records.
In a new autobiography, What's in a Name?, Humperdinck looks back on a glittering career that saw him share a stage with Jimi Hendrix, compare sideburns with Elvis and down drinks with Dean Martin.
- Read the full article... (Canada.com)

ENGELBERT Humperdinck, of the thrown ladies' knickers, extra marital affairs and multiple paternity suits, did an autobio. Publisher is - ready? - Virgin. Perfect for him, right? In "Engelbert: What's In A Name?" he discusses his insecurities, excessive drinking, pain he caused his family, arrest for cocaine possession and if he really bed 3,000 women.
The book even includes the perspective of Patricia, his wife of 40+ years. She condoned his cheating. (This is from Cindy: That's like takeout food. Less work for mother.) The part from Patricia is: "I'm always given the title 'long suffering wife.' I wasn't long suffering. If I was, it would have been the end of our marriage."
- Cindy Adams, New York Post, January 26, 2005

Engelbert: No More Cheating for Me
Writing Autobiography Changed Him
Serial cheater Engelbert Humperdinck vows he's finally going to be faithful to his wife of 40 years.
"I'm now a one-woman man," declares the 68-year-old singer.
Women still make offers and the temptations are there. Panites still get thrown onstage, and women pass up cards with their phone numbers."
But writing his new autobiography made him realize what he had put his wife Patricia through - and he intends to mend his ways.
"I appreciate my marriage more now, and I'm not about to jeopardize that," he told an interviewer."It hurt me to know that I'd hurt my wife," admits the entertainer, who was so bold he once brought along a mistress when he went on vacation to Spain with his wife.
"Althought Engelbert has lost two paternity suits, he says his marriage is doing just fine these days.
"We have a great relationship, improved by us finally confronting the past."
To help confront his bed-hopping past, Engelbert gave his wife space in his autobiography to express her feelings - and she opened up with amazing candor.
She shoots from the hip," says the entertainer.
"We're closer than we've ever been, and we have the book to thank."
- National Enquirer

Love Cheat Engelbert 'Fesses Up
After admitting he's had far more than 1,000 affairs over 40 years, crooner Engelbert Humperdinck now vows to be completely faithful to his long-suffering wife Patricia.
"It's been reported that I have slept with 3,000 women, but that's an exaggeration - it's half that number," the singer confesses in his new autobiography, Engelbert: What's In a Name?
Even today, at age 68, Humperdinck is pursued by amorous female fans...
In his tell-all tome, Humperdinck writes about his decades of philandering and the paternity suits he's been slapped with. He also admits that he flaunted some of his women in front of his wife...
Humperdinck's womanizing began soon after his breakthrough hit Release Me climbed the charts in 1967.
- Globe Magazine. Globe Magazine

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Daniel O'Donnell

Celtic Country
Loretta Lynn inspires Irish superstar Daniel O'Donnell
When Irish crooner Daniel O'Donnell started singing country music, he didn't know Americans were singing it, too.
Read the full article... (Cincinnati.com)

Sometimes it's easy being green
When it comes to Irish performers with commercial clout, Daniel O'Donnell is a lean, green money machine.
Read the full article... (Merrillville Post Tribune)

"If you haven't already heard of Daniel O'Donnell, you soon will."
Hartford Courant

"[Daniel O'Donnell is] an Irish institution... just about two decades after his career kicked into gear, he is now gaining a bunch of American fans - and doing so very quickly."
San Antonio Star-Telegram

"Irish superstar Daniel O'Donnell's charm is that he understands two things: A) The power of understatement, and B) The deep connection between traditional Irish and American country music... "
San Antonio Star-Telegram

"Lush orchestrations and flawless production... a favorite of the 45-and-over crowd."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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Salute To Vienna

Salute to Vienna outshines even Viennese
Some musical traditions deeply rooted in European culture almost invariably resist attempts to transplant them to American soil, as witness the many well-meaning but soggy domestic productions of Johann Strauss Jr.'s "Die Fledermaus" at holiday time.
Read the full review... (Chicago Tribune)

New Year's 'Salute' about saving best for last
The holidays are over, but the Daytona Beach Symphony Society saved one seasonal gift for last, and best.
Read the full review... (Daytona Beach News-Journal)

The new year begins with a waltz
Salute to Vienna' is playing in 33 cities
Americans can get as nationalistic as anyone else, but when it comes to music, they can also be amazingly adoptive.
Read the full review... (Baltimore Sun)

Tenor is excited to bring a little 'Vienna' to Boston
Jerry Hadley hasn't sung in Boston since he appeared with the Boston Pops in 1992, but the popular American tenor will be back in Symphony Hall on Sunday afternoon to participate in a "Salute to Vienna" - a salute, more specifically, to the tradition of the Vienna Philharmonic's internationally celebrated New Year's concerts.
Read the full preview... (Boston Globe)

Viennese spirit and sounds waltz into Orchestra Hall
Vienna, or at least the Viennese spirit, waltzes into Motown Sunday as Detroit joins 32 other North American cities in a three-four welcome for the New Year.
Read the full preview... (Detroit News)

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Marcello Viotti

Fenice rises again and Viotti has grand plans
La Fenice rises from the ashes again Sunday, eight years after the famous Venetian theater burned to the ground.
After years of squabbles and delays, Riccardo Muti will lift his baton and lead a gala concert of the company's orchestra and chorus, marking the return of the city's premier cultural jewel.
Read the full article... (Associated Press)

Out of the Ashes - Venice's Teatro La Fenice reopens six years after a fire gutted its historic details
Opera was not on the program for the inaugural-week concerts marking the reopening of Teatro La Fenice, the celebrated Venice opera house, which had been closed since fire destroyed much of the building on Jan. 29, 1996.
Read the full article... (Newsweek)

Backstage: Marcello Viotti
Marcello Viotti is the music director at La Fenice in Venice, an enviable job now that the theater finally has reopened after eight years of political intrigue...
Read the full article... (Wall Street Journal Europe)

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ANGEL/EMI Classic Archives DVD Series

You Had to Be There...Concert Archive DVDs Give Classic Performances a Well-Deserved Afterlife
How many times have we wished to preserve a concert forever - to play over and over again as we choose?
Washington Post

MUSIC: VIDEO; Seeing Gould's Alchemy Up Close
Home video was in its infancy when the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould died in 1982, but had he lived longer, he would unquestionably have embraced video as an extension of what he had been doing for nearly two decades. Gould was as famous for having given up live performance in...
By Allan Kozinn, New York Times Arts & Leisure, Sunday September 21, 2003.
newyorktimes.com

In a World Made of Sound, a Medium in Search of a Role
"It took a decade to assemble and remaster the historic material presented in EMI's Classic Archive series, 17 discs (to date) of performances by the likes of Sviatoslav Richter, Leopold Stokowski, Jascha Heifetz and Teresa Berganza. As an extra, in lieu of fancy videos, each disc offers a bonus track or two: on the Régine Crespin video, Denise Duval singing Poulenc, with the composer at the piano in 1959 and 1961; on the Igor Markevitch video, Stravinsky conducting his "Firebird" Suite in 1965... [these films] bring a generation of performers to life for those of us who never saw them."
By Anne Midgette, New York Times' Arts & Leisure, August 17, 2003
New York Times

The Cult of Gould
"Glenn Gould: The Alchemist": A French documentary by Bruno Monsaingeon, made in the 1970s and newly issued on DVD by EMI Classics. Besides interviews, in which the pianist is both charming and mischievous, the film includes performances of Gibbons, Berg and, most impressively, Bach's Sixth Partita.
By Scott Timberg, LA Times, August 10, 2003
latimes.com

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Shirley Verrett
I Never Walked Alone: The Autobiography of an American Singer. With Christopher Brooks

BOOKS IN BRIEF: NONFICTION.
At the age of 5, Shirley Verrett's mother taught her the song ''Jesus Loves Me.'' Her father, who conducted the choir in a Seventh-Day Adventist church in New Orleans, asked her, ''Do you know you have a very lovely voice, little girl?'' ''I think,'' she writes, ''it was at that exact moment I became a singer.''
Read the full article... (New York Times)

Bookreporter.com
"...a very honest portrait here of a talented singer who knew her own worth and was not about to take guff or shabby treatment from anybody. Those lucky enough to have heard Shirley Verrett sing will recognize her in these pages."
By ROBERT FINN
bookreporter.com

Shirley Verrett Finally Tells Us Where She's Been
"I heard every role she sang in Boston, sometimes more than once. By then she was performing soprano and mezzo roles with equal authority. She brought rich colorings, fearless power, scrupulous musicianship and keen dramatic instincts to every portrayal. That she was an exceptionally lovely woman and a charismatic acresss only added to her allure. I've seldom heard singing at once so visceral and so cultured."
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI, New York Times, Sunday, July 27, 2003
New York Times

Soprano, 72, a Boston favorite, has a noteworthy story to tell
"Verrett's book... is one of the best diva memoirs. She has a striking story to tell, of a strict Seventh Day Adventist upbringing, of being an African-American woman rising to the top of the mostly white world of classical music, of bridging the gap between soprano and mezzo-soprano, of career-long battles against infections and allergies...
By RICHARD DYER, Boston Globe, June 15, 2003
Boston Globe

Willamette Week (Portland, OR), June 25, 2003
I Never Walked Alone is interesting for two important reasons. No. 1, Verrett was a splendid singer in her prime, as famous for her portrayal of the mezzo-soprano gypsy Azucena in Verdi's Il Trovatore as for the soprano coloratura priestess Norma in Bellini's opera. She was strikingly beautiful, and a moving actress--her Carmen is famed for its psychological depth. She was also an artist of such high standards that she repeatedly refused offers that could have catapulted her to earlier and more lasting fame.
By GRANT MENZIES, Willamette Week

'A charmed life' - Cherry Hill Courier Post, Sunday, June 1, 2003
In a new book, opera star Shirley Verrett recalls her childhood and glamorous career
South Jersey News.com

Publishers Weekly - May 15, 2003
Soprano Shirley Verrett rocketed to stardom (as a mezzo-soprano) in the early 1960s as one of the first African-Americans to break the color barrier in the recital hall and opera house.
Read the full article...

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Audio DVDs are Abravanel encore
During Maurice Abravanel's long tenure as music director of the Utah Symphony, he and the orchestra recorded more than 100 albums for Vanguard Classics.
Read the full article... (Deseret Morning News)

Abravanel's Encore
The Utah Symphony marked the centennial of Maurice Abravanel, its most influential music director, last year. Now, a series of audio DVDs aims to prolong the celebration and tell Abravanel's story to a new generation of listeners.
Read the full article... (The Salt Lake Tribune)

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RACHEL BARTON - Violin Concertos By Brahms & Joachim (Cedille/Qualiton)

Classical CD Reviews
This release offers a fascinating pairing of two complementary works: Brahms' celebrated Violin Concerto, written for his friend, Joseph Joachim; and Joachim's own rarely heard concerto, dedicated to Brahms and premiered nearly two decades earlier. Read the full article...

www.Classicstoday.com - May, 2003. 10/10 Rating!
This is not only one of the best sounding violin and orchestra recordings ever made, but the entire concept is so smart, so well executed, and so thoughtfully planned that even if it were not so musically stupendous it still would be worthy of your attention...
Read the full article...

Johannes Brahms' friendship with the great violinist Joseph Joachim is well documented, as is Joachim's influence on the composition of Brahms' Violin Concerto in D. But Joachim's own violin concerto is seldom heard - a situation that American violinist Rachel Barton clearly wants to remedy. This two-disc set contains both the Brahms and Joachim concertos, so listeners can compare and hear how the friends inspired each other.
By James C. Taylor, Los Angeles Times, July 6, 2003
Read the article...

"... Rachel Barton is a magnetically imaginative artist... who makes every phrase sound fresh. Technically, too, she shows complete mastery..."
By Edward Greenfield, Gramophone, August 2003
Read the article...

"The coupling is original and apt, given the close personal and music friendship of Brahms and Joachim. One of the foremost violin virtuosos of his day, Joachim played the premiere of the latter's Violin Concerto and composed its cadenza... Barton is so splendidly on top of the... formidable technical difficulties, so deeply into its tuneful romantic sentiment..."
By John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune July 15, 2003
Read the article...

Rachel Barton - Brahms/Joachim Violin Concertos - 4 Stars!
...a compelling advocate for both concertos... Barton produces a glowing, lustrous tone and plays with unfailing taste. She receives optimal support from Carlos Kalmar and the Chicago Symphony...
By Robert Baxter, Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, NJ) July 4
South Jersey News.com

"These are attractive recordings... [Barton] combines effortless virtuosity and understated lyricism in both concertos."
By Wynne Delacoma, Chicago Sun-Times July 6, 2003
Read the article...

"... the young violinist Rachel Barton is a gem of a player"
By Peter Dobrin, Philadelphia Inquirer June 20, 2003
Read the article...

"...her tone is dark and firm... and her musicianship authoritative... persuasive performances."
By T. Hashimoto, San Francisco Examiner July 22, 2003

Violinist brings her best to Brahms double issue
"Barton evinces clarity, rhythmic life and a serene sense of lyrical line. The Brahms is noble and the Joachim, fresher to the ears, is a charmer. The written notes are by Barton, who is clearly as intelligent a commentator as she is a virtuoso."
The Arizona Republic, Jun. 7, 2003
Read the full article...

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