Search - Various :: Music for a Goddess

Great opera and orchestral classics for an indulgent moment. Soothing and uplifting music for a goddess (domestic or otherwise). An album of music to help get away from it all, bathed in orchestral bliss with works by Mozart, Puccini and Beethoven inspired by feminine perfection. Queen and huntress, chaste and fair, Now the sun is laid to sleep, Seated in thy silver chair, State in wonted manner keep: Hesperus entreats thy light, Goddess, excellently bright. Ben Jonson Cynthia's Revels (1600) Aphrodite or Venus is pictured on the album cover - a goddess from classical history, with her own stories attached. But this album is for goddesses nearer to home - domestic, or worshipped from afar, it is of no matter. Here is music for the goddess in you, or in your partner, wife or colleague! Music composed with the ultimate female in mind, whether flaxen haired or dark, whether old or young, in love or out. Or it is music for a goddess to enjoy in repose, by candlelight, surrounded by perfumes and warmth. Debussy's 'Girl with the flaxen hair' (track 5) may have been real or imaginary. We do not know Beethoven's precise relationship with Elise, for whom he wrote his exquisite piano piece (track 8). Gluck and Tchaikovsky had mythical women in mind (tracks 2 and 10), but all these pieces were written to express the beauty and seductive power of these women in music. Mozart's 'Queen of the Night' is a powerful and dramatic figure in his opera 'The Magic Flute', while the music of Puccini's 'Madame Butterfly' expresses love and adoration in the most monumental terms. The remaining works on this album provide time for repose: some of the most relaxing and finely written melodies of the entire musical repertoire, from the serene joy of Massenet's 'Meditation' to the quiet calm and tranquillity of Max Bruch's most famous violin concerto. Borodin's 'Nocturne' completes the programme with music of long, languorous melodic charm, and a superbly crafted instrumental texture, the four instruments of the string quartet interacting in perfect harmony to create a restful, blissful moment of peace.