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Listen Learn and Grow - Music to Stimulate and Inspire Young Minds, newborn through preschool. Listen, Learn and Grow was initially formulated as a gift for all babies born in Tennessee hospitals and follows the scientific evidence that the rhythms, structure, and high frequencies of classical music stimulate the neural pathways of developing minds, fortifying the intelligence and well being of young listeners. This compilation of great composers, including Bach and Mozart, is designed for tots through preschool age, though older children and adults will enjoy these pieces as well. A delightful mix, Rossini's Overture from "The Barber of Seville" builds from subdued strings to crashing cymbals and lively woodwinds, while Haydn's "Cello Concerto No. 2; Rondo: Allegro" soothes and invigorates like sunshine after rain. Pachelbel's well-loved "Canon" is dignified and courtly. And the uptempo "Autumn" and vivid "Winter" movements from Vivaldi's grand Four Seasons are destined to become favorites, along with Handel's "Menuet" from the Water Music suites, a piece that trickles, tinkles, and rushes forth like a secret fountain in the wood.

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Saint-Saens, Camille: Music for Wind Instruments. Celebrated as one of the most successful and gifted composers of his day, Saint-Saëns wrote music for woodwind instruments throughout his long career. This recording presents music from his early days as the bright young thing on the Parisian music scene to the last year of his life. Canada’s renowned National Arts Centre Wind Quintet joins Stéphane Lemelin, a laureate of the Robert Casadesus International Competition, to interpret these assured and beautiful works which combine virtuosity, gentle wit and thoroughly French charm.

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Bottesini, Giovanni: Music for Double Bass and Piano, Vol. 1. Giovanni Bottesini enjoyed a globe-trotting career as "the Paganini of the double bass". He was also a successful conductor and a composer, although only the music he wrote for his own instrument has outlived him. Many of the works on this recording emphasize the essential bel canto quality of Bottesini’s inspiration, most explicitly in the dazzling Bellini Fantasia, but also in the duets with clarinet and soprano which demand virtuosity of both feeling and technique. The Concerto No. 2 is a fully mature work, from the somewhat laconic first movement, through the simply singing second, to the third, driven by a rhythmic figure typical of the polonaise and the Cuban bolero.

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Richard Fawkes' History of Classical Music - Contains 150 Music Excerpts from Major Works (4 CDs). From Gregorian Chant to Henryk Gorecki, the first living classical composer to get into the pop album charts, here is the fascinating story of over a thousand years of Western classical music and the composers who have sought to express in music the deepest of human feelings and emotions. Polyphony, sonata form, serial music - many musical expressions are also explained - with the text illustrated by performances from some of the most highly praised recordings of recent years.