Various Artists - Into The Sixties - Towards A Cosmic Music: Pre-Echoes Of A Momentous Decade / Various (CD)

Details: Three CDs. In the 1960's the monumental success of The Beatles re-wrote the language of pop, drove a revolution in social mobility and prompted a new creative confidence in the arts. They re-defined what it was to be British. By 1966 The Beatles were untouchable and in expansive mood - 'Revolver' found them drawing on an eclectic, wholly unprecedented palette of musical colours. George Martin's passion for the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel and his knowledge of the inner workings of the orchestra facilitated the group's ambitions which culminated in 'Sgt. Pepper'; a stunning synthesis of Modern and Indian classical music, electronic and avant-garde procedures, progressive jazz and surrealist poetry. In Britain, The Beatles' fearless pioneering prepared an enlightened audience for such indelible cultural landmarks as Lindsay Anderson's highly subversive if and Patrick McGoohan's dark fairytale, The Prisoner; radical productions which, like The Beatles in their pomp, struck at the very heart of the Establishment. 'Into the Sixties' is a panorama of the visionary musical forces that inspired The Beatles and such contemporaries as The Pink Floyd and The Mothers of Invention in their explosion of the decade. From Ornette Coleman to Coltrane to Cage, from Sun Ra to Stockhausen, from Berio to Varese; musical prophets, spiritual adventurers. What jazz critic John Fordham wrote of Coltrane might apply to each: "He always sounded as if he was striving for what still lay out of reach. It wasn't just the search for more music, or a different music. It sounded like the search for another world, and another life"

Tracklist:

1. Daphne Oram -Ursa Major (Sun Mix)
2. 2Ornette Coleman- Monk and the Nun
3. Gustav Holst- Jupiter the Bringer of Jollity from the Planets
4. BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus / Sir Malcolm Sargent
5. Olivier Messiaen -L'alouette Lulu from Catalogue D'oiseaux (Yvonne Piano)
6. John Coltrane -Spiritual
7. Jimmy Giuffre 3- Flight
8. Morton Feldman- Piece for Four Pianos
9. Ravi Shankar- Dhun Kafi (Spring Season)
10. Aldous Huxley- on Drugs Dictators and Writing
11. Charles Mingus- Self-Portrait in Three Colors
12. Allen Ginsberg- the Sunflower Sutra
13. Jean Sibelius- Allegro Molto Moderato from Symphony 6
14. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Thomas Beecham
15. Edith Sitwell -The Wind's Bastinado
16. Julian Bream Consort -Mounsiers Almaine
17. Jimmy Smith- Flamingo (With Kenny Burrell ; Lee Morgan)
18. Maurice Ravel- Introduction and Allegro for Harp Flute Clarinet and String Quartet (The Melos Ensemble)
19. Bill Evans Trio- Nardis
20. Pierre Boulez- Après "L'artisanat Furieux" from Le Marteau Sans Maître. Conductor: Robert Craft
21. Luciano Berio O- King from Sinfonia for Eight Voices and Orchestra (The Swingle Singers: Voices) Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra / Ernest Bour
22. Karlheinz Stockhausen- Zeitmasse for Flute Oboe English Horn Clarinet and Bassoon Op. 5. Conductor: Robert Craft
23. Arnold Schoenberg- Andante from Concerto for Piano and Orchestra Op. 42 (Glenn Gould: Piano). CBC Symphony Orchestra / Robert Craft
24. Dmitri Shostakovich- Largo from Symphony No. 5 in D Minor Op. 47. Minnesota Orchestra / Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
25. Claude Debussy Sarabande from Pour Le Piano (Samson François: Piano)
26. Lili Boulanger- Psalm 129 for Baritone Chorus and Orchestra (Orchestra Lamoureux / Igor Markevitch)
27. Satyajit Ray- on Style and Influences
28. Eric Dolphy- Left Alone
29. Erik - Gymnopédies NR. 2 (Manfred Reinelt: Piano)
30. John Cage- Quodlibet from String Quartet in Four Parts (New Music String Quartet)
31. Sun Ra and His - Sun Song
32. Edgard - Hyperprism for Small Orchestra and Percussion
33. Orchestre Du Domaine Musical / Pierre Boulez
34. Gustav Mahler- Andante Moderato from Symphony No. 6 in a Minor 'Tragic'. Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra / Eduard Flipse
35. Igor Stravinsky -Symphonies for Wind Instruments. Eastman Wind Ensemble / Frederick Fennell
36. Claude Debussy- Danses Sacrée Et Profane - Danse Sacrée
37. Danse Profane (Susanne Cotelle: Harp). Orchestre Lamoureux / Igor Markevitch
38. Django Reinhardt- Manoir de Mes Rêves
39. Gustav Holst- Second Dance from Beni Mora. BBC Symphony Orchestra / Sir Malcolm Sargent
40. Constant Lambert- Valse for the Gemini (The Twins) from Horoscope Ballet. Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Constant Lambert
41. Edith Sitwell- When Sir Beelzebub from Façade. Chamber Orchestra / Frederik Prausnitz
42. Alexander Scriabin- the Poem of Ecstasy. Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra / Nikolai Golovanov
43. Maurice Ravel- Le Gibet from Gaspard de la Nuit (Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli: Piano)