In purgatory, the Ghosts of Versailles are waiting impatiently for Beaumarchais' new play: what if he manages to save Marie Antoinette from the scaffold? Here is Count Almaviva, the famous Figaro, but also Rosina and Cherubino, plunged into a thousand twists and turns to make the famous Queen's Necklace disappear, thwarting the spies of the Revolution. But the situation escapes it's creator, and Beaumarchais must himself become involved in the trial of the Queen - with whom he is in love? With assumed brio, Corigliano's music navigates between Mozart and Rossini, and takes the audience into an unexpected opera, all the characters of which are familiar to us! The Ghosts of Versailles are indeed there, and will fulfil their destiny once again…

John Corigliano's music has been commissioned, performed, and recorded by some of the most prominent orchestras, soloists, and chamber musicians in the world. He is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, five GRAMMY Awards, the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and an Oscar. The Piano Concerto ranges in expression between lyricism and atonality and is extremely virtuosic and theatrical, while the competition piece Fantasia on an Ostinato investigates the performer's imagination and musicality through minimalist techniques. The devilish discipline of etude Fantasy contrasts with the improvisatory origins of Winging It, while Prelude for Paul echoes the soul of Rachmaninov.

The orchestral version of the chamber piece Phantasmagoria reworks parts of Corigliano’s opera into a volatile tone-poem, as does the Fantasia on an Ostinato originally for piano solo. If you want Altered States without the film, try the Three Hallucinations. Stunning sound and performances.

Celebrated for his vivid orchestral pieces and effective scores for such films as Altered States and The Red Violin, John Corigliano is somewhat less renowned for his chamber music and keyboard oeuvre. Yet his international career took off with the premiere of his Sonata for violin and piano (1963), and he has periodically composed important works for piano, all of which show the same expertise and originality displayed in his major concert works. These sophisticated but highly entertaining pieces are not insufficiently recorded, but they are usually scattered about on CDs with other composers' works, so it is good to find them together on this 2006 Black Box release, in lively performances and recorded with fine sound. Violinist Corey Cerovsek and pianist Andrew Russo deliver what is probably the most engaging and accessible performance of the program in the sonata, a neo-Classical work that evokes the Americana style of Copland as well as the academic counterpoint of Hindemith.