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  Pathfinder: John Charles Fremont and the Course of American Empire , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 1231min

  The career of John Charles Frémont (1813-90) ties together the full breadth of American expansionism from its 18th-century origins through its culmination in the Gilded Age. Tom Chaffin's biography demonstrates Frémont's vital importance to the history of American empire and illuminates his role in shattering long-held myths about the ecology and habitability of the American West.As the most celebrated American explorer and mapper of his time, Frémont stood at the center of the vast federal project of Western exploration and conquest. His expeditions between 1838 and 1854 captured the public's imagination, inspired Americans to accept their nation's destiny as a vast continental empire, and earned him his enduring sobriquet, the Pathfinder.But Frémont was more than an explorer. Chaffin's dramatic narrative includes Frémont's varied experiences as an entrepreneur, abolitionist, Civil War general, husband to the remarkable Jessie Benton Frémont, two-time Republican presidential candidate, and Gilded Age aristocrat.“Pathfinder is the most eloquent, understanding, and yet very candid biography of Frémont that has appeared to date. A major contribution to American historical writing.” (Howard R. Lamar, Yale University)“In his mesmerizing biography, Tom Chaffin brings to life not only Frémont but the amazing personalities who populated his world.” (Landon Jones, former managing editor, People magazine)“In clear and vivid language, Tom Chaffin's Pathfinder re-creates the life of John C. Frémont...” (Elliott J. Gorn, Purdue University) ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Douglas R Pratt. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/133696/bk_acx0_133696_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  Golden Ghetto: How the Americans & French Fell in & out of Love During the Cold War , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 724min

  Considering the suspicions, jealousies, bigotry, and crass opportunism inherent whenever one power occupies another, Golden Ghetto: How the Americans and French Fell in and out of Love During the Cold War pieces together an improbable tale of how fear and skepticism were crushed by trust and friendship. Award-winning journalist Steve Bassett stumbled onto this story shortly after he and his wife purchased a home in Sainte Colombe in Central France. They heard countless, somewhat mystical tales about how a huge US Air Force base transformed the political, economic, and social lives of two French and American generations lucky enough to grab onto the base’s brass ring. If ever a US military base deserved the sobriquet “Golden Ghetto”, it was the Déols-Châteauroux Air Station (CHAS), which for 16 years during the height of the Cold War was considered one of the most desirable postings in the world, until Charles de Gaulle booted the Americans and other NATO military out of France and the Golden Ghetto was padlocked. Based on hundreds of hours of research and interviews, Golden Ghetto is a collective memoir, a first-ever look at life on an overseas base from the perspectives of both the occupied and occupier. Professional and amateur historians as well as casual listeners will be enthralled by this bird’s-eye view of how early Communist-driven distrust and paranoia never stood a chance against handshakes, smiles, and kisses. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Bill Fike. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/132826/bk_acx0_132826_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  Westminster Abbey: The History of England's Most Famous Church , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 64min

  It almost goes without saying that Westminster Abbey is one of the foremost sites in Europe when it comes to being steeped in history. Dating back to the reign of William the Conqueror and the Norman conquest, Westminster Abbey has traditionally been the site of royal coronations, royal weddings, and royal burials, and anyone who enters can instantly feel that they are walking in the footsteps of some of the most influential figures in history, from Henry III to Queen Elizabeth I. Of course, Westminster Abbey is also far more than a place for royalty. As the English became to more intimately associate the site with their history and culture, luminaries from all walks of life have also been interred there, from Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton to Rudyard Kipling and Charles Dickens. Along with effigies, plaques, and various other monuments, walking through Westminster Abbey offers its own sort of crash course on England over the centuries. While Westminster Abbey has been an important site for nearly 1,000 years, it is perhaps unsurprising that it has had a volatile history, a byproduct of England's own tumultuous past. As a religious site first and foremost, the Abbey was at the forefront of the religious unrest that occasionally swept the British Isles, whether it was Henry VIII's formation of the Church of England or his devoutly Catholic daughter earning the sobriquet Bloody Mary. As a result of it all, the Abbey has served different religious purposes over the course of time as well. Westminster Abbey: The History of England's Most Famous Church looks at the history of the church from the Middle Ages to today and offers a tour of the different things that visitors will find there. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Colin Fluxman. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/034715/bk_acx0_034715_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  Winter's Return (Guy Winter Mysteries Book 4) , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 453min

  Winter's Return is the fourth full length Guy Winter mystery. It is set in England in the Second World War in the third month of the devastating night Blitz which followed the defeat of the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain. In Winter's Return Guy Winter returns to London, a city at once reeling under the relentless nightly bombardment, yet oddly growing ever more accustomed to the ongoing nightmare. Shunned and unwanted by Scotland Yard the Mystery Man – a sobriquet earned long before the war because he was the man the Yard turned to solve the mysteries no other man could resolve – is assigned to S Division in Hampstead. However, his exile is short-lived. Within days he and his faithful sergeant, George Ransom, are heading for the English Midlands, where on a country estate a few miles south of Coventry, Helen Chase, the nation's most famous actress has been grievously wounded in an apparent orgy of mindless violence that has claimed several other lives in the most bizarre gruesome of circumstances. Little does Guy Winter suspect that no matter how far he travels from London the ghostly echo of the Whitechapel Murders of 1888, the machinations of his former MI5 associates and the extraordinary revelations of an exotic German spy captured six weeks before in Scotland, will eventually catch up with him. But before he must confront one fate, he must confront other demons in the fires consuming Coventry, the ‘city of spires'. PLEASE BE AWARE – CLIFF-HANGER ENDING! * * * The Guy Winter Mysteries are:- Prologue: Winter's Pearl Book 1: Winter's War Book 2: Winter's Revenge Book 3: Winter's Exile Book 4: Winter's Return Book 5: Winter's Spy (Available in 2016) ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Melanie Fraser. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/099602/bk_acx0_099602_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  To the Best of Our Knowledge: Scandanavian Death Trap, Hörbuch, Digital, 52min

  In this hour, Nordic Noir is taking America by storm, especially the three novels by Stieg Larsson that feature Lisbeth Salander. She's so popular that writer Nora Ephron wrote a parody for the New Yorker called "The Girl Who Fixed the Umlaut," which is read by Jim Fleming. Sadly the author of this hugely popular trilogy died of a heart attack at age 50, before the books were published. New York Times writer Charles McGrath recently went to Stockholm to track down the back story of the books and the author. He tells Anne Strainchamps what he found. Perhaps the other best known Scandinavian detective fiction is by Henning Mankell and features his detective Kurt Wallander. In Germany the Wallander books have outsold Harry Potter. Steve Paulson taks with Mankell about his creation.Next, it's not all men who've made waves in Nordic Noir. In Oslo Karin Fossum has earned the sobriquet "The Queen of Norwegian Crime" with a series of internationally best-selling stories of psychological suspense feature detective Konrad Sejer. She reads a little from one of the novels and talks to Steve Paulson. In Iceland the literary star is Arnaldur Indridason, reading from his novel Jar City. In fact recently 6 of the top 10 best-sellers in Iceland were his. He tells Jim Fleming about his gloomy Inspector Erlandur.Finally, Nordic Noir crime novels are not alone in being dark and brooding. Scandinavian films are equally so. Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn's latest movie, set in the Middle Ages, isominous and violent. It's called Valhalla Rising and tells the story of a mute slave warrior named One-Eye who joins a group of Christian Vikings on a sea voyage who end up in the New World. Anne Strainchamps talks with Refn about his movie. [Broadcast Date: July 21, 2010] Language: English. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/rt/tbon/100721/rt_tbon_100721_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  I: The Creation of a Serial Killer , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 509min

  Prize-winning journalist Jack Olsen, armed with unprecedented access to one of the most infamous serial killers in American history, provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a murderer in the killer's own words....In February 1990, Oregon State Police arrested John Sosnovke and Laverne Pavlinac for the vicious rape and murder of Taunja Bennet, a troubled 23-year-old barfly who had suffered mild retardation since birth. Pavlinac had come forth and confessed, implicating her boyfriend and producing physical evidence that linked them to the crime. Authorities closed the case.There was just one problem. They had the wrong people. And the real killer wasn't about to let anyone take credit for his kill. Keith Hunter Jesperson was a long haul truck driver and the murderer of eight women, including Taunja Bennet. As the case wound through police precincts and courts - ending in life sentences for both Sosnovke and Pavlinac - Jesperson began a twisted one man campaign to win their release. To the editors of newspapers and on the walls of highway rest stops, Jesperson scribbled out a series of taunting confessions: I killed Tanya Bennett.... I beat her to death, raped her and loved it. Yes I'm sick, but I enjoy myself too. People took the blame and I'm free.... Look over your shoulder. I may be closer than you think.At the end of each confession, Jesperson drew a happy face, earning for himself the grisly sobriquet "The Happy Face Killer".Based on access to interviews, diaries, court records, and the criminal himself, I: The Creation of a Serial Killer is Jesperson's chilling story. It chronicles his evolution from angry child to sociopathic murderer, from tormentor of animals to torturer of women. It is also the story of the fate that befell him after two innocent citizens were imprisoned four years for one of his killings.Edgar Award winner Jack Olsen lets the killer to tell his story in his own wor ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Kevin Pierce. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/131751/bk_acx0_131751_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  The Chicago Police Department: The Controversial History and Legacy of the Windy City’s Law Enforcement Agency , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 144min

  Today, as one of the biggest cities in the country, Chicago means a lot of different things to different people, but the Windy City, as culturally rich as it is, has long been known for controversial political corruption and its gangster past. While those kinds of crimes are less prominent today, one recent documentary Chiraq provided a new chilling, sobering, and wildly unfortunate sobriquet for the city. For far too many of the city’s youth, the places they call home are just a few steps removed from an actual war zone.According to a 2019 report by CBS News, roughly 1,099 of every 100,000 Chicagoans are likely to experience a violent crime. Records released by the FBI revealed that a staggering 653 people in Chicago were murdered in 2016, surpassing Los Angeles and New York City combined. The obvious dissimilarities between Chicago and a traditional battlefield aside, many experts can relate to the sentiment. BBC correspondent Ian Pannell, for one, described what he saw as striking resemblances: “People live with a threat or elements of danger, and although the degree is completely different, that's similar for civilian populations in both environments. What always amazes me - you see this in Chicago, and you see this in places like Syria - is people, they'll be out on the street, they'll be doing the shopping, but they know the rules. As soon as trouble starts to happen, suddenly, everybody disappears...” Pannell further added, “I've never seen so many weapons in civilian hands outside of a war zone as I did in parts of Chicago. Kids have become desensitized to violence. Someone's been shot, and kids are playing up and down the streets on their bikes, because they're used to seeing it, and that's also what you see in a war zone.”More disturbing yet, veteran gangsters and juvenile street thugs may not be the only ones to blame for this senseless bloodshed. Not only is Chicago consistently nominated each year as one of the deadliest c ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Hadrian Howard. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/190431/bk_acx0_190431_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  Out of the Shadows: Sacred Music of Francisco Guerrero and Thomas Crecquillon

  In their lifetimes, Francisco Guerrero and Thomas Crecquillon were among the most popular and acclaimed composers of the 16th century. In the intervening years, however, Guerrero has been eclipsed in stature among Spanish Renaissance composers by his contemporary Victoria, Crecquillon, meanwhile, has disappeared almost entirely, with his greatest works surviving mostly as misattributions to better-known composers such as Clemens non Papa and Morales. Here we present a range of sacred works by both composers, including some of their most well-known compositions as well as pieces that may not have been heard by audiences in hundreds of years. Crecquillon, the earlier of the two composers whose works we present here, was choirmaster at the Imperial Chapel and unofficial court composer for Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. He belongs to the generation of Franco-Flemish composers immediately following Josquin, a generation in which the art of imitative polyphony was raised to arguably it's highest state. Crecquillon's skill in polyphonic writing was widely recognized in his lifetime and immediately thereafter-a collection of motets published in 1576 calls him 'the most celebrated master' of Charles V's court, and many great composers of his and the following generation wrote parody masses on melodies of Crecquillon's. It is not clear why Crecquillon's music has been largely neglected in the resurgence of interest in Franco-Flemish polyphony, as it's beauty and skill in counterpoint hold up admirably in comparison to music of contemporaries such as Gombert and Clemens non Papa. One composer of the late 16th century who found Crequillon's melodies worthy of incorporating in his own music was the Spaniard Francisco Guerrero. Of the eighteen settings of the mass Guerrero produced, one of the most successful is the Missa Congratulamini mihi, based on the Crecquillon motet of that name, which we include on this recording. Guerrero was a prodigy, graduating from choirboy at Seville, where he was born, to choirmaster at Jaen [needs diacritic] while still in his teens. He soon returned to Seville with the promise of eventually succeeding to the post of choirmaster there. Despite having apparently obtained his dream job, Guerrero seemed to have a great curiosity about the world at large and spent many years away from his post traveling, which included a remarkable visit to the Holy Land that culminated in his capture and ransom by pirates. His published account of this journey became almost as popular as his music. As a composer, he was perhaps best known in his lifetime for his deeply felt settings of Marian texts, which earned him the sobriquet 'El Cantor de Maria.' In the initial revival of interest in sacred Renaissance polyphony in the mid- to late 20th century, Guerrero's music was mostly neglected in favor of that of his contemporary and countryman Tomas [needs diacritic] Luis de Victoria, in recent years, however, many significant performances and recordings have begun to redress this imbalance. - Tom Crawford, 2013 King Solomon's Singers: Heather Ahrenholz Michael Byrley Tom Crawford Tamara Ghattas Jessica Melger Stephanie Sheffield William Bouvel William Chin Matthew Dean Amy Mantrone Peter Olson King Solomon's Singers is an ensemble dedicated to the performance of Renaissance polyphony and chant. The members of the ensemble are professional and semi-professional singers from the Chicago area-members of ensembles such as Chicago Chorale, Schola Antiqua of Chicago, The Oriana Singers, The Chicago Early Music Consort, and Chicago a cappella-who share a love of this particular repertoire. For more information, visit our website or find us on Facebook. Special Thanks: This recording is dedicated to Robert and Susan Crawford, who made it possible.

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  Kegelstatt Trio/Fairy Tales/Solider's Tale/Contras

  Thomas Hill, clarinet Lynn Chang, violin Marcus Thompson, viola Randall Hodgkinson, piano (Mozart, Schumann) Mihae Lee, piano (Stravinsky, Bartók) Mozart's K. 498 trio in E-flat major was completed on August 5, 1786 and the sobriquet "Kegelstatt" comes to the piece because of the intriguing but not proven legend that Mozart conceived and completed the entire piece in his mind during a game of skittles, also known as "keggles." The work itself-an astounding instance of internal musical cohesion as well as the prowess of feminine delicacy-is in three movements: a stately, confident Andante, characterized by a persistent and elegant groupetto figure, a blissful, almost defiant little Menuetto, and finally a soaring, noble Rondo which sings from beginning to end and which as Alfred Einstein wrote "does not only satisfy the listener, but leaves him enchanted." The title of Schumann's Märchenerzählungen ("Fairy Tales") tells us that these lyrical miniatures are character pieces intended to suggest favorite stories of childhood. However, if Schumann had any particular tales or situations in mind, he never identified them, and we can enjoy the music without being burdened by such details. The characters who were most active in the mythical Davidsbünd, Schumann's early "invention" to fight the good fight against the philistines of German artistic life, were the heroic Florestan and the dreamy Eusebius. Their personalities are still evident in the music composed in the fall of 1853, particularly in the third movement (Eusebius) and the final movement, in which one can imagine Schumann and his heroic Florestan marching out one last time against the forces of philistinism. L'Histoire du Soldat ("The Soldier's Tale") is from a time when Stravinsky's artistic biological clock was turning his creative bent against his own penchant for Russian folk material. The original orchestration (violin, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, double bass, percussion, and narrator) was specifically designed so that the work could be presented as an easily toured theatre piece. In Stravinsky's own paring down for the trio reduction, a large part of the "missing" instrumentation is relegated to the virtuosic piano part, although the clarinet inherits significant bits of trumpet, bassoon and trombone utterances while retaining responsibility for it's own role in the original version. The violin role remains the fiendish tour de force that it is in the original rendering, and the piano and clarinet parts are, at the very least, eminent undertakings. Bartók's Contrasts was commissioned by Benny Goodman and Joseph Szigeti. Far from trying to blend the three very different types of instruments into a single complex sonority, Bartók exploits the difference in sound production. The Verbunkos was a musical genre employed to encourage enlistments in the Hungarian army in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, featuring sharply dotted rhythms in a slow march tempo. The Verbunkos ends with a clarinet cadenza leading on to the languid slow movement, in which piano and clarinet begin by mirroring one another, while the piano contributes soft percussive tremolos inspired by Balinese gamelan music. The fast dance, Sebes, begins with a short passage on a scordatura violin (with the E-string tuned to E-flat and the G-string to G-sharp), following which the violin is directed to return to a second, normally tuned instrument. The outer sections of the dance are in a lively 2/4 meter, but the extended middle section uses what is often called "Bulgarian rhythm" which Bartók learned in his folk music studies. When the original 2/4 returns, the dance gets wilder and wilder before reaching it's brilliant conclusion. / Edited from CD liner notes by Thomas Hill (Mozart & Stravinsky) and Steven Ledbetter (Schumann & Bartók) About Boston Chamber Music Society: Founded in 1982 by a group of enthusiastic music colleagues, Boston Chamber Music Society, BCMS, is an ensemble of superb musicians who come together in different combinations to prepare and perform chamber music. Over the last twenty plus seasons, BCMS has built a reputation for impassioned performances, ripened over time by the long personal and professional histories of it's member musicians. While they are all celebrated soloists, their primary passion remains the rich and extensive chamber music repertoire. BCMS invites guest musicians, chosen for their particular affinity for, and mastery of, the works they will play, to join the members, expanding the artistic possibilities to virtually all works in the chamber music repertoire. BCMS presents the most extensive and longest-running concert series in Boston's musically fertile region and is distinguished for it's enduring performance standards. The ensemble playing demonstrates the perfect combination of control and freedom that comes from years of collaboration: individual musical personalities find expression without dominating. The effect is one of the miracles of music-sheer aesthetic beauty.

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