Orlandi

The cover photo to this disc shows a woman ripping the clothes off her lover. That's how we know that the Adagio Sostenuto from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 is about sex. So goes the logic here. But the disc's droopy account of the Entr'acte to Act III of Bizet's Carmen by Lorin Maazel and Orchestre National de France lights no fire. The Adagio from Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto in D major has been piped into shopping malls for too many years for it to awaken much beyond the urge to buy shower curtains and blue jeans. Pianist Rudolf Buchbinder is pretty convincing in his account of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, Op. 27, and much has been made of the work's dedication to the lovely 17-year-old Countess Giulietta Giucciardi. As to the Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony, I always thought it was about something other than sex. Silly me! --Gwendolyn Freed

1. Piano Concerto No.2: Adagio Sostenuto 2. Carmen: Entracte To Act 3 3. Mandolin Concerto In D Major: Adagio 4. String Quartet No. 2: Notturno 5. Piano Sonata Op.27 No.2 'Moonlight': Adagio Sostenuto 6. Oboe Concerto, Op.9 No. 2: Adagio 7. Spartacus: Adagio 8. Daphnis et Chloe: Lever du Jour 9. Symphony No. 5: Adagietto 10. Le Carnaval des Animaux: Le Cygne (The Swan) 11. Symphony No. 5: Adagio 12. Prelude Op. 28 No. 4 In E Minor 13. The Firebird: Berceuse 14. Kinderszenen: Dreaming 15. Bolero 16. Suite In D Major: Air

Walter Hill's colorful directorial debut has quite a cult following for its toughness and violence; it may well be his best film, in fact. Charles Bronson plays a silent street fighter in New Orleans in the '30s managed by the cool James Coburn. Jill Ireland, Strother Martin, and Michael McGuire costar in this spare existential Depression dirge. It owes a lot to its noir origins that Hill adores so much, yet there's something very fresh and vital about its subject and approach. That's really what made so many of these films from the '70s so endearing. An added bonus is the love and affection displayed by the real-life husband and wife team of Bronson and Ireland. --Bill Desowitz

Peter Yates's 1968 cop drama has its existentialist pretensions, but there is something seductive about its strained seriousness and Steve McQueen's intentionally stoic performance as a San Francisco police detective on the trail of a murderer. A couple of key action sequences boost the film's stature, the most memorable of which is a vertiginous car chase that Yates almost approaches as a dance. Jacqueline Bisset provides window dressing as Bullitt's girlfriend--worried about how much his job strips away his humanity--and Robert Vaughan is almost reptilian as an opportunistic politician. --Tom Keogh

Orlandi Statuary Twin Bear Cubs Outdoor OrnamentThese cute cubs are made of fiber stone, a material that looks like stone but weighs considerably less. A mixture of sand and stones is cast into the surface of this piece, giving it the appearance of aged stone. It is also reinforced with a fiberglass backing, making it lightweight and less fragile than concrete.All Orlandi finishes are stained by hand so no two are alike and the color of the final product may vary slightly from the images shown. Select a finish for this ornament to complement or contrast with your outdoor environment.