Rating: 9 (out of 10)

The Three Musketeers (Muhammad al-Qasabji, Riyad al-Sunbati and Zakariyya Ahmad) wrote music for Egyptian diva Umm Kulthum during the 1920s, '30s and '40s. The composers supplied the vocalist with countless masterpieces for her Thursday night radio shows which for decades were broadcast live by the Egyptian State Radio Broadcasting network over much of the Arab world.

Chicago's Arabesque Music Ensemble recreate the intensity of the original performances with new recordings featuring vocalist Youssef Kassah and a six-piece musical ensemble. The one concession they have made is in the length of the songs -- Umm Kulthum's songs often lasted more than an hour each while no track on the Xauen recording is longer than 10 minutes. Distilled genius.

Oud player Zakariyya Ahmad first asked Umm Kulthum to accompany him to Cairo when she was 16 years old (circa 1914). The singer dressed as a boy when she first performed in public as a teenager and it would be several more years before she actually made the move to the big city.

By 1923 Umm Kulthum was performing songs by Al-Qasabji and Ahmad with lyrics often written by poets such as Ahmad Rami and Bayram al-Tumi.

Al-Qasabji, was interested in Western musical styles and incorporated European elements into his songs. He introduced the young singer to the Arabic Theatre Palace where she had her first public success. By the beginning of the '30s she was touring to cities such as Damascus, Baghdad, Beirut and Tripoli and at that time she also began her culture-defining concert series on Cairo radio which continued until 1973.

The importance of Umm Kulthum's music to Egyptian culture and the wider Arab world cannot be overstated. Born in a rural Nile Delta backwater she became a superstar performer and magnet for Egyptian national pride.

The Arabesque Music Ensemble do a brilliant job of recreating the "golden age" of Umm Kulthum. For fans of her music and Arabic art song in general this is an essential disc.

-by John Goodman