What's New is an album of traditional pop standards released by American singer/songwriter/producer Linda Ronstadt in 1983. It represents the first in a trilogy of 1980s albums Ronstadt recorded with bandleader/arranger Nelson Riddle.

Croatian pianist Dejan Lazic kicks off the first of a provocative series of recordings with a delicious concert of Scarlatti and Bartók. In its gentle way, especially in performances of the beautiful clarity and poetry, it reminds me of a conversation I once had with Peter Bartók, the composer’s son, in which as a child he recalled falling asleep while his father played lullabies in an adjoining room.

Dejan Lazić's "Liaisons" Series is a double-portrait series. It always combines two composers in order to explore more thoroughly their musical worlds, the way they inspired and were inspired by, as well as to find their common denominators and bring them closer to each other. The second part of the series features the works by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms.

This is Vol. 3 of Lazic's series entitled "Liaisons" - unexpected pairings of composers who we might not necessarily expect to have much in common. The Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach/Benjamin Britten pairing is a useful one, and it does throw up some interesting similarities and contrasts, but the real pleasure resides in Lazic’s magical readings of the Britten pieces.

Willy Porter's guitar playing is so expressive and such an integral part of his performances that he is perhaps best described as a guitarist-songwriter rather than a mere singer-songwriter. Even when he is backed by a band, as he is on most of tracks, he uses a perfectly placed bent string or subtle rhythmic shift to wordlessly comment on the song, infusing it with an extra layer of meaning. On previous CDs Porter sometimes gave into the urge to overplay, which, when you pick as well as he does, must be hard to resist.

It's not clear exactly what the "live" component is in this disc from the London Symphony Orchestra's LSO Live series. The Beethoven Mass in C major, Op. 86, & the "Prisoners' Chorus" from Fidelio are specified as having been recorded live on 2 different occasions at London's Barbican concert hall, but if there was an audience any traces of its existence have been very carefully edited out. The performance, however, has the positive tension associated with a successful live performance, as well as the occasional flaws.

Female-fronted symphonic/goth metal band Xandria broke into the German music mainstream in 2004 with their second album, Ravenheart. Though many argue that the band isn't genuinely metal, Xandria garnered a sizable following in Germany and a growing following internationally; in particular, the band's flair for exotic themes and Middle Eastern motifs contributed to its appeal, as did its English-language lyrics.

Bachman–Turner Overdrive, often abbreviated as BTO, were a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba founded by ex-The Guess Who guitarist Randy Bachman and Fred Turner. This Dutton-Vocalion reissue features two first band's albums on one quadrophonic SACD, carefully remastered by Michael J. Dutton.

The "French Suites" were devised as a technically less challenging preliminary level in learning the organ, situated between the studies of "Inventions and Sinfonias" and the "English Suites", the so called 'large' suites, and "Partitas". Bach's composing a remarkable number of pieces with a didictic purpose for the piano can be considered as an attempt to further his reputation as a teacher. Caspar Frantz combines his recording of the French Suites with two less known suites which demonstrate, that discoveries are still possible even in such a well-known ouevre like Bach's.

Studio 150 is the seventh album by British artist Paul Weller. It comprises covers of songs by a variety of artists, and showcases Weller's myriad musical influences. It was named after the small Amsterdam studio in which it was recorded. It entered the charts at #2.

The smooth-jazz acoustic-guitar star gets his R&B groove on throughout many tracks on this beautifully recorded disc, and not just on the obvious tunes like the sneaky Isley Brothers cover, "Who's That Lady" (with Kirk Whalum cooking on sax), and the old Temptations number, "Just My Imagination," but also on the very funky "Turn It Out," with sax man Euge Groove, and the Latin-tinged "Bueno Funk," with Steve Cole on the horn.

In the present recordings of Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 1 in C and 3 in E-flat ("Eroica") with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Philippe Herreweghe shows himself completely in command of all the resources of a large symphony orchestra. And he shows us something else. He knows his Beethoven. Hopefully much more is to come from this fruitful synergy of musical forces. Very highly recommended! The performances are superb.

The album range from pop standards like Kurt Weill’s "Mack the Kinife" and Nat Cole’s "Straighten Up and Fly Right" to soul classics like Rev. Al Green’s "Love and Happiness" and Marvin Gaye’s "Sexual Healing". Speaking of "sex", Alexander lays down the funk on an extended "soul/yard meeting" of James Brown’s "Sex Machine". Speaking of special guests, in addition to the younger Cole, another famous son, John Pizzarelli, takes his turn at the mike for a Jamaican-tinged zephyr through Johnny Mercer’s "Summer Wind", and Kevin Mahogany does the honors for the Ray Charles classic "Hallelujah I Love Her So". That is not to say that this is strictly a standards and soul album, however. In tribute to his early cowboy heroes, Alexander opens the set with Cole Porter’s jaunty "Don’t Fence Me In", and in honor to the country he is now proud to call home, he closes with a triumphant build into "Battle Hymn of the Republic".

It's been 17 years since Ladysmith Black Mambazo's gorgeous vocal harmonies poured the foundation for Paul Simon's landmark 1986 album Graceland, an album that catapulted the South African a cappella gospel group into the international consciousness and led to worldwide stardom, a Grammy, film soundtracks, and candy commercials. Fans of the group's intricately arranged vocal landscapes will be pleased to know that all that ensuing attention hasn't diluted the group's appeal. Raise Your Spirit Higher, is as strong as anything the group has recorded in its now 30-year career. Ladysmith has always defined itself by merging Christian gospel music with a native South African musical tradition called isicathamiya, which was developed by mine workers who sang to entertain themselves after their grueling work.

This release in Pentatone’s Remastered Classics series reveals a remastered recording by the Quartetto Italiano, originally recorded by Philips in January 1976. On this album, the Quartetto Italiano performs Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No. 10 D87, which comes from his middle period as well as his String Quartet No. 13 D804, also referred to as "Rosamunde" from the late period, a great masterpiece and one of the most outstanding quartets of the entire string quartet repertoire.