Ry Cooder summons fourth world trumpeter Jon Hassell, jazz star pianist Jacky Terrasson, and classical Indian flutist Ronu Majumdar, to a big resonant church in Santa Barbara and creates "tone-magic" – a bath in the sheer beauty of sound expressed in a kind of global, space-age Duke Ellington palette. Music without a price for an audience that can't be bought.

This recording, though brand new, has already acquired an almost unprecedented level of historical significance. This was the orchestra that gave the first performance in the besieged city of Leningrad of Shostakovich’s profoundly moving wartime symphony. Now, sixty years later, they return to the work with which they will always be ineradicably associated in a performance of shattering power and cinematic vividness of imagery.

Another historic recording of a virtuoso of the Arabian classical tradition, who here performs on both oud and violin with Hindustani master V.M. Bhatt. The maqam of the Arabic world and the rag of the subcontinent fuse into a music that is truly exalted, as the title suggests. The two masters are ably supported by Hindustani musicians Ronu Majumdar on flute and Sangeeta Shankar on violin.

Herein is an attempt to blend aspects of folk-rock with that of Karnatak music. Multi-instrumentalist Hidalgo performs on bajo sexto and accordion while Simpson plays steel and acoustic guitars to which Krishnan’s violin and Srinivasan’s mridangam add a distinct Karnatak hue.

English guitarist Martin Simpson is known for having successfully synthesized a style that blends the best of the finger picking traditions of the British Isles and Appalachia. Wu Man is a virtuoso of the Pipa, a Chinese lute which, like the western guitar, is derived from the Middle Eastern oud.

A stunning improvised collaboration for fans of any kind of string instruments, From the Ashes brings together Dr. L. Subramaniam and Larry Coryell.

This splendid disc was taped in early 1999 utilizing a simple pair of microphones, a custom built reel-to-reel tape deck, & a tube console. While the recording technology may be atavistic, the engineering is state-of-the-art. No noise reduction was employed, yet my less-than-golden ears fail to detect residual tape hiss enveloping the opulent analogue sonics.

A virtuoso vehicle in the tradition of Liszt and Rakhmaninov, Svetlanov’s emotionally full-blooded concerto provides the ultimate showcase for internationally renowned pianist Vladimir Ovchinnikov, who has enjoyed a meteoric career since his ground-breaking success in the 1982 Moscow Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. Alternating scintillating showmanship and genuine depth of feeling, this gorgeously seductive work is sure to delight seasoned concertgoers and newcomers alike. The richness and warmth of the Romantic tradition continues in Skryabin’s lush and dramatic Third Symphony, which links the emotionally extrovert world of Tchaikovsky to the renewed sense of spirituality essential to our time. A sonic and musical spectacular in every sense, Maestro Dmitriev and the St Petersburg Symphony wring every last ounce of passion and excitement from these thrilling scores.

Jerry Douglas and Edgar Meyer are two of the finest musicians to come out of Nashville in recent years, with their roots in country/bluegrass and classical/jazz respectively. In this recording with V.M. Bhatt, they together explore commonalities and parallels between bluegrass and Hindustani music, proving that the High Lonesome ethos is universal.

Foremost innovator on the banjo, Béla Fleck is joined by Hindustani master V. M. Bhatt and Chinese virtuoso Jie-Bing Chen in a collaboration that begins with a clean slate and culminates in a masterpiece of synthesis. Adding poignant but subtle coloring to this unique work are Hindustani flutist Ronu Majumdar and violinist Sangeeta Shankar, as well the Karnatak percussionist Puvalur Srinivasan on mridangam.