Bright Sheng is a Chinese-American composer, pianist, music teacher and conductor born on December 6, 1955 in Shanghai, China. Before moving to the United States in 1982, he studied the piano at the age of four from his mother. He graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory and went on to continue his education at Queens College and Columbia University. In 1995, he became a part of the faculty at the University of Michigan. Sheng has since then earned many honors for his music and compositions.

This is a very unusual–and pleasurable–collection of 20th century works for assorted percussion for solo performer. The soloist in question here is Odd Borge Sagland and it's clear that he is thoroughly familiar with a wide range of instruments, particularly the marimba–and he also knows how to choose a program that will demonstrate his artistry while offering strong listener appeal. Rather than the predictably showy, gimmicky kinds of pieces we usually find on percussion recordings, each of these six works has a solid meditative character–no can banging here.

With a discography that includes a classic debut album (1984's Welcome to the Pleasuredome), a misguided sophomore effort (1986's Liverpool), and very few B-sides but plenty (like tons) of remixes, compiling Frankie Goes to Hollywood in a one-disc set (with Japanese bonus CD) is easy if you don't over-think it. Knocking the new wave circus act's career with ease, Frankie Said certainly avoids just that. The rarities it offers are on the edge of even a rabid fan's interest ("Born to Run" "live" on the Tube is just the studio version but louder, and that Anne Dudley mix of "Two Tribes" is nothing but the piano intro, now isolated), plus all the hits ("Relax," "Two Tribes," "Power of Love") are present in both representative mixes and worthy alternates…

Japanese edition with bonus track.
Though some may still consider them Radiohead mimics, obviously Muse continues to strike a nerve with their alternative hard rock audience, here releasing their third album of heavy guitars, haunted harmonics, and paranoid musings in Absolution. Frontman Matt Bellamy and company stick to the same disturbed, and sometimes disturbing, formula that's worked in the past: the emotional intensity and style of Radiohead, a rock thunder descended from Black Sabbath, and the baroque drama of Queen. Longtime producer John Leckie sits this one out, and in steps indie über-engineer Rich Costey. With Costey manning the desk, the music feels more polished and slick, but less epic and raw. Longtime fans won't miss a beat though, because Bellamy delivers the same Thom Yorke vocal impersonation…

“La forza del destino” (The Force of Fate), premiered in St. Petersburg 1862, is one of Verdi’s most important opera compositions. Its plot is complicated and combines a sequence of interlaced unfortunate strokes of fate. Donna Leonora is the centre of events, together with her brother Don Carlo di Vargas and her lover Don Alvaro. The story was originally set in 18th century Spain, however the French director Nicolas Joël established the action in a slightly later period, in the time of the Empire, the early 19th century.

Recorded in 1995 this album has never been one of the "hits" by German countertenor Andreas Scholl. It covers a repertoire that was (and remains) virtually unknown, and it doesn't really play to the sentimental side of Scholl's personality. Nevertheless, this is one of his very best releases, and even casual Scholl fans who missed it the first time around are advised to pick it up. In 1995 he was in absolutely prime voice, and even though he here has few of the pure melodies in which he excels, he finds plenty of subtle ways to deploy it in text expression and in delineating unusual harmonic moves.