From his time as a student at the Leningrad (today’s St Petersburg) Conservatory, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) developed a strong connection with cinema, earning a living in the 1920s as a pianist for silent films. He would go on to write scores throughout his career for dozens of sound films, among them Aleksandr Faintsimmer’s The Gadfly (1955), beloved in the Soviet Union for its themes of revolution and atheism. The writing, with its highly diversified contours, combines in an extraordinary way severe accents and romantic outbursts of a purely Russian style with atmospheres of a Mediterranean character. Vadim Borisovsky’s viola and piano arrangement is based on the suite for orchestra prepared from Shostakovich’s score by Lev Atovmyan.

The new album ‘Mass & Gloria’ by the Dresdner Kreuzchor, together with the Dresdner Philharmonie under the direction of Martin Lehmann, will be released on 25 April 2025 on the Berlin Classics label, distributed by Edel:Kultur. This extraordinary recording combines two important works of classical music: Poulenc's ‘Gloria’ and Schubert's Mass in A flat major. Both pieces were recorded at the Kulturpalast Dresden with soloists Elsa Benoit, Irike Malotta, Patrick Grahl and Klaus Häger and continue the Kreuzchor's long-standing collaboration with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra.

Journey to the Centre of the Eye is the debut album from English progressive rock band Nektar that came out in November 1971. Though formally divided into 13 tracks, the entire album consists of a single continuous piece of music, with some musical themes which are repeated throughout the work. Because of its narrative nature, it has been called a rock opera and/or dense concept album. The story follows an astronaut who, while on a voyage to Saturn, encounters aliens who take him to their galaxy, where he is suffused with knowledge and wisdom. It is usually interpreted as a commentary on the nuclear arms race.

Two brothers, cello and voice, creating hauntingly beautiful music without borders.
Their intimate jazz and world music fusion captures the transformative power of words, complementing the album’s themes of renewal and quiet beauty.

Caught in the Game is the fourth album by American rock band Survivor, released in September 1983. It features guest appearances by Mr. Mister's Richard Page and REO Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin. It is the band's last album to-date to feature lead vocalist Dave Bickler, who left due to vocal surgery; despite the fact that he rejoined the band between 1993 and 2000, and again in 2013.

2007 GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING BEST TRADITIONAL BLUES ALBUM OF THE YEAR HISTORY IN THE MAKING Once in a lifetime you may experience a brief moment when the stars align and something truly extraordinary happens. This was the case in October 2004, when four of the greatest living blues legends were assembled in Dallas, Texas for one incomparable night of music. At the time they ranged in age from 89 to 94 and all had received the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship Award, the highest honor in the USA for traditional arts. These musicians have devoted their entire life to playing the blues, and staging such an epic event was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Once reunited, the old magic reemerged. It was if they were long lost school buddies.

Even now, as he reaches his eighth decade, with a lifetime of accolades and a seminal body of music behind him, Robin Trower is still chasing the biggest high he knows. It always starts the same way, with a road-scuffed Fender Stratocaster and a revved-up Marshall amplifier, those skilful fingers exploring the fretboard until a riff sticks and a new song ignites. And from the cultural flashpoint of Sixties London with Procol Harum, through 1974's stadiumfilling Bridge Of Sighs, right up to this year's acclaimed Come And Find Me, it's these addictive moments of creation that have kept the guitarist vital, relevant and contemporary while his peers trade on past glories. "Some people say I'm driven, but I think it's just the love of doing it," reflects Trower of a multi-million-selling solo catalogue fast approaching thirty releases (and that's before you compute his collaborations with everyone from Jack Bruce to Bryan Ferry). "I play guitar every day and just through messing around, ideas happen. I can never feel the songs coming. But all of a sudden, you get a sliver of an idea and you think, 'Oh, what's this?'"

It took decades for Andy Bey to become an overnight success, but in the mid-'90s he was finally recognized as a premier talent, and recorded a handful of finely crafted discs. A true jazz singer avoiding monochromatic crooning, his style is deeply blue-hued, silky smooth but never slick. This live club date at Birdland in New York City was recorded in 1997, around the time of his overdue success, but not released until a full decade later. The pacing of the program is a little up-and-down, which is atypical of the normally mellow Bey. He does sing more than his share of balladic material, and when he does, there is no more patient virtue expressed in all of jazz, his slight vibrato ruminating and tripping heartstrings. The title track and "Hey Love," the 4:00 A.M. mood for "On Second Thought," and the solo closer "Someone to Watch Over Me" dip into this dynamic, as drawn-out slow and steady as a daily sunset. To play this way may be the most difficult thing to do in music, but Bey is absolutely masterful. Like his parallel performing shadow Nat King Cole, Bey is also an excellent pianist, and a true player of the instrument.

Alice Cooper was oorspronkelijk een band onder leiding van zanger Vincent Damon Furnier. De band pionierde een theatrale en gewelddadige soort heavy metal, bedoeld om te shockeren. Hoewel de visuele effecten zeer belangrijk waren voor hun impact, was de muziek bijna net zo herkenbaar, gedreven door rauwe, eenvoudige riffs en melodieën afgeleid van niet alleen guitar pop uit de jaren 60 maar tevens show tunes. Het was de meest fundamentele en aangrijpende rock & roll, zelfs wanneer de band zich in psychedelica en art rock waagden. Nadat de oorspronkelijke groep uiteen viel en Furnier een solocarrière als Alice Cooper begon, verloor zijn muziek veel van het theatrale vermogen en werd het gewoon heavy metal.

Murmur is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released on April 12, 1983 by I.R.S. Records. Murmur drew critical acclaim upon its release for its unusual sound, defined by lead singer Michael Stipe's cryptic lyrics, guitarist Peter Buck's jangly guitar style, and bass guitarist Mike Mills' melodic basslines. Since its release, Murmur has featured heavily in various "must have" lists compiled by the music media. In 1989, it was rated number eight on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s.

This project from Göran Söllscher is a follow-up to his previous CD, the highly successful 'Eleven-String Baroque'. With the balanced sound of Söllscher's eleven-string guitar combined with the Baroque repertoire, the album spoke to not only his fans but also a wider audience craving relaxing music and congenial guitar sounds. In this same spirit, Söllscher's upcoming Renaissance album can be marketed to a wide audience including both his fans and new listeners in search of dreamy, soothing Renaissance melodies. The stylish cover artwork emphasizes both the freshness and universality of Söllscher's art. The album contains Renaissance lute masterpieces by various composers from Italy, Spain, Germany, France and England, the most popular of which were written by John Dowland. Söllscher delivers a dozen of tracks by Dowland, a composer who embodies the 'golden age' of English lute music.

Ry Cooder's soundtrack for The Long Riders received a top-notch treatment from Warner Bros. (Japan), who not only did an excellent remastering job, but backed it up with English lyrics to the songs, notes, and a Japanese insert. Cooder was in fine form with this score, using original material, unusual and anachronistic instruments (saz, tamboura, electric guitar), and elements of traditional songs from the Civil War period. As a result, the album can be appreciated as a unique entity, away from the film – and bonded to the film, the music provides grace and power to the onscreen events.

Steven Osborne has already made a name for himself in French music with a disc of Alkan and a profoundly moving performance of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards. Here he reaches between those two to tackle one of the pinnacles of the piano repertoire—Debussy’s two books of Préludes. These works have been central to Steven’s repertoire for many years and he brings them to the studio after many public performances and much reflection. He has worked from the most up-to-date Urtext edition which clarifies Debussy’s thought in many places, particularly with regard to tempo relationships within La cathédrale engloutie and a missing bar in Les tierces alternées. In a crowded field Osborne need fear no comparisons: the pianism is exquisite and the interpretations are of a rare depth and subtlety—a recording to rival the very best!

A Monastic Trio is the first solo album by Alice Coltrane. Recorded in 1968, she intended it to be a tribute to her husband, John Coltrane, who had died the year before. The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4 stars stating "Musically, the works here move from the deep bluesy modal structures that Alice Coltrane so loved in John's repertoire… All of these works, with their deep Eastern tinges in the intervals juxtaposed against Western blues phrasing, are wondrously droning and emotional exercises".

There is perhaps no other musical ensemble more consistently and closely associated with the history and tradition of European classical music than the Vienna Philharmonic. In the course of its history, the musicians of this most prominent orchestra of the capital city of music have been an integral part of a musical epoch which due to an abundance of uniquely gifted composers and interpreters must certainly be regarded as unique.The orchestra's close association with this rich musical history is best illustrated by the statements of countless pre-eminent musical personalities of the past. Richard Wagner described the orchestra as being one of the most outstanding in the world; Anton Bruckner called it "the most superior musical association"; Johannes Brahms counted himself as a "friend and admirer"; Gustav Mahler claimed to be joined together with the orchestra through "the bonds of musical art"; and Richard Strauss summarized these sentiments by saying: "All praise of the Vienna Philharmonic reveals itself as understatement."