This CD's main attraction for many will be Gil Shaham's velvety violin in gorgeous, largely off-beat music. Others will relish these Schubert works in arrangements that replace the piano with the expert guitar of Göran Söllscher, enhancing the impression of hearing Schubert's music in the intimate domestic setting for which it was written. Most of the works are short, melodically rich dance-based gems on which Shaham and Söllscher lavish a Romantic tonal fullness and freedom rarely heard these days. Sometimes that's a bit too much of a good thing, as works like the Violin Sonata in D veer close to the sentimental.

Erik Wøllo’s Solastalgia is a monumental two-hour double CD of expansive, entrancing electronic music. Utilizing the striking, elegant vocabulary Wøllo has honed over 53 previous releases, his is a melodic vision of ambient electronics with lush arrangements brimming with promise. The 21 tracks display dazzling rhythmic pulses, shimmering textures and memorable ethereal lines.
This beauty is in service of a deeper story. "Solastalgia" - a term coined by Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht - combines the Latin word for “comfort” and the Greek root for “pain, suffering, grief.” It describes the homesickness you experience when still at home as your environment undergoes significant change or degradation due to ecological damage and the loss of a connection to the natural world…

A sampler as a taster for latest releases of a label are nothing unusual. ACT boss Siegfried Loch has however the ambition with his own label’s sampler to "get the information about new releases across in a manner which also provides pleasure to the listener". A sound adventure with a high chance of new discoveries are always key to ACT World Jazz anthologies - but they must give enjoyment to the listener.

One of the supreme monuments of western sacred music, the Mass in B minor has been constantly reexamined by successive generations of performers. The questions it raises for musicologists and conductors are many and varied; each of them strives to give his or her own reading with the necessary humility. It was in this frame of mind that William Christie tackled the work in the course of a memorable tour in 2016.

The “Sonate da Camera”, Op. 4, one of eight consecutive opuses (1-8) of published chamber works by Turin-based Giovanni Battista Somis, is a work for solo violin, cello or harpsichord. The seven 3-movement sonatas basically eliminate the slow “Corellian” third movement, thus changing the traditional alternation. Some of the harmonic sequences also recall Vivaldi and the Venetian school in general. Founded 1995, the Ensemble Guidantus and their principal violinist Marco Pedrona, noted for score mastery and clear, individual interpretations, play a lively part in the Italian music scene.

Gibson’s virile, plain-speaking account of Elgar’s glorious Second Symphony refreshes in its directness and honesty. Included also is a sumptuous rendering of the rare Crown of India suite.