Best known for her unique interpretations of popular songs, operatic arias and hymns, singer Katherine Jenkins will embrace a new genre this fall when the multi-million selling mezzo-soprano releases her first Christmas album, This is Christmas. This will be the ninth studio album from Jenkins and features 10 newly recorded holiday classics. For this upcoming collection, Jenkins unique vocals can be heard singing traditional holiday tunes from around the world as well as a number of contemporary favorites including "Away In A Manger", "Hark The Herald Angels Sing", "Deck The Halls", and "Come What May", featuring Placido Domingo. "These holiday songs bring back such wonderful memories for me of times spent with family and loved ones", says Jenkins. "I have always hoped that one day I d have the opportunity to record a Christmas album and I can t wait to share my interpretations of these songs with everyone".

ECM New Series is better known for its documentation of contemporary works, but the music of the past sometimes receives coverage when artists bring a new perspective to it. The Diabelli Variations, Op. 120; the Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111; and the Six Bagatelles, Op. 126, are among the most original and intellectually stimulating works Ludwig van Beethoven composed for the piano, and the sophisticated interpretations of András Schiff are especially worthwhile for their insights into authentic performance practice and reception. Here, Schiff gives the listener options between a relatively modern sounding version of the Diabelli Variations and a period interpretation, without favoring one or the other. On the first CD he plays the Sonata and the Diabelli Variations on a Bechstein piano from 1921, though with minimal pedaling and a restrained execution that allows every inner voice and subtle dynamic to be appreciated. While this piano is not as hard or bright sounding as a modern Steinway, it is familiar to modern ears and most listeners will readily accept it. On the second CD, Schiff plays the Diabelli Variations, along with the Six Bagatelles, on a smaller sounding Franz Brodmann fortepiano, an original instrument from around 1820, Beethoven's time period.

Gary Numan is known for robotic, stylized singing. His primitive electronics and pre-"new romantic" sound did nothing for me. A myriad, zealous voices will tell you that Numan was sings "good songs." Now, in this 2-CD collection of Numan interpretations you can hear those good songs without Numan's idiosyncratic delivery. The known and the unknown join to make proto-dance music out of mechanical master's material. Matt Sharp (Weezer) and Damon Albarn (Blur) cover "We Have a Technical." Also on the compilation are Gravity Kills, EMF, The Magnetic Fields, Jesus Jones, the out-of-place hip hop group Underdog (but, there's only one of them), Sukia, The Orb, Pop Will Eat Itself. One of my favorite cuts is "Metal" by Towering Inferno. Brian Eno described their Kaddish album as "frightening" and they are here joined by Eddie Reader. I also am very fond of the two versions of "Are 'Friends' Electric?" Techno rockers Republicaare joined by Numan himself for one version and Belgian discovery An Pierle offers another.

Deep in the heart of the Cold War, there was once a miracle in Moscow – Texas-based classical pianist Van Cliburn, of whom no one had heard, conquered at the First Tchaikovsky Competition, an event set aside to showcase Soviet talent. Cliburn was warned by his own government not to go, given the tense political relationship between the United States and Soviet Union at the time, and once he arrived he was greeted as a party crasher, subject to hostile stares and animosity of the kind he had never dreamed of back in Texas. And it was Cliburn, at the end, which brought down the house, and held the award. Back in America, he was greeted with a ticker tape parade and was the subject of a best-selling biography by Abram Chasins, The Van Cliburn Story, copies of which continue to clog the shelves of American thrift stores five decades hence. Ultimately, though, Cliburn's celebrity lost its luster. Nerves, ultra-picky perfectionism, and mishandling by management led to his early retirement from the concert scene; his greatest latter-day achievement being the force behind the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, America's most prestigious such event.

The instrumental trio The Three Suns had been around for about two decades, capturing fans as far-ranging as First Lady Mamie Eisenhower and the Platters (who took their Twilight Time to the top of the charts), when they cut this record for RCA s famed Living Stereo series in 1959. And, no doubt inspired by the new-fangled recording technology in RCA s Studio A, they turned in one of the most wacky and entertaining Christmas albums of the era, adding rock and roll guitar and instrumentation as varied as chimes, bells, oboes and two (!) tubas to create a Space Age stereophonic spectacular suitable for the Jetsons next holiday party. This record s long been cherished by Christmas music devotees, and our Real Gone worldwide CD debut reissue features a sparkling remastering job by Maria Triana at Sony s Battery Studios and liner notes by Joe Marchese. Every bit as fizzy as the champagne you re going to open to toast the season!

The Russian composer, pianist and electronic musician, Anton Batagov, graduated from the Gnessin School and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He was prize-winner at the International Tchaikovsky Competition (1986) and other competitions. Anton Batagov introduced the music by John Cage, Morton Feldman, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass to Russian audiences. His discographical debut was a recording of Olivier Messiaen's Vingt regards sur l'Enfant Jesus for Melodiya. From 1989 to 1996 he was one of the leaders and organizers of the Alternativa, the annual international new music festival in Moscow. Heralded as “one of the most significant and unusual figures of Russian contemporary music” (Newsweek, Russian edition, 1997) and "a Russian Terry Riley" (Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 2008), Anton Batagov is one of the most influential Russian composers and performers of our time. The well-known American musicologist Richard Kostelanetz characterized Batagov's 1993 piano recording of J.S. Bach’s The Art of the Fugue (BWV 1080) as "the most stunning interpretation of Bach since Glenn Gould".

Infiniment (Infinitely) is a 2-CD compilation of Jacques Brel's best known songs. This compilation of remastered songs also contains 5 unpublished titles from the recording session of the album Les Marquises: "La cathédrale", "L'amour est mort", "Mai 40", "Avec élégance", and "Sans exigences". A booklet is included with the lyrics of the 5 new titles. Infiniment was released on 30 September 2003 to mark the 25th anniversary of Brel's death.

2009 digitally remastered and expanded digipak edition of the classic Banshees album from 1984 featuring three bonus tracks including the Glamour Mix of 'Dazzle' and the previously unreleased songs 'Baby Piano - Part One' and 'Baby Piano - Part Two' featuring Robert Smith of The Cure. Siouxsie & The Banshees began life as a Punk outfit (with Sid Vicious on drums, no less!) before mutating into Post-Punkers on their way to becoming one of the most influential Goth Rock band on the scene. To this day, over 10 years after their disintegration, the band's fanatical fan base continues to grow.

The world premieres of Iolanta and The Nutcracker took place on 18 December 1892 at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre. “The execution of both,” wrote the composer to his brother Anatoly the next day, “was magnificent, and that of the ballet perhaps too magnificent – its brilliance made one’s eyes tired.” Gustav Mahler conducted the first performance of the one-act opera outside Russia on 3 January 1893 in Hamburg and also directed the Viennese premiere of Iolanta on 22 March 1900.

Ghost is a live album first released by British musician Gary Numan in 1988. It was recorded live at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 25 and 26 September 1987 during Numan's Exhibition Tour (an 18-month concert tour that promoted the compilation album Exhibition). The original release was only available as a fan club mail order double LP. It went on general release in the United Kingdom as a double CD in May 1992.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas form an unparalleled canon, remaining one of the greatest and most rewarding challenges for pianists to this day. These three sonatas represent Beethoven’s Early, Middle and Late periods but are united in the key of C – minor, for the dramatic and stormy intensity of mood in the Pathétique, and major for the radiant and poetic Waldstein sonata. In his sonata Op. 111 the cycle is completed with music of utmost dramatic tension and the deepest spirituality.

The Classic Prestige Sessions 1951-1956 collects all of the sides recorded by trumpeter Miles Davis and tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins for Prestige during their time together as young players in New York City. Both musicians were just past their formative years during this period, having broken free from the heavy sway of their bop elders – especially alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, who appears here in several classic cuts originally released on Collector's Items. Both Davis and Rollins were expanding the bop mold and beginning to discover their own sound. Davis had already made his mark with the innovative West Coast jazz masterpiece Birth of the Cool and was further developing his romantic and cerebral minimalism. Similarly, Rollins was quickly becoming the heir to Parker's throne as the most searching and muscular saxophonist on the scene. The dichotomy of their sounds made Davis and Rollins a perfect rub as jazz partners and these recordings helped foreshadow and define such future jazz movements as hard bop, post-bop, and even free jazz.

Heaven knows, the Scotsman born Donovan Leitch was ripe for ridicule, even when he was hitting the charts with regularity. He was the ultimate flower child, and his airier pronouncements made cynics want to tighten up those love beads around his neck. Listening to Troubadour, however, it's striking how versatile, melodic, and agreeable most of his material sounds decades after "Mellow Yellow" has faded into a jaundiced yellow. Clearly under the sway of Bob Dylan early on in his career, Donovan nevertheless was capable of directing his reverence into something as enchanting as "Catch the Wind." Amping up as the '60s progressed, he assembled a series of psychedelic-pop classics, including "Season of the Witch," the "Hey Jude"-like sing-along "Atlantis," and the uncharacteristically driving "Hurdy Gurdy Man" (the latter features three-quarters of what was to become Led Zeppelin providing stellar support). This two-disc anthology may be more Donovan than some desire, but the booklet, seven previously unreleased tracks, and expansive perspective it provides makes it a more-than-worthy overview for those who take their paisley folk-rock with a beatific smile.

After signing with Reprise in 1975, Al Jarreau has become a master of both studio and stage. He is one of the most exciting and critically acclaimed performers of our time. This recordingis his first-ever holiday album. Christmas includes the singer's disctinctive vocal spin on a dozen yuletide classics.

Hausmusik’s performance of the Mendelssohn Octet comes with the advantage of a sensibly steady tempo for the famous scherzo, allowing for maximum transparency and lightness; and a dazzling finale in which for once the cello’s first scurrying fugal entry sounds crystal clear. The First String Quintet, and the Op. 13 Quartet – Mendelssohn’s homage to the late quartets of the recently deceased Beethoven – are also miraculous products of the composer’s teenage years. The Quintet is quite beautifully done here, but the Quartet, like the late Quintet, Op. 87, is rather lacking in tension and urgency. Woldemar Bargiel was Schumann’s brother-in-law. For all its obvious weaknesses, his Octet contains some attractive ideas, and Divertimenti’s performance makes a strong case for it. Divertimenti is impressive in the Mendelssohn, too – though its finale is not quite as exhilarating as Hausmusik’s; and in the last resort neither group can quite match the élan of the ASMF Chamber Ensemble.