When Gretchen Wilson released One of the Boys in 2007, she took a left turn and offered as many ballads as she did straight contemporary country-rockers. The album didn’t sell as well as its two predecessors. Wilson went into the studio and cut I Got Your Country Right Here two years later – producing it with Blake Chancey and two tracks with John Rich. She felt it reflected her live shows better than her previous recordings did and would connect better with her audience.

The Empire Brass adds a drummer to its lineup for CLASS BRASS–FIREDANCE, another collection of classical popular hits by one of the world's most renown brass ensembles. Empire is well known for its reliable interpretations of pieces such as Ravel's 'Boléro,' which leads off this collection of primarily dances.

Freddy Kempf is a fast-rising young star of the piano literature known for his outstanding virtuosity and independence. Any complaints about Kempf's music-making concern the issues of mannerisms and characterization. Unfortunately, these complaints rear their heads in Kempf's new Bach recording of two of the six keyboard partitas. First, the good stuff. Kempf has 'flying fingers' and an overall technique that is very impressive; just listen to his dynamic accounts of the Gigues from each Partita.

Accardo's performances are nothing short of spectacular, and (the late) Kurt Masur and the Gewandhaus's performances never disappoint. Most classical audiophiles may be familiar only with Bruch's first violin concerto and the "Scottish Fantasy," but there are two more wonderful violin concertos, a Romance, a Konzertstuck, a Serenade, a piece entitled "Adagio Appassionato" and a piece that was new to me, "In Memoriam," a very beautiful and moving composition that is the last band on the last record.

Whatcha Gonna Do is a solid set of folk with a strong dose of bluegrass and country, sweetly sung by Claire Lynch and delivered with low-key assuredness by her band. While she did write or co-write four of the songs, Lynch is here more an interpreter of work by others. A few of the writers she covers are quite prominent, with Bill Monroe's "My Florida Sunshine" getting a less all-out bluegrass treatment than most would bring to it, and Jesse Winchester dueting with Lynch on his "That's What Makes You Strong."

A major departure from Claire Martin's previous efforts, Take My Heart marked the first time she recorded an album that had very little to do with jazz. The British singer had never been a jazz snob; she always had a healthy appreciation of rock, pop and R&B. But jazz was her foundation – if she interpreted a Tom Waits or Stevie Wonder song, she did so from a jazz perspective.

Well, I've been well and truly Claire Martinned - and it's a good thing to be, I can tell you. With these four from the ‘nineties, which I hadn't heard before, plus the five that I already had, I thought I might have the Linn CM output so far. But I discover that there are a couple more I have to catch up with. With Claire having been showing British female jazz singers how to do it during two decades now, the nineties were her ‘early years', and this package, ranging from her Waiting Game debut (1992), through Devil May Care (1993), Old Boyfriends (1994), to Make This City Ours (1997), provides some intriguing insights.

Mikhail Pletnev was born in Archangelsk, which is located in the north of Russia on the coast of the White Sea. By the time Pletnev began piano studies at age seven, with pianist Julia Shaskina, his family had moved to the central Russian City of Kazan in Tatarstan. Pletnev demonstrated promise and was enrolled at age 13 in Evgeny Timakin's piano preparatory class at the Moscow Central Music School. At 14, Pletnev earned the Grand Prix awarded by the International Jeunesses Musicales in Paris, and at 15 he transferred into master classes headed by Yakov Flier at the Moscow Conservatory. /quote]

Brought back into the active catalog by popular demand, the second Schubert release by the brilliant English pianist Paul Lewis features the composers' sublime late Piano Sonatas D959 and D960. Clearly channeling the musical spirit of his legendary teacher, Alfred Brendel, Lewis finds the heart of these works and instills them with his own brand of unrivaled clarity and virtuosity.

Recorded live at the Sydney Opera House, this concert performance finds beloved Australian pop singer/actor Olivia Newton-John offering up a set of her best-known songs. Highlights include signature tunes from her films XANADU (a slightly jazzy take on "Magic") and GREASE (a swooning version of "Hopelessly Devoted to You"), along with a playful bossa nova-like reworking of her 1981 hit, "Physical."

Claire Lynch's new album is a rare bird indeed. At one point, albums like this weren't the exception, but the rule. Twelve exquisitely written, carefully produced songs that bound along at a pace appropriate for their subject matter: life, love, and the conviction to get on with both. Only one song nudges the four-minute mark, and rightfully so.

UTV Records' Magic: The Very Best of Olivia Newton-John is the best compilation ever assembled on Newton-John's career, largely because it does cover her entire career, hitting every major point from her early-'70s soft country-pop hits, like "I Honestly Love You," through her star-making turn in Grease, selections from Xanadu, up to the Physical era and its fallout.

Après plusieurs albums chez Naxos au sein de l'édition intégrale des Lieder de Schubert, Wolfgang Holzmair revient à ce compositeur, cette fois chez Capriccio ! Le baryton autrichien présente le Voyage d'Hiver D911, en compagnie du pianiste Andreas Haefliger, auteur notamment de la série "Perspectives" chez Avie Records. Une interprétation opalescente et immaculée, tout simplement incroyable ! Une nouvelle version de référence.

Duos don’t always have the temperament for the smouldering fires of Franck as well as the sudden whims of Debussy. Dumay and Pires join the select few. They take their time to find Debussy’s opening pulse, but they establish an individual, thoughtful freedom that ‘speaks’ sensuously and assertively. In the finale, they let unexpected passion grow from the central waltz, setting up a brilliant final flourish. Implicit in the initial, floated phrases of the Franck is a sense of the arduous journey to come. Intensity surges up by degrees towards the soul-torturing struggles at the sonata’s centre, and recedes before a gradual return of serenity and confidence.

This is one of the most inspirational CD's I have ever listened to. Not only is the playing perfect, the choice in music for the CD is perfect. It provides the listener with several different styles, and yet many similar styles. The group plays the traditional Russian pieces with flair and great musicianship, such as the Stravinsky and the Shostakovich.