Nimbus are a steadfastly faithful label. By this I mean that even the products of their vinyl twilight days have been transferred to CD and kept in the catalogue. On the other hand they are not given to discounting. Their products remain confidently at premium or upper middle price except in the case of their occasional forays into jumbo boxes. Sofia-born Marta Deyanova has been a name long associated with Nimbus alongside those of Shura Gehrman, Hugues Cuénod, Youra Guller and Vlado Perlemuter. A graduate of the Bulgarian State Conservatory, she first appeared in the UK in 1975 at the Wigmore Hall.

Johann Strauss Junior’s second operetta, Der Carneval in Rom, premiered in 1873 only one year before Die Fledermaus, and while the music is enjoyable enough, with several nice tunes, there is little in the score to presage the gorilla blockbuster soon to come. For one thing, Strauss wrote the music in the more romantic style of light opera because the work was originally scheduled to be mounted at the Vienna court opera, a place of more serious mien than the Theater an der Wien, then the home of the comic-oriented Viennese operetta.

Without doubt, this is one of the most important recordings of music by Janácek in recent years. Paul Wingfield’s restoration of the original performing version of the Glagolitic Mass is a fine piece of work and deserves to become the standard text. Those familiar with the Mass will notice changes right at the start, where the ‘Intrada’ (normally the conclusion) appears twice, at both the beginning and end. This introduces a number of fundamental alterations to rhythm and instrumentation which make for a markedly different whole: undoubtedly harder to perform, but infinitely sharper in outline.

This new work by Spanish composer Alberto Posadas, composed from 2003 to 2007, is not a collection of string quartets, but rather a cycle of five quartets, meant to be performed as a whole with only brief pauses punctuating the parts, 52 minutes in all. It is performed here with energy and precision by the Quatuor Diotima, and recorded in January 2009 for Kairos.

Shuky & Aviva mainly recorded records in French. Between 1972 and 1978 appeared over 15 singles, which Levi had partly written himself. From her biggest hit Signorina concertina in 1972 a total of around two million copies have been sold. This song they presented in a German version in 1973 also in the ZDF hit parade.

Parmi l'oeuvre de Saint-Saëns, les concertos pour piano sont d'une importance indéniable. D'abord parce que leur composition accompagne Saint- Saëns entre 1848 et 1896, ensuite parce qu'ils sont symboliques d'un style fait de légèreté, d'intelligence et de finesse. Populaires, ces concertos le deviennent rapidement grâce à la clarté de leurs thèmes musicaux et à leur grande richesse harmonique. Le compositeur français n'oublie pas de truffer ses partitions de quelques notes d'humour que François-René Duchâble sait nous rappeler mieux que quiconque.

The title ‘Dawn to Dusk’ represents some of the contrast between the two works: Ravel’s string quartet can be seen as his first substantial musical statement, while Janácek completed the quartet ‘Intimate Letters’ only a few months before his death. Maurice Ravel wrote only one string quartet, but it is one that dramatically expanded the coloristic boundaries of the genre. Completed in 1903, while Ravel was still a student, he dedicated the work to his teacher, Gabriel Fauré. Over time, Ravel’s quartet has become known as one of the most innovative and vibrantly dynamic quartets in the repertoire.

John Eliot Gardiner, the conductor more highly decorated by the recording industry than any other, returns for his second installment of his complete cycle of the Brahms symphonies. This disc includes the Second Symphony along with the lush Alto Rhapsody and three Schubert songs (two of which were arranged by Brahms). Gardiner's argument to juxtapose vocal and symphonic works is sound; Brahms' true compositional love was for the voice, and his symphonies reflect this in their frequent vocal, choral qualities.

That these symphonies are not more famous than they are simply amazes me. Prokofiev understood the nature of symphonic writing, and after the dainty cuteness of Symphony 1, he was ready to make his own mark. The Symphony 3 (1929) begins with a brash sense of alarm, then becomes quieter, more operatic in nature. And the composer's weird clashing harmonies are throughout the piece. Two versions of the Symphony 4 (1940) exist. This is the original version, which is shorter than the latter 1940 version. Neeme Järvi and the SNO have recorded the entire series for Chandos, and these are the ones to have.

Les compositions de FIELD sont consacrées au piano et préfigure 30 ans après le choix ultérieur de CHOPIN de se consacrer à cet instrument. Les oeuvres de l'Irlandais reflètent fidèlement les principales caractéristiques de son jeu, Spohr, Hummel, Glinka et Liszt témoignèrent de sa délicatesse et de sa vitesse perlée, de son jeu langoureux et apaisant qui remplaçait la vacuité d'une virtuosité à la mode.

Lumineux, c'est l'adjectif pour décrire cet album, vous vous rappelez la chanson "billy bob a raison" sur l'album "negatif" et bien c'est du même tonneau et quelque fois en mieux notamment "la ballade du mois de juin" porté par la voix à la limite de la cassure par miss biolay, "Tête à Claques" un duo bluesy avec de paroles plus Hardy que Françoise ("t'as voulu des sous tasses on a eu des sous tasses, t'as voulu un vélo …"), "A House Is Not A Home" délicieuse ballade mélancolique en anglais à la prononciation très scolaire…

Durant l'été 2010, Vanessa Paradis a proposé une série de 20 concerts acoustiques en France : véritable évènement ! Pour la première fois, ses plus grandes chansons, de « Joe le taxi » à « Divine Idylle », étaient revisitées avec 8 musiciens acoustiques dont un quatuor à cordes. Vanessa Paradis et Barclay ont donc décidé d'enregistrer et filmer l'un des 2 concerts donnés à l'Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles, les 11 et 12 juillet. Ce concert représente une autre façon de dire que les chansons de Vanessa nous sont devenues familières.

Known as "Monsieur 100,000 Volts" for his dynamic stage presence, Gilbert Bécaud was one of France's most popular singers during the 1950s and '60s, and enjoyed a career of more than four decades in show business. Bécaud is best known for his 1961 smash "Et Maintenant," which became a pop standard in the English-speaking world after it was translated as "What Now My Love." He was also an occasional film actor, a highly successful songwriter with over 150 credits, and an ambitious composer who completed a Christmas cantata, an opera, and a Broadway stage musical.

Singer Jeanine Mackie has been working the Toronto club scene for many years. In fact, she fronts her own R&B band. But there's more to Ms Mackie than meets the eye, or the ear as it were. Because she's also a marvelous, cool-toned jazz singer - and that's the talent on display on "The Night We Called It a Day," Blue Martini Jazz's debut album.

The re-release of The English Concert’s award-winning recording of Corelli’s Op 6 concertos offers a welcome opportunity to reflect on some of the changes in taste that have emerged since 1989. Two competing recordings, by groups led by Italians – that of Ensemble 415 and Europa Galante – oblige with two quite different approaches to this most quintessential of Baroque music.