Sinfonia of London and John Wilson present an album that celebrates the golden age of Hollywood. Sinfonia of London rose to fame in the 1950s as the leading recording orchestra of the day, appearing in the musical credits of more than 300 films, including the 1958 soundtrack by Bernard Herrmann for Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

“This fantasy world is a programme designed as a mirror, which is held up to our daily surroundings and where puzzling poetry abounds, creating a world simultaneously characterized by legends, lightness, and metaphysical depth too.” Jean- Baptiste Doulcet pays tribute to the fantasy literature that pervades the Romantic repertoire by combining Schumann, Liszt, and his own composition inspired by a poem by John Keats, an open door to an uncertain and poetic language.

In 1928 Maurice Ravel described the violin and the piano as “essentially incompatible.” Yet, by then, he had already composed for those instruments two sonatas (one of which was published posthumously), Tzigane, and the Berceuse sur le nom de [Gabriel] Fauré - a miraculous output for a supposedly mismatched duo.

Regular duet and two-piano partners, Hélène Mercier and Louis Lortie have returned to the studio for this all-Debussy programme. The album features duets written by the composer himself – such as the Petite Suite, the Six Épigraphes antiques, and the Marche écossaise sur un thème populaire, as well as a number of arrangements of his solo piano pieces (the Première Arabesque, La Fille aux cheveux de lin, and the Ballade slave).

Vivaldi's concerti con molti stromenti are true precursors of the symphony in their amplitude and audacity. In these pieces, the 'Red-haired Priest', a creator of boundless imagination, amused himself by devising literally unheard-of combinations of timbres. In the famous concerto Il Mondo al rovescio (The world upside down), he invited flutes, oboes and harpsichord to double violin and cello in a colourfl whirlwind of parallel octaves. This recording by Amandine Beyer and Gli Incogniti provides an opportunity to discover these incredibly modern compositions.

Horsepower For The Streets is Jonathan Jeremiah’s fifth album, his second for PIAS, a label which feels like a good home for a soulful singer linked to a cadre of artists more readily associated with mainland Europe than his own island. So far at least.

On ‘Sophisticated Lady’ Thalen plays Jazz standards in their most vulnerable form, only accompanied by pianist Bert van den Brink and Hein van de Geyn on double bass. Her violin mainly sticks with the original melody and does not immediately flee towards the usual improvisation. In a frank and honest fashion Thalen wants to make these songs heard as they are. This seems cushy and in a first hearing, the music may sound quite accessable. But apart from the fact that nowadays it isn’t common to play mainly the melody, the plainnes of this approach appears to be fairly misleading.

A reunion record of sorts, with bass legend Mario Pavone getting together with some long-time colleagues of old in a sextet format. And the results are predictably excellent: multiple horn parts giving life to Pavone’s thorny compositions, a strong yet occasionally unpredictable rhythmic current, and superb musicianship throughout.

The quartet album from Israeli saxophonist Eli Degibri. - The group's pianist and bassist are 16 and 18 years of age, respectively. - “A very talented composer, arranger, and performer… the caliber of which is a rare find in jazz today. Degibri's music treads uncharted waters…” (Herbie Hancock)

Following the two fantastic singles that the band has put out in the past, Shelflife and Fastcut Records are incredibly excited to be releasing the debut full-length by Chicago's Star Tropics. "Lost World" cements the band's pop songwriting prowess, and its nine tracks all have equal likelihood of ending up ingrained in your brain.

Modern audiences sometimes associate musicmaking from the Romantic era with extreme rubato, impetuousness of spirit, and a calculated disregard for the fidelity of the text. Although this certainly existed, these characteristics were by no means universally employed. In fact, many Romantic musicians strove to achieve clarity in their performances. “Toujours clair, I have heard him (Guilmant) exclaim a hundred times…” his student Charles Galloway reported in The Etude magazine in January 1921.

As pockets of new jazz scenes emerge around the world, it’s apparent that New Zealand’s bubbling microcosm in Wellington interprets the genre through a unique lens.

Stefan Askenase (* 10. Juli 1896 in Lemberg, Galizien, Österreich-Ungarn, heute Ukraine; † 18. Oktober 1985 in Bonn) war ein belgisch-polnischer Pianist.

Thr Album features the world premiere recordings of String Quartets Nos. 3 and 5 (six-movement version) by Conrado del Campo (1878-1953), one of the most original but least well-known Spanish composers of the first half of the twentieth century. The concert was part of the Proyecto Conrado, which involves programming the first complete cycle of his thirteen string quartets. This will go hand in hand with the publication of a complete edition of the scores, most of which have never been published, and the release of recordings of the quartets (in various formats). The aim of this ambitious initiative is to rescue a significant body of works from the undeserved neglect into which it has fallen.

Joachim Du Bellay (1522-1560) stormed onto the Parisian literary scene with the resounding avant-garde manifesto Défense et illustration de la langue française. Ronsard and Du Bellay are the great French poets of the sixteenth century, but while the former has been set to music hundreds of times, Du Bellay inspired only about thirty compositions