Charlie Byrd played jazz guitar with Django Reinhardt during his World War II army stint in France prior to studying classical music with Andres Segovia.

Conducting Bruckner, says Rattle, is a lifelong quest for some "extraordinary vista, some wonderful moment which leads you out of this world". This certainly rings true for Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, the opening theme for which is said to have come to him in a dream, played by an angel. This huge, glowing mountain-range of sound is all at once majestic, reverent and terrifying. This edition of the symphony by Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs was first performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle in September 2022, and the recording completes a set of three albums which also features Cohrs' editions of Bruckner's Fourth and Sixth symphonies.

Subtle Love not only distills The Slow Show’s sumptuous indie pop formula, but it casts the group’s net into exciting fresh waters, incorporating winsome folk (Royal Blue) and anthemic, widescreen rock (One Shot) too. Across ten songs, the listener is taken on an amble through the band’s past and into a tantalising future. It is a highly melodic and moving affair, made by kindred spirits and lifelong friends.

„Here's a delightful coupling: Mahler's First Symphony and the song cycle that donated many of its themes to the larger work. Best of all, both performances are superb.

Tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen concludes his trilogy dedicated to hautes-contre with "Legros, haute-contre de Gluck". Joseph Legros (1739-1793) was a singer at the Paris Opéra, renowned for his extraordinary musical abilities, wide range and brilliant high notes.

"Josquin was the most emblematic composer of his time, famous throughout Europe for his compositions both secular and sacred. This recording explores those two aspects of his output, which are more closely related than one might think. Here in a small line-up, Gli Angeli Genève deliver a virtuoso vocal performance that is sensitive and empathetic. With only two voices per part, they play on the timbre and individuality of each voice, and thus create an intimacy and a meditative mood that invite the listener to share with the singers in the deeply moving humanity of Josquin’s music."

The Bucharest Symphony and Principal Conductor John Axelrod present a unique recording of both versions of Schumann's 4th Symphony: the original version, composed and premiered in 1841 and published nearly 50 years later with the help of Johannes Brahms, and the revised 1851 version, completed three years before his untimely death, and defended and protected by his widow, Clara Schumann.

The Aero Saxophone Quartet brings its trademark versatility and variety to their debut album, which embraces music from Glazunov to John Coltrane. Praised by Augusta Read Thomas for their ‘nuanced, colourful, and artfully sculpted’ performances, the award-winning Aero Quartet was formed in 2020 and has quickly established a reputation for wide-ranging programmes.

Soul Jazz Records’ Holy Church of the Ecstatic Soul: Gospel, Funk and Soul at the Crossroads 1971-83 draws upon the extensive links between black American gospel music and soul music, showing how the sensibilities of gospel artists such as Shirley Caeser, Dorothy Norwood, Andrae Crouch and others crossed over into secular soul music during this period.

In 2018, the Styriarte Festival in Graz launched, in collaboration with Zefiro, a project to rediscover the operatic output of the Styrian composer Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741), Kapellmeister at the imperial court in Vienna for forty years, with the aim of restaging six of his nineteen operas, one per year. With a cast of Baroque vocal specialists, led by Monica Piccinini and Carlotta Colombo, this set of La corona d’Arianna represents the second instalment of the Arcana series which documents the recordings made in the course of this six-year cycle, following the success of Dafne in lauro (A488, 2021 – awarded Gramophone Editor’s Choice and rated Eccezionale by Musica).

Svetlana Marinchenko is originally from Russia, Moscow. She started to play music when she was 17, after hearing Coltrain's Love Supreme. After 3 years of experience in music, she managed to get enrolled in the Musorgsky Colledge of Music. Svetlana studied with the famous Russian jazz pianist Andrey Kondakov. During the first year of study, Svetlana discovered herself as a composer and organized her own combo, Svetamuzika. Svetamuzika has participated in many international jazz festivals, such as "Close Encounters" Helsinki, Rajation Jazz Festival Helsinki and "Petrojazz" Sankt-Peterburg.

The quartet around Berlin's exceptional drummer Johannes Metzger now presents its second album. "How Far?" is a thoughtful, admonishing and stirring album about the state of the immediate environment, but at no point lecturing or patronizing.

Following the 2015 release of "The Rhinegold" – the Vorabend or „preliminary evening“ of Richard Wagner's "The Ring of the Nibelung" – and of "The Valkyrie" in 2019, BR-KLASSIK is now releasing "Siegfried" as the second day of the enthusiastically received tetralogy under Sir Simon Rattle - recorded live on February 3 and 5, 2023 at Munich's Isarphilharmonie im Gasteig. With "The Rheingold", Rattle had already decisively refuted the longstanding claim that he and Wagner were not a good match, and with "The Valkyrie", he dispelled any remaining doubts.

Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words simply defy ordinary description. Refined and nuanced, they constitute some of the composer’s finest and best-known works. For nearly two hundred years, they were regarded as charming relics, select romantic gems performed in small concert halls and salons. While their subtle, ornamental qualities certainly shine brightest in more intimate settings, closer inspection reveals an unexpected depth and complexity to these miniature masterpieces. Their interpretive and technical demands are considerable, requiring sensitivity to voicing, pedaling and dynamic control. Meant to enchant rather than dazzle, they evoke myriad dreams revealing some of the composer’s innermost reflections. Like private entries in a musical diary, they offer a rare glimpse into this reserved but passionate artist’s thoughts.

‘The Irish Revolution’ is the latest album from renowned Irish composer and founding member of Clannad, Pól Brennan.