Shostakovich was genuinely trying to break new ground but had been sharply brought into line (viz. the edict issued against his opera "Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk"). His 5th Symphony seems to cast doubt on the Marxist purity of the Party in power. He conveys his rage in unexpectedly neo-Mahlerian style, but concludes with politically correct optimism. A quarter of a century later he produced "The Year 1917", a skilfully produced commission which sounds like a film score. Even today Mravinsky is still the most effective interpreter of this contradictory diptych, capable of rendering both its intrinsic power and resounding ambiguities.

Shostakovich was genuinely trying to break new ground but had been sharply brought into line (viz. the edict issued against his opera "Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk"). His 5th Symphony seems to cast doubt on the Marxist purity of the Party in power. He conveys his rage in unexpectedly neo-Mahlerian style, but concludes with politically correct optimism. A quarter of a century later he produced "The Year 1917", a skilfully produced commission which sounds like a film score. Even today Mravinsky is still the most effective interpreter of this contradictory diptych, capable of rendering both its intrinsic power and resounding ambiguities.

Instructing and educating Christians on the one hand and delighting their minds on the other, so that the words and truths of the Holy Scripture would be anchored deeply within them – this was the purpose of the sacred cantata. No master of the Baroque era wrote more of these than Georg Philipp Telemann. He approached this seemingly ‘tedious work’ with such incredible imagination that his congregations could never be bored. One need only listen to the so-called French Cycle (1714-15). To this end, Vol. 4 contributes ten more first recordings. There are certainly meditative moments in both the music for Advent presented here and the cantatas written for the ’normal’ Sundays of the church year; but these works predominantly feature colourful, enormously picturesque music throughout. They always get straight to the heart of the worship service's message and are still instantly appealing today.

The legendary singer Salif Keita makes a grand return with So Kono, an acoustic and deeply intimate album.

Comprising three compact discs and a Blu-ray, Meltdown: Live in Mexico City documents an incarnation of King Crimson that the group's founder Robert Fripp described as "the best band I’ve been in, musically, personally, professionally." The three CDs distill King Crimson's five concerts in Mexico City from 14 to 19 July 2017 down to three and a half hours, and the Blu-ray video further condenses the performances to two and a half hours.

Live at the Orpheum is a live album by the band King Crimson, released by Discipline Global Mobile records in 2015. The album was recorded on 30 September and 1 October at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, California on the band's The Elements of King Crimson US tour of 2014.

During 1999 Leif Sundberg and myself conducted a workshop at the Stockholm University of the Arts – Department of Acting, around Zeami and his works, trying to learn something relevant for us here today. Later we did a play for Swedish Radio with an adaption by Ingegerd Monthán. Here is some of that music. The album is concluded with an exercise we did where Leif tries to keep the intensity of a short poem of eight lines, “Att Höra en Röst (To Hear a Voice)” only supported by an extremely slow percussive breathing pulse. He kept it up for eleven minutes!

New quartet Sissoko Segal Parisien Peirani presents "Les Égarés" (The wandering), an album recorded by two virtuoso duos (Sissoko-Segal and Peirani-Parisien), who for years have excelled in the art of cross-fertilising sounds and transcending genres.

After the success of Djourou, the Malian virtuoso returns for an intimate tête à tête with his kora – intimate yet simple and majestic.

After a decade working as a jazz pianist in NYC, GRAMMY-nominated pianist and composer Pascal Le Boeuf took a leap of faith and enrolled in Princeton University’s PhD program to explore the boundaries of jazz improvisation and contemporary classical composition. Seven years later, “Ritual Being” is a compendium of his explorations featuring leading performers Linda May Han Oh, Justin Brown, Friction Quartet, Sara Caswell, Todd Reynolds, Jessica Meyer, Nick Photinos, Remy Le Boeuf, Ben Wendel, and others. The title track “Ritual Being” is about the effects of mankind’s behaviors on the planet and each other.

Flutes, xylophones and tuned tablas. If you want discreet and beautiful music around you, play this on a low volume. If you want to listen closely just raise the volume. This is some of the music created around the film “Bara Du Och Jag”(1994) by Suzanne Osten.

Dmitry Shostakovich’s Fifteenth is perhaps the most enigmatic symphony of the twentieth century. In this work, the composer goes in search of his (and our) relationship with the musical past. He quotes musical predecessors like Rossini and Wagner, in addition to himself. These quotations raise profound musical and philosophical questions: where does it all come from, how far have we come, and where does it all go? The bare, withering ending is one of the most poignant passages in the symphonic repertoire, which Shostakovich, then a sixty-five-year-old heart patient, composed knowing the end was nigh.

This 1988 release by Airto Moreira and Flora Purim was hailed 'probably the duo's best release for some years.' It includes studio recordings from 1980 and 1987 and has been out of print for several years. Hailed by Britain's Jazz Journal as 'probably the duo's best release for some years,' this album features a collection of superb tracks from different periods, specially selected by Flora and Airto themselves.

The 1974 release of this album on the Fantasy group’s Milestone label created an instant impact and launched one of the most exciting and tempestuous vocalists of the decade. Flora Purim and her husband, the brilliant percussionist Airto Moreira, had been part of Chick Corea’s "Return to Forever" band, and Airto had gained much attention with Miles Davis, but this record combined their Brazilian rhythms for the first time with the "fusion" jazz of players like George Duke and Stanley Clarke. The result was a high-energy music of enormous appeal.

Hanz Sedlář was born in Kroměříž in 1989. He is a drummer who also writes music for a symphony orchestra or chamber orchestra.