Cet album n’est pas une réédition, mais le reflet d’un concert enregistré, à une date non précisée, par la BBC au Royal Festival Hall de Londres, avec l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Londres. On y retrouve la voix suave, mordorée et sensuelle de Jessye Norman sous la direction de Klaus Tennstedt, un chef venu de l’ex-Allemagne de l’Est (la RDA de l’époque) et soudainement sorti de l’ombre lors de son passage à l’Ouest et de son établissement à Hambourg en 1979. Repéré alors par les majors, il commence une nouvelle carrière, notamment à la tête du London Philharmonic Orchestra qui le nomme chef principal en 1983.

Dmitrij Dmitrievic Shostakovich was one of the most influential, praised and widely performed composers of the twentieth century: his unmistakable style has left an indelible mark on the aesthetic taste of the modern listener and on the DNA of the contemporary orchestra. Nevertheless, up to this day, his piano works have been rarely played by performers and listened to by the public, almost obscured by the exceptional nature of his extensive chamber and symphonic production. Considering his outstanding ease of writing and well-proven ability to compose music under all kinds of circumstances – even unfavorable ones –, Shostakovich’s piano production for piano appears relatively small and, above all, sporadic. These pages are not less extraordinary because of that. On the contrary, many of them show a degree of ambition and depth of purpose that are not second to those of his chamber and symphonic masterpieces.

This is the Dublin blues-rocker Eamonn McCormack’s seventh release and it encapsulates an eclectic mix of music styles and formats. They are all originals written by this talented singer-songwriter and virtuoso guitarist…

Album Rain Ambience is part of a beautiful collection of relaxing, soothing sounds (Relaxing Sounds of Nature series) to take you away from everyday life and place you amongst the peace and tranquility of nature.

A work filled with ambition, Circlesong is a musical portrayal of the human life cycle as captured in the indigenous poetry of North America. Based on poetry from the Chinook, Comanche, Dakota, Eskimo, Iroquois, Kwakiutl, Navajo, Ojibwa, Pueblo, Seminole, Sioux, and Yaqui traditions, the thirteen movements, in seven parts, mark the different stages of life, from birth and childhood to adulthood, middle age and death. With energetic percussion accompaniment, climactic moments for tutti choir, tender unaccompanied passages and solo song, Circlesong is a work of impressive drama, variety, and depth, performed here by the Grammy® Award winning Houston Chamber Choir under Robert Simpson. Founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Robert Simpson, the Houston Chamber Choir received the 2019 Grammy® Award for Best Choral Performance for its recording of the complete works of Maurice Duruflé (also available from Signum). Other honors include Chorus America’s Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence and the American Prize, Professional Choir Division. Dubbed by Jamie Bernstein as “the choral equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters” the Houston Chamber Choir is as comfortable singing jazz with Christian McBride and Dave Brubeck as performing Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel with violist Kim Kashkashian, and Mass Observation by Tarik O’Regan.

A Sloppy Piece of Work? This is how Franz Lehár described what was certainly his most successful work after The Merry Widow immediately after its composition. Today we know, however, that this was a gross misjudgment. Or if it was sloppy, then sloppy in a genial way. It bubbles over with catchy melodies, and dramaturgically it is in any case certainly the master's finest operetta: Der Graf von Luxemburg (The Count of Luxembourg). When the theater next-door to cpo in Osnabrück had the Graf on its program in 2011, it soon became clear that a stellar moment was involved here. The decision was quickly made to use this wonderful occasion for a production. The review of the operetta's premiere in Opernwelt shortly thereafter confirmed our decision: “The conductor Daniel Inbal passionately and elegantly brings out Lehár's intimate salon tone with the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra, whose members play with the highest animation, carefully also in the postludes and transitional pieces, with what almost might be termed a fine operetta-philological feel. […] One feels empathy and great seriousness in the discerning treatment of the subject matter. Marco Vassalli, who is the spitting image of the young Johannes Heesters, fulfills the title hero's nonchalance requirement.”

Stefan Herheim's idea of staging a midsummer night's dream as a fairytale narrative is enchanting and with this admirably matched ensemble of excellent singer-players, all of whom bring sharp contours to their roles, and the brilliant details of characterization make each scene an experience to cherish. This unbelievably lavish and absolutely splendid stage set radiates youthful charm and conjures up a flood of incomparable images.

The international release The Paul Simon Anthology was a two-CD abridged version of the three-CD box set Paul Simon 1964-1993. For this version, the first two discs of the box set were condensed into a single CD, while the third disc, left untouched, was now the second disc. This accentuated one of the weaknesses of the box set, weighting the selections even more heavily toward Simon's later work. Here, his recordings originally released between 1965 and 1983 (including six Simon and Garfunkel tracks) made up the first disc, and the second disc covered only the period 1986-1993, and really 1986-90, since the only recordings released after 1990 were "Thelma," an outtake from the 1990 album The Rhythm of the Saints and three performances from the 1991 live album Paul Simon's Concert in the Park. While the abridgment seemed to have been made with an eye on the British charts, for the most part eliminating only songs that had not been hits in the U.K. (the exceptions being "America" and "Take Me to the Mardi Gras"), the album still didn't function as a full-fledged greatest hits album, lacking such British chart singles as "Homeward Bound" and "I Am a Rock" (neither of which were on Paul Simon 1964-1993, either).

The Australian Chamber Orchestra and Richard Tognetti showcase two works of genius by Beethoven and Bach. Recorded live in concert, these seminal works are given a new lease of life, opening up new soundworlds through the vitality and virtuosity for which the ACO has become globally renowned.

As her 1993 blockbuster debut approached its 25th anniversary, Toni Braxton proceeded to collect accolades while moving forward. Her duets album with Babyface was designated Best R&B Album in 2015 by the Recording Academy – making her a Grammy winner in three decades – and the connection with her foundational audience was reaffirmed in 2017 with a Soul Train Legend Award. Her every-few-years release schedule was maintained with this short album, in which she responds to a habitually philandering lover with her distinctive mix of fire and finesse. This has more of the former element than any previous Braxton release.

With a deeper and broader track listing than most ABC compilations, Look of Love: The Very Best of ABC more or less lives up to its name. Concentrating on the band's glory days, the album covers the highlights of ABC's first five albums, including de rigeur hits like the title track, "Poison Arrow," "When Smokey Sings," "Be Near Me," and "How to Be a Millionaire," as well as album tracks like "S.O.S.," "All of My Heart," and "The Night You Murdered Love." While some of the later inclusions, such as "The Real Thing," don't quite pack the punch of ABC's prime work, the 2001 track "Peace and Tranquility" fits in with the earlier material surprisingly well. Likewise, the somewhat random track listing might be somewhat annoying to anyone trying to track ABC's chronological development, but it does spotlight how consistent their brand of suave synth pop is. With a new song, a more diverse track listing, and no unnecessary remixes, Look of Love has a slight edge over Absolutely ABC: The Best of ABC as the group's definitive retrospective.

Electric Food is the self-titled album of Electric Food, a studio project that included (uncredited) singer George Mavros with musicians from Lucifer's Friend that released two albums in 1970, the other being Flash. Flash is the second and final album by Electric Food. Soon after its release, the core of band formed Asterix and recorded one album: Asterix. Less than a year later Asterix would change their name to Lucifer's Friend. In 2004 Electric Food and Flash were released on one CD by Mason Records. Both Electric Food albums sound very similar to Lucifer's Friend's debut but include strong influences from Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, and Spooky Tooth.

Tell the Truth, Billy Squier's final album for Capitol Records, proved to be heartbreaking experience for the rocker. Tragically, one can only guess why the label even chose to release this record. The following theories spring to mind. Perhaps the album was a tax write off, a favor to Squier, or, worse, released to fulfill the singer's contractual obligation (which sometimes proves to be a cheaper proposition rather than buying the artist out of his/her deal). Released at a time when Squier's public profile was, shall we say, less than stellar, the label chose to completely overlook the album. To make things worse, in the wake of the Seattle explosion, Capitol had just experienced another changing of the guard.

3CD+DVD box set of the British pub band Dr. Feelgood called All Through The City. The three CDs include the first four Dr. Feelgood albums, plus previously unreleased material, while the DVD contains a massive amount of archive live TV performances including seven tracks from a 1975 appearance on UK TV’s The Geordie Scene and three tracks from The Old Grey Whistle Test. Discs 1 and 2 are made up by their first four albums – Down By The Jetty, Malpractice, Stupidity and Sneakin’ Suspicion. Disc 3 features 16 previously unissued tracks – 13 studio recordings and three live tracks. By far the ultimate Dr. Feelgood collection ever released!

Ferras was born at Le Touquet in 1933, he began studying the violin with his father, who was a pupil of Marcel Chailley. He entered the Conservatoire de Nice as a student of Charles Bistesi in 1941, and in 1943 obtained the First Prize. In 1944 he went to the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1946 he won the First Prize in both disciplines (violin and chamber music), and started his performing career with the Pasdeloup Orchestra under Albert Wolff, and later Paul Paray. He worked with Romanian violinist and composer George Enescu, who also acted as an instructor. Ferras premiered the Violin Concerto by Federico Elizalde, under the direction of Gaston Poulet.