The songs of late Renaissance and early Baroque England have been sliced and diced in various ways in concert and recorded programming, but the configuration here seems to be unique. The tenor Nicholas Phan, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, devised the program himself: pointing out "how little human experience has changed over the centuries" and that Dowland's melancholia had much in common with the Romantics' veneration of the lovesick solitary hero (both debatable ideas, but both stimulating), he assembles what he calls a pastiche song cycle from compositions by Purcell, Dowland, John Blow, and other lesser-known lights.

On the cover of this latest Red Seal twofer – I don’t much like using that word but I can’t really call this a double album any more – Martha Argerich takes top billing, rightly, to Ivry Gitlis, whose name is in smaller type underneath hers. Hence I’ve reproduced the two in the header of this review. But violinist manqué though I may be, how I wish I hadn’t had to.

Paul Hardcastle is absolutely an Icon of Jazz Fusion and Easy Listening music. And his daughter Maxine hit it right on this recording. Its just the right amount of women's voice to make it extremely alluring but not over the top. Just perfect. Beautiful creation an achievement!

The Piano Quintet and Sextet are Pfitzner’s largest chamber works; the Piano Quintet Op. 23 is in the traditional instrumentation for piano and string quartet but the Sextet Op. 55 is scored for an unusual ensemble of piano, clarinet, violin, viola, violoncello and double bass. The ensemble Ulf Hoelscher have here created an exemplary, stylistically illuminating recording which is a great addition to the CPO catalogue.

Long regarded as one of the jazz worlds most unsung heroes, Hank Jones tasty fireworks and subtle improvisation finally started getting the recognition they deserved in the mid-Fifties. In fact, from 1953 practically every album released by Savoy in that era included Hank Jones on piano. Less than two years later he joined forces with the dependable bassist Wendell Marshall and the always-swinging drummer Kenny Clarke and found hisideal trio. As he put it, a good rhythm section must have the ability to think together as a unit, to all have the same type of drive. After they had worked as a unit on several recording dates for Savoy, most of the critics and jazz fans acclaimed The Trio (as they were called) as the most outstanding rhythm section of their time.