Marking the 150th anniversary of Berlioz’s death, this performance of the mighty Requiem or Grande Messe des Morts - took place in St Paul’s Cathedral, London, in March 2019. Conducted by John Nelson, it involved over 300 musicians, including tenor Michael Spyres. As Nelson said: “Every measure resonates deeply with me and I feel there is sincerity, even in the great moments of bombast.” The Times wrote: “The surpassing virtue of this performance … was that both aspects, the spine-shakingly spectacular and the heart-rendingly haunting, were allowed to make their impact.

Keith Charles Flint was an English vocalist, dancer, and occasional motorcycle racer, best known to a wide audience for his work with the seminal electronic group The Prodigy. Beginning as a backup dancer with the group, Flint would later become a frontman for The Prodigy by 1996, lending his appearances as a songwriter and vocalist to some of their biggest commercial hits, such as "Firestarter", "Breathe", "Baby's Got A Temper", and "Omen". Flint's iconic punk-inspired appearance became indelibly associated with the group through their music videos, and almost certainly played a major role in The Prodigy's mainstream success, and legacy as a key influence in the subgenres of big beat, breakbeat, and hardcore dance.

Singer, guitarist and composer Rudy Rotta lived for the Blues. The original Italian, who grew up in Switzerland and conquered the world with his inspiring tours, exalted his audience with his impressive guitar playing and unmistakable blues spiced with funk and soul elements. Deceased in the summer of 2017, the artist had already acquired the status of "legend of the blues" during his lifetime.

Beyond Description (1973-1989) is a companion set to 2001's 12-disc box The Golden Road (1965-1973), which collected all of the Grateful Dead's albums for Warner Bros, adding bonus tracks to each album, along with a double-disc collection of early pre-Warner recordings called "Birth of the Dead" for good measure. Beyond Description picks up the story after the Dead started their own label with 1973's Wake of the Flood and runs all the way to 1989, when they released their last studio album, Built to Last. Like The Golden Road, each album here is enhanced with bonus tracks, running the gamut from as little as three (on Built to Last) to has many as 16 (a full-length bonus disc added to 1980's live acoustic Reckoning), but there's nothing quite as enticing as "Birth of the Dead." Indeed, "enticing" is not a word that's frequently associated with the albums in this collection.

Christmastime in Vienna is a Christmas music collaboration between vocalists Placido Domingo, Patricia Kaas, and Alejandro Fernandez. The incredible amount of vocal talent found on the disc can be a bit overwhelming, especially on the numbers sung by opera star Domingo. But what results is a decent album of holiday songs given the royal treatment by the three singers. Especially impressive is Kaas, who stands out as the most charismatic vocalist of the trio.

Adele Schmidt and Jose Zegarra Holder have released a 95 minutes documentary that features several prog rock bands and label/studio owners. This is not so much a story of current progressive rock, as it a small survey of several bands and the USA North East coast fests…

After releasing four albums in four years, Isole slowed things down. They decided to take a break from the studio and focus on playing live in order to gain some perspective before returning to the song writing process. "Dystopia" contains stories of this deteriorating world weaved in melancholic melodies. For fans of Solstice, Candlemass and early Anathema.

"Recorded live in the South of France as part of the ""Moondog Season"", the new album from the 13-member Neo-Bigband, Initiative H, highlights the work ""Sax Pax for a Sax"" by composer Moondog, originally recorded by the London Saxophonic in 1994."

2017 release from the blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. Fish recorded Belle of the West in the relaxed, rural creative atmosphere of the legendary Zebra Ranch Studios in the North Hills of Mississippi with producer Luther Dickinson (of North Mississippi Allstars fame), with whom she worked previously on her 2015 album Wild Heart. The studio team included some of the region's most iconoclastic musicians, including Dickinson, solo artist and Jack White associate Lillie Mae, much-traveled juke-joint blues artist Lightnin' Malcolm, Squirrel Nut Zippers founder Jimbo Mathus, upright bassist and beloved solo artist Amy LaVere, Tikyra Jackson, Trina Raimey and Shardé Thomas, granddaughter of the legendary Southern bluesman Otha Turner.

RCA Victor's The American Album is the most daring and ambitious program undertaken by violinist Anne Akiko Meyers for RCA Victor and features some of the most challenging and invigorating music to be found among her early playing. The showpiece here is Meyers' rendering of Charles Ives' Sonata No. 4 "Children's Day at the Camp Meeting," in which she transits seamlessly from the elementary, student-like playing at the opening through the fierce transcendentalism in the middle section to the whimsical, scherzo-like final movement. Meyers' playing matches Ives' rub-your-head-while-you-pat-your-tummy requirements without losing her sense of line or even tonal beauty.

Anne Akiko Meyers is a thoughtful rather than a flamboyant virtuoso, and the four items here suit her exceptionally well. There is no feeling that the shorter pieces are in any way mere fillers, so rapt is her playing. The sweet, gentle opening of the Mendelssohn Concerto, as presented by Anne Akiko Meyers, immediately sets the pattern not only for that central work, but for the whole, unusual collection on this disc.

Decade is an excellent singles compilation, featuring all of the highlights from Duran Duran's heyday – "Planet Earth," "Girls on Film," "Rio," "Is There Something I Should Know," "Union of the Snake," "The Reflex," "The Wild Boys," "Save a Prayer," "A View to a Kill" – plus late-'80s hits like "Notorious," "Skin Trade," "I Don't Want Your Love," and "All She Wants Is." By juxtaposing their stylish new wave pop against their latter-day lite-funk experiments, the group's decline becomes shockingly evident, but no other Duran Duran album sums up their appeal like Decade, and it's hard to imagine another compilation working the same ground as effectively.