Stage and television director Werner Herzog, one of the most highly acclaimed German film makers of all time, joins forces with the great Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly to effect a masterful rendition of this rarely-performed opera involving spectacular scenes of alternating light and dark, pageantry and intimacy. The production is further complemented by the great Italian baritone Renato Bruson as Giacomo, the American soprano Susan Dunn as Giovanna and the outstanding tenor Vincenzo La Scola as the Dauphin. The magnificent Teatro Comunale di Bologna provides an intimate yet ornate setting for this production of Verdi's seventh opera, the story of the Maid of Orleans.

ELECTRACOUSTIC, an unusual title for an unusual album. It is the 11th studio album of guitar-ace JULIAN SAS. The record is the result of a journey for which the description 'emotional rollercoaster' is an understatement. Playing live, playing long shows, being on the road. That is the lifeline of the Julian Sas Band. The pandemic hit. In a flash that lifeline was cut. But then disaster struck even harder Friend and fellow musician Fotis Anagnostou was diagnosed with a terrible disease and passed away soon therafter in Athens. JULIAN SAS: 'When we saw him depart on his final journey I felt our feelings could not be expressed in words. Several months later when I was listening to some of the demos I realized we could. The music was there. It was good, honest, and waiting for us.'

The blues rock icon and guitar-slingin' wizard returns with a masterful new studio album!Musically, the album harkens back to the muscular playing of Travers' late '70s hey day while tackling current subjects from the COVID quarantine ("Breaking Up In Lockdown") to Travers' tribute to his friend and mentor Ronnie Montrose ("Ronnie")!

These two works are undoubtedly the greatest of the forgotten concertos we have not previously tackled and have been much requested. Both were written by hugely successful virtuoso pianists who were also composers, and both had a major place in the nineteenth-century repertoire, only falling from favour in the 1920s as modernism found its place in the concert hall.

Philippe Jaroussky brings his musical and dramatic powers to a programme of music from Italian oratorios of the baroque era, including five arias in world premiere recordings. La vanità del mondo, takes it's name from an oratorio by Pietro Torri and among the other composers are Händel, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Hasse, Fago and Caldara. "I think composers of this period often give of their best when setting the great stories of the Old Testament," says Jaroussky. "And if oratorio stories are more static than opera, they allow for deeper reflection on the place of mankind in the universe. I think that resonates with particular intensity in 2020, a year of pandemic."

All five of nineteenth century Russian-Latvian cellist and composer Carl Davidov's cello concerti are important and valuable concert works for the cello, and you'd never know that to the extent they have been recorded. The Concerto No. 2 in A minor has fared the best at four recordings, whereas Concerto No. 1 in B minor enjoys its second recording in this fine CPO performance by Wen-Sinn Yang and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra under Terje Mikkelsen.

If you are unfamiliar with the music of Kabalevsky, this is a great place to start. Kabalevsky's music is very melodic and extremely accessable. He wrote at the same time as Prokofiev and Shostakovich and his music has the immediate appeal of all the other Russian masters of the late 19th and early to mid twentieth centuries.
His Cello Concertos are especially wonderful - but as a starting point. Check out his Piano concertos and his Symphonies as well. This recording of the Cello Concertos is beautifully played by Alexander Rudin and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra.

A brand-new addition to Dream Theater’s extensive ‘Lost Not Forgotten Archives’ project, ‘Live in Berlin - 2019’ documents one of the band's first live European appearances supporting the critically acclaimed ‘Distance Over Time’ album, also released that year. Featuring some of the most popular tracks from that record including ‘Barstool Warrior’ and ‘Pale Blue Dot’, as well as long-standing entries from Dream Theater’s esteemed catalogue including ‘The Dance Of Eternity’, ‘Peruvian Skies' and ‘Lie’. This release represents the most recently recorded entry into the series to date, and is once again an exhilarating insight into one of the latest chapters of the band's career.

Along with its sister recording, Pangaea, Agharta was recorded live in February of 1975 at the Osaka Festival Hall in Japan. Amazingly enough, given that these are arguably Davis' two greatest electric live records, they were recorded the same day. Agharta was performed in the afternoon and Pangaea in the evening. Of the two, Agharta is superior. The band with Davis - saxophonist Sonny Fortune, guitarists Pete Cosey (lead) and Reggie Lucas (rhythm), bassist Michael Henderson, drummer Al Foster, and percussionist James Mtume - was a group who had their roots in the radically streetwise music recorded on 1972's On the Corner, and they are brought to fruition here. The music on Agharta, a total of three tunes spread over two CDs and four LP sides, contains the "Prelude," which clocks in at over a half-hour…

This cello concerto is a miracle, both for the listener and for the soloist. The listener is swept along through unexplored terrain. The instrumentation stands out - even for a master like Robin. For a cello, Robin's concerto is innovative and challenging from a technical point of view. The premiere with Yannick and the orchestra was like a celebration - you can hear it. New work only reveals its secrets after a lot of listening, so it is fantastic that this recording is being made. In the summer of 2007, Robin de Raaff wrote Entangled Tales for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Entangled Tales is built up of several layers. It is a continual variation of small elements: rhythms, brief melodies, and ever-changing sounds in the rich palette of a large symphony orchestra. He does not hesitate to use an opulent instrumentation in impressionist and expressionist sphere. For the occasion of its 125th anniversary in 2015, the Het Gelders Orkest asked Robin de Raaff to write a special composition. The result is a symphony of three movements on the concepts of light and dark, referred to as illumination and eclipse. These words do not point to a state of being, but to motion. It is not just about states - light and dark - but also about motion: illumination and eclipse.

Jorge Rossy turns to vibraphone and marimba and delivers a trio set filled with momentous originals for his ECM leader-debut. Marked by their immediate melodic appeal, the vibraphonist’s lines are in lively interplay with his colleagues, Robert Landfermann on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums. After Jorge’s recent contribution on drums to Jakob Bro’s trio with trumpeter Arve Henriksen on Uma Elmo, the present line-up sees him focusing on his own music. On Puerta the Spaniard shines as he navigates a programme that proves him as much an eloquent composer as a powerful melodic voice.

Coming 40 years after he first started performing in bands in his native North West of England, Butterfly Mind is the most surprising release yet from Tim Bowness. From the short, sharp shocks of Always The Stranger and Only A Fool to the long-form ambition of the sensuous Dark Nevada Dream, the cinematic Electro-Ballroom of Glitter Fades and the dystopian paranoia of Say Your Goodbyes Parts 1 and 2, Butterfly Mind delivers a thrilling fusion of Art Rock invention, Post-Punk energy and epic soulful ballads. Tim’s seventh solo album features the stellar rhythm section of Richard Jupp (in his first major session since leaving Elbow) and Nick Beggs alongside a spectacular guest list including Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Dave Formula (Magazine), Peter Hammill (Van Der Graaf Generator), Martha Goddard (The Hushtones), Gregory Spawton (Big Big Train), Mark Tranmer (The Montgolfier Brothers / GNAC), Saro Cosentino (Franco Battiato), Italian Jazz musician Nicola Alesini, US singer Devon Dunaway (Ganga), Stephen W Tayler (Kate Bush) and, marking his first studio work with Tim for nearly three decades, former No-Man violinist Ben Coleman. Produced by Tim Bowness and Brian Hulse (Plenty), the album was mixed and mastered by Steven Wilson.