Mendelssohn was not like Beethoven or Verdi–his second thoughts were not always better than his first. In fact, not one of the changes he made in his 1834 revision to the Italian Symphony–recorded here for the first time, alongside the original version of 1833–strikes me as an improvement; indeed, the later effort sounds more like a first draft, thinner, more repetitive, melodically less engaging. Nonetheless, it's good to have the composer's refashioning of the score on disc, especially when it's performed as confidently as here, if only to give us a renewed appreciation of what he achieved the first time around. For the familiar version of the Italian Symphony is certainly a masterpiece. And the performance it receives here from the Vienna Philharmonic and John Eliot Gardiner is one of the best currently available: polished and energetic, with plenty of the elegance one expects in Mendelssohn, even when he's at his most animated.

Legendary guitarist Steve Hackett is pleased to announce "Genesis Revisited Live: Seconds Out & More", the document of his 2021 UK tour celebrating the classic 1977 Genesis live album. It sees Steve and his band perform "Seconds Out" in full and in sequence, as well as a selection of solo material including tracks from his most recent studio album "Surrender of Silence".

An Opera Revival – Three Centuries Later. In 2016, almost three hundred years after the composition of Georg Caspar Schürmann's Die getreue Alceste, barockwerk hamburg presented a semi-scenic performance of this opera in the atrium of the Hamburg State and University Library. The abridged version on this CD contains the most important elements of the action as well as the musical highlights of the work. In his text the booklet author Jürgen Neubacher guides us through the action with a synopsis and explanatory inserts.

The Japanese instrumental duo Gontiti fuse smooth jazz, easy listening and subtle Eastern influences into a lounge music style that has enjoyed lasting popularity at home while also finding an international audience. Their 1988 album In the Garden begins on a high note with "Andersen's Garden," in which melodic acoustic guitar figures play over a light bossa nova beat. The sound is something out of time and space - it could have been recorded anywhere, at any time in the last 40 years. Unfortunately, the rest of the album isn't as distinctive as that and gravitates toward slick, Western-style smooth jazz with synthesizers, drum machines, and burping fretless bass guitars. Gonzalez Mikami and Titi Matsumura's acoustic guitars dominate "Ferris Wheel" and the harmonics-laden "Acoustic Eel," but other songs, such as "Bandit in the Midnight" and "Homemade Grief," mix horns, strings and electric drums into rhythmic smooth jazz confections…

The brief career of this artist, one of four different horn players in jazz named Joe Thomas, can be basically described as symposium on funky flute. He was certainly not the only flautist huffing and puffing over strong backbeats in the '70s and '80s, the era's popular players in this style including Herbie Mann, Jeremy Steig, and Hubert Laws. Thomas' masterwork in this genre might be considered to be "Funky Fever," more than ten minutes of jamming that has been described as "jazzy disco funk boogie," complete with a vocal chorus that chants "I've got this funky, funky fever."

This is one of the best of the 'Africa' sessions recordings by Abdullah Ibrahim/Dollar Brand. Eaily on a par with the fabulous Blues for a Hip King this album features some truly wonderful compositions that have the Mannenberg feel that was at the heart of Ibrahim's playing (the title track, and 'Rollin' stand out) and some inspired playing from his sidemen. The real gem on this is Kippie Moeketsi, one of South Africa's lost treasures, who plays a glorious burning solo on the title track.

Constance Demby is one of the few representatives of the New Age movement (in both her music and her personal philosophies) who consistently creates artistic, highly expressive compositions. Demby was trained in classical music as a child, and her artistic spirit led her to also master several other art forms; at the University of Michigan, she studied painting, sculpture, and music. It was her work as a sculptor that led her to new dimensions of sound. As she was torching a sheet of metal, it roared thunderously, and thus was born the Sonic Steel Instruments: the Whale Sail, and the Space Bass, enormous bowed instruments with deep archetypal resonances.