Solitude Standing: Live at the Barbican is a live album by the American singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega. It was recorded on 16 October 2012 at the Barbican Centre in London, on the final celebratory concert to mark 25th anniversary of her studio album Solitude Standing. Disc one is a live performance of a full album, second one contains other Vega's songs.

Pollini is so much a part of the contemporary music scene that it's amazing to realize that the earliest material on this disc (Stravinsky and Prokofiev) dates to the 1940s. These two performances retain their power to startle and amaze, both through Pollini's seemingly effortless virtuosity and through the immediacy of his musical conceptions. This Prokofiev is a close rival even to Richter's. Webern, from six years later, is so colorful and well organized that it makes the difficult music almost easy to listen to. Not many listeners will put up with Boulez's obscurities, but there is still plenty to make the disc worthwhile.

Underpinned by perfect virtuosity, Zukerman's rich and beautiful violin tone perfectly reveals the charm that Beethoven puts into these sonatas. A well-balanced and excellent performance with the exquisite support of Neikrug has value that should be listened to for a long time as a standard of Beethoven's performance.

The second album by Manfred Mann's Earth Band to be released in 1972, Glorified Magnified is as solid a heavy rock album as you're likely to find from that era, and it still holds up three decades later, mostly because these guys are smarter than the music they're playing and don't mind indulging their taste as well as their dexterity. They can romp and stomp through "Meat" or "I'm Gonna Have You All," complete with a slashing guitar solo by Mick Rogers on the latter, or throw in a synthesizer interlude by Mann on "One Way Glass" that's so quietly and carefully executed as to be worthy of a classical piece – and not skip a beat doing it.

“The Beethoven concerto is a piece of overwhelming power,” says violinist Vilde Frang. “It is somehow more than music – the dimension of it feels almost cosmic. The force of this concerto takes me by surprise, over and over again.” Frang juxtaposes Beethoven’s epic, lyrical work with Stravinsky’s compact violin concerto, which pays spiky tribute to 18th century models. The conductor is Pekka Kuusisto, himself an adventurous violinist, in his role as Artistic Best Friend of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. “It was the chamber musical qualities of the Beethoven concerto that provided the key for me,” says Frang.

Tony is a British singer who, for a long time, struggled to make a significant impact in his own country. He was far more popular in mainland Europe, especially Spain, where he eventually set up home. As far as his UK chart history goes, he began in 1971 with Las Vegas, which just missed the top twenty. He then made number two with I did what I did for Maria. However, his third hit of 1971, Is this the way to Amarillo (a song written by Neil Sedaka), only just made the UK top twenty although it was number one in several European countries. Some people have joked that Brits bought the record when they visited Spain rather than buying it at home, but Tony's subsequent career suggests this is not so. In any event, Tony never actually got to Amarillo back then. After those three hits, Tony had two minor UK hits in the seventies - Avenues and alleyways (originally from the TV series The protectors, the song was also used in a movie, Love honor and obey) in 1973 and Drive safely darling in 1976.

A fine collection including many tracks from Slade's hitmaking heyday, Feel the Noize: Slade Greatest Hits stretches from the group's hit singles of the early '70s beginning with 1971's "Get Down and Get with It" all the way to 1991's "Radio Wall of Sound." In between those two songs is a selection of the group's big, dumb, irresistible, and misspelled hits – "Coz I Luv You," "Take Me Bak 'Ome," "Mama Weer All Crazee Now," "Gudbuy T'Jane," "Cum on Feel the Noize," "Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me." It also features latter-day hits like "My Oh My," but Slade never got better than they did at their stomping glitter-rock peak, and Feel the Noize captures the essence of that era.

More than two centuries before John Lennon favorably compared the Beatles' popularity to that of Jesus, Italian violin virtuoso Francesco Maria Veracini confidently remarked that there was only one God, and only one Veracini. He was one of the first stars of the violin, younger than Corelli, roughly contemporary with Vivaldi and Tartini, who is better known only because of the satanic verses he wrote for the instrument.

Karl Richter was regarded as one of the great Bach conductors of the twentieth century, noted for solid regularity in rhythms and a serious approach to the music, though he was not given to following the changing pronouncements of musicologists concerning historical accuracy in performance. He was brought up in the tradition of German Protestant religious music; his father was a minister in the central German regions near where Johann Sebastian Bach had lived. Richter learned piano and organ, and as he approached his 12th birthday entered the Kreuzschule school in Dresden.

This recording is dedicated to German Renaissance composer Ludwig Daser. Paul Van Nevel and the Huelgas Ensemble have recorded two polyphonic masses by the Munich-born composer, who was a contemporary of famous composers such as Orlando di Lasso and Cipriano di Rore. Ludwig Daser came from a wealthy Munich family. His composition teacher was to be the then famous Ludwig Senfl.

After several challenging years, marked by the pandemic and a harsh political climate, we fortunately have musical treasures we can unearth. This is precisely what the Norwegian Wind Ensemble has done. This spring, they present two masterful pieces of music that deserve the full attention of an interested listener.

"If There Are Mountains" is the first album by Dave Douglas and Elan Mehler as co-leaders, setting poetry and specifically haiku within the context of improvising music.