Two years after Thick as a Brick 2, an explicit 2012 sequel to the 1972 prog classic, Ian Anderson embarked on another ambitious journey, this time assembling a concept record called Homo Erraticus. A loose – very loose – album based on a "dusty, unpublished manuscript, written by local amateur historian Ernest T. Parritt (1873-1928)," Homo Erraticus is an old-fashioned prog record: it has narrative heft and ideas tied to the '70s, where jazz, classical, folk, orchestral pop, and rock all commingled in a thick, murky soup.

Falco was the most internationally successful pop artist ever to come out of Austria. Falco had several international hits, "Rock Me Amadeus", "Der Kommissar", "Vienna Calling", "Jeanny", "The Sound of Musik", "Coming Home (Jeanny Part II, One Year Later)", and posthumously "Out of the Dark". "Rock Me Amadeus" reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1986, making him the only artist whose principal language was German to score a vocal number-one hit in the United States. According to his estate, he has sold 20 million albums and 40 million singles, which makes him the best-selling Austrian singer of all time.

I have always viewed Dr. Weigl as one of the best composers of the old generation; one of those continuing the illustrious Viennese tradition' – Arnold Schönberg. This statement indicated that Weigl remained faithful to the late-Romantic aesthetic and use of tonality, shunning the more progressive contemporary trends being explored at the turn of the 20th century, as might be found in the music of Zemlinsky, Reznicek or Franz Schmidt. Weigl's style is well reflected in this programme that pairs the first of his six symphonies (written in 1908) with Pictures and Tales, a suite for small orchestra written in 1922.

Despite his amazingly prolific output, Czerny evidently did not aim to be original at all. He produced music going back and forth stylistically between Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and other contemporaries with amazing flexibility. It is this very flexibility that gives these two symphonies their unique charm and justifies rescuing Czerny’s concert music for the long neglect it has suffered for so many years.

Magdalena Kozena presents a recital of Czech songs, together with the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. The first impression of Czech songs may be atmospheric nature scenes, or stories about pretty peasant girls and village pranks, but the selection on this album demonstrates that the imagination of Czech song composers stretched far wider. For example, Bohuslav Martinu's Nipponari were inspired by Japanese culture, whereas his folksy Songs on One Page obtain a deeper meaning knowing that he wrote them in the US, having fled the Nazi threat. His colleagues and contemporaries Hans Krasa and Gideon Klein did not manage to get away, and both died in concentration camps.

As one of the few Sarah Vaughan compilations to make it onto the shelves of most music stores (until it too is supplanted), MCA's 20th Century Masters collection has large shoes to fill. Since MCA owns the Mercury catalog – for which she recorded during the '50s and '60s – listeners shouldn't worry that they're purchasing substandard material. Still, the compilation doesn't present a complete picture of what made Vaughan special; it focuses on the big-time standards that found Vaughan backed by pillowy productions (half of the selections come from the crossover dates Vaughan With Voices and Vaughan and Violins).

Singles (1969-1981) expands the popular Singles (1969-1973) album with more of the group's later hits, such as "Please Mr. Postman," "Only Yesterday," "Touch Me When We're Dancing," and "I Won't Last a Day Without You." "(They Long to Be) Close to You," "We've Only Just Begun," "Superstar," and other '70s hits are still here, making this a definitive collection of their best-known songs.

Arguably, Suzy Bogguss did more than anybody to change the role of the female vocalist during the 1990s. Certainly she racked up her share of hits – which are chronicled without fault on this collection. But more than that, she was a singer who weathered the Nash Vegas storms with grace, took control of her own career, and became producer of her own recordings.