What begins like a fairy-tale turns into a whimsical fantasy halfway between magic farce and Masonic mysticism: The Magic Flute links a love story with the great questions of the Enlightenment, juxtaposes bird-catcher charm with queenly vengeance, and bewitches the listener with music that mixes cheerful melodies, lovers’ arias, show-stopping coloraturas and mysterious chorales.

This album features the seldom-played Second Version of the Italian Symphony, and the seldom-played first version of the Violin Concerto. Both are played by the superb early music chamber orchestra, Capella Savaria, conducted by Nicholas McGegan. Zsolt Kalló is the superb violin soloist.

The closing disc in London Baroque’s survey of the rise and fall of the trio sonata takes us to 18th-century Germany, and includes works by no less than two Johann Gottliebs: Johann Gottlieb Goldberg – who rose to posthumous fame by being associated with J.S. Bach’s celebrated set of variations – and his namesake Johann Gottlieb Graun, violinist and composer at the court of Frederick the Great. Next to them in the list of contents are also more familiar names, such as Graun’s colleague at the Prussian court, C.P.E. Bach, and the ubiquitous G.Ph. Telemann, here represented with an unusually scored trio for violin, gamba and basso continuo. The programme straddles the divide between late Baroque and Classical music, and several of the included works point clearly at what was to come.

Monomyth stands for "thrilling instrumental soundscapes", a rollercoaster ride in which the listener can lose themselves. It is the sound of five people searching for their musical boundaries and then moving beyond them. Monomyth transports you to another world, a place that feels both new and familiar. In the ranks, we find five people from different creative and musical backgrounds. Monomyth’s music is a complete experience, a collective statement by five like-minded identities. The Monomyth sound contains all the ingredients of rock & roll, but in a totally unique way. The band wants to draw their audience into a trance, caused by shifting patterns, repetitions and drones. The result is a stirring brew with links to Pink Floyd, Hawkwind and Tool, but with the innovative force of modern techno and ambient. It is rock you can dance to and lose yourself in…

The "Love Is a Bourgeois Construct" CD single includes remixes by Little Boots, Dave Audé and others plus two brand new B-sides.
Post-modern ironists cloaked behind a veil of buoyantly melodic and lushly romantic synth pop confections, Pet Shop Boys offer wry yet strangely affecting cultural commentary communicated by the Morse code of synth washes and drum machine rhythms. After first emerging in the mid-'80s with "West End Girls" and "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)," Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe quickly established themselves as hitmaking singles artists who were also able to craft emotionally resonant albums, like 1988's Introspective and 1990's Behaviour…

This production of Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” was recorded during the Deutsche Oper Berlin’s great tour to Japan in 1993. Directed by Götz Friedrich and conducted by Jiří Kout, this interpretation of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Isolde was a great success. Wagner’s composition of “Tristan und Isolde” was inspired by his love affair with Mathilde Wesendonck and the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer.

During the 1990s, Collegium Musicum 90 and Simon Standage released several volumes of Albinoni concertos, which proved popular with critics and public alike. The concertos were released as discs of single oboe concertos, double oboe concertos, and string concertos. In this re-issue on the Chaconne label, the concertos are presented in opus number order, showing the contrasting colours and tonalities of the concertos as they originally appeared.

Keeping Chicago Blues alive, Robbert Fossen & Peter Struijk, were the winners of the Dutch Blues Challenge 2012, and finalists at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, in January 2013. Fossen is also nominated for the 2013 Blues Awards "Best Vocalist!" Influenced by legends such as Muddy Waters, Magic Slim, Buddy Guy, and Jerry Portnoy, Fossen plays "real deal Chicago blues." With bands like A Crossroads Deal and the Robbert Fossen Blues Band, he performed incessantly all over Europe, backing American blues artists such as John Primer, Tail Dragger, Chick Rodgers, Nick Holt, Charles Hayes, and T-Model Ford.