Fabio Bonizzoni, one of Baroque music performance leading conductors of our time, and his group La Risonanza make their debut on Challenge Classics with Dido and Aeneas, Purcell's operatic masterpiece. It is coupled with The Love of Mars and Venus by John Eccles and Gottfried Finger, Purcell's near contemporaries. Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, composed in the 1680s, is arguably the most beloved and best-known opera in English. Bonizzoni says: "The charm of this opera is in that it contains everything, like Cervantes' Don Quixote: any life experience is within it. Love, hate, death, dream, despair, the innocent and the wicked play.

Während des De Monte-Jahres veröffentlichten Capilla Flamenca und das Bläserensemble Oltremontano (auf Initiative und unter der Leitung von Bart Demuyt) eine CD mit Motetten von zwei flämischen Meistern, die überwiegend an den habsburgischen Höfen tätig waren. Philippus de Monte war Hofkapellmeister in Wien und Prag und Alexander Utendal wurde Vize-Hofkapellmeister von Erzherzog Ferdinand von Tirol, dem Bruder Kaiser Maximilians.

This is the second in line of the series of Jan Vermeulen's twelve CDs of the complete works of Schubert for piano solo was greeted with praise by the Belgian and the international music press. He was named Musician of the Year in Flanders on the occasion of the completion of the cycle in 2010 and also carried off one of the coveted Klara awards; several international music magazines described him at the time as an ideal interpreter of Schubert’s music. It was only to be expected that a recording of Schubert’s works for piano duet would soon follow.

Creedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The band consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty, his brother rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford. Their musical style encompassed the roots rock, swamp rock, and blues rock genres. Despite their San Francisco Bay Area origins, they played in a Southern rock style, with lyrics about bayous, catfish, the Mississippi River, and other popular elements of Southern United States iconography, as well as political and socially-conscious lyrics about topics including the Vietnam War. The band performed at 1969's famed Woodstock Festival. The band has sold 26 million albums in the United States alone. Rolling Stone ranked the band 82nd on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.

Formed in 1969 as Silent Eruption, their members hailed from Ghana, Curaçao, Guyana, and Jamaica. Precious Wilson, who joined Eruption in 1974, would add an element to the band's sound that would take them to dizzying heights of success all over the world. After winning a contest held by the label, the band recorded 'Let Me Take You Back In Time' for RCA UK in 1975, but without success. While on tour in Germany, Eruption was discovered by the talent scout of producer Frank Farian who had just achieved his major international breakthrough with Boney M. Eruption signed a contract with the German-based label Hansa. Eruption broke big in 1978 with a disco cover version of the Ann Peebles classic 'I Can't Stand The Rain'.

Released only ten months after their debut album, Stay With the Hollies, their second album was a huge leap forward in every respect. Their famous airtight harmonies were now in place, and the sloppiness of the instrumental attack gone. Most important, the group developed enormously as songwriters. Eight of the 12 tracks were Hollies originals and quite skillful in their mastery of the British Invasion essentials of driving, catchy melodies and shining harmonies. A couple of the covers are duds, but the "Nitty Gritty/Something's Got a Hold of Me" medley is first-rate, and the version of "It's in His Kiss" (retitled "It's in Her Kiss") respectable.

Frehley's Comet was an American rock band formed and led by ex-KISS lead guitarist Ace Frehley. The group released two studio albums and one live EP before Frehley left the band to release his 1989 solo album, Trouble Walkin'. Second Sighting is a studio album by American hard rock band Frehley's Comet. This is the second out of three LPs put out by Frehley in the 1980s, but the last under the band name Frehley's Comet. Second Sighting was recorded with new drummer Jamie Oldaker, who had previously worked with Bob Seger and Eric Clapton. He replaced Anton Fig, who would return for 1989's Trouble Walkin'.

Azalea Place is the second solo album by Joey Tempest, the vocalist in the Swedish hard rock band Europe. It was released on 25 April 1997. "After my first solo album I went out to the States to work with Richard Dodd - who's this English guy living out in Nashville – on the second one, which kept me away from home for a long time," Tempest said in an interview, "But it was something that I needed to do, I had to get it out of my system."

This is a classic in American progressive rock.
Hands were an American band, founded by members from Prism, who were active between 1977 and 1980. They never released an album back then, but this CD is put together with material from that period. The sound quality is overall very good with a few exceptions. Their music is a mix between medieval music and progressive rock, mostly instrumental. Hands have strong compositions and intriguing arrangements and they're reminiscent to Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Premiata Forneria Marconi, and Yes.
Almost all of the band's six core members were multi-instrumentalists…

A hymn to nature envisioned by the unparalleled Christina Pluhar, featuring the extraordinary Swedish mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman, in a program that embraces the four winds! This is a unique blend that L'Arpeggiata, under Pluhar's direction, masterfully creates—drawing from the rumblings of the sea, sunny canarios, cuckoos and nightingales, whispers and tempests. With a fusion of baroque repertoire, traditional music, and improvisations, it promises a vibrant celebration of vocal and instrumental artistry, all under the banner of the nourishing earth.

Powerhouse blues and R&B singer, the original "Hound Dog" belter, and one of the most important female architects of rock & roll. Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton only notched one national hit in her lifetime, but it was a true monster. "Hound Dog" held down the top slot on Billboard's R&B charts for seven long weeks in 1953. Alas, Elvis Presley's rocking 1956 cover was even bigger, effectively obscuring Thornton's chief claim to immortality.

Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho releases the second album from his current Ravel project of the two piano concertos, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth (March 7). The album features the Concerto for the Left Hand, a notoriously difficult work that is notable for its dark sonorities, as well as the more lighthearted Concerto in G major that achieves an exquisite combination of jazz and the Classicism of Mozart and Saint-Saëns.

In addition to his symphonies, Anton Bruckner is best known for his sacred works: his stirring masses and his deeply moving a cappella motets. To mark the Bruckner Year 2024, the Bavarian Radio Chorus and the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, conducted by Peter Dijkstra, present his Mass No. 2 together with five well-known motets and the two short Aequali for three trombones from 1847. These studio recordings were made in connection with the opening concert of the 2023/24 season on 28 October 2023.