In the bicentenary of Paisiello’s death, Catania’s Bellini Theatre staged Fedra, a world premiere performance in modern times of this opera by the composer from Taranto. It was a musical and cultural operation of great interest, which saw the revival – based on the original manuscript and on various transcriptions – of a rich, complex score, and attracted the attention of the Italian and international critics. The French conductor Jérôme Correas, an authority in this repertoire, was on the podium. Fedra had only been performed once in the 20th century for a radio recording and had never been staged in our century before. That single radio recording, however valuable, is however incomplete and, unlike this edition, unfaithful, in many ways, to the original score.

Jean-Baptiste Lully, born Giovanni Battista Lulli in Florence in 1632, moved to France early in his career. By the time he turned 30, he had been named music master to the royal family and elevated to the nobility. Italian opera, particularly the works of Cavalli, had become hugely popular in France, and Lully took up the task of creating a tradition of native French opera. In 1775, in collaboration with librettist Philippe Quinault, Lully produced Thésée, a "tragédie en musique," which marked a turning point in the synthesis of music, dramaturgy, and dance, and became the model for French opera for nearly a century, until the reforms of Gluck.

We can readily imagine with what modest pride the 40-year-old Bach presented his second wife Anna Magdalena with this most delightful of all domestic scrapbooks. Bach himself started it off for her with two of the keyboard Partitas (A minor, BWV827 and E minor, BWV930) which later formed part of the collection published as the composer's Op. 1 in 1731. Thereafter it was up to Anna Magdalena herself to choose and to enter little compositions which made particular appeal. Not all the music by any means is by her husband and there are pieces for example by Couperin, Bohm, Stolzel, Hasse and her stepson Carl Philipp Emanuel as well as several by anonymous composers.

These 19 Flying V-soaked sides pack the same punch and hail from the same mid-'60s timeframe as Mack's seminal LP Wham of That Memphis Man. He unleashes his vibrato-drenched axe on the torrid "Soul Express," "Lonnie on the Move," "Florence of Arabia," and an astonishing instrumental version of "Stand by Me" that'll send aspiring guitarists' jaws crashing to the floor. For a change of pace, "Men at Play" mines a jazzy walking groove to equally satisfying ends.

The air on Mt. Olympus must have been something like that in Berlin’s Jesus-Christus-Kirche when, in September 1969, the threesome of Richter, Oistrakh and Rostropovich joined Herbert von Karajan for this majestic recording of Beethoven’s underrated Triple Concerto. That there could have been such a meeting of the minds in this gathering of greats is difficult to believe, until one remembers that the three soloists were frequent collaborators who all spoke the same musical language, and after years in the trenches knew each other and their conductor very well. As one would expect, the solo work of the three Russians is brilliant and deeply musical. But just as delightful is the way they adjust from solo to ensemble roles and play together, with perfect unanimity, in the duet and trio passages. Karajan and the Berliners provide a monumental accompaniment, weighty, powerful, and rich in tone. The recording, one of the best from EMI in this venue, has been remastered in exemplary fashion and is impressively detailed and vivid.

Although Jane's Addiction's 1987 self-titled debut was an intriguing release (few alternative bands at the time had the courage to mix modern rock, prog rock, and heavy metal together), it paled in comparison to their now classic major-label release one year later, Nothing's Shocking. Produced by Dave Jerden and Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell, the album was more focused and packed more of a sonic wallop than its predecessor; the fiery performances often create an amazing sense that it could all fall apart at any second, creating a fantastic musical tension. Such tracks as "Up the Beach," "Ocean Size," and one of alt-rock's greatest anthems, "Mountain Song," contain the spaciousness created by the band's two biggest influences, Led Zeppelin and the Cure…

B.B. King was the most successful and celebrated blues artist of his generation, a musician who came from humble roots in Mississippi and ended up taking his music to some of the most prestigious venues on Earth, giving the blues a level of respect and acceptance it had never enjoyed before. While King scored his first hits in the early '50s, it was in the mid-'60s that he first crossed over to the pop audience, and he cut his signature hit, "The Thrill Is Gone," in 1969. His Definitive Greatest Hits is a two-disc collection that brings together some of the best and most popular sides King recorded from the '60s onward, including "I Like to Live the Love," "Why I Sing the Blues," "Every Day I Have the Blues," "Into the Night," "My Lucille," "The Thrill Is Gone," and many more. The set also includes guest appearances by Robert Cray, Bobby Blue Bland, Gary Moore, and U2.

"Sweet Honey Wine" lives up to its title, it begins cool and melodic and makes you wish you were sipping piña coladas on an island. "I Need Your Love" opens softly before revving up, only to be drop kicked by a wimpish male vocal. Smith achieves a Latin feel on "What's Done Is Done," but once again an insipid vocal and weak lyrics render it unplayable; a shame because there's a striking guitar solo. Lonnie gets back on track with "Do It" - it isn't jazz, but it's a decent groove underscored by an incessant rhythm guitar and a spirited organ solo. "Journey to Within" is like the title implies, dark and moody, music to stroll graveyards by. You would expect a three-headed monster to jump out your speaker. It settles into a sweet petulant groove spearheaded by a tenor sax solo and Smith's deep, spacey keyboarding on the black keys. The last cut, "My Latin Sky," is light and bouncy, and the most traditional jazz offering.

The Roland Kovac New Set released several instrumental LPs on the Selected Sound label from Hamburg, the second and third of which, "The master said" (1971) and "Love that" (1972), are good progressive rock with a clear emphasis on jazz. The line-up on "The master said" consisted of top musicians: Master Roland Kovac himself had obtained his doctorate in music as early as 1952 and written numerous classical works and soundtracks. Guitarist Siegfried Schwab had just become famous at that time by working with Et Cetera and other groups and shows his brilliance on this LP with his fuzz guitar. Drummer Charly Antolini ("Knock out") had already been in business for many years and is still first choice on the jazz scene today. The fourth member was Franz Löffler on bass, who had already released several guitar LPs in the 1960s.

Featuring Ultravox, Duran Duran, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Devo, Yello, Peter Baumann, Richard Bone, Japan and many others.
Following 2020’s ‘Musik Music Musique’ set, we present the sequel, this time looking at the electronic pop scene as it evolved from curio and novelty into a major movement and began to dominate the airwaves. Featuring a plethora of acts who would quickly become household names (many of which endure today) and exploring the wide variety of directions electronic instruments took both the mainstream and independent music in. ‘Musik Music Musique 2.0’ embraces both the pure pop aesthetic of a new generation of aspirational, defiantly polished artists and those who embraced electronic music in the aftermath of the post-punk explosion…