Ekseption is a Dutch band that was famous during the late sixties/early seventies for the way it combined themes from classical composers with contemporary rock and jazz in a blend of dominating, virtuoso keys and trumpet plus sax(es).
The band came as close as any group from the European continent ever did to stealing the thunder of early classical rock outfits such as the Nice and rivaling the early work of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. In Holland, they charted singles based on classical compositions and released successful concept albums, and were - along with Focus - the top progressive rock band in the Dutch-speaking world.

In this performance of Handel's best-loved oratorio, conductor Christopher Hogwood returns to the original performance traditions. The choruses are sung by boy trebles and male altos, tenors and basses, and member of the Choir of Westminster Abbey. The soloists improvise embellishments in the arias and, in certain cases, join in the singing of the choruses - just as they would have done 240 years ago. In addition, Members of the Academy all play instruments of the period or accurate modern copies.

One has to give credit to an '80s new wave musician who can adapt and create contemporary-sounding music. There are icons from that era who continue to release new recordings - Depeche Mode and the Cure, for example - but don't evolve musically; the sound is unchanging as if they were still back in the decade. This is not a bad thing, however; core listeners are usually who buy these artists' newly released albums and they don't generate new fans. That said, hats off to '80s Brit popster Gary Numan, best known for the hit "Cars," who offers up a modernized industrial-goth set in Pure. The album can comfortably sit alongside Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails on store shelves. Pure doesn't drive like the industrialized adrenaline rush that is, say, Orgy, but the tracks' lingering and creepy pace leaves behind a different kind of impact - it's more haunting than relentless…

More diverse than Vanessa Williams' two previous albums, Sweetest Days finds the singer exploring jazz-influenced songs without giving up the type of boring, radio-minded fluff that had enabled her to sell millions of albums. The CD's standout track is "Ellamental," an irresistible R&B/jazz/hip-hop tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. (Much to her credit, Williams was insightful enough to praise the jazz legend while she was still alive instead of waiting until after her death.) She's almost as appealing on "Sister Moon" (a torchy Sting gem) and the Babyface contributions "You Can't Run" (which has a Sade-ish quality) and the haunting "Betcha Never."

With the creation of her Lana Del Rey persona, singer/songwriter Lizzy Grant stitched together the iconography of a fading American dream with soaring but melancholic pop songwriting, becoming an icon unto herself in the process. Her distinctive approach blurred sadness and longing just as it did past and present, drawing on the influence of classic American pop while integrating modernized touches like trap beats and millennial cultural references. With sixth album Norman Fucking Rockwell!, Lana Del Rey expands her vision with the most daring and vulnerable work of her catalog.

It's almost a blessing that, for legal reasons, this four-piece can't call itself Black Sabbath. It only serves to hammer home the point that with Ronnie James Dio up front and Vinny Appice in back, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler express a very different side of their musical personalities than they ever did with Ozzy Osbourne on vocals and Bill Ward on drums. Where the original lineup was an ultra-heavy blues band, with a rhythm section that never failed to swing (OK, they failed a little bit on "Sweet Leaf"), when Dio came on board in 1980 the group was reinvented as a heavy metal juggernaut.

Ronald Stevenson, unknown to many outside the British isles, is considered by several pianists as one of the most important pianist-composers of the 20th century. This new album by Peter Jablonski includes several world première recordings from the Scottish composer. Following the tradition of many great pianists, Stevenson created piano transcriptions from the works of other composers and also wrote music in a variety of styles. This album offers a compelling portrait of the Scottish piano master.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a double album produced by George Martin, featuring covers of songs by the Beatles. It was released in July 1978, as the soundtrack to the film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which starred the Bee Gees, Peter Frampton and Steve Martin.

Sergey Taneyev's music was acclaimed by some as a 'model of pure style and sublime art', but he was a loner whose supreme mastery of European Classical technique placed him outside the more nationalist trends of the day. The Violin Sonata in A minor is neo-Classical in its reserved and often song-like moods and expressions. It contrasts with the grand scale of the Piano Quintet in G minor in which the virtuoso nature of the piano writing reflects Taneyev's own prowess, and the brilliant integration of the works' themes cumulate into an overwhelming conclusion.

The repertoire for recorder slowly dissipated after the Baroque era only emerging occasionally throughout subsequent eras but becoming reliant on transcriptions primarily thereafter. The La Cicela Ensemble's 'Naples 1759' spotlights works for recorder and chamber ensemble that did emerge ever so briefly and in small quantity during 1759 though the provenance of these pieces are not entirely certain, with some speculated to have been written earlier; still, these world premiere recordings in the hands of La Cicela directed by the recorder player Inês D'Avena are given a spirited performance.

Although Whitesnake's late-'80s era is its best known (when the group scored a steady stream of hits in the Led Zep and power ballad mold), longtime fans know that the band was around for several years previously, issuing albums that sold well in Europe but were largely ignored in the States. The 12-track compilation Best focuses entirely on Whitesnake's early era. Although these tracks aren't as renowned as "Still of the Night" and "Is This Love?," quite a few longtime Whitesnake fans prefer the group's earlier, more straightforward hard rock direction, akin at times to Deep Purple's 1973-1975 sound (which shouldn't come as a surprise, since three Purple alumni, singer David Coverdale, keyboardist Jon Lord, and drummer Ian Paice were also Whitesnake members).