The prizewinning Boston Early Music Festival, joined by the choicest soloists, once again presents a spectacular Baroque opera discovery with Christoph Graupner’s Antiochus and Stratonica. Graupner composed the musical play L’Amore Ammalato, Die kranckende Liebe, oder: Antiochus und Stratonica during his time as the harpsichordist at the Gänsemarkt Opera in Hamburg. The core subject of the opera is the love of the Seleucid prince Antiochus for his stepmother Stratonica. This match brings with it highly dramatic moments as well as deeply sad ones inasmuch as Antiochus is supposed to have an incurable illness – but then at the end three old and new romantic couples appear on the stage and everything comes to a happy ending.

Georg Joseph Vogler, called Abbé Vogler, was born in Würzburg in 1749. He became famous as an expert in music theory, conductor and composer. In 1772, he accepted a position at the court of Prince Elector Karl Theodor in Mannheim and later followed his employer to Munich. From 1786 onwards, he worked at the court of the kings of Sweden as a conductor.

From the face of it, Aulis Sallinen's interest in composing chamber music drops off precipitously in the mid-'80s as his symphonies and operas began to take hold in the international market. This would be a pity if it were entirely true, as it was through the chamber music medium that Sallinen made his initial reputation through such masterpieces as the String Quartets No. 3 ("Some Aspects of Peltoniemi Hintrik's Funeral March"), No. 4 ("Quiet Songs"), and the cello solo Elegy for Sebastian Knight. CPO's Aulis Sallinen: Chamber Musics III, IV, V, performed by members of the Virtuosi di Kuhmo under the general direction of pianist Ralf Gothóni, makes clear that Sallinen's later chamber music is not so much absent as it is in hiding, disguised as concertante works for soloist and string orchestra.

Black Cat is the thirteenth studio album by the Italian blues rock singer-songwriter Zucchero Fornaciari, released on 29 April 2016. It's his first full-length studio album in six years, after Chocabeck in 2010, given that La Sesión Cubana (2012) was a mix of unreleased, previously released and cover songs. The album is marked by a music which goes back to soul & blues roots and sound of the famous Oro Incenso & Birra (1989). According to Zucchero, the album does not have the meaning of Western prejudice of Black cat, yet Afro-American for "figure of speech, a greeting, a symbol of auspice". As well there's a component of anarchism toward the "market rules". It is his "darkest album and rough ever in terms of sonority".

With The Water In You, Isgaard and her musical partner Jens Lueck (Single Celled Organism) continue their consistent path. Their ninth album is characterized by artful compositions rooted in art rock and art pop, always characterized by Isgaard's diverse vocal range. Unusual sound clusters meet rocking guitars, heavy grooves are replaced by fragile acoustic guitars that wrap around Isgaard's emotional vocals. The album critically examines the state of our civilization and addresses the climate crisis, the marginalization of groups, conspiracy theories, and the ludicrous idea of ​​unlimited growth, as well as the role of the individual in this world gone awry…

Bridge Over Troubled Water was one of the biggest-selling albums of its decade, and it hasn't fallen too far down on the list in years since. Apart from the gospel-flavored title track, which took some evolution to get to what it finally became, however, much of Bridge Over Troubled Water also constitutes a stepping back from the music that Simon & Garfunkel had made on Bookends – this was mostly because the creative partnership that had formed the body and the motivation for the duo's four prior albums literally consumed itself in the making of Bridge Over Troubled Water. The overall effect was perhaps the most delicately textured album to close out the 1960s from any major rock act. Bridge Over Troubled Water, at its most ambitious and bold, on its title track, was a quietly reassuring album; at other times, it was personal yet soothing; and at other times, it was just plain fun.

After more than 20 years, Nightingale's celebrated fourth full-length, "Alive Again", is available again, remastered by songwriter/frontman/producer Dan Swanö (Opeth, Katatonia, Oceans Of Slumber).
Originally released only on CD in 2003, “Alive Again” starts the build-out of Nightingale's harder rock tendencies as they bridge '70s rock, AOR, prog and metal. The group's international profile also saw them pull in friend Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon, Star One) to guest on "Falling". “Alive Again” features stand-out tracks "Shadowman", "The Glory Days", "Shadowland Serenade" and the 11-minute saga "Eternal".

Very Truly Yours was released in 1955 and was the first album that Jimmy Scott recorded for the Savoy label. After spending the better part of a decade singing in ensembles, first with Lionel Hampton and then with the New Orleans bandleader Paul Gayten, Scott was poised to make a name for himself as a solo artist. These dozen songs, executed with a small jazz combo supporting him (including Charles Mingus on bass), find Scott in beautiful voice, confidently investing himself in well-chosen covers as well as some of his own great originals. From the opening number ("Imagination"), it's clear that you're hearing a rare and expressive voice.

Carol of Harvest were founded in the Middle-Franconian town of Fürth in 1976 and played folk with psychedelic touch. Their only LP was released in the summer of 1978 as a very small edition of only 200 copies, on the sought-after Brutkasten label. Label owner Peter Klimek regards the LP as the best record released on his label. It is reminiscent of the early 1970s rather than 1978. The LP is in such great demand that it is meanwhile traded at € 2,000 - 3,000 in mint condition. There are now several new editions of the album, as LP and as CD, about half of them illegal. The CD on Garden of Delights contains a 32-page booklet with many as yet unreleased photographs and, for the first time ever, seven bonus tracks. The last four of them are studio recordings featuring Iris Meyer, succeeding Beate Krause as a singer.

Proof that punk was more about attitude than a raw, guitar-driven sound, Suicide's self-titled debut set the duo apart from the rest of the style's self-proclaimed outsiders. Over the course of seven songs, Martin Rev's dense, unnerving electronics - including a menacing synth bass, a drum machine that sounds like an idling motorcycle, and harshly hypnotic organs - and Alan Vega's ghostly, Gene Vincent-esque vocals defined the group's sound and provided the blueprints for post-punk, synth pop, and industrial rock in the process. Though those seven songs shared the same stripped-down sonic template, they also show Suicide's surprisingly wide range. The exhilarated, rebellious "Ghost Rider" and "Rocket U.S.A." capture the punk era's thrilling nihilism - albeit in an icier way than most groups expressed it - while "Cheree" and "Girl" counter the rest of the album's hard edges with a sensuality that's at once eerie and alluring…