With the exception of a few works by Ottorino Respighi, and for reasons which are relatively obscure, the orchestral concert music of the generation of Italian composers to which Ildebrando Pizzetti belongs has—so far as international acceptance is concerned—remained little-known outside Italy.

Although Auber was one of the most popular of 19th-century French composers, his music is seldom revived in the opera house. This series is restoring his overtures and orchestral excerpts from operas, a swathe of refined and elegant music showing his importance in operatic history. Featured in this volume are the overture from La Muette de Portici, his revolutionary masterpiece, as well as premiere recordings of music from La Barcarolle and Les Chaperons blancs, exuding both the drama and the charm that permeate all his mature works.

For his third Erato album of harpsichord music, Jean Rondeau turns to Domenico Scarlatti and some 20 of the often-dazzling sonatas that the Neapolitan composer wrote during his years at the royal court in Madrid. Imbued with the spirit of the dance, they are works that Rondeau uses “to tell a story for the people who will listen to an album from beginning to end …

Released as a 3-CD 8” digi-pak. Recorded, for the most part, over two days in July 1963, these varied and excellent performances ended up being scattered over several RCA Victor releases between 1963 and 1968. It would not be until 1990 that the songs finally appeared as originally intended on a proper RCA vinyl album. Almost 60-years later, FTD presents all of the masters and outtakes available from the session(s).

Remember That You Will Die - Polyphia - This new album has no fewer than eight guest spots (out of a grand total of twelve tracks), most of which are singers adding vocal and lyrical colour to the tracks.

After several years without singer Ed Kowalczyk, Live are back to being the four-piece that recorded most of their major hits and the timing couldn't be better. That's because the band's debut album, Mental Jewelry, has turned 25 and the group is readying a special 25th anniversary reissue that will arrive on Aug. 11.

Back in 1964, saxophonist Stan Getz made one of those perfect albums. He teamed up with famed Brazilian songwriters and guitarists, Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, and delivered one of the best records in his career: Gezt/Gilberto (Verve, 1964). The combination of the wistfully vibrant bossa nova and the sensual saxophone sound of Getz proved to be irresistible. History has a way of repeating itself and now it is time for yet another crucial meeting between a group of Brazilian musicians and an American saxophonist. Harry Allen could be considered one of the most prominent heirs to the sound of Getz, so it was only a matter of time before he would find the ideal partner to make an album with a perfect Brazilian sound. In fact, his partner found him. In the elaborate notes to the album Something About Jobim, producer and bassist, Rodolfo Stroeter, tells the story of the album. When his good friend, record producer Søren Friis of Stunt Records, gave him a bunch of records to listen to, one of them especially caught his attention.