We still have a great deal of evidence today about the ecclesiastical and diplomatic career of Don Paolo di Marco, abbot and tenorista at Florence in the early fifteenth century. But we also owe him a number of allegorical madrigals which are perhaps the most innovative, and certainly the most virtuosic of this period. Apparently innocent bucolic or mythological texts conceal philosophical intrigues, political ideas and moral precepts. Their poetry and music still speak intensely to us in the twenty-first century.

Umanamente uomo: il sogno (Humanly man: the dream) is an album by the Italian singer-songwriter Lucio Battisti. It was released in April 1972 by Numero Uno. The album was Italy's second best-selling album in 1972.

The critically-acclaimed ensemble Mala Punica came into the limelight by the mid-Nineties with three illustrious, multi-award winning discs on Arcana, which revolutionized the world of medieval music: Ars subtilis Ytaliaca, D’Amor ragionando and En attendant. As implied by the title of the album, D’Amor ragionando (Discoursing on Love) is a collection of songs about love from fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italy and is centered around Francesco Landini, one of the foremost figures in medieval music. Members include Jill Feldman, Kees Boeke and Giuseppe Maletto, some of the most respected names in the early music repertoire.

During Claudio Abbado’s time as chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the great symphonic repertoire naturally formed the core of his artistic work, and it was almost forgotten just what an important role the music theatre of his Italian homeland played in his life – after all, he had led La Scala in Milan from 1968 to 1986. Just how special the works of Verdi were to him could be heard in the New Year’s Eve Concert from 2000 which, with famous scenes and arias, rang in the Verdi year 2001 when the music world commemorated the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death.

The opera Otello by Giuseppe Verdi and Arrigo Boito not only represents the outstanding result of an intensely fruitful creative collaboration between composer and librettist, but also one of the most important core works in the opera repertoire. With his musical setting of Shakespeare’s play, the composition of which took him several years, Verdi also achieved a new level of quality within the framework of his operatic oeuvre. His path was resolute and consistent, leading him away from structured numbers of arias, recitatives and ensembles, and towards the through-composed, large-scale dramatic form. All this based on the timeless literary foundation of Shakespeare's play.

The musical world of the eighteenth-century court at Dresden is characterised by its diversity: Vivaldi, Hasse, Ristori and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach were all highly esteemed. The Zürcher Barockorchester perform selections from this demanding repertoire and successfully transport listeners to Dresden’s vibrant Augustan era.

Matia Bazar is an Italian pop band formed in Genoa in 1975. The original members of the group were Piero Cassano (keyboards) Aldo Stellita (bass), Carlo Marrale (guitar), Giancarlo Golzi (drums) and Antonella Ruggiero (vocals). They represented Italy in the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest with a song called Raggio di luna. Their major hits were Solo tu (1978), Vacanze Romane (1982) and Ti Sento (1985), which peaked the charts in Belgium and Italy.

Armonico Consort return to album on Signum with a collection of Handel arias, performed by leading counter-tenor William Towers. A noted soloist in both opera and oratorio, the programme is taken from roles which Towers has sung across his career in various productions across the globe. Towers writes: “It is the life-affirming, live-giving aspect of Handel that I’m aiming to celebrate. So frequently his operas reveal their most devastatingly beautiful and uplifting music when life is at its darkest. Here the arias shine brightest, here we find Radamisto’s ‘Ombra cara’ and the boundlessly optimistic ‘Dopo l’orrore’, looking out beyond the darkest clouds to the faint glimmer of a dawning hope. This is the uncrushable, indomitable spirit that lies in all of us … We just need to take the time to listen.”

For her first solo album with ATMA Classique, the celebrated Canadian soprano Hélène Brunet has chosen baroque and classical arias that have always been part of her life and for which she feels a deep affinity. Under the direction of Eric Milnes, the period ensemble L'Harmonie des saisons accompanies her in this program featuring music by Bach Handel, Vivaldi, Mozart and Leonardo Vinci, whose two arias are recorded here as world premieres. I remember being completely enamored, at fifteen, with Vivaldis famous aria Nulla in mundo pax sincera, attempting head voice singing for the first time and discovering the peculiar lightheaded effects of this new vocal technique.

This installment of EMI's "Best…Album in the World…Ever" series features classical pieces that emphasize the cello, performed by various combos and soloists and spanning history. It includes the music of Bach (Cello Suite No. 2 - Prelude), Gabriel Fauré (Sicilienne), Tchaikovsky (Nocturne), Chopin (Cello Sonata in G Minor - Largo), and Brahms (Feldeinsamkeit); as well as the spiritual "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" and Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade." Performers include cellist phenom Han-Na Chang, the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic, and the late Jacqueline du Pré.

2 CDs, 40 tracks including hits from Eros Ramazzotti, Umberto Tozzi, Lucio Dalla, Jovanotti and many others.