This impressive, impeccably packaged four-CD box set focuses solely on B.B. King's 1950s and 1960s recordings for the Modern family of labels. That was a period that basically encompassed the vast majority of his work prior to 1962, though he did a few non-Modern sides before signing with ABC Paramount in early 1962 and did a few other sides for Modern in the mid-'60s. So this is basically a box-set overview of King's early career, one that saw him score many R&B hits and build a career as a blues legend, even as the blues were falling out of fashion in favor of rock and soul. As many tracks as there are here - 106 in all, four of them previously unreleased - this isn't a catchall roundup of everything the prolific King did for the label…

This 1957 LP features the great singer Dinah Washington on a variety of "greatest hits" dating back to 1943. The blues-oriented material includes "Evil Gal Blues," "Trouble in Mind," "TV Is the Thing This Year," and "New Blowtop Blues," and was taken from five different sessions spanning a decade. This accessible effort serves as a fine introduction to the spirited early style of Washington.

Franck Dervieux was the keyboardist of Jean Pierre Ferland, one of Quebec's best known singers. Dervieux became ill with cancer and after regaining his strength, he released an album called "Dimension M" in 1972, in which his life's philosophy is aptly, yet abstractly, described on the insert. The band comprised Yves Laferrière (bass), Christiane Robichaud (vocals), Michel Robidoux (guitar), and Christian Saint-Roch (drums) who would all go on to form Contraction. Also present during sessions was Michel Séguin (percussion), who later formed Toubabou.
Dervieux dedicates the album to his 3 doctors from Sherbrooke, who he says on the insert 'preserved' him. Indeed they saved him just long enough to produce what is undoubtedly one of the finest progressive music LPs to have emerged from Quebec…

The last TD production with Johannes Schmoelling was the soundtrack for Ridley Scott's movie Legend, starring Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, Tim Currie and David Bennent. Jerry Goldsmith was the original composer of the music for Legend, but Universal Studios decided they wanted a more modern sounding music and contracted with TD, Jon Anderson (singer of Yes) and Bryan Ferry (formerly with Roxy Music) to supply new music. The TD score was used for the North American version of the film only, thus the TD soundtrack was released 1986 in USA and Canada only. All other world-wide releases used the Goldsmith film score.

Eduard Melkus brought Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's (1644-1704) Rosary Sonatas (Rosenkranzsonaten) to new life with his groundbreaking 1967 recording; in the six decades that have passed since then, the pieces, which are as virtuoso as they are meditative in mood, have conquered a firm place in the discographies of ambitious baroque violinists. The Austrian violinist Gunar Letzbor has been considered one of the leading interpreters of this famous cycle since he recorded his interpretation on album for the Arcana label in 1996. The success was overwhelming: the critics were enthusiastic and the recording is still today available in the label's catalogue.

Leonard Elschenboich is joined by pianist Alexi Grynyuk for a program of Beethoven's five cello sonatas, which span his three creative periods. The audacious Op.5 sonatas date from his early years in Vienna as a piano virtuoso and aspiring composer (1792-99). The great Op.69 sonata is from the same period that saw the composition of Symphonies Nos.4-8, the Violin Concerto, Mass in C and the String Quartets Op.59. The two Op.102 sonatas are from the cusp of the 'late' period. This is the time of the Symphony No.9, the Missa Solemnis, the great string quartets Op.127-135 and the last five piano sonatas.

Partenope is mature Handel, and belongs in the top flight of his stage works. A comedy from 1730, which was first rejected as too frivolous by the Royal Academy of Music in London, the text had been set 20 years earlier by Caldara for an opera that had been a major influence on the young Handel. The tone is light and the action - all disguises and cross-dressing, with everyone ending up with the right partner - is swift moving; there are relatively few extended arias but a number of ensembles, as well as the obligatory sinfonia and march for the battle scene at the beginning of the second act. This performance under Christian Curnyn hits the right spot from the very start.