Although Carl Friedrich Abel (1723–87) is known as one of the last and greatest virtuosos of the viola da gamba, his instrument declined in popularity towards the end of the 18th century, leading him to compose for other instruments; some of his most successful results can be heard in the music recorded on this disc. Abel’s ability to compose particularly fine music for the flute can be traced back his time working at the Dresden court, which possessed one of the greatest orchestras of the era.

This is a striking, and very well-recorded pair of performances, well worth the attention of lovers of Russian music who have not yet encountered the works.

This complete set of symphonies by the quintessential Romantic Czech composer Zdeněk Fibich (1850 - 1900), performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Karel Šejna, is part of Supraphon's golden treasure. Fibich's highly emotional music filled with inner suspense is certain to enthrall the audience by the very convincingness of its message. The symphonies are coupled here with the idyllic image, At Twilight, and the cantata to the words of Jaroslav Vrchlický, Springtime Romance. This album adds new contours to the portrait of a composer whom most listeners have known solely as the creator of the celebrated Poem.

Nigel North is one of the finest lute players in our midst today, and his legendary four-CD set, ‘Bach on the Lute’ (Linn records 1994 to 1996) remains unsurpassed in its technical and musical brilliance. Now, he completes his journey with a double CD combining Bach's original 'lute works' (more likely written for Lautenwerck, or luteharpsichord), with North's own lute transcriptions of Bach's music for flute, organ, and more. This is an exquisite recording, full of space and intimacy, which makes you feel as though it is being played just for you. A must-have.

Recorded in 1972, Blue Moses, the most commercially successful album in pianist/composer Randy Weston's catalog remains one of his most controversial due to his conflicted feelings about the final product, which he feels is too polished and too far from his original intent for the project. Indeed, appearing on Creed Taylor's CTI imprint was an almost certain guarantee of polished production. Weston plays both acoustic and Rhodes piano here; he was backed by a band of CTI's star-studded stable: trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, tenor saxophonist Grover Washington, flutists Hubert Laws and Romeo Penque, drummer Billy Cobham, alternate bassists Ron Carter and Bill Wood, and percussionists Phil Kraus, Airto Moreira, and Weston's son Azzedin…

Quartet Records and GDM are proud to present a mammoth 3-CD set with the complete, remastered edition of scores by the great Bruno Nicolai from three of the most renowned and lovely mid-sixties Eurospy movies.

What is more inspiring than life and love? All the ups and downs, the constant change and the constant charge.
This music is the positive charge that transfers "sounds" into "feeling". You can hear the swing of life on the thoughtful "Just talk to you"; the breezy, positive and bell-like feeling on "Hand in Hand" and enjoy the summery, swinging and jazzed-up hymn "Loving Life!" The new face of soft fusion, jazz and NewEmotionalMusic comes alive with the unique sound of Freeze Frame!

For this all-Mozart twofer from Sony, piano virtuoso Lang Lang, conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and the Vienna Philharmonic present a program of piano concertos, piano sonatas, and several short solo pieces that give a good sampling of the composer's keyboard output. The roster may provoke some cognitive dissonance, though, because Harnoncourt is best known for historically informed period interpretations of Mozart, while Lang Lang and the Vienna Philharmonic are more associated with a conventional, mainstream performance style. One might expect some compromise between the two camps, yet while the orchestra incorporates some aspects of Classical sound into its playing, it remains a modern orchestra of full size, and Harnoncourt doesn't ask for the tone colors and techniques he would demand of his own Concentus Musicus Wien. For the soloist's part, Lang Lang is rather restrained and sensitive to the character of the music, and apart from some showiness in his cadenzas, he shows less of the ebullience and bravura playing he otherwise shows in Liszt or Rachmaninov.