…Sopranos Emma Kirkby and Elin Manahan Thomas are excellent throughout…Harvey is a solid, dignified presence elsewhere as well, while tenor Charles Daniels and countertenor Michael Chance are at their eloquent best… Both The Purcell Quartet and Fretwork relish the variegated sonorities afforded by Buxtehude’s score, as well as the word painting, while blending with the voices to effect a homogenous yet multi-timbred sound of great beauty.

This album features cello concertos by Witold LutosIawski and Henri Dutilleux performed by the multiple prize-winning German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, conducted by Thomas Sondergard. These works, premiered in 1970, are two of the biggest gems of the twentieth century, the golden age of the cello. While equally virtuosic and engaging, both pieces showcase different aspects of the musical landscape of the late twentieth century.

Despite establishing the bel canto tradition through a series of romantic, serious operas (Otello, William Tell) and elegant buffas (the timeless Barber Of Seville) Gioacchino Rossini retired at 37 to live life as a Parisian bon vivant. Fortunately, Rossini (1792-1868) came out of retirement to complete the Stabat Mater, a choral masterpiece every bit as impressive as his more famous works. An expression of the Mediterranean belief in life and faith, this setting of the Stabat Mater is written for full orchestra with four soloists and chorus.

Pavillon de Paris, Paris, France 6 July, 1978

Nat King Cole, a man too great to be forgotten, has been loved by many great artists. Four famous albums dedicated to him are thoroughly dissected. Two sets of the best songs that could be called selected from the artist's side. Nat King Cole, a man too great to be forgotten, has been loved by many great artists. Among the countless artists who have covered him, the spotlight is on four who have released tribute albums. Gregory Porter, George Benson, Marvin Gaye, Hibari Misora, and others. This is the ultimate best of the best, which could be called a selection of songs from the artist side.

The Cure Out of all the bands that emerged in the immediate aftermath of punk rock in the late '70s, few are as enduring and popular as the Cure. Led through numerous incarnations by guitarist/vocalist Robert Smith, the band initially became well-known for its slow, gloomy dirges and Smith's exaggeratedly gothic look, a public image that often hid the diversity of the Cure's music. At the outset, they played jagged, edgy pop songs before slowly evolving into a more textured outfit. They were one of the bands that built the foundation for goth rock, but by the time goth caught on in the mid-'80s, the Cure had moved toward a more polished and thoughtful (if still often depressing) sound.

Elton John One of the greatest stars of the rock & roll era, Elton John exploded like a supernova in the early 1970s and sustained a career that kept him at the top of the charts for the next five decades. He had a Billboard Top 40 hit single every year between 1970 and 1996, a sign that he knew how to both change with the times and mold the times to fit him. John's earliest records were part of the moody, introspective post-'60s singer/songwriter movement, but once he had a hit with "Your Song," the pianist revealed he could also craft Beatles-like pop and pound out rockers with equal aplomb. As "Rocket Man," "Crocodile Rock," "Daniel," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," and "Bennie and the Jets" – songs John wrote with his lifelong collaborator Bernie Taupin – climbed into the Top Ten on either side of the Atlantic, John was inescapable during the first half of the '70s. His versatility, combined with his effortless melodic skills, and flamboyant stage shows, became his calling cards, sustaining him through shifts in fame and fortune.

The Encore Series consists of Official “Bootleg” style recordings from Peter Gabriel shows, recorded directly from the soundboard (with added ambient microphones) by Ben Findlay (Real World staff engineer) and released as a professionally mastered and manufactured 2 CD set (no CD-R's). They come in a gatefold package with artwork designed for the Encore Series by Real World and are unique for each concert and city.

Bruce Springsteen - Lead vocal, electric and acoustic guitars, harmonica; Roy Bittan - Piano, keyboards, accordion; Clarence Clemons - Tenor and baritone saxophones, percussion, backing vocal; Danny Federici - Organ, keyboards, accordion; Nils Lofgren - Electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocal; Garry Tallent - Bass; Stevie Van Zandt - Electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, backing vocal; Max Weinberg: Drums; Charlie Giordano - Organ, keyboards, accordion; Soozie Tyrell - Violin, acoustic guitar, percussion, backing vocal

Day of the Dead is an epic tribute to the music and artistry of the Grateful Dead, curated by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National. They have brought together some of their favourite musicians to reinterpret the songs and sounds of the Dead for a new generation. 59 tracks and over 5 hours of music makes the album a landmark to get lost in, to discover hidden treasures and to make your own playlists for whatever mood you’re in. Covers by The War On Drugs, Kurt Vile, Bill Callahan, Courtney Barnett, Anohni, Wilco, Mumford & Sons, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Flaming Lips, Stephen Malkmus, Cass McCombs, Tim Hecker, Lucinda Williams, Perfume Genius, Fucked Up, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, The Tallest Man On Earth and others.

Digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition. Described, variously, as "dusky and mysterious, cosmetic and up-for-it", "Industrial techno disco," and "like a Japanese express train", Curve's second album Cuckoo is more sophisticated, more seductive, less serrated, even squelchy in places than their debut, Doppelganger. A mature, fluent, and literary album, it hit the Top 30 on release in 1993. Cuckoo takes the listener from the established hallmarks and runs with them - over the horizon - to many new and rich areas of pop melodrama. Delicate and gorgeous moments sit easily with their simultaneously cool and incendiary sound. A more personal album, it is nonetheless metallic, unforgiving, loud, clear. As with Doppelganger the album was produced by the band with Flood and Steve Osborne, and it was mixed by Alan Moulder. It is home to the lead tracks from singles Blackerthreetracker EP and 'Superblaster' and is regarded by the band as their best piece of work. This expanded edition includes the album plus the remixes and two previously unreleased tracks, the original versions of 'Rising' and 'Half The Time', which have only previously been available in their remixed form. Compiled by Dean Garcia and Toni Halliday.

Following a few years after Levee Town, an album tightly focused on a specific place and time, Landreth dedicates The Road We're On to the more intangible magic of the blues. The music this time scans a vast panorama, from the Texas shuffle of "All About You" and zydeco pulse of "Gone Pecan" through the tub-thump beat of some Bayou dive on "Juke Box Mamma." Aside from a couple of cuts on which he plays standard guitar, Landreth fills this album with wizardly slide work: A shimmering lick at the end of "A World Away" provides the most gorgeous sonic moment, though his extended jam on the environmental call to arms "Natural World" sustains a high level of intensity through several choruses. On most of these tracks Landreth performs in a raw trio setting, almost all the time recording live; on "Hell at Home" he even keeps the scratch vocal, rather than overdub a fresh version, because the four-beat groove, reminiscent of "Walking Blues" on Paul Butterfield's East-West, is so in-the-pocket.

John Jenkins: yet another seventeenth century English composer who deserves to be more widely known. This delightful CD from The Consort of Musicke directed by Trevor Jones is no dutiful study of a hidden but rather uninspiring corner of English early Baroque consort music; rather, a mosaic – rich in color and shape, carefully crafted and full of surprises. Listen, for instance, to the unpretentious, jaunty and appropriately figurative progress through the Saraband (52, tr.6) and the restrained melancholy of the Fancy-Air (4, tr.7). Jenkins' counterpoint is well-wrought, his instrumental palette fresh and crisp and his melodies catchy without being fey or superficial in any way. He is in excellent hands with the Consort of Musicke… eight string players of the caliber of Monica Huggett and Alison Crum violins; Alan Wilson organ and Anthony Rooley theorbo. If fresh, beautiful, expertly-played English consort music appeals to you, don't hesitate to get this gem of a CD – actually a reissue of a Decca disc from 1983: it's unreservedly recommended.

The very essence of Sunday morning listening, Make Music: Folk Funk Flavours & Ambient Soul is a superbly nuanced collection of spacious, mellow soul cuts from the early '70s – the set's subtitle speaks volumes about the scope and effect of the grooves therein. Unified by their acoustic guitars, gently bubbling basslines, and sweetly funky rhythms, the songs document a more intimate and empathetic side of Black Power-era soul, far more personal than political but no less impassioned – as compiler John Stapleton writes in his excellent liner notes, the music evokes contemporary acts like Zero 7 and 4hero, reflecting an "increasing interest in and return to the song…re-exploring the same roots of folk, blues and country, and quieter ways to make music." Excellent stuff throughout, with highlights including Minnie Riperton's ravishing "Les Fleurs," Bill Withers' "You," and Al Wilson's "The Dolphins."

A wonderful view of what is "American" in contemporary American music from an Italian producer's perspective, with a nice cover photo of Joey's Navajo Cafe and Dining Room framed by several pickup trucks parked outside. Including rhythmic-based music and sound-text rhythms from ordinary speech (Allen Ginsberg's works), some dreamy electronic music by Pauline Oliveros, and solo jazz by Steve Lacy, this is an interesting collection of new recordings and reissues of tracks from out of print or hard to get vinyl releases. The recording contains Allen Ginsberg's "Hum Bomb" (1992), Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians" (live, 1976), Michael Galasso's "Baroque" (live, 1992), Ben Neill's "Bal," John Cage's "Third Construction" (from a 1983 Italian studio recording), David Behrman's "A Traveller's Dream Journal (EWR-LAX)" (1992), Pauline Oliveros' "A Woman Sees How the World Goes With No Eyes" (from the Lovely Music release Crone Music), Steve Lacy performing Thelonious Monk's "Pannonica," John Zorn and Andrea Centazzo's "First Environment for Sextet" (recorded in New York on WKCR radio in 1978 and appearing on Environment for Sextet released by Ictus Records), and Allen Ginsberg's "Father Death Blues."