Maria João Pires “shapes and colours every phrase, and with immaculate taste, and she makes sure the phrases end as eloquently as they begin,” wrote Gramophone in 1974. “She conveys not just the details but the relevance of every note to the whole … Best of all, she communicates everything she has discovered about the music, and it is worth having.” This Portuguese pupil of Wilhelm Kempff, Pires was one of the artists who defined the Erato label in the 1970s and 1980s. This 5-CD box gathers together the recordings she made over the period from 1976 to 1985 and it reflects the consistent focus of her repertoire, with its special emphasis on Austro-German composers of the Classical and early-Romantic periods. Embracing solo works, piano duets and concertos, it contains works by Mozart, Schumann, Beethoven, but also by Bach and Chopin.

This is Allen's first solo album which he recorded years after leaving the legendary Soft Machine and soon after forming the anarchic, experimental and drug-inspired ensemble Gong. The album's highlights include the moody 'Memories' with Robert Wyatt on vocals, one of the finest tracks to come out of the so-called 'Canterbury Sound', and the rocking opener 'Time Of Your Life' is a showcase for Allen's guitar pyrotechnics.

Special 15 track collection from the lead singer and co-founder of Roxy Music's solo career. The tracks are drawn primarily from his solo albums along with a few Roxy chestnuts thrown in for good measure. Includes alt versions of "Let's Stick Together" and "The Price Of Love" as well as the only CD appearance of the song "Help Me" that was used in the motion picture "The Fly".

Flash was the DJ and the Furious Five were the best multiple rappers around, moving from the music's low-rent dance origins (it was Flash who began cutting in repeated portions of other records) and party spirit to the "message" approach that took over in the mid 80s, prefigured in "The Message." Much of what came later, started here.

The Essential Journey doesn't bear a title that's too hyperbolic for the collection it represents. Over the course of two discs and 32 songs, the retrospective winds through all of the group's biggest songs – not just the hit singles, but the album radio favorites and concert staples that kept the group popular on the charts and in the arenas until last third of the '80s (and, for the record, everything on the previous Greatest Hits record is here). The key to the collection is that it doesn't abide strict chronological order. Instead, it's divided into two, with all the biggest hits on the first disc and the second acting like a "more of the best" collection, and within each of the discs, the tracks flow like a concert. The result is a first-class, definitive collection for the serious Journey listener (and, despite many skeptics, there are many out there – which is not hard to understand, since arena rock never got any better than this).

Testament to the versatility and musical command that Teodor Currentzis and his unique orchestra and choir possess, this new album brings together two diverse masterworks from two titans of Russian music. Although they have been acquainted for a long time prior, this recording represents the first musical collaboration between Teodor Currentzis and the exceptional violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. The instant artistic rapport (an “artistic wedding” of sorts) between these two maverick musicians can be heard in this dynamic new recording of Tchaikovsky’s Violin concerto - one of the most popular works in the violin repertory. Currentzis’ authentic approach to the folk influences in Stravinsky’s music (as revealed in Le Sacre du Printemps) is again very present in his interpretation of Les Noces.

Melissa Etheridge wasn't out of the closet when she released Yes I Am in 1993, yet it's hard not to notice the defiant acclamation in the album's title. This barely concealed sense of sexual identity seeps out from the lyrics, and it informs the music as well, which is perhaps the most confident she has ever been. It's also the most professional she's ever been (perhaps not a coincidence), as she belts out these unapologetically anthemic numbers with a sense of finesse that's suited to lifestyle newspaper pages, not rock & roll, thereby setting herself up for her bout with celebrity during the second half of the '90s. Yes I Am wouldn't have been as convincing if it wasn't so slick, though; her Springsteen-isms and Janis tributes are tempered by songs that work as album rock favorites, even if they aren't as epic or passionate as their inspirations. She may not have songs as great as she did the first time out – "Somebody Bring Me Some Water" remains her finest moment – but she has a sense of purpose and identity that suits her well.

'Skirting The River Road' is the second ECM recording by Scottish singer/songwriter Robin Williamson. It follows his critically praised solo album 'The Seed-At-Zero', which set texts by Dylan Thomas. The new album finds a thread of continuity that links three visionary poets - Walt Whitman, William Blake, and Henry Vaughan - and places their work in an improvisational context. There are also new songs by Williamson himself and a radical remake of an early classic, "Here To Burn". Williamson is usually considered a "folk" musician - his roots are certainly in the world's folk traditions - but he has also always been an experimentalist. The Incredible String Band (which he co-founded) was an autonomous, homemade 'avant-garde' unit in the 1960s, outside all the idioms but instinctively reaching for new forms, with Williamson's soaring voice leading the way.

SCHUBERT: SONGS WITHOUT WORDS is an elegant recital by pianist Daria Hovora and cellist Mischa Maisky that allows us to hear Schubert songs, beautifully rich as they are with the texts as sung by many of our finest singers, here solely for the instrumental line. Somehow the interplay between melody and accompaniment (always an equal partnership in Schubert's hands) is heightened by this experience. Not that the entire album is appropriated by the cello standing in for a vocalist: the opening work is "Sonata for Arpeggione and Klavier" and is one of the highlights of the CD. But just listen to the performances of 'Standchen', 'An die Musik' and 'Du bist die Ruhe' and hear the extraordinary marriage between the piano and cello, singing as beautifully as any other version. This is one of those CDs that bears keeping out for multiple listenings in the late evening.

In the 1950s, tenor-saxophonist Ben Webster was at the peak of his powers. His musical personality really featured two separate emotions: harsh and tough on the faster pieces and surprisingly warm and tender on the ballads. Webster uses the latter voice throughout this two-LP set. On all but four of 20 selections, Ben is backed by a string section arranged by Ralph Burns (except for "Chelsea Bridge" which was arranged by Billy Strayhorn) and, although clarinetists Tony Scott and Jimmy Hamilton and pianists Teddy Wilson and Hank Jones are heard from, the focus is otherwise entirely on the great tenor. The final four numbers, which matches Webster with Wilson in a stringless quartet, also stick to ballads. Music that is both beautiful and creative.

Despite being a rather inconsistent act, the Eagles were one of the most successful rock bands of the '70s. Made up of five fine musicians (each with unquestionably superb vocal talent), the band blended impressive but often simple music with melodious vocal harmonies. This 1994 release attempts to collect the best tracks from the Eagles' catalog. While it does succeed in compiling many of the finer songs, the need for certain tracks is questionable. On the whole, however, The Very Best Of retains the Eagles magic that typified their finer moments. For those unfamiliar with the Eagles' music, this release will open eyes as to why the band is so revered. The album goes from strength to strength and only takes a small drop in quality in various places. Being slightly overlong at 71 minutes, this is as complete a best-of as one will find, but includes a few unnecessary tracks.

Charlie Poole wasn't a particularly brilliant banjo player (although his later three-finger-style picking would set the table for the advent of bluegrass banjo a couple of decades after his death), and he wasn't the world's greatest vocalist either, but he had a certain devil-may-care charisma that made him a superstar in the string band era of the 1920s. Poole's greatest talent – aside from an ability to go on long drinking sprees and to manage to be at the center of things even in his absence – was in his song adaptations, which drew from sources outside the standard Appalachian fiddle tunes and reels, including pop, ragtime, and blues. This extensive 96-track, four-disc box set from Britain's JSP Records collects the lion's share of his recordings on Columbia, Poole's label from 1925 until his death in 1931 at the age of 39. Also included are a handful of cuts Poole made under the table for Paramount (where his North Carolina Ramblers were called the Highlanders) and Brunswick (which saw the band disguised as the Allegheny Highlanders).

Chester Burnett, better known as Howlin' Wolf, was one of the most important and influential figures in Chicago Blues through the 1950s, and along with Muddy Waters helped to establish the electric blues style that laid the foundations for rock music in subsequent decades. With his imposing physical presence and loud, almost fearsome voice, he was a powerful and impressive performer, who wrote and popularised songs which have become classic standards of the genre, like "Spoonful", "Smokestack Lightning", "Killing Floor" and "Red Rooster", which became fixtures in the repertoire of bands like The Rolling Stones, who very much championed his cause and widened his reputation in the latter years of his career. This collection brings together both sides of all the singles he released through the RPM and Chess labels during the first hugely important decade of his career, along with bonus tracks comprising recordings made at sessions during this period which were not released as singles at the time. It's a great-value 80-track 3-CD set, which showcases one of the major personalities of the blues.

Mr. Bungle was an American experimental rock band from Eureka, California. The band was formed in 1985 while the members were still in high school, and was named after a 1950s children's educational film regarding bad habits which was later featured in a 1981 Pee-wee Herman HBO special. Mr. Bungle was known for its highly eclectic style, often cycling through several musical genres within the course of a single song. Many of its songs had an unconventional structure and utilized a wide array of instruments and samples. Live shows often featured members dressing up (usually in masks earlier in the band's career) and an array of cover songs. Collection includes: 'Mr. Bungle' (1991); 'Disco Volante' (1995); 'California' (1999).

The sonatas presented in this recording, labelled as Sonate à Violino e Viola in the autograph score at the Biblioteca Musicale Greggiati in Ostiglia and as Sonate Per Violin solo con accompagnamento di Viola in the parts at the Salzburg Museum, are likely to date back to the very beginning of Gatti’s stay in Salzburg. The autograph is written on paper whose watermarks suggest a date of about 1783. If so, the works were probably commissioned by archbishop Colloredo, for whom a similar cycle of six sonatas was composed in the same year by Michael Haydn, MH 335–38, and W. A. Mozart, K 423–24. (Another set of six by Joseph Hafeneder in the Toggenburg Collection of Bolzano, minus the first sonata, may share the same origin). In which case, the violin part was probably intended for Colloredo himself, a “good performer on the violin” according to Charles Burney.The archbishop was also said to “enjoy performing on the violin, which he played very well” and to be in the habit of “mingling with the court musicians and playing the violin with them” before dinner. Liner notes by Alessandro Lattanzi, the world’s leading authority on Luigi Gatti.