Watanabe celebrated his 40th year as a professional musician by recording a straight-ahead jazz album. His trusted trio includes two top jazz musicians – Yosuke Inoue on bass and Hiroyuki Noritake on drums. The 11 tracks represent Watanabe's eclectic tastes and cover a wide range of the jazz spectrum, from bebop ('Route 65,' 'Four On Six') and standards to funk ('Meteor') to fusion ('El Dorado'). The program even includes a free improvisation with his long-time associate and drummer Hideo Yamaki ('Hot K'). Masahiro Fujioka and Masato Honda guests with their soprano saxophone on a few tunes.

Schubert s imaginative world was built from the poetry he set to music throughout his life. The pianist Philippe Cassard has always felt close to those 'Wanderers', those Romantic landscapes studded by stars and moons, traversed by mountains and valleys, those quicksilver moods.

Australian composer and violist Brett Dean has won many prizes for his orchestral and chamber compositions, including the most renowned of them in 2009, the Grawemeyer Award. Today his works are performed all over the world and highly praised for their aplomb and power of expression as well as their ready accessibility to listeners.

"This sacd is truly wonderful. Under the leadmanship of Stokowsky all music becomes something extraordinary. Start with the majestic notes of Liszt's Hungarian rhapsody & end with Wagner. And don't forget smetana's moldau! Then I switched to the 3-channel mix on the SACD. The orchestra became much wider & deeper on the soundstage, with the flute solo in the Moldau front & center with greatest clarity & presence…" ~audiophile-audition