Considering the extraordinary talent assembled for Tony Williams' second Blue Note date as a leader, this could have been a landmark session. Unfortunately, it's not. Spring isn't totally forgettable; on the contrary, the fire expected by members of the Miles Davis Quintet (Williams, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter), all thoroughly influenced by "the new thing," were unleashed completely from Miles' tight rein. Add tenor saxophonist Sam Rivers and Albert Ayler bassist Gary Peacock into this mix and that influence thrived. However, the five Tony Williams compositions (including the drum only "Echo") often failed to provoke the musicians into reaching crucial unity, making Spring haphazard, falling short of the expected goal.

Simon Green, aka Bonobo returns with his sixth album – the masterful, magisterial “Migration” – is a record which cements his place in the very highest echelons of electronic music and indeed, beyond. By turns lush, manic, beautiful, melancholy, joyful, packed with both emotion and technical skill, this is perhaps his most ambitious attempt yet to capture the very textures of human existence in his work, as Green says of the broad dynamics on the album, “Life has highs, lows, loud and quiet moments, beautiful ones and ugly ones. Music is a reflection of life.”

Midem Classique Award winner Christian Zacharias continues his survey of Mozart Piano Concertos as both performer & conductor. Featuring arguably 1 of the most famous, the A Major. MDG’s complete recording of Mozart’s piano compositions with Christian Zacharias in the double role as pianist & conductor of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra continues with KV 488, certainly the most-performed piano concerto by the great Salzburg composer, complemented here by KV 246 & KV 175, Mozart’s very 1st piano concerto.

Following the ‘Gramophone Record of the Year’ award-winning set of the Brahms Symphonies, Riccardo Chailly turns his “rare talent for transforming music ripe for rediscovery” to Brahms’s Serenades. This exquisite recording renews these unjustly neglected and rarely performed works in performances of “trademark clarity” (Gramophone Record of the Year 2014) and marks the first Decca recording of these works since Kertesz in 1968.

Bold, lush, and exquisite piano quartets by Mahler, Schumann, and Brahms, this core classical album presents some of the finest pieces written in the romantic era. For this chamber music album, Daniel Hope has put together a stellar cast, including CMS Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han, as well as viola legend Paul Neubauer.

Two great artists at the peak of their powers, the soprano Dorothea Röschmann and the pianist Dame Mitsuko Uchida perform songs by Schumann (Liederkreis, Op 39 and Frauenliebe und Leben) and Alban Berg (Seven Early Songs).

Best-known for his work with Deep Purple, Glenn Hughes doesn't rest on his laurels on his first solo album in eight years, Resonate. In addition to his tight live band, Hughes is joined by friend and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith on the opening and closing tracks. Resonate might well be the heaviest of Hughes's solo albums, but as is his trademark, musical diversity shines through, blending the finest elements of hard rock, soul and funk. "It’s heavy in content lyrically and it’s musically heavy, but it’s got a lot of groove … I think it’s quite dramatic … there’s a lot of light and shade. But the emphasis is really heavy grooves and that’s what I write … everybody needs to know that this is absolutely a return to rock music as a solo artist for me…

It seems that Gregg Allman and the city of Macon, GA, will remain inexorably linked together; it is a history that spans over four decades, and one that Gregg is well aware of. “Macon is a beautiful, enchanting place, and it truly was home for the Allman Brothers Band,” stated Gregg. “We played, lived, laughed and cried there, and I wrote many, many songs in that town. It’s always good to play Macon, man.” On January 14, 2014, Gregg Allman brought his solo band to Macon for a performance at the venerable Grand Opera House, a 1,000 seat jewel of a theatre that was built in 1884. It was in this intimate setting that Gregg Allman Live: Back To Macon, GA was recorded.

Bartoli returns with a majestic new album of world premiere recordings. For the very first time she explores the Baroque musical treasures of Tsarist Russia with music from the court of three 18th century Tsaristas: Anna, Elizabeth and Catherine the Great. Music written by Italian and German composers working for the Russian court, this album is mostly sung in Italian, though also offers the first opportunity to hear Bartoli sing in Russian.

Recorded in one day (August 23, 1957) at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Hackensack, NJ. This date of ballads and burners features the young tenor saxophonist John Coltrane leading a quartet comprised of pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Arthur Taylor. Liner notewriter (original and reissue) Ira Gitler remarks, “In the ‘50s I was called upon to name many of the untitled songs at Prestige. Traneing In came to me because of the way [Coltrane] homed in after Garland’s opening solo [on the song].” This album is significant in that it took place halfway through Coltrane’s break with Miles Davis’ classic quintet of the ‘50s and it was the same year that the tenor saxophonist hooked up with Thelonious Monk to record the recently discovered live Carnegie Hall masterpiece.

The Chinese pianist Chen Sa has received much acclaim for her interpretations of composers such as Chopin, Rachmaninov and Ravel, but on the present disc she makes something of a return to her roots, in a (mostly) Chinese programme of solo and concertante works.