Valery Gergiev’s 1st recording of French music on the LSO Live label, Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, Boléro, Pavane – Gergiev was characterised by an unexpected affinity for this music & a warmth of expression not usually associated with this conductor. This follow-up issue confirms Gergiev’s credentials as a Francophile conductor (as do his recent meticulous performances of the music of Henri Dutilleux at the Barbican.

When the greater part of the programme on this disc was released as the BIS 2005 Catalogue Disc, the response was electrifying. Sharon Bezaly was described as ‘God’s gift to the flute’ in The Times (UK), and a quote from the review in BBC Music Magazine is representative: ‘Bezaly's exquisite, technically immaculate, compelling playing sets new standards in this repertoire, as do Kalevi Aho's stunning cadenzas, composed especially for this recording.’

Bach showed that the cello can dance, but composers from Rossini to Shostakovich have favored it as an instrument of pensive reflection and brooding melancholy. The playful cover photo notwithstanding, SOLO features Yo-Yo Ma in five 20th century cello works of a serious nature, all with folk influence and all echoing at least a bit of the troubles of the times in which they were written.

Nils Frahm, born in 1982, had an early introduction to music. During his childhood he was taught to play piano by Nahum Brodski a student of the last scholar of Tschaikowski. It was through this that Nils began to immerse himself in the styles of the classical pianists before him as well as contemporary composers. Today Nils Frahm works as an accomplished composer and producer in Berlin. In early 2008 he founded Durton Studio, where he has worked with Peter Broderick and Dustin O Halloran amongst other fellow musicians.

His face was more famous than his voice, but Robert Goulet recorded a string of popular albums for Columbia during the 1960s, striking the pop charts with several hits and earning a 1962 Grammy Award. Born in 1933 in Lawrence, MA, Goulet was raised in Edmonton, Alberta, where he first studied acting and singing as a teenager. He appeared on Canadian television in the early '50s, but moved to New York and by the end of the decade was fit into a prime Broadway role: Sir Lancelot, in Lerner & Loewe's Camelot (with Julie Andrews and Richard Burton). A starring role in several films proved less than successful, however. He began singing in the early '60s as well, and after an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Goulet signed to Columbia in 1962.

The dramas of Victorien Sardou, in the last decades of the nineteenth century, were as popular in Italy as they were in France. French companies, therefore, could tour the Italian theatres and attract large audiences willing to ignore any language barrier. Giacomo Puccini knew hardly any French when he went to see Sardou’s La Tosca in Milan in 1890, and yet he apparently enjoyed himself. Actually, he may have gone to the theatre — like a majority of the Milanese public — not so much to see the play as to admire its star, the forty-five-year-old Sarah Bernhardt, to whom La Tosca is dedicated and for whom it was written.

English-born Gary Marshal has called the U.S. home since 19, when he joind Fredrio Apcar's then-current "Vive Les Girls" show in Las Vegas. His exposure to American audiences was immediately successful, resulting in TV appearances on NBC's "Tonight Show" and on Art Llnkletter's "Talent Scouts." After one TV appearance, columnist Terrence O'Flaherty referred to Gary as a "new Robert Goulet".

After almost 40 years on DECCA and over 3 million album sales Riccardo Chailly starts a new chapter in January 2017 as Music Director of Teatro alla Scala, Milan, the worlds most iconic opera house.

Clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer presents a dazzling selection of the clarinet's early repertoire from 18th Century Mannheim, with works by J. and C.P. Stamitz, Mozart and Danzi. The album as features duets with Albrecht Mayer and Emmanuel Pahud, two of the great wind soloists of our time and Ottensamer's friends and colleagues at the Berliner Philharmoniker. Ottensamer is joined by the Kammerakademie Potsdam for this recording.