ORA has marked the festive season with a musical advent calendar. The collection includes carols by Sally Beamish, Richard Allain, Morten Lauridsen, Cecilia McDowall, and Arvo Pärt, and to bookend the calendar, ORA has commissioned works from composers John Rutter and Debbie Wiseman.

Remarqué aux Transmusicales de Rennes en décembre 2016 avant de remporter le Prix du Printemps de Bourges en avril, le jeune Eddy de Pretto apporte un souffle inédit à la nouvelle scène française.

By Swiss composer Arthur Honegger, “Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher” (1938) is an imposing oratorio. Unlike other banal versions of the myth, the libretto is a highly original creation by French poet and playwright Paul Claudel, who perfectly dramatises the last moments of the martyr's life. Honegger highlights all the anguish and tension of Joan's interrogation and subsequent execution. Originally written for actress Ida Rubinstein, an excellent ballerina and actress who was the first to perform the part, the oratorio is written as a flashback in which Joan recalls her life, just before she dies.

This recital, Héroïque, is tenor Bryan Hymel’s first studio recording for Warner Classics. Its imaginatively conceived programme showcases him in repertoire that he has made his own on stages such as the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden and the Bavarian State Opera: opera in French that demands a thrilling heroism in both voice and style – and a top register of outstanding brilliance, since the album offers a grand total of 19 top C’s. On the world's great stages, Hymel has gone from Don José in Carmen to Enée in Berlioz’s Les Troyens, the title role in Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable, Henri in Verdi’s Les Vêpres siciliennes and Arnold in Rossini’s Guillaume Tell.

Francis I, as a princely patron of the arts, realised that music was a very useful tool for his policy of prestige: official music for great diplomatic events like the amazing musical ‘tournament’ between the Chapelle of the King of France and the Chapel Royal of Henry VIII of England at the Mass for the Field of the Cloth of Gold, reconstructed in this recording.

This recording is the first to be made by Trio Dali with its new violinist, Jack Liebeck. After a Ravel programme in 2009, then a Schubert disc, the Trio turns its talents to the two Mendelssohn trios and transcriptions of Bach.

This recording follows a first collaboration between Zig-Zag Territoires and Marco Ceccato (Vivaldi sonatas), widely hailed by the press. It is devoted to two important aspects of Luigi Bocherini’s work: chamber music and the cello, of which he was a great virtuoso.

Already established as a tireless promoter of Czech music, Jakub Hrůša was the inaugural winner in 2015 of the Sir Charles Mackerras Prize for his advocacy of Janáček’s works, going on to receive ecstatic reviews in 2016 for Glyndebourne Opera’s production of The Cunning Little Vixen. One reviewer enthused that Hrůša “clearly has this music in his bones and blood … he asks for (and gets) an urgent, raw and abrasive quality, expressive of nothing less than the life force itself.” (The Telegraph, 13 June 2016).

For a large part, thanks to the effort of Johannes Brahms, who introduced him to his publisher Simrock, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák developed into a composer with an international reputation. Don’t we all know his Slavonic Dances, his Symphonies or his chamber music, such as the Dumky Trio or the American string quartet? This album reveals some of the more hidden treasures of Dvořák’s repertoire, namely his overtures, of which he wrote no less than thirteen.

Heavy soul from the Roy Meriwether Trio – picking up at a place where the Ramsey Lewis trio first began, and taking things to a very soulful extension! The tunes are straightforward soul jazz, played with a heck of a lot of fire in the rhythms – thanks to bassist Isaas Sloan and drummer John Arnold – and all tracks feature plenty of cooking piano work from Roy himself! Titles include "The Ripper", "Taste Of Honey", "Soup & Onions", "Little Lousy Jane", and "Screwdriver".

By the time the album were released, The Four Tops weren’t very high on Motown’s priority list. That’s really a shame because this album contained some of their strongest material. Frank Wilson was the appointed producer the production is top notch, using many of Motown’s highly talented musicians. Some of the recordings truly stand out. Although skimpy in the lyric department, “Still Water (Love)” is a true R&B classic. The Tops rendition of “Reflections” is better and tighter than the Supremes original version, in my opinion. “Love Is The Answer” brings back memories from when I was a child. (I owned a copy of the single.) It’s a fun song with some really swinging horns.

Though it's one of the best Four Tops records of the '60s, Reach Out still feels weighted down by a few vain attempts at adult pop crossover. It certainly starts out right, with the glorious 'Reach out, I'll Be There,' the group's second pop/R&B chart-topper. After a faithful cover of the Left Banke's 'Walk Away Renee,' though, listeners are forced to sit through trite versions of 'If I Were a Carpenter,' 'Last Train to Clarksville,' and 'I'm a Believer' to get to real highlights like the dramatic, impassioned 'Standing in the Shadows of Love' and 'Bernadette.' There is room for a great lesser single ('I'll Turn to Stone'), but the flip side finds the Four Tops taking on 'Cherish,' which could've worked well but didn't. Reach Out still did better than any other original LP by the group, almost breaking the Top Ten.

The Four Tops followed their fine debut album with an even more magnificent second effort, The Four Tops' Second Album. They landed their first number one pop and R&B hit with 'I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch).' There was also 'Something About You,' a great uptempo shouter that seemed a disappointment at number 19 on the pop charts (and number nine on the R&B charts), but didn't lack vocal authority or production genius. The album also contained 'It's the Same Old Song,' a tidy little number that reached number five on the pop chart and number two on the R&B chart, and had one of the greatest lyrical hooks and titles ever.

Trendsetter is thrilled to welcome France’s Prequell to the 2017 roster with the video for “Part XIV” featuring Rae Morris. Prequell, who’s created music for prestigious brands such as Chanel, Dior, Kenzo, Michael Kors, Mugler and Nike as well as composed, orchestrated and arranged for electronic music icon Jeff Mills, will release his debut album „The Future Comes Before“ October 13 on Verve. Leading into it, he has recently made available a mesmerizing piece of visual content for album track “Part XIV” featuring British chanteuse Rae Morris

With its first album of new material in over four years, Iron & Wine is proud to announce the new album, Beast Epic. Of the album, Sam Beam states “I have been and always will be fascinated by the way time asserts itself on our bodies and our hearts. The ferris wheel keeps spinning and we’re constantly approaching, leaving or returning to something totally unexpected or startlingly familiar. The rite of passage is an image I’ve returned to often because I feel we’re all constantly in some stage of transition. Beast Epic is saturated with this idea but in a different way simply because each time I return to the theme, I’ve collected new experiences to draw from.