After becoming the queen of disco thanks to orgasmathon hits like "Love to Love You Baby" and "I Feel Love," Donna Summer topped off her five-year rise to fame with this live set. Certainly not a contender for first-disc choice, Live and More still works quite well as a '70s sampler for the converted. And since disco was the party music par excellence, the album's feel is one of a all-nighter in action.

„In 1972, things were rapidly shifting in Marvin Gaye's world. He was coming off of one of his most wide-reaching hit albums with 1971's instant classic What's Going On, and his recording contract with Motown subsidiary Tamla was renewed for a cool million dollars and total creative control, making him one of the most successful R&B artists of his day. With Motown's offices migrating west from Detroit to Los Angeles, Gaye followed suit, beginning work on Trouble Man, both the score to a blaxploitation film of the same name and the soundtrack that would be his next album.

Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine releases her 36th album and fourth for AVIE with her first recordings of two repertory staples, violin concertos by Edward Elgar and Max Bruch. The two works – Elgar’s only concerto for violin and Bruch’s first – straddle the turn of the 20th century but have in common a Romantic hue which Rachel probes with her rich, soulful tone.

Pianist Charles Owen and his regular duo partner Katya Apekisheva turn to Rachmaninov’s diverse Suites for two pianos, and the composer’s atmospheric Six Morceaux, for their first joint recording for AVIE. The co-founders of the London Piano Festival delve into the quintessentially Russian Suite No. 1, also known as “Fantasise-Tableaux”, with its poetic inspirations, and the more traditional Suite No. 2 which marked Rachmaninov’s compositional comeback after a four-year hiatus. Rounding out the album, Charles and Katya share the piano bench for the atmospheric piano-four hands Six Morceaux.

This is ‘Vivere’. Not exactly a cheerful disc - all three compositions refer in various ways to death. This is reflected in the key (D minor is the key of death), in the opposite number of the Maiden, and finally even literally, in the fact that cellist Geneviève 'dies' before the end of the album. For us, however, to record this dramatic repertoire is to offer an ode to life. ‘Vivere’ - for by listening to this sombre music one realises how wonderful life can be. Performed by the Ragazze Quartet, four young women in the midst of life.

The world-premiere recording of Siroe re di Persia by Johann Adolf Hasse, whose music encapsulates the refined aristocratic cultural tastes of the European Ancien Régime. Offering true musical fireworks and delights, Siroe is led by Max Cencic in the title role with the vital orchestra of Armonia Atenea and their high-powered conductor, George Petrou: the same vibrant partnership which saw their first album on Decca, Handel’s Alessandro, win a clutch of top awards. Renowned for his gifts as a melodist, in Siroe Hasse offers a feast of rare vocal delights in the telling of a vivid story of passion, jealousy and intrigue.

Pianist Vanessa Benelli Mosell and cellist Henri Demarquette find common ground between Philip Glass and Rachmoninov in this release that revels in both composers passion for sonic storytelling. Presenting a program of personal, dramatic and spiritual music, Mosell and Demarquette perform these selections with intimate ardor.

Hank Snow pioneered the country concept LP as far back as the early 1950s. In 1967, he released Christmas With Hank Snow and the following year he released Tales Of The Yukon based on the popular poems of Robert Service that he had learned as a child in Canada. Now re-releases those two LPs separately, and the Christmas LP has been augmented with all of his commercial and non-commercial Christmas recordings… including ultra-rare early '50s Thesaurus transcriptions (studio quality records made for radio play only). What's more appropriate than Snow at Christmas?

A great late 70s chapter in the career of funky drummer Idris Muhammad – moving into very different territory here than his early soul jazz with Lou Donaldson, and even his earliest solo material too! David Matthews arranged the tracks, and he's given them a slick but soulful sound, with lots of spacey fusion elements, and a nice funky soul vibe that's a bit similar to some of Larry Mizell's work stretched out in this great mix of grooves and deeper jazzier elements even at a level that's hipper than Matthews' usual material from the time. Idris is at the core on percussion and the lineup also includes Jeremy Steig on flute, Eric Gale on guitar, Randy Brecker on trumpet, and Wilbur Bascomb on bass and titles include the seminal "Could Heaven Ever Be Like This", plus "Cambay Bolongo", "Tasty Cakes", "Crab Apple", "Moon Hymn", and "Say What".