"Bahrami shows fine technique and crisp articulation in the fast passagework." - BBC Music Magazine
"Technically, the playing is highly accomplished and Bahrami's touch is infallible." - Classic FM

Concrete and Mud is the career-defining third album from Sam Morrow, sure to cement his place as a member of Los Angeles' country elite. It's rooted in Texas twang, southern stomp, and old-school funky-tonk. Recorded largely live in the studio on a vintage Neve 8068 console, it also shines a light on Morrow's strength as a songwriter, frontman, and bandleader. Musically, this is Morrow at his electrified, energetic peak. The sad-eyed sounds of Ephemeral and its 2015 follow-up, There Is No Map – both written during the early years of Morrow's sobriety – have been replaced by something more representative of Morrow's live show, in which he fronts a band of plugged-in roots-rockers.

Charles II's formal Restoration in 1660 marked both an end and a beginning: the end of England's republican experiment and the beginning of a long process of monarchical reconstruction; and with a politically accident-prone king on the throne, Charles's public relations machine could never rest. Purcell joined its small team of composer operatives just as the wave of Stuart propaganda swelled massively, and he surfed the wave with breathtaking panache, from his first court ode – the simple but rousing Welcome, Vicegerent of the mighty King – to the ambitious Fly, bold rebellion involving verse settings in up to seven parts and a six-part chorus.

The Azerbedjanian composer Kara Karayev would turn 100 in 2018, his pieces are played by the Azerbedjanian pianist Elnara Ismailova.

While the alto as a soloist instrument made a timid first appearance at the end of the 18th century with Mozart, Stamitz and Dittersdorf, the Romantic era left it behind for the most part, despite Berlioz’ phenomenal Harold en Italie with alto solo; it was only during the last third of the 19th century that a few composers renewed their interest in this instrument as a soloist.

Little Steven Is Back With Soulfire! “I have very little interest in the modern world and I’m not in any way conflicted about that. I grew up in a renaissance period, a very lucky time when the greatest music ever made was also the most commercial. We’ll never see that again so for me, there’s only one criteria, which is greatness. That’s all I care about. Is what I’m doing reaching for greatness? Whether I achieve it or not, that is one hundred percent of my criteria.” – Stevie Van Zandt

Historical performance pioneer Trevor Pinnock conducts the Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble in revealing chamber arrangements from Mahler to Zemlinksy.

This is the first solo album of the Mezzo Soprano Anke Vondung, who is travelling the world and the most prominent Opera Houses and Concert Halls. Two years ago, inspired by their shared love of Viennese music and visual arts at the turn of the 20th century, Anke and Christoph put together a vocal recital programme featuring lieder by Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Zemlinsky and Gustav Mahler.

C – D – E – F#. The keys of the four Haydn trios on this disc form an ascending progression corresponding to the tritone, regarded since the Middle Ages as the most dissonant interval of all. The octave, conversely, has been regarded since ancient times as a symbol of divine unity and purity. The tritone divides the octave into two exact halves, thus destroying that unity – which is why it is also known as the diabolus in musica.

„I always loved Chopin, albeit somewhat from a distance – like Bach, whose works I didn’t play in public for a long time. However it is amusing to note that a certain piece by Chopin is the work I’ve probably performed more often than anything else: the Nocturne in C Sharp minor, op. posth; I like to feature it as an encore. If someone asked me to sum up my entire life as an artist with a signature piece, I would probably choose it. I feel a profound connection with its melodic simplicity, its light melancholy mood. I’ve discovered once more that Chopin is truly one of the greatest.

Antje Weithaas launches her trilogy of solo violin albums with the first work in each cycle. It was Antje Weithaas’s own idea to jointly record Johann Sebastian Bach’s six sonatas and partitas for solo violin in conjunction with Eugène Ysaÿe’s six solo violin sonatas. “The works by Bach are rather well-known”, she remarks. “But Ysaÿe is invariably shoved into the virtuoso corner, but as a composer he is to be taken quite seriously!”.

Over the past few years, Patricia Kopatchinskaja has exploded the norms of the classical violin. Her highly personal – even extreme – interpretations of the great classics leave no one indifferent and fascinate the public, which adores her generosity and commitment on the concert platform, her taste for new musical creations and pieces from off the beaten track. Now the barefoot violinist invites us to join her in a unique musical experience that mixes composers of the seventeenth (and even the eleventh!) century with living composers, a clarinettist playing the ocarina, an improvisatory harpsichordist, an electro musician, a toy piano…

Backed by a jazz trio comprising of tenor sax player Lew Tabackin, bassist Jim Hughart, and drummer Shelly Manne, Waits finds the most sympathetic backing of his career to that point and creates his early masterpiece. Small Change is the home of Waits’ favorites like "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me),” the moving soldier’s ballad “Tom Traubert’s Blues,” and the manic slide-show of “Step Right Up.”

The final Asylum album from 1980 couldn't be more different than Waits' '73 debut - his voice sounds like the marvellous ruin that we know and love today, the ballads remain (On the Nickel is beautiful and even Springsteen took a crack at Jersey Girl) but it's the twisted warped blues of the title track that points the way to the extraordinary world of Swordfishtrombones.