The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and chief conductor Mariss Jansons have a long and cherished history performing the music of Gustav Mahler, whose compositions have become a staple of the RCO's repertoire. These live recordings of Mahler's majestic Symphony No. 5 are drawn from concerts presented in late 2007 and early 2008, commemorating the 120th anniversary of the RCO's first performance. On this album Jansons underscores more than ever the symphony's narrative, poetic side.

Steve Cropper is best known as session guitarist for Stax Records and part of Booker T. & The MG's. He's played besides people like Otis Redding, Sam & Dave and Wilson Pickett. He also features in both Blues Brothers movies as 'The Colonel'. And he co-wrote "In The Midnight Hour" and "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay". Whoa! Having played such an important role as sideman to lots of Southern Soul stars, it's no surprise this solo album isn't gonna blow your speakers. But this second Steve Cropper solo album is an album well worth checking out.

Surprise Package was a 1960s rock band, recording on Columbia Records. They consisted of Fred Zeufeldt (drums, backing vocals), Michael Rogers (piano, organ, bass, backing vocals), Greg Beck (guitar, backing vocals) and Rob Lowery (lead vocals). They had several hits, including The Other Me, written by Jimmy Griffin and Michael Z. Gordon (1967).

The previously unreleased performance of the American rock band Soul Asylum, recorded in the legendary Liberty Lunch live performance venue in Austin, just a few months after the release of their breakthrough album "Grave Dancers Union".

A masterpiece born of the collaboration of composer Lully and his librettist Quinault, the “tragédie en musique” called Alceste caused a scandal when it was created in 1674. The tragic register was reserved for the theater, while the music was content with the comic vein. But thanks to the combined talents of Lully and Quinault, the stage of the Royal Academy of Music saw the development of the new tragic and lyrical genre.

Two great interpreters, poets and lovers of the French repertory and chamber music join forces here: the violinist Tedi Papavrami and the pianist Nelson Goerner. They have chosen to devote this programme to the two violin sonatas of Gabriel Fauré and the Sonata of César Franck. It was in 1875 that Fauré composed his First Sonata for violin and piano, characterised by its originality and its formal design, which marked the start of a new era for French chamber music.

This recording is an invitation to immerse ourselves in the musical inner circle of the Bach family. We are familiar with Johann Sebastian Bach as a composer of genius, but we know little about his family life, with the exception of the famous Clavierbüchlein (Little keyboard book) that the forty-year-old composer gave as a present in 1725 to his second wife Anna Magdalena, his junior by sixteen years.

Serge Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto might never have seen the light of day had it not been for hypnosis: before the twenty-seven-year-old composer began work on it, he was on his last legs – financially, artistically and psychologically. Dr Nikolay Dahl hypnotised his patient every day, whispering to him: ‘You will write your concerto. You will work with great fluency. The concerto will be of excellent quality.’ The creative block disappeared, and the concerto’s premiere in Moscow in 1901 was a triumph for Rachmaninov, who played the solo part himself.

Louis Schwizgebel has been described as ‘a pianist with a profound gift’ (Guardian, August 2013) and an ‘insightful musician’ (NY Times, May 2013). Born in 1987, he is already well-known on the international scene (appearances at Carnegie Hall, Vienna Musikverein, Royal Albert Hall, Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre, etc.). His third album for Aparté is devoted to two early masterpieces by Beethoven.