Marking their latest collaboration with their conductor laureate Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Philharmonia return to disc with a stellar live-performance of two late works by Rachmaninov – the Symphonic Dances and Symphony No. 3 in A Minor. This release is third and final in a new series of Rachmaninov’s symphonic works, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy in live performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

In 1913, Karl Straube published his edition of ten Preludes and Fugues by Johann Sebastian Bach, who had been his illustrious predecessor as cantor as St Thomas’s Church in Leipzig. The late Romantic edition’s detailed performance instructions — including fingering, dynamics, phrasing, articulation, and registration — make it a seminal milestone in the performance history of Bach’s organ works.

Jelte Steven Tuinstra, better known by his stage name Jett Rebel, is a Dutch singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His brand new album 7 is the follow-up of the 2017 released Super Pop. After six successful releases he reinvented himself to record an album with ten new compositions. None of them could be a slightly weaker brother, no one might collapse under an amount of ideas that do not really fit into one song. No songs that collapse under their weight. Two songs, Amy and Good Boy, has already been released as singles. Every song on 7 wants to sound as it sounds. Taste is something personal, but there is no discussion about this fact. Jett Rebel believes in albums, as he has already demonstrated extensively in recent years. 'I'm a vinyl enthusiast. Listen to a record from front to back, and again. Instead of a playlist of all artists whose name I do not know and from who I do not know what else they have made.

Singer Rusty Draper was one of the biggest crossover stars of the early '50s, selling over a million records to pop and country audiences before the rise of rock & roll derailed his career. Born Farrell Draper in Kirksville, MO, on January 25, 1920, he received his first guitar at age ten, and within two years made his radio debut on Tulsa station WTUL's Cy Perkins Show. From there, Draper hosted his own show on Des Moines outlet WWHO, occasionally substituting for sports announcer Ronald "Dutch" Reagan. He also cut a demo for RCA Bluebird, but the label declined to offer a contract.

A native of west Texas who was active on the Grand Ole Opry, Billy Walker emerged from the talent-rich Dallas scene of the late '40s and early '50s. After a brief stint on Capitol, he was signed to Columbia in 1951 at almost exactly the same time as Ray Price. For a while, Walker, Price, and Lefty Frizzell were all recording at the legendary Jim Beck studio in Dallas, which did for '50s honky tonk what Sun Studio in Memphis did for rockabilly. Nevertheless, Walker notched virtually all of his dozen-plus Top Ten hits in Nashville (beginning in the '60s), where the studio sound was perhaps more suited to his smooth tenor voice.

Considered as one of the most inspired pianists of his generation, Severin von Eckardstein explores three major cycles of French music from the 1900s, associating Claude Debussy’s two revolutionary books Images (1904-1907) and Gabriel Dupont’s La Maison dans les dunes (1907-1909) as part of this debut album under the Artalinna label: this suite of 10 pieces with memorable atmospheres filled with luminous colours and heady melodies will stand out for many as a musical revelation!

Violaine Cochard approaches her favourite repertoire with all the virtuosity and poetic sensitivity we know. The French harpsichord school shone throughout Europe during the 18th century. After the chiaroscuro of Couperin, in the wake of the great Rameau, a whole generation of musicians made the instrument sound with dazzling opulence, injecting into their scores the advances of opera, while preserving the expressive refinement of their elders.

This album recorded in April of 2018 and featuring Liepaja Symphony Orchestra and renown Latvian choral conductor Maris Sirmais offers world premiere recordings of Imants Kalnins' Symphony No. 7, Oboe Concerto and symphonic miniature Santa Cruz, paired with a brand new recording of Symphony No. 5 with conductor Atvars Lakstigala.

Following The Sixteen’s hugely successful album, ‘Song of the Nativity’, which featured Christmas music from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, this new seasonal offering explores a stunning selection of festive works from the Renaissance. The Sixteen captures the joy and sincerity of this most wonderful of seasons, from the joyous simplicity of plainsong chants Resonemus laudibus and Veni, veni Emmanuel to the shining purity of Lassus’ polyphonic Videntes stellam Magi and Byrd’s jubilant This day Christ was born. This album provides a perfect alternative to traditional carols for those looking for something a little different at Christmas.

Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger, viol player at the court of Elizabeth I and Charles I, was the most innovative and influential composer of viol consort music of his generation. Following the steps of his father, composer Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder, he continued the specifically English « In Nomine » tradition for viol consort into the seventeenth century while adding his own special touch in the In Nomine through all parts in using the cantus firmus in all voices with various rhythms and transpositions.

This first opus from the Quatuor Zahir is constructed like an opera overture: one finds a succession of subjects, of themes and of colours which, as the quartet follows its path, will most definitely be nourished and developed. The ease with which these saxophonists navigate between the archipelagos of transcription, improvisation, 'savant' music, contemporary repertoire or music inspired by popular culture, presents us with, in addition to this rich diversity, the playing palette of a saxophone quartet that is quite extraordinary.

The historical importance of the Wailers is undeniable. They were one of the very first, if not the first, of the American garage bands. Backing Rockin' Robin Roberts, they revamped an obscure R&B song called "Louie Louie" into a 1961 local hit that served as the prototype for the countless subsequent versions of the most popular garage song of the '60s. And their stomping, hard-nosed R&B/rock fusion inspired the Sonics, who took the Wailers' raunch to unimaginable extremes. While they anticipated the British Invasion bands with their brash, self-contained sound, their inability to write first-rate original material, as well as their rather outdated sax and organ-driven frat rock, put them in a distinctly lower echelon. As the decade progressed, the group did absorb mild folk-rock and psychedelic influences without great effect, either commercially or on their sound itself.

The production duo of Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz defined the sound and spirit of the bubblegum era, helming quintessential if interchangeable records from the Ohio Express, the 1910 Fruitgum Company, and numerous others. According to an April 25, 1997, feature in Goldmine titled An Informal History of Bubblegum Music, the duo met while both were attending the University of Arizona, and their initial entrance to the music industry was as managers of a number of groups active on the New York City club circuit; their production debut was the Christine Cooper single "S.O.S. (Heart in Distress)," issued on the Cameo-Parkway label. The record was not a hit but it did bring Kasenetz and Katz to the attention of Cameo exec Neil Bogart, whose subsequent venture Buddah Records was to play a pivotal role in bubblegum's success.

"Tout le monde a de quoi se sentir rescapé de quelque chose" qu'il parle de tous, de chacun, de lui-même, Miossec, chanteur longtemps traversé de blessures, diffuse une lueur d'espoir et d'humanisme à son euphorisant 11e album, "Les Rescapés". En 2016, Miossec s'offrait un bel impromptu acoustique avec "Mammifères" qui faisait office de nouveau départ. Deux ans plus tard, ce nouveau disque confirme les bienfaits de cette renaissance. Chez le Brestois de 53 ans, diagnostiqué en 2009 d'ataxie (maladie qui touche le cervelet) et qui ne peut plus boire d'alcool sous peine de graves complications, cohabitent désormais le pessimisme du vivant et l'espoir du survivant, comme le démontre l'emballant "Nous sommes" en ouverture.