On the 18th December, 1892 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, 'The Nutcracker' was first introduced to the world. Now, almost 125 years since that opening night and from the very same hall, the Mariinsky’s current Artistic Director, Valery Gergiev, reveals only his second recording of Tchaikovsky’s ballet masterpiece. A perfectly judged realisation of one of classical music’s most cherished works.

This major release launches the Mariinsky label’s projects to honour the 125th anniversary of Prokofiev’s birth. A long-time champion of the music of Prokofiev, Valery Gergiev conducts Symphonies Nos 4, 6 & 7, coupled with Piano Concertos Nos 4 and 5. The result is a 2-SACD set programmed to showcase some of Prokofiev’s finest works written before and after the Second World War.

We are so excited and thrilled to finally reveal this project, which we have been imagining and developing for months… « Nos 4 saisons », our four seasons! We heard The Four Seasons for the first time before we even knew how to talk, and the sound of the violin is one of our first memories. It's as if we always knew we would return to this repertoire one day, that we would happily dive back into our childhood. Vivaldi has laid the foundations of all modern music with his work, and if you listen well, you find his harmonies in all of today’s pop music. With this album, we built our own bridge between classical music that made us grow and the song that has soothed us for a long time. It was obvious for us to record these four seasons together, as sisters, with our common vision of the work.” – Camille & Julie Berthollet

Wolf Parade - Dan Boeckner, Spencer krug, and Arlen Thompson - will release thin mind, the group's fifth album for Sub Pop, on January 24th, 2020. The 10-track record was recorded by John good man son at risque disque on Vancouver Island, BC, mixed by good man son at bogroll Studios in Seattle, want, and mastered by Noah Mintz at lacquer Channel mastering in Toronto, on. Thin mind has sci-fi, post-apocalyptic and dystopian narratives interwoven throughout.

50 - Just Warming Up! Is the new album from American blues legend and multi-instrumentalist Lucky Peterson - one of the most riveting performers of the modern blues era. A searing lead guitarist, a rich and powerful organist, and a first-rate vocalist, Lucky's musicianship effortlessly translates gospel, rock, and jazz into a 21st century blues. Many reminisce about the bygone days of the blues, but it's flame still burns hot here in the hands of Lucky Peterson!

On June 23, 1977, Sam ‘Lightnin’ Hopkins walked onto a small stage in a smoke & whisky filled club in Montreal and proceeded to lay down arguably his last great performance before his death 5 years later. “Lightnin’s Boogie – Live at The Rising Sun Celebrity Jazz Club” - remastered and available on vinyl for the first time – reveals a master blues man still in full control of his many talents and working the crowd to “Get Up Off O’ Yo’”.

After the success of their debut disc, ‘Voyages’, Mary Bevan and Joseph Middleton present their second recital disc exploring Lieder in German and Italian by Schubert, Haydn and Wolf. The programme is woven around songs inspired by the ‘muses’ of the day, both mythological and divine.

Flautist Ana de la Vega teams up with two-time ECHO award-winning oboist Ramón Ortega Quero and the Trondheim Soloists on her second PENTATONE album, to explore the intricate and unique relationship between flute and oboe in concertos by Joseph Haydn and Carl Stamitz. The programme consists of two concertos Haydn originally designed for two lire organizzate, as well as Stamitz’s Concerto for flute, oboe and orchestra in G major. The recording also features the latter’s vibrant and virtuosic but rarely recorded Flute Concerto in D major, which offers some of the finest writing for flute of the entire Classical era.

Chicago’s Civitas Ensemble presents a spectrum of new instrumental works by living Chinese composers, each with a unique perspective on Western and Far Eastern musical sensibilities. Spearheaded by Shanghai-born violinist Yuan-Qing Yu, a Civitas founding member and assistant concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Jin Yin (“Golden Tone”) comprises world-premiere recordings of works by Yao Chen, Vivian Fung, and Lu Pei, plus specially made new arrangements of pieces from Zhou Long and Chen Yi.

The string quartets of Beethoven are among the greatest works of their kind, but he composed other works for quartet which have been neglected. This album is dedicated to these intriguing rarities. Alongside the wild and monumental Grosse Fuge, in many ways the culmination of Beethoven’s achievements in the string quartet genre, this recording further displays his mastery of counterpoint by bringing to light brilliant yet forgotten original versions of his quartets Op. 18, No. 1 and Op. 131, plus six virtually unknown miniatures, including his Preludes and Fugues.

Classical guitarist David Jacques has assembled a private collection of rare guitars made by the finest luthiers of the past 400 years. With his new album 14 Guitar Stories, Jacques becomes the first guitarist to play all 14 instruments on the same recording. Each guitar is featured in repertoire that is appropriate to the instrument’s era, and each has a story to tell.

Taktus Duo’s MIRRORED GLASS is all about examining similarities and differences, like reality and the image in the mirror. Creating a two-sided album, percussionists Greg Harrison and Jonny Smith take inspiration from piano composers Ann Southam and Philip Glass and filter their music through the sounds of the marimba.

Beyond their lifelong interest in keyboard instruments of all types (organ, harpsichord and clavichord in the case of Bach; modern piano as a percussion instrument in the case of Bartók), other shared concerns connect these two giants of classical music who at first glance appear to be polar opposites.

With The Melancholic Bach, Emilio Moreno delves pensively and wistfully into the realms of the music that Bach might have written for the viola. This new Glossa album is in fact, by turns, a reflective but also an uplifting treat from beginning to end. Moreno, of course, is a violinist as well as a violist: with the former he has been directing his ensembles La Real Cámara and El Concierto Español, whilst with the latter instrument for many years he has been leading the violas of Orchestra of the 18th Century.

Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection.
In 1972, Dave Cousins released his first, and to date only solo album. Best known of course as the founder, leader, and only ever present member of the Strawbs, it could perhaps be argued that he has never needed to release solo albums, since the sound of Dave Cousins is the sound of the Strawbs.