Beethoven composed the oratorio Christus am Ölberge (C hrist on the Mount of Olives ) in just ‘a fortnight, amid all sorts of tumult and other unpleasant and alarming events in my life’. It marked the first time since the two ‘imperial cantatas’ of 1790, the Cantata on the Death of the Emperor Joseph II WoO 87 and the Cantata on the Accession of Leopold II WoO 88, that he had embarked on a multi-movement vocal work. Christus am Ölberge was also Beethoven’s first composition on a religious subject and was destined to remain his only oratorio.

Rachmaninoff’s tone poem The Isle of the Dead was composed in Dresden in 1908 – 09, inspired by the 1880 painting of that name by the Swiss symbolist Arnold Böcklin. The painting depicts a ferryman rowing a coffin towards the Isle of the Dead, and Rachmaninoff, unusually setting the piece in five beats to the bar, captures the atmosphere and the motion of oars in the water in the most extraordinary detail.

The first half of the twentieth century marks the birth of three masterpieces for violin and piano, each bearing the traits of its author and echoing the thriving creativity of the time. Aylen Pritchin and Lukas Geniusas lead us through this mesmerizing exploration that extends from Debussy’s evocative power to Stravinsky’s modernism, without neglecting the nostalgic gaze of Hahn. Behold a sublime panorama of the rich and turbulent years of a musical France.

The Busch Trio continues its Schubertian explorations in two works brimming with melodic invention and nostalgia: the Trio in B flat and the famous ‘Trout’ Quintet in A major. But to those who see Schubert as the embodiment of the gemütlich (cosy) face of Vienna, his output, and especially his chamber music, responds with a spirituality, an intensity and sometimes even a fury that are far removed from the atmosphere of the ‘Schubertiad’.

This sixth volume in Barry Douglas’s acclaimed Schubert series features two major works. The Sonata in A minor, D 845 was completed in 1825, just before Schubert started work on his ‘great’ Symphony in C major. As in so much of his later writing, Schubert is pushing at the boundaries of sonata form, particularly in terms of the harmonic variation he introduces throughout the piece. The second movement takes the form of a theme and variations, as does the third piece of the second major work on the album, the Four Impromptus, D 935. Published after his death in 1828, they were composed in 1827 and, like the Sonata, show all the trademarks of late Schubert.

In the summer of 2020, Irish musician Aoife Nessa Frances moved to the west of Ireland to begin working on the songs that would become her second album, Protector. A lifelong Dublin resident, Frances found solace being removed from city life. But perhaps more importantly, like many people in their late twenties who have finally shaken off youthful rebelliousness, Frances also experienced a solidification of familial ties like never before, and felt the formation of a protective, impenetrable shell.

The 1959 courtroom crime drama "Anatomy of a Murder" was directed by Otto Preminger and adapted by Wendell Mayes from the best-selling homonymous novel written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D.

Through the Storm is the thirty-second studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin. It was released on April 27, 1989, by Arista Records.

A Passion Play is the sixth studio album by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull, released in July 1973 in both the UK and US.

The Quatuor Van Kuijk celebrates the tenth anniversary of its creation and its sixth recording for Alpha with a complete set of Mendelssohn’s quartets, of which this is the first volume: it opens with the Quartet op.13, composed in 1827, when he was only eighteen years old. ‘A trial run? No, a masterstroke! In every movement of this first quartet, we are constantly aware that the sense of urgency is the blood that runs through its veins. Never before have we heard such tension maintained over an entire quartet’, writes Stéphane Goldet in the album’s booklet notes.

Arvo Pärt is one of the greatest and most performed of living composers. Slow and meditative, often religious, reflecting his mystical experiences, Pärt’s works are unmistakeable. Here Morphing Chamber Orchestra, under its artistic director Tomasz Wabnic, performs some of the Estonian composer’s finest instrumental works, Fratres, Spiegel im Spiegel and Summa, together with one of his vocal masterpieces, the Stabat Mater, presented here in a new arrangement, sung by three of today’s greatest operatic voices, Roberto Alagna, Aleksandra Kurzak and Andreas Scholl. Several shorter pieces, marvels of poetry and purity, sung by Andreas Scholl, complete this programme.

Heinrich Andreas Contius, originally from Halle in Central Germany, was the leading organ builder in the Baltic lands during the second half of the 18th century; his work was particularly appreciated by J.S. Bach. None of his instruments has survived in its original state, but Joris Potvlieghe (Belgium) and Flentrop Orgelbouw (The Netherlands) began an exact reconstruction of Contius’ Liepāja organ to its 1779 state under the management of the Contius Foundation in 2012, using materials and techniques that Contius himself would have employed.

Brad Mehldau’s Variations on a Melancholy Theme will be released June 11, 2021, on Nonesuch Records.

We didn't even really have time to digest his last albums when new ones are released again! Neil Young has been more active than ever since the early 2000s and is already releasing a new record.

Thirty years into their career, Canadian indie rock perennials Sloan return with their 13th album: Steady. Featuring the band's trademark harmonies and every band member taking lead vocal duties on at least a couple tracks, there's no better musical commonwealth than this quartet. You'll hear the power pop rockers like "Magical Thinking" and "Keep Your Name Alive" to the moving, stripped-back introspective numbers like "Simply Leaving" and "Human Nature", and the psychedelic trips of "Panic of Runnymede" and "Close Encounters." It's hard to think of another band that has stayed as consistent for three decades musically and still has all the same band members for their entire career. Thirteen albums later, slow and steady wins the race.