Although the symphonies, string quartets and concertos represent the core of his achievement, Shostakovich had wide sympathies across the musical spectrum: hence his oft-repeated comment that he enjoyed all music from Bach to Offenbach. All the works on this disc – which opens with a suite from the ballet The Bolt and concludes with his orchestration of Tea for Two – attest to a composer who entered into the spirit of ‘light music’ with enjoyment and enthusiasm. The so-called Jazz Suite No.2 (sketches for the original Jazz Suite No.2 have only recently been discovered) is in fact the Suite for Stage Variety Orchestra, drawn from various ballet, film and theatres scores, with saxophones and accordion to the fore. The Second Waltz, recently found popularity as the title music for Stanley Kubrick’s last film, "Eyes Wide Shut".

The Preludes and Sonatas of Dmitri Kabalevsky are amongst the best piano works of the forties, and deserve a place on concert programs alongside better-known works by composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Pianist Christoph Deluze has become well known for his interpretations of Kabalevsky, and here he performs the three Piano Sonatas. The first is reminiscent of Scriabin, and the second and the third are war pieces filled with highly virtuosic passages. Deluze's performances confirm their impressive stature, intense lyricism and rhythmic vigor. Sonatas on the SACD disc are excellent, with a very natural ambiance, and Deluze‘s performance are exceptionally good.

"Mumble Jazz"…..quite right you heard right. But what is this, actually, "Nuschel jazz"?

The Christmas carol has its origins in the Middle Ages but it has since embraced a wide variety of musical backgrounds.

"This is a dream come true." It's the new aspect of my career maybe even my new face as a singer.

Creative sparks and killer riffs are flying everywhere on Brian Setzer's new album The Devil Always Collects out via Surfdog Records.

Reb Beach is simply one of the Hard Rock Guitar Giants of the current era.

The album features the famed sextet that recorded Kind of Blue six months later.

Gevorg Hakobyan is a rising star on the international operatic stage.

Tuneful, exotically scored (by the conductor Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos), and giving orchestra and recording engineers alike a chance to show their paces, the Suite Española makes highly entertaining listening.

The quartet featured on One More Slice, Fruitcake's third album, gained yet one more member, albeit part-time only, for the 1998 CD Power Structure. Flutist Nina C. Dahl adds a delightful pastoral touch, but that's not the only thing that went right this time.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Cultural Revolution did everything in their power to destroy the influence of religion in the Russian Empire. Sacred music was publicly forgotten in the process. Although Schnittke, whose German-born father emigrated to the Soviet Union in 1926, was atheistically influenced by the state education system, he believed spiritually in “something greater”. In 1982, he was baptized a Catholic, and shortly before his death he was accepted into the Orthodox Church. The search for a religious identity can also be traced in his works. His Choir Concerto is the most representative work of the genre “sacred concerto”.

Hirundo Maris has constantly explored new musical worlds and forms of expression since it was founded in 2009 under the direction of Arianna Savall and Petter Udland Johansen. They are now taking a completely different path with this new project for the label Fuga Libera, which is devoted to a great and wonderful song tradition, the nineteenth- and twentieth-century art song, featuring composers such as Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Fauré, Debussy, Mompou, Toldrà, García Lorca, de Falla and Grieg – all of whom were so significant for this chamber music genre.

João Gilberto is a bossa nova album by João Gilberto, originally released in Brazil as a vinyl LP in 1973. The minimal instrumentation – just Gilberto's guitar and voice, plus Sonny Carr's very sparse percussion – and the relentless beat give the album a hypnotic feel. The album's sound engineer was famous electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos. This album is often referred to as João Gilberto's "white album", in a reference to The Beatles' White Album. It was listed by Rolling Stone Brazil as one of the 100 best Brazilian albums in history.

Eclectic, diverse or just plain odd - three descriptions to describe the coupling of Carl Orff, Ludwig van Beethoven and George Gershwin on a single release. Of course, in reality what we have are three different LP releases of modest length from the early/mid 70's all conducted by the young Michael Tilson-Thomas with his presence on the podium the single unifying thread.