Out of Giuseppe Verdi’s adoration for William Shakespeare three masterpieces were born : Macbeth, Otello and, as a musical testament, his only comedy Falstaff. But in accordance with its librettist Arrigo Boito’s wish to remove the original bourgeois farce The Merry Wives of Windsor out of the English mists and to warm it up to the clear Tuscan sun, Falstaff transforms Shakespeare’s morality play into an ode to life, to pleasure and to reconciliation that forgives human vices, rewards intelligence and virtue, and praises that spark of madnessthat gives life its flavour. Shakespeare’s most famous and subversive comic character has indeed proved to be a fertile ground for Verdi who, then eighty-years old, signed with Falstaff his most modern, most ambitious, but also wisest and ambiguous opera.

Rock the House Live! is a live album released by the American hard rock band Heart in 1991. It marked a sharp decline in sales after a period of success that began in 1985 with the release of the self-titled Heart…

With the onslaught of greatest-hits compilations available, it's hard to decipher which versions are truly thorough and definitive. However, this Gold edition is truly something special. It features not only the best of the early years when Gladys Knight & the Pips were a doo wop-styled group, it also contains a seamless transition to their tenure at Motown (where they scored some of their biggest hits), to their years on Buddah, and all the way through to their highly polished adult contemporary hits of the '80s. The sequencing and track selection is top-notch (with the Curtis Mayfield penned "The Makings of You" being the only glaring omission) and shows not only the group's evolution, but how potent and consistent a singer Knight has been over the past decades. This is an outstanding compilation which deserves a rightful place in any soul music collection, be it a die-hard soul fanatic or casual listener looking for the hits.

A few decades ago, when the release of a George Benson album was an event for either jazz guitar or R&B vocal enthusiasts, his projects indeed lived up to the album title he employs here. While this collection probably won't be an essential part of the Benson enthusiast's library, it's fun to see him trying to stay in the post-millennial urban groove hip with some of the younger generation's top songwriter/producers like Joshua Thompson (who's produced for O-Town, Aretha Franklin, and Babyface) and Joe. Those who wish he'd remember his prowess as a jazz guitarist have to content themselves with its general background capacity behind pleasant romantic vocal textures and easy grooving hip-hop shuffle grooves. Fortunately, Benson's in particularly fine voice, and most of the hooks are catchy from the get go…

Having spent much of his childhood in Latvia, where he also began his violin studies, Vadim Gluzman makes a return to his roots with this disc of music by Peteris Vasks. The ample programme (+ 84 minutes!) opens with the violin concerto ‘Distant Light’, which in the two decades since it was composed has become a modern classic. The composer has described it as ‘a song, coming from silence and floating away into silence, full of idealism and love, at times melancholy, at times dramatic.’ For the concerto, Gluzman found support from the strings of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu, just across the Baltic See from Latvia. For the other works on the disc he is however joined by Latvian colleagues and friends. These include the violinist Sandis Šteinbergs who appears in the duo Summer Dances, one of Vasks’ more carefree and buoyant pieces. This recent work in seven brief movements is, in the composer’s own words, the musical equivalent of a naïvist painting. In comparison, the Piano Quartet from 2001 is one of his longest and most imposing chamber works. Beginning with a perfect fifth in the piano, it takes the listener on an emotional roller-coaster, through hectic dances and dramatic songs to a typical ‘Vasks ending’ with a distant light offering a tempered hope. In the quartet, Vadim Gluzman leads an ensemble consisting of Ilze Klava, Reinis Birznieks, and Angela Yoffe.

LUCA STRICAGNOLI: Born and raised in Italy, is an acoustic guitarist known for his unique style and innovative playing techniques. His original approach to music has led him to a variety of successes from obtaining over 100 million views on his music videos to having the opportunity to perform all around the globe.Using up to five guitars in the same piece, modified capos, and self-conceived stratagems, continually leaving his audiences in awe. In addition to his musical abilities, Luca brings an enthusiastic energy to the stage that attracts concert requests from every corner of the world.His music has been featured in countless magazines and TV channels and has grabbed the attention of world-famous artists such as the bands “Red Hot Chili Peppers” and “Walk Off The Earth”.

Nominated for PROG magazine's Limelight award for best new band, cinematic New York-based prog rockers Circuline have managed to gather an impressive all-star line-up of SEVEN guest guitarists on their latest release "Counterpoint", including members of Enchant, Happy the Man, Renaissance, and Sound of Contact. Circuline performed at the 13th International Rites of Spring festival (RoSfest), Philadelphia's Liberty Music Fest, Chicago's Progtoberfest, New Jersey's ProgStock, and has toured England opening for IO Earth.

The official CD reissue of the classic '90s Capitol Records album featuring performances by Lucinda Williams, P. F. Sloan, Susan Cowsill, Richie Furay, Percy Sledge, Gene Clark and more. True Voices is an album of songs by iconoclastic songwriters performed by iconoclastic artists. This edition adds 6 performances including the newly recorded Ode To L.A. While Thinking Of Brian Jones, Deceased by Johnny Indovina of Human Drama.

Nicholas Gunn is no stranger to creating music centered around our greatest natural wonders. It’s no surprise then, that on his 20th studio recording, he finds himself immersed in the grandeur that is the great “Pacific Blue”. While a metaphor for self-discovery and exploration, Pacific Blue speaks to the life journey we all find ourselves on. Framed by several exquisite vocal performances from Alina Renae, Nicholas Gunn’s lyrical and musical style is nothing short of breathtaking, lush and exquisite. With a production value born out of 25 years of experience, this album bobs and weaves through a sonic bed of absolute clarity.

Colorado-based thrashers Havok are back! After a whirlwind yet rewarding cycle for 2017’s Conformicide effort, the high-octane outfit have emerged from the studio victorious with their new album, V. Engineered, mixed, mastered by Mark Lewis (Cannibal Corpse, The Black Dahlia Murder, etc.) and showcasing stunning artwork by Eliran Kantor (Testament, Hatebreed, etc.), V will be released worldwide on May 1, 2020 via Century Media Records. Havok’s guitarist/vocalist David Sanchez explains about V: "A lot of experimentation went into the writing and recording of ‘V.’ The album offers the same intensity that we’re known for, but with a few twists that may surprise people. The music is dense with lots of different intertwining parts and we’re beyond excited to release our best-sounding record to date."

Polish death metal metallers VADER will release their 16th studio album, "Solitude In Madness", on May 1 via Nuclear Blast. For "Solitude In Madness", VADER went outside its comfort zone to Grindstone Studios in Suffolk, England, where the band teamed up with one-stop shop Scott Atkins to engineer, produce, mix, and master for four weeks in summer 2019. The album artwork was created by Wes Benscoter (AUTOPSY, CATTLE DECAPITATION).

With Here And Now, the high energy songwriter/superstar delivers 12 tracks that lift up, inspire, acknowledge and validate people right where they are. Long on passion, joy, introspection and love, it's Kenny Chesney's way to help you check in with your world, find grace where you are and annex the No Shoes Nation state of mind any time, anywhere.

Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley was overshadowed by more influential tenors such as Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane during his career, but although he wasn't deliberately flashy or particularly innovative, his concisely measured, round sax tone made him the perfect ensemble player and he was a fine writer, as well, a talent who has often been undervalued and overlooked. The Peckin' Time session was recorded February 9, 1958 (the LP was issued a year later) and came in the midst of what was a period of whirlwind creativity for Mobley, who recorded work for the Savoy and Prestige imprints as well as six full albums for Blue Note (two were never released - it was not that uncommon for Blue Note to stockpile sessions at the time) in a little more than a year's time (later Blue Note albums like Soul Station and Roll Call were still well in the future)…

Composer Dudley Simpson's first contribution to Doctor Who was his music for Planet of Giants (starring William Hartnell as the first Doctor) in 1964. By the end of the 1960s he was the programme's "go to" composer, scoring a total of 294 episodes up until his last, The Horns of Nimon, in 1979. Looking purely at the 1970s, encompassing the episodes starring Jon Pertwee as the third Doctor and Tom Baker as the fourth (seasons 7 to 17) there were 58 stories over 272 episodes, with Dudley scoring 51 (234 episodes). An amazing body of work; and that's just Doctor Who, let alone Blake's Seven, Moonbase 3, Target, Paul Temple, The Tomorrow People, The Brothers and many, many more. He started that period on Doctor Who using a very small orchestra, moved into working entirely at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop on EMS synthesisers for a year (assisted by Brian Hodgson), then added percussion, then back to a small band with Radiophonic synth overdubs, until his final few episodes where the synth became part of the band. It is a shame therefore that only two complete scores from this era survive. One is The Mind of Evil, one of those EMS scores from 1971; the other is the one is this release, The Sun Makers from 1977.Dudley Simpson died on 4th November 2017, aged 95.

Disen Gage is a unique mixture of various genres of instrumental music, including progressive, fusion, world music, psychedelic and improvised spots. Formed in 1999, the duo-guitar quartet (Yuri Alaverdyan and Konstantin Mochalov - guitars, Nikolay Syrtsev - bass and later Eugeniy Kudryashov - drums) gained popularity in intellectual and student's communities. Being busy with their academic career in the Moscow Institute of Bio-Organic Chemistry, the band members decided to stop their musical activity. Using rare chances, they managed to arrange few late-night sessions in 2002 in a studio to record a farewell cassette for their friends and fans (later Yuri has left the band to continue his academic career). To their luck, this material was remastered and released in 2004 by R.A.I.G. as Disen Gage's debut album. It was an exciting CD for many progzines and progfans all over the world, musically compared with King Crimson, Djam Karet…