For some reason, there still isn't a truly comprehensive single-disc War collection on the market. Rhino's Grooves and Messages easily comes the closest, although its unnecessary remix disc kicks up the price a bit (and one could argue about a couple of omissions in favor of latter-day tracks). That makes Rhino's own double-disc Anthology (1970-1994) even more valuable – it might be too much for casual fans who just want War's biggest hits, but there's absolutely nothing missing here. All the hits are included, of course, as well as some overlooked singles and fine album tracks; plus, Anthology does fans a service by gathering the highlights from their uneven later work, which is more disco-tinged and less distinctive. A concise overview this is not; what Anthology illustrates instead is the full scope of War's versatility, and their loping, easygoing way with a groove.

Over the course of the last 12 years Simon Preston has been recording Bach’s organ music for DG, and while some of these discs have been released individually during that time, many are appearing here for the first time. More than that, some of the earlier recordings have been rejected in favour of more recent ones: I’m glad that his 1992 recording of the ‘Schubler’ Chorales (6/92) has been substituted by an altogether more relaxed and elegant version, recorded in late 1999, in which he not only seems more in sympathy with the music but also feels less inclined to treat it as the latest Olympic athletics event; BWV645 takes the best part of a minute longer in this new recording and benefits enormously from it. A total of 10 organs has been used (every one, as they say, a winner) and the booklet includes adequate historic information, specifications and photographs (although none of Preston’s registrations is detailed), as well as brief, rather basic notes and a somewhat superficial interview with Preston himself.

The complete edition of Robert Schumann's symphonic works with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne under Heinz Holliger is now available as a 6 album set.

Joe Hisaishi conducts Beethoven. Featuring Symphony No. 1 to 9 on five discs. Performed by the Future Orchestra Classics (Nagano Chamber Orchestra)

For "La forza del destino", Verdi created one of his most famous melodies, the "fate" motif that permeates the whole of the score. Music and action alternate in masterly fashion between large-scale crowd scenes and intimate interiority, in that way illustrating Verdi's real theme: the manner in which fallible human beings are destroyed by a cruel fate.

Yeah, yeah, “A Thousand Miles”—that was nearly two decades ago. (And it still bangs.) And if you haven’t been paying attention since, you might be surprised by the elegant and often idiosyncratic folk-pop that Carlton’s been putting out over the years. Produced by Dave Fridmann, who’s worked with bands from Sleater-Kinney to MGMT, the songwriter’s sixth album is full of strange little twists and turns—more Dirty Projectors than Top 40 radio. Take the cavernous title track, backed by gentle synth arpeggios and sampled rainfall, or the psychedelic fuzz of “I Can’t Stay the Same,” an ode to evolution.

Mike Mattison is a roots singer and songwriter best-known for his work in the Derek Trucks Band, Scrapomatic, and the Tedeschi Trucks Band. With both DTB and TTB he won a Grammy for Best Blues Album. The TTB has also won five Blues Music Awards from the Blues Music Foundation and two Canadian Maple Blues Awards.

The Tokyo Quartet became one of the most prominent string quartets in the world and continues a reputation for insightful interpretations.

The Tokyo quartet plays with very much sense of the architecture of the music. If you like your Beethoven played with restraint, refinement, sense of the interior drama of the music, this is it. The Tokyo quartet is never over-dramatizing, but let the music speak for itself.

Emotions in Motion, the excellent follow-up to Billy Squier's sophomore outing Don't Say No, saw Squier rise from theater headliner to bona fide arena rock sensation by delivering his most consistent solo record to date…

A collection with songs from the sixties to the eighties.
"De Pre Historie Oldies Collection" based on the BRT TV- and radio shows "De Pre Historie". Each CD includes songs from one particular year, this lot includes the years 1961 until 1989. With songs from Nat King Cole Frankie Laine, Ray Charles, The Platters Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry, Cher, Tom Jones, The Bee Gees, Roxy Music, Abba, Queen, David Bowie and many more.

Any Italian progressive rock passionate listener knows Locanda delle Fate very well, especially for their 1977 masterpiece "Forse le lucciole non si amano più". Among the main songwriters of the band and of their unmatched first LP there was a then very young Michele Conta, a piano student at the conservatory of Alessandria.