Some 13 years into his recording career, jazz pianist extraordinaire Bill Charlap's first live album is, perhaps, his most exquisite release to date. While virtually all of his studio albums more than adequately showcase Charlap's virtuosity, good taste, and ceaseless imagination at the keys, it took the spontaneity of the live performance - at New York's fabled Village Vanguard - to give the first true indication of just what Charlap is capable of creating on the fly. The pinpoint accuracy and sophistication of his solos, whether at breakneck speed or in a ballad setting, are a marvel. Charlap's concentration never strays, and although he feels no compunction to strut, he lets it be known with each passage that he's among the most gifted pianists in jazz today…

Grand Stand from Sweden made two albums and then gone into oblivion. Sad, because, those two albums are really excellent, special the second offer from 2002 named "Tricks of Time". Complicated symphonic prog, with nods towards Genesis, Camel, The Flower Kings and alike.
The album opens with "Jurassic Spark" a song about paranoia. Things get off on the right foot with a 1 minute intro of soaring guitar before the drums and keys come in. Next are the vocals that are well done in this uptempo tune. Some scorching guitar after 4 minutes, and the full sound is beautiful…

Sublime musical expression does not necessarily proceed from serene spirits whose philosophical loftiness leaves them unmoved by the push and shove of the marketplace. Prefaces to printed editions of music in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries seldom reveal much of the personality behind the writer's effusive urge to prostrate himself before the dedicatee and his invocations to the muses to make worthy his humble efforts. Robert Jones, Tobias Hume and John Dowland were exceptions in this regard and often used their printed prefaces as a platform for polemics, self-defence and bile. In so doing they illumine the contemporary pressures of public opinion and changing fashions, as well as highly individual — not to say curmudgeonly — natures.

Emma Kirkby, doyenne of the Early Music scene, here shows that she's just as comfortable in music of a more recent vintage. Amy Beach was a woman ahead of her time, performing as solo pianist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra by the age of 18. The same year (1885), she married Henry Beach and, no longer able to perform publicly (it would have gone against her social status), she instead settled down to composing. And delightful stuff it is, too, as Kirkby and friends demonstrate in this charming recital. A number of the songs add violin, cello, or both to the piano and voice combination. "Ecstasy," for instance, has a most effective violin part that is an ideal foil to the purity of Kirkby's voice. Other highlights include the Schumannesque Browning Songs and the amiable Shakespeare Songs (the last of which, "Fairy Lullaby," is irresistible). The final item here, "Elle et moi," is an upbeat little number that suits Kirkby's lithe soprano to perfection. Occasionally, in some of the more lushly textured songs, such as "A Mirage" and "Stella Viatoris," perhaps a fuller voice would have been preferable, but then sample "Chanson d'amour" (written when Beach was only 21 and with a wonderful cello part in addition to the piano) and try to imagine it being better sung. The purely instrumental items are played with unfailing sensitivity and elegance. The Romance is straight out of the salon, while the much later Piano Trio (though actually based on early material) packs plenty of emotion and variety into its 14 minutes. The recording is exemplary, as are the concise notes and texts and translations.

The Soundboard Series is a live box set recorded and released by the band Deep Purple in 2001. This 12 CD set includes 6 full length concerts from the March 2001 Deep Purple Australasian tour, recorded directly from the soundboard in either DAT or multi track formats…

With their British Invasion style of rock, New Jersey's the Smithereens weren't exactly in step with the musical landscape of the mid- to late '80s. It didn't stop the quartet from being critical darlings and perennial candidates to break through to a wider audience. Blown to Smithereens gathers together ample evidence that the attention was more than merited. There's nary a weak moment on this collection, which includes all of the band's best-known songs and radio hits…

Fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout continues his multi-disc survey of Mozart's music for solo keyboard with volume seven of the series. The first six have been met with the universal critical acclaim from around the world. This program of this release explores the elegance and drama that are ever-present in Mozart's music. Most notably, Bezuidenhout performs two works influenced by the composer's 1778 stay in Paris - the grandly proportioned Sonata in A minor, K.310 and the dazzling Variations in C on ''Lison dormait'' K.264.

For many years now, I have been playing piano transcriptions in my recitals, and the programme on this disc was originally devised for my concert at the Valletta Baroque Music Festival in Malta in January 2020. I have special affinity with many of the pieces, but here I will share just a couple. One is my own transcription of the aria “Erbarme Dich, mein Gott”, which I first performed at a Preface concert entitled “Homage to Toru Takemitsu”. As I explained on that occasion, Takemitsu loved this aria; he would play it every time he set to work on a new composition, and also by chance he heard this piece on the radio the day before he died. The other piece that is close to my heart is the Passacaglia and Fugue in Eugen d’Albert’s transcription, which I played when I collaborated with Mathieu Ganio, danseur étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet. Until then, Mathieu was mostly cast as a prince, but in this project, he took on a new challenge to perform a one-man play. I still remember vividly how he appeared on stage with this music, naked down to the waist, like the image of Christ on the way towards his crucifixion.

SOMM Recordings announces Volume 2 of its revelatory survey of One Hundred Years of British Song with tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Nathan Williamson.

This series marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Anton Bruckner, which falls in 2024. It's dedicated to Bruckner’s symphonies, all recorded in new transcriptions for organ by Hansjörg Albrecht. This first recording in the 10-volume edition is performed on the impressive Bruckner organ of the St. Florian Collegiate Church in Linz, Austria. A bonus track on each volume will be a brand new composition for organ that references Bruckner the composer. Two or three volumes will be released each year, with the project reaching its conclusion in 2024. So, stay tuned.

Grammy-nominated, award-winning (Gold Medal at the Global Music Awards in 2017 and 2018), a concert violinist since the age of 4, and hailed by American Record Guide as “marvelous in the tradition of Heifetz”, Elmira Darvarova caused a sensation, becoming the first ever (and so far only) woman-concertmaster in the history of the Metropolitan Opera. With the MET Orchestra she toured Europe, Japan and the United States, and was heard on the MET's live weekly international radio broadcasts, television broadcasts and CDs for Sony, Deutsche Grammophon and EMI. As concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera she has performed with the greatest conductors of our time, including the legendary Carlos Kleiber. She performs with the New York Piano Quartet, the Delphinium Trio, the Quinteto del Fuego, the Amram Ensemble, and in a duo with Fernando Otero.

Liv Kristine Espenæs (born 14 February 1976) is a Norwegian singer who has performed and composed songs mostly for various subgenres of heavy metal music. She started her career in the music industry as a vocalist for the gothic metal band Theatre of Tragedy, and is the former lead vocalist for the symphonic metal band Leaves' Eyes…