Music can be a powerful therapeutic tool and it has been shown to bring about positive emotional changes and reduce anxiety. For cancer patients, music and music therapy can also be used to develop positive coping skills that come with a cancer diagnosis. This album is a personal selection of works that pianist Min-Jung Kym played or listened to during her treatment. 'The power of music and what it can inspire helped me through this period of my life. I wanted to share my experience because music contains the altruistic dimension of sharing, and perhaps, as a result, others may also find it easier to cope with their cancer.' – Min-Jung Kym

Few performers are more familiar with the musical language of the French composer Olivier Messiaen than the American conductor Kent Nagano. Nagano has had Messiaen's orchestral works and oratorios in his program for several decades now, and he also participated in the world premiere of Saint François d'Assise, Messiaen's only opera. During the year 1982 Nagano spent his time with Messiaen in Paris, where not only an artistic relationship but also a close personal one developed between the two musicians.

There are any number of intriguing curios and lost treasures from the late '60s and early '70s, and Gear Fab has had a knack for finding some of the rarest and finest among them or at least ones that have retained a degree of listenability or charm but this CD is just not one of them. It's difficult to even understand what a record company might have seen in Pugsley Munion back when Just Like You was released in 1970, since it's barely more than competent. It certainly hasn't aged too gracefully. For one, it's not even a fully fleshed out album, featuring a rough mix and practice-like performances from the band. Musically, there's a little bit of excitement here and there: the good-time boogie rock and irresistible go-go bass groove of "Second Time for Me," the guitar-riff hook of "Take My Soul," and the stellar drum opening and nice guitar work of "Trouble" and "I Don't Know Who to Blame" are all proof that, with a strong vocalist and good writing, Pugsley Munion might have made some music worth remembering.

A fine companion piece to the earlier Best of My Love: The Best of the Emotions, this 13-track compilation focuses on the trio's most affecting songs of love, not only of the romantic variety but the spiritual as well. The majority of the songs are drawn from the group's mid-1970s efforts Flowers and Rejoice; the former, produced by Maurice White and the great Charles Stepney, remains the Emotions' most personal and accomplished work, a gorgeously arranged set that showcases both their solo and harmony vocals to beautifully ethereal effect.

In this project the viola da gamba links up with the bandoneon: the 17th and 20th centuries tell their stories in turn and each in its own original language and form, before finally coming together in the tonal language of the 21st century in a contemporary composition, opening up new dimensions of the age-old human theme of passion.

"Playin' Up a Storm" is the 2nd studio album by the Gregg Allman Band, released in 1977 on Capricorn Records. It peaked at #42 on the Billboard 200. "Playin' Up a Storm" came after the breakup of the Allman Brothers Band in 1976. During this time, Allman had moved to Hollywood to live with his then-wife Cher. The album was produced by Lenny Waronker, and in his memoir, My Cross to Bear, Allman remembered that Waronker was frustrated with his unpunctuality in regards to studio time. The album was released in May 1977, on Capricorn Records. Allman claimed that Phil Walden, owner of Capricorn, was incensed over his move to the West Coast to live with Cher, and only printed 50,000 copies of the LP.

Formed in London in 1969, Gospel Oak, a band of American expats (including future Kingfish leader Matthew Kelly), was unable to gig in the UK due to work permit issues, so the group focused instead on rehearsing and writing an album. Gospel Oak appeared in the autumn of 1970, by which time the band had returned to the US. A superb blend of folk, pop, blues, rock, and country influences, it has a growing cult reputation.

After having recorded Mozart’s last three violin concertos in 2014, Arabella Steinbacher, the Festival Strings Lucerne and its leader Daniel Dodds now complete the cycle by presenting Mozart’s less well-known, but equally enchanting Violin Concertos 1 & 2, together with his Adagio in E Major and Rondos in C Major and B-flat Major. Steinbacher plays the cadenzas by Wolfgang Schneiderhan, who co-founded the Festival Strings Lucerne in 1956. Another exciting aspect of this album is that she plays for the first time on the „Ex Benno Walter“ Strad from 1718. Arabella Steinbacher, a multiple award-winner with an extensive PENTATONE discography, is accompanied by the esteemed players of the Festival Strings Lucerne and their leader and artistic director Daniel Dodds.

The rules of the game were clear when the credits for the soundtrack of Aki Kaurismäki's debut film Crime and Punishment gave the names Franz Schubert, Dmitri Shostakovich, Olavi Virta, the Renegades, Harri Marstio and Billie Holiday. Dostoevskian to say the least! Added to these as Kaurismaki’s career progressed were Tchaikovsky (the Pathetique Symphony a dozen or so times!), Shostakovich, Chuck Berry, the great Estonian Georg Ots, rhythm & blues, Finnish rock’n’roll (Melrose, with Tokela in the vocal lead), Jussi Bjorling, and Toshitake Shinohara - the Japanese composer of a host of beautiful scores now settled permanently in Karkkila, home of Kaurismäki himself. Not all are familiar to a non-Finnish audience. Yet Finn and foreigner, familiar and unfamiliar are as such one seamless entity, their associations equally fascinating. The director himself says he grabs armfuls of discs off his shelf at home before setting off for the editing room.

Neil Larsen is a great keyboardist and composer and his 2 previous efforts are among the few fusion records released in the 70s that hold up after time. This was largely due to Neil's avoiding the trendy synth stuff and using a Hammond organ as his instrument of choice. His partner, guitarist, Buzz Feiten also contributed his stellar talents to these recordings to make them even more enduring. This Cd released in the late 80s suffers from some of the synth crazy sounds he had previously avoided, but still has its moments which include a searing tenor solo from Michael Brecker on "Carnival" and great playing once again from Larsen and Feiten.

One of the pioneers of the progressive rock genre. The first official rehearsal of the band was on January 13, 1969. The first line-up comprised guitarist Robert Fripp, lyricist and lighting man Peter Sinfield (who “invented” the name of the band), composer and multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, bassist and vocalist Greg Lake, and drummer Michael Giles…

"Unici" is the 13th studio album by Nek that contains 11 tracks among with the same title single and "Uno di questi giorni", out in May 2016 and was on top of all charts.

Maitena (1909) was a further step towards achieving the ideal of Basque opera linked to that of its own lyric theatre. For the critic and musicographer Francisco Gascue: “Colin has written a score that is as far from Wagnerian complications as it is from orchestral poverty; it is accessible without being poor or rudimentary. Colin has shown the same exquisite taste in the handling of the orchestra as in the choice of melodies”. He also singles out the duet between Domingo and Maitena at the beginning of Act I, the tenor and baritone duet that follows, the quartet in Scene VI, the melody sung by Chaadiñ at the beginning of Act II, Batista’s couplets and for its effect and simplicity the Angelus scene. He ends by noting the appropriate treatment of the chorus. The action tells the story of the rich farmer Piarres Landaburu, Maitena’s father, and his intention to marry her off to Ganich, a young man from a good family, rather than to an unfortunate pelotari named Domingo. Maitena, contrary to her father, marries Domingo and goes to America in search of a new life. After being widowed in Buenos Aires, she returns to her father’s home where she finds only repudiation. Maitena moves away, but her father welcomes her back into his home, favouring her marriage to Ganich and thus returning the family to live together again.

This compilation makes an excellent introduction to Taylor's iconoclastic songwriting, with music that frequently sounds like a new-wave Christian sideshow…

Performed here by pianists Jenny Lin and Adam Tendler, Liszt’s rarely heard Harmonies poétiques et religieuses is a sublime example of Liszt’s early compositions. Lin and Tendler alternate movements of this monumental piano cycle. 'We’re raised on this stuff. It’s in our bones. And now we can come at this music with a different kind of lens.' — Adam Tendler 'This is definitely a very private Liszt, one who’s retreated to his inner self.' — Jenny Lin