You really must get this and all their albums (this is really their third, the first is hard to find). This latest effort captures more of their live show power…

The melodrama, a genre combining recitation with music, flourished with particular vigour at the dawn of the 20th century. By that time, it had outgrown its original 18th-century form: no longer simply alternating between music and speech, late 19th-century melodramas (and their descendants) mainly consisted of texts declaimed over a nearly continuous and elaborate musical accompaniment.

Brahms keenly sensed the shadow of Beethoven, saying “You do not know what it is like, hearing his footsteps constantly behind one.” It was this towering presence that spurred the young Brahms to master his craft and establish his voice.

Born in 2000, Swedish violinist Johan Dalene is already making an impact on the international scene. His refreshingly honest musicality, combined with an ability to engage with musicians and audiences alike, has won him many admirers. Johan began playing the violin at the age of four and made his professional concerto debut three years later. A student at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, he has also worked closely with mentors including Janine Jansen, Leif Ove Andsnes and Gidon Kremer. Johan has been a prize winner at a number of competitions, most recently the prestigious Carl Nielsen Competition at which he won First Prize.

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett sang before 2014's Cheek to Cheek – she popped up on his 2011 collection Duets II – so this standards album isn't exactly out of the blue. Furthermore, the two aren't such an odd pair…

You'd probably need a mainframe computer to keep track of all the personnel changes in Yes over the years, and the quality of the prog rock giant's music has fluctuated nearly as much as the lineups. The Ladder is a synthesis of the best traits of the experimental Fragile era and the pop-oriented 90125 era…

Riga-born Ksenija Sidorova is today one of the most eminent global ambassadors of the classical accordion. She has proudly borne the colours of her instrument in appearances in the world’s leading halls and with the foremost orchestras. Here she pays homage to Piazzolla in her own way: ‘Piazzolla the revolutionary, the ground-breaker, a man thinking ahead of his time . . . Playing this repertoire gave me a sense of artistic freedom and ignited my belief in advocacy of my instrument. For this album, I wanted to celebrate Piazzolla the innovator by pairing some his masterworks with pieces written by other composers for classical accordion, the majority of which I have premiered in recent years.

The '90s and 2000s have also seen a wave of Nordic death metal bands that are highly melodic, and Finland's Insomnium is part of that trend. The most extreme thing about Since the Day It All Came Down is the vocal style; lead singer/bassist Niilo Sevänen sings in a deep, guttural, demonic-sounding growl that exemplifies the stereotypical image of death metal singing. But other than that, this 2004 release isn't so extreme. Musically, Insomnium owes a lot to '80s power metal favorites like Queensrÿche, Iron Maiden, Savatage, and King Diamond - like those headbangers, Insomnium provides metal that is forceful yet musical and intricate - and early thrash is an influence as well. If Sevänen favored a more conventional vocal style, this CD would probably be considered power metal or thrash instead of death metal/black metal…

Babajack incorporates elements of music gathered in from Africa, Blues, Folk, Rock and beyond and then blends and distills with artful precision to create a unique sound that excites the audience as they are swept up into the whirlwind of emotions unfolding through the words and music. This is the album that capturing the very essence of the band, Babajack Live the full band plus the atmospheric cello courtesy of Julia Palmer-Price and the skillful live recording and production from Paul Long you have a live sound captured forever. The track list is a mix of songs from previous albums, the must have tracks in a Babajack set and some glimpses of future work and the promise of another studio album.

Producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, as is their wont, created a shimmering pop surface for Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' second album, Easy Pieces, sweetening the tracks with string and brass countermelodies and emphasizing the chiming highs of the guitar and keyboards for an attractive sound that echoed the earnestness of British bands like the Hollies and Herman's Hermits circa 1966. It was, of course, like sugarcoating cyanide capsules, given Cole's pleasantly sung lyrics, which detailed philosophical disillusionment, romantic discord, and, yes, at least attempted suicide. In the U.K., Easy Pieces was a Top Ten hit. But although the album saw something of a proper release in the U.S., and the Commotions toured extensively, no American breakthrough materialized.

Impressive debut recording. Meena hails from Austria. She sings without any accent. She's got plenty of feeling in her singing, she can wail, she can shout and whisper. Meena's onstage power and authentic voice have aroused interest in blues aficionados around the globe. Her approach to music is something special, powered by her desire to deliver her art. Excellent. The recordings were supervised by Jim Gaines in Memphis. Special guests: Joanne Shaw Taylor, Eric Sardinas, Erja Lyytinen, Coco Montoya, etc. Producer legend Jim Gaines (Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Lee Hooker, Santana,…) once praised Meena Cryle as „one of the best singers I`ve worked with in 20 years. She is what we call in the business an `old soul`. She`s got the voice and she`s got the passion…“

These two masterpieces are shadowed by the events of the First World War. Elgar’s Cello Concerto, an intensely poignant, reflective and individual musical statement, has enjoyed unflagging popularity among musicians and listeners for over 100 years. By contrast, Frank Bridge’s Oration (Concerto elegiaco) remained unperformed for decades after its early hearings. Yet it shares spiritual affinities with Elgar’s work and serves as a funeral address of huge solemnity and narrative power in its outcry against the futility of war.

The D. 664 sonata was written during the summer of 1819, the same period as the Trout Quintet and in the same key of A major, when Schubert was accompanied by the famous singer and devoted friend Vogl on a journey to upper Austria, Linz and then Steyr.