The coupling of works by Alkan and Henselt is not as arbitrary as might appear. Born six months apart, both enjoyed long lives and died within eighteen months of each other; both have been entirely overshadowed by their more illustrious contemporaries Liszt and Chopin (to the extent that they have been assigned to the footnotes of musical history), though both had an individual approach to the piano with a style as clearly defined and as idiosyncratic as their two peers; both were recluses, rarely playing their works in public; both were transcendent technicians, exploring the potential of their instrument in ways which were to influence other pianists and composers of piano music; both were eccentrics in their personal habits and lifestyles; both have been almost universally ignored by the majority of concert pianists; and neither of their names is known to the general music-loving public.

János Kőrössy (1926-2013) was a Romanian jazz musician of Hungarian descent. He was a piano player, composer and arranger.
Kőrössy's first name is spelled in many different ways: Hansel, Jancy, Jancsy, Iancsi, Yancy and Yancey. He became a well known jazz musician in the European Eastern bloc in the 1960s, appearing at the International Jazz Festivals in Prague (1960), Warsaw (1961) and Budapest (1962). In 1969 he moved to West Germany and subsequently relocated to the United States, settling in Atlanta, Georgia. He played in Atlanta and in 1981 performed with Zoot Sims. After the Romanian Revolution, he returned to Romania, appearing in 1993 at the Costineşti and Galaţi jazz festivals and 2001 at the International Jazz Festival in Bucharest.

Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016) was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of his generation, he was known for his flamboyant, androgynous persona and wide vocal range, which included a far-reaching falsetto and high-pitched screams. Prince produced his albums himself, pioneering the Minneapolis sound. His music incorporated a wide variety of styles, including funk, R&B, rock, new wave, soul, synth-pop, pop, jazz, and hip hop. He often played most or all instruments on his recordings.

Influential South American psychedelic rock sextet Som Imaginário (Imaginary Sound) formed in 1970 as the backing band behind legendary Minas Gerais singer/songwriter/composer Milton Nascimento. Like Nascimento, the collective shared a fondness for mainstream rock & roll acts like the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, crafting sonic freestyle tapestries that had as much to do with early Pink Floyd and Miles Davis as they did with the tropicalia and MPB movement. Matanca Do Porco (their debut recording) is a not so subtle blend of all three of those sounds, chock-full of humor, super-amplified decadence, and haunting melodies…

After disbanding his group to take time off to clean up his life, Lil' Ed re-formed the Blues Imperials for this 1999 entry, his first for Alligator since What You See Is What You Get. The good news is that the time off had totally reinvigorated Ed's playing, singing, and songwriting, as he ultimately turned in a great batch of originals infused with blistering raw energy. The only non-originals out of the 14 tracks assembled here are nice takes on "Too Late" and "Pet Cream Man," both tunes written by Ed's uncle and principal inspiration, the late J.B. Hutto. Call this a comeback album if you must, but if great, raw Chicago blues is your thing, consider this one great album, period.

The music that comprises Back to the Tracks was recorded in September 1960, months after the sessions for True Blue, but it sat on the shelves until Mosaic reissued it as part of their Complete Blue Note Recordings box, even though it was penciled in for release. Like Minor Move, Tina Brooks first session that stayed unreleased for over 20 years, Back to the Tracks is an excellent hard bop set, and it's hard to understand why it wasn't released at the time. Brooks leads a fantastic band featuring alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor through three originals and two standards. Each musician has opportunity to shine, but Brooks remains the center of attention…

Most likely belonging to the fourth generation of Flemish polyphonists — that of such musicians as Adrian Willaert, Nicolas Gombert, Clemens non Papa and Cipriano de Rore — Josquin (or Johannes?) Baston was one of the many mysterious figures in sixteenth-century music history. Nothing is known about when and where he was born or died, and much uncertainty exists even about his first name. Many of his compositions appeared in printed anthologies alongside those of some of the most important musicians of the first half of the sixteenth century, such as Josquin Desprez and Orlande de Lassus. For the famous printers Tielman Susato and Pierre Phalèse to have included Baston’s works among those of such luminaries of Flemish Renaissance polyphony, they must have considered him to be an excellent composer. Whether Josquin Baston stayed in his native area, or whether he was the same person as the Joannes Baston who was active in Vienna, Poland, and Scandinavia, will remain an open question. This recording of chansons and motets by Josquin Baston explores the fascinating world of the mid-sixteenth-century Flemish style through the output of a very important though largely forgotten composer.

In celebration of Ralph Vaughan Williams's 150th anniversary celebrations in 2022, this album will give listeners a full insight into the composer's works for violin and piano, played by Midori Komachi (violin) and Simon Callaghan (piano), who are both internationally noted for their performances and research of 20th-century British music.

Mozart’s piano concertos form a set that is not just exceptional but absolutely unique in the history of music: from No. 9 to No. 27, all are definitive masterpieces. According to H.C. Robbins Landon, an eminent specialist in the composer’s life and work, ‘It is above all their immense stylistic diversity that places Mozart’s piano concertos above and beyond those of his contemporaries’. What these scores also share is their position at a crossroads for strongly impacting influences: that of the symphony, encouraging Mozart to make lavish use of the orchestra; the wind bands of the Imperial court, shaping his enhanced role for the woodwinds; and the influence of the opera, whose styles he worked into these concertos, often treating the dialogue between piano and orchestra as if they were stage characters. In this new recording, Eric Le Sage is joined by the Gävle Symfoniorkester to perform the 17th and 24th concertos for piano and orchestra by the Salzburg composer.

Specchio veneziano or the Venetian mirror – this programme compares and contrasts two composers from the city of the Doges: on the one hand the celebrated Vivaldi, on the other a virtual unknown, Giovanni Battista Reali, who was born there in 1681, three years after Vivaldi, and died in 1751, ten years after his illustrious colleague. A violinist himself, he composed trio sonatas, including a very spectacular Folia, which Théotime Langlois de Swarte, Sophie de Bardonnèche, Hanna Salzenstein and Justin Taylor juxtapose with Vivaldi’s Folia, alongside other highly virtuosic pieces, many of them complete rediscoveries, since half of this program has never been recorded before.

Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American jazz and classical music pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has also been a group leader and a solo performer in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music. His improvisations draw from the traditions of jazz and other genres, especially Western classical music, gospel, blues, and ethnic folk music. In 2003, Jarrett received the Polar Music Prize, the first recipient of both the contemporary and classical musician prizes, and in 2004 he received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize. His album, The Köln Concert, released in 1975, became the best-selling piano recording in history. In 2008, he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in the magazine's 73rd Annual Readers' Poll.

Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is a British musician, songwriter, and producer best known for his debut studio album Tubular Bells (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. He is regarded as one of the greatest multi-instrumentalists of all time. Though primarily a guitarist, Oldfield plays a range of instruments, which includes keyboards, percussion, and vocals. He has adopted a range of musical styles throughout his career, including progressive rock, world, folk, classical, electronic, ambient, and new age music.