Born in Almeria, Julián Arcas was famous as a flamenco guitarist. At the height of his career he travelled widely, including, in 1862, to Brighton, where he played for the British royal family. In later years he retired from concert life, collaborating with Antonio Torres in Almeria in the development of the guitar.

Called the Latin Lully"(whose worthy successor he was for 43 years under Louis XIV and Louis XV), Delalande took the "grand motet" practised at Versailles to the peak of its glory and its popularity. The Te Deum of 1684 is the epitome of his achievement in the genre, and it was organised, composed, and performed with the care reserved for true masterpieces. The listener will be equally astonished by the manner in which Delalande sets the words of Psalms 110 (111) and 137, whose emotional impact goes far beyond the conventions of the genre.

The fact that Beethoven was nearly thirty before he completed his First Symphony is indicative of his great respect for the genre. His careful preparations included a year of regular lessons with Haydn, the ‘father of the symphony’, as well as the composing of piano sonatas and piano trios that exhibit distinctively symphonic elements. Meanwhile he mastered the art of writing for orchestra by composing a number of concertos. As we know, these preparations paid off and the First Symphony has been part of the repertoire ever since its première in 1800. Already some years later Beethoven sketched some ideas for an orchestral work based on pastoral themes, but again he took his time in bringing them to fruition.

Urgency has been Pearl Jam's calling card since their inception, which is why it was a jolt to hear the band sound so settled on 2013's Lightning Bolt. Maybe it's the times, maybe it's the choice to switch producers – the group swapped their longtime collaborator Brendan O'Brien for Josh Evans, who co-produced the album with the band – but Gigaton hits with the strength of a full-force gale. Weather is a galvanizing concern on Gigaton, with Pearl Jam structuring their 11th album around the looming climate change crisis. There's little subtlety in this regard: the title refers to the amount of ice lost at the arctic poles, the album's cover depicts a melting glacier, and the lyrics are lousy with apocalyptic imagery, not all of it derived from the climate.

The 1999 compilation If I Could Turn Back Time concentrates on Cher's big hits of the late '80s and early '90s. There are some selections from the early '70s ("Half-Breed" and "Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves"), plus the Sonny & Cher "I Got You Babe," but the collection spends its time on the post-Moonstruck era. It does not do this badly, but it hardly results in a balanced retrospective. If that's kept in mind, this can be enjoyable – just don't think of this as definitive, though.

Call of the Mastodon collects the influential Atlanta metal band's earliest recordings. Remixed and remastered by longtime engineer Matt Washburn, five of the nine cuts, "Shadows That Move," "Welcoming War," "We Built This Come Death," "Hail to Fire," and "Battle at Sea," appeared on the group's 2001 debut EP, Lifesblood. The other four sound like they were from the same sessions, and rely heavily on the group's trademark bone-crushing rhythmic assault. Even in their formative stage, Mastodon - few groups manage to do such justice to their moniker - sound like seasoned vets, and while there may be nothing as seamless as 2004's "Blood & Thunder" or "Megalodon," Call of the Mastodon is a brutal blueprint for the group's signature Metallica-meets-grindcore mayhem.

Pelléas et Mélisande has taken it's place as one of opera's greatest masterpieces. Debussy deployed a unique style in this work, flexible and natural, never forcing the prosody of words and phrases. In this new historically informed interpretation, François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles have endeavored to do justice to this music that is at once so strong and so delicate, supported by a handpicked cast of today's finest French singers.

In the '70s, brothers Michael and Randy Brecker co-led a band of New York session big shots that included, at various times, David Sanborn, Don Grolnick, Will Lee, and George Duke, among others. When they chose to, the Brecker Brothers Band could be one of the most intelligent and creative fusion outfits. Chief composer/trumpeter Randy's best tunes were structurally unpredictable, melodically intricate, and harmonically complex, inside/out bop heads played in an impossibly precise manner over a bed of funk rhythms. Unlike the bulk of jazz-funk, the Breckers - on their first record, at least - kept the pandering to a minimum. Though it had a certain commercial appeal, 1975's Back to Back was an artistic success as well. The Brothers' music was a smart combination of extended pop forms, top-notch jazz improvisation, and sophisticated compositional techniques.

To hear bassist Kent Carter on this '84 recording is to hear the bassist in an entirely different context than anything his work with Steve Lacy and Paul Bley would belie. Always an artist with a penchant for strengthening an ensemble and its collective voice, Carter has comprised his ostensibly "solo" work of exercises and experiments documenting his search for a unified string conception in a group context. The use of overdubbed parts on everything from Ligeti-esque soundmasses to Eastern European folk explorations on his '74 Emanem recording, Beauvais Cathedral, point directly to Carter as something more than a sideman. Of late featuring Albrecht Maurer and Emmanuelle Roch on violin and viola, respectively, the Trio in this early incarnation consists of Carter, Portuguese violinist Carlos Zingaro (who has since become a mainstay of the Lisbon free music scene), and French violist Francois Dreno. One of the most noticeable things about this string configuration is the replacement of the usual cello with the bass (and Carter is an accomplished cellist as well).

The Cracow Harp Quintet, founded in 2019, consists of an unusual set of instruments: harp, flute and a string trio. As the only such professional chamber ensemble in Poland, it promotes music that has been forgotten or has not been published yet. Thanks to the joint initiative, the members of the ensemble share many years of experience of concerts, festivals and competitions in Poland and abroad.

Mozart's Piano Concerto in D Minor, K. 466, is one of only two written in the minor. The key of D minor is highly significant and underlines the tragic character of the concerto. Written in great haste and completed just a day before its premiere, Mozart played the concerto on February 11, 1785, at a subscription concert in Vienna. Mozart’s father, Leopold, wrote to his daughter Anna Maria (Nannerl) after the concert: “Then we had a new and very fine concerto by Wolfgang, that the copyist was still working on when we arrived, and the rondo of which your brother didn’t even have the time to play through, as he had to supervise the copying.”