Gianandrea Gavazzeni is regarded as one of the greatest Italian opera conductors after De Sabata. He was La Scala’s Musical Director from 1961-1968. In this 1981 production of Verdi’s Luisa Miller, Gavazzeni worked closely with a cast of young singers to present the opera in a new light.

This 58th volume of the Romantic Piano Concerto series presents two composer-pianists who contributed to Liszt’s piano extravaganza Hexaméron (1837). Thalberg (who would be celebrating his 200th birthday in 2012) famously took part in a pianistic ‘duel’ with Liszt, and was popularly acclaimed as the greatest pianist in the world during his lifetime. He only wrote one piano concerto, and that in his teens, but it is a brilliantly effective showpiece for virtuosity and stamina, the pianist’s hands barely leaving the piano. Johann Peter Pixis has now been consigned—perhaps unfairly—to the oblivion where so many early 19th-century composers dwell. These are world premiere recordings of his charming Piano Concerto and Piano Concertino.

Bartók Bound (Vol. 2): String Quartets 3, 5 & 6 - The music of Béla Bartók has everything: the mysterious tension of a thriller, loving lyricism, warm string sounds, almost impossible techniques challenging any string player to rediscover his instrument, and exhilarating rhythms which could well be rooted in folk dance. With the second volume of Bartók Bound, Ragazze Quartet complete their string quartet cycle.

Hank Crawford's Indigo Blue was released in August of 1983, less than a year after his excellent comeback set, Midnight Ramble, and proves that his renewed sense of creativity was no fluke. Here he teams once more with Dr. John on piano and organ and drummer Bernard Purdie. Melvin Sparks took over the guitar chair from Calvin Newborn, and Wilber Bascombe, Jr. holds down the rhythm section on bass. In addition, a horn section that includes David "Fathead" Newman, Danny Moore, Howard Johnson, and Martin Banks, arranged by Crawford, follows the same recipe as Midnight Ramble. The performances here are solid, truly impressive. Crawford plays sweet and slow as well as honking mean in getting at the root source of straight-ahead jazz and soul-jazz: the blues…

Although Jane's Addiction's 1987 self-titled debut was an intriguing release (few alternative bands at the time had the courage to mix modern rock, prog rock, and heavy metal together), it paled in comparison to their now classic major-label release one year later, Nothing's Shocking. Produced by Dave Jerden and Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell, the album was more focused and packed more of a sonic wallop than its predecessor; the fiery performances often create an amazing sense that it could all fall apart at any second, creating a fantastic musical tension. Such tracks as "Up the Beach," "Ocean Size," and one of alt-rock's greatest anthems, "Mountain Song," contain the spaciousness created by the band's two biggest influences, Led Zeppelin and the Cure…

Chris Smither spent a fair chunk of time in the mid-2010s looking back, culminating in Still on the Levee, a two-disc set from 2014 that found the singer/songwriter revisiting songs he recorded in the past. Arriving four years later, Call Me Lucky functions as something of an answer to that aesthetic, finding the singer/songwriter living squarely in the present. He opens the album with the lively blues shuffle "The Blame's on Me," which is quickly followed by a minor-key rendition of Chuck Berry's "Maybellene," and he effectively sets the pace for the rest of the album. As Call Me Lucky rolls on – the album proper is ten tracks, but there are six additional "B-Sides" featuring alternate takes of songs on the album, plus an introspective version of the Beatles' "She Said She Said" – Smither adds some slower, gentler touches (highlighted by the lovely "By the Numbers"), but he retains this same sense of immediacy. By playing so directly and simply – the album isn't unadorned, there are additional harmonies and guitars, yet it feels like it is – Chris Smither creates a bracing, intimate record, one that feels filled with earned truths.

Nina Simone's live performances have a power and an intimacy all their own, and those qualities stand out in this recording from Vine Street. It's a stunning form of cabaret singing, dramatic without melodrama, and with roots that reach to Billie Holiday's surprising success with "Strange Fruit." Simone can add profundity to a usually carefree song like "My Baby Just Cares for Me," and the range of the performance broadens with the startling "Be My Husband," a simple pattern reduced to the naked force of a field holler, and the stark hymn "Balm in Gilead." Carefully chosen songs from Randy Newman, Bob Dylan, and Janis Ian achieve new dimensions in Simone's treatments. Her own deeply felt "Four Women" and "Mississippi Goddam" are potent and enduring protests. There's some effectively spare accompaniment from guitar, bass, and drums, but Simone's piano is the essential instrumental voice, from slow barrelhouse to Bach.

This release is an important milestone in the collaboration between the Finnish composer and pianist Olli Mustonen and the Norwegian string quartet Engegård Quartet.

Debut album for Ying Li, winner of the first edition of the Antonio Mormone International Prize in 2021 after having also established herself at the Young Concert Artist Auditions in New York and at the Concours Musical International de Montréal as a finalist.

Great symphonic rock featuring mellotron and flute, excellent keyboard playing and a fine guitar, no weak passages. Three of the six tracks are instrumentals. In his book "Cosmic dreams at play" (Glasgow 1996), the Norwegian Dag Erik Asbjørnsen lists "Point of eruption" among the ten best Krautrock LPs of all time, and quite rightly so. The only drawback is its short playing time. It’s a pity that this is the only work the band from Werne an der Lippe, at the north-eastern edge of the Ruhr Area, has ever released. With 28-page coloured booklet.