Shocking Blue was a Dutch rock band formed in The Hague in 1967. The band spawned a number of psychedelic rock hits throughout the counterculture movements era during the 1960s and early 1970s, including "Never Marry a Railroad Man", "Mighty Joe", "Love Buzz", "Blossom Lady", "Inkpot" and "Venus". The latter became their biggest hit and went to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and many other countries during 1969 and 1970. The band had sold 13.5 million records by 1973 but disbanded in 1974, during the final years of the hippie, flower power and other counterculture movements around the world.

This marriage of four players with impressive pedigrees proved to be the success story of 1982 when Asia's debut lodged itself at the top of the U.S. album charts for two months. The album spawned a massive number four single in "Heat of the Moment," a follow-up Top 20 hit in the sweeping "Only Time Will Tell," and a handful of other tracks that received heavy radio play despite going against the grain of the new wave styling of the day. Produced by Mike Stone, Asia's strengths were the powerful vocals of John Wetton, the nimble, classically tinged guitar work of Steve Howe, Geoffrey Downes' majestic keyboard playing, and anchoring the band, Carl Palmer's propulsive drumming. The lyrics are overwrought at moments, but there's no denying the epic grandeur of the music, which provided some much-needed muscle to radio at the time, and did so with style.

Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhaus Orchestra complete their cycle of Schumann s four symphonies, presented together in a specially-priced 2-CD set. The Gewandhaus Orchestra under it s Music Director Riccardo Chailly brings generations of authentic romantic style to performances of all four Schumann symphonies. These symphonies, recorded in the wonderful acoustic of the Gewandhaus itself, include the revisions made by the composer Gustav Mahler a lifelong supporter of Schumann and his symphonic writings.

Deep Purple were bombastic as hell, but as a template for the next wave of hard rock bands, the group did a pretty good job of showing how it’s done, picking just the right song to cover and also writing one or two rock classics like “Smoke on the Water” to give it all credence. This two-disc set collects all the band’s singles and EPs released between 1968 and 1980, and while it thins out considerably toward the end of that run, the quality here is revealing – this band clearly bridges the British Invasion era with the harder-edged commercial rock era that came later.

Rather than opt for superficial barnstorming, Yefim Bronfman and David Zinman offer us a discreet, subtly voiced and above all durable Emperor, a version that I’ve already listened to a number of times with increasing musical dividends. Bronfman plays with a light, precise though never brittle touch, always phrasing elegantly and dipping his tone whenever important instrumental lines need to be heard. A good sampling-point arrives at around 7'10" into the opening Allegro, where clearly audible rising string figurations (the cellos) busy away beneath the solo line; then a couple of minutes further on, note how the woodwind lines descend while lightly bowed strings scurry upwards.

Following young pianist Leonie Karatas’ debut CD "La Vita", her second album “Suspense” is dedicated to the great composers of the Romantic period: Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt. Schubert's last piano sonata is considered to have paved the way to the High Romantic full stop, and in combination with Liszt's most important piano sonata as the virtuoso climax of the Romantic piano literature, this piano concerto offers a musical treat.

Hindsight is a set of unplugged re-recordings of Anathema's own songs from their latter-day, atmospheric period. The band has been increasing the emphasis on acoustic instrumentation ever since they turned away from their doom-death roots, and so the idea of Hindsight seems to have been almost unavoidable. Thankfully, however, unlike most unplugged albums, this one was done in the studio, with obvious care taken to transmit the songs in a new format, as opposed to simply plugging off the distortion pedal and plucking away at the same chords. The songs have been rearranged for an acoustic guitar, piano, and cello, and are barely recognizable, except for the vocals - Vincent Cavanagh's moan is as sad and dejected as ever - and for the parts that were acoustic to begin with, such as most of "Inner Silence"…