Continuing their explorations on Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble go even deeper into cross-cultural studies on this 2005 soundtrack album. Produced for a 10-part series on Japan's NHK television network, the CD's 15 tracks are arranged in three suites, entitled Enchantment, Origins, and New Beginnings, more reflective of inherent musical affinities than of the way the music was used in the program. The musicians tap into the variously overlapping musical styles of lands stretching from China and India to Iran and Turkey, and the arrangements by Zhao Jiping and Zhao Lin include a mix of instruments from around the world, to add greater color and sonic dimensions. The album's exotic and meditative qualities may attract fans of both international and new age music, though there is perhaps little crossover appeal for Ma's classical devotees.

‘An eagle whose wings are grown,’ according to his father Alessandro, the young Scarlatti left his native Naples for Venice, ‘escorted only by his own ability.’ By his early 20s he had already held audiences in thrall with an ability at the harpsichord which was deemed almost supernatural. There is assuredly the most prodigal imagination at work, as well as an extraordinarily sophisticated keyboard technique, in the 555 surviving keyboard sonatas which fuse Italianate cantabile and counterpoint with vivid Hispanic imagery: folksong, castanets, military trumpets and strumming guitars.

Metallica’s 12th studio album, 72 Seasons on the band’s own Blackened Recordings. Produced by Greg Fidelman with Hetfield & Ulrich and clocking in at over 77 minutes, the 12-track album is the band’s first full-length collection of new material since 2016’s Hardwired…To Self-Destruct. Speaking on the concept of the album title, James Hetfield said: “72 Seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told ‘who we are’ by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are. I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how it affects our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”

27-song set. Tour debut of “Mary’s Place”. Four songs from 2020’s Letter To You: “Ghosts,” “Letter To You,” “Last Man Standing” and “I’ll See You In My Dreams”. “Last Man Standing” features a new arrangement. “I’ll See You In My Dreams” is performed solo acoustic to end the show. One song from 2022’s Only the Strong Survive: “Nightshift” (written by Franne Golde, Dennis Lambert and Walter Orange, popularized by The Commodores). Concert stalwarts like “Because The Night,” “Dancing in the Dark,” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” are performed in tighter, shorter versions.

Three sonatas recorded by the young Yehudi Menuhin in happy times - particularly happy, as his younger sister Hephzibah is his pianist in all three. I'm not sure that he ever recorded the two beautiful Brahms sonatas again ; certainly not the Schumann, the quite unfamiliar second sonata. Its unfamiliarity is unmerited - Menuhin was bowled over by it when he came across it, and the performance is white hot, very committed though also fully under control.

Almost every story about minimal or repetitive music starts with the triumvirate Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Terry Riley. Each in their own way, paved the way for one of the most exciting and thriving movements in music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Minimal music has been an inspiration for Eric Sleichim since the 1980s. Today, BL!NDMAN's demarche towards the renewal of early music finds more than ever a connection with Reich, Glass and Riley whose works draw inspiration from the oldest polyphonic techniques.

In his newest release, cellist Bion Tsang returns to Glasgow, Scotland for his second recording with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and conductor Scott Yoo. CANTABILE, available from Universal Music Group on digital platforms tomorrow, April 14, and on CD in May 2023, features two works by Tchaikovsky, Variations on a Rococo Theme (Op. 33) and Andante Cantabile (Op. 11), and Schumann's Cello Concerto, bookended by two renditions of Pablo Casals' "Song of the Birds."

Baba Sissoko and Jean Philippe Rykiel present a national preview of a new recording entitled "Paris-Bamako Jazz". Baba Sissoko, Ngoni master, is a Griot percussionist and singer originally from Bamako (Mali), one of the greatest exponents of ethnic music and jazz in the world. Together with him, Jean Philippe Rykiel, French pianist and composer, former collaborator of Jon Hassel and Leonard Cohen, very close to African musicians of the caliber of Salif Keita, Papa Wemba and Youssou N'Dour. A deep-rooted and deep artistic connection was established between the two artists on the occasion of a first collaboration in the recording studio, a natural empathy which was then translated into a second recording work. The music of "Paris-Bamako Jazz" represents a fusion of rhythmic and harmonic interweaving of great impact.

Their tenth album with Signum Classics, the Armonico Consort, directed by Christopher Monks, return with two works by Francesco Scarlatti. This recording has been made using new editions of the works, (made especially for this recording) that follow only the autograph scores.

The "100 Years of Italian Opera" series released by Opera Rara is unique in the annals of opera recordings. However, this installment is especially exciting as it documents the evolution of Italian opera during the 1820's, the decade when romanticism truly began to come into its own on the operatic stage. Opera Rara has lovingly compiled a variety of arcana written by composers famous and forgotten. Included is everything from overtures to arias, duets, ensembles, and entire scenes.

Whether to categorize Motion as a jazz or electronica album is an intriguing conundrum, because it truly turns out to be a combination of both musical forms, and it is an unequivocally brilliant combination, at that. British arranger/programmer J. Swinscoe - who virtually is the Cinematic Orchestra - gathered samples of drum grooves, basslines, and melodies from various recordings and artists that have inspired and influenced him (spaghetti-western composer Ennio Morricone and Roy Budd's spy film scores, '60s and '70s jazz and soundtrack scores from musicians such as Elvin Jones, Eric Dolphy, Andre Previn, David Rose, and John Morris). He then presented the samples that he had collected to a group of musicians, the core of which consisted of Tom Chant (soprano sax, electric and acoustic piano), Jamie Coleman (trumpet, flugelhorn), Phil France (bass), and T. Daniel Howard (drums), to learn and then improvise…

Once again combining softened elegance with his gentlemanly approach to the simple love song, Chris de Burgh remains true to form on Quiet Revolution with polished ballads and morning-friendly, mid-tempo material. de Burgh's style hasn't strayed since "The Lady in Red" peaked at number three in 1987, and from that point on he has tried to emulate the same success with his romantic formula of ballroom-type love songs and delicate lyrics. Although Quiet Revolution offers up a handful of these, some of the other tracks exhibit punchy melodies that still display de Burgh's heartfelt voice.

Pain of Salvation has proved to be a completely unpredictable band, and it seems like they've basically been taking a 180 degrees turn with every new album for some time now. Now, after looking at the entire society, illustrated by a very modern, dark and aggressive feel of the music on Scarsick, we go on a trip all the way back to the '70s rock. Fans of 70's heavy prog with unique Gildenlöw flavoring should be sure to check this one out - just don't expect anything even remotely close to "vanilla prog metal"!
As we're used to from Pain of Salvation, the musicianship is excellent across the board. Daniel Gildenlöw's expressive vocals are at the forefront of the music, but his work on the guitar and bass shouldn't go unnoticed either…