The Brazilian pianist, Jean Louis Steuerman, was born in into a musical family. He began his studies at the age of four and made his debut with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra when he was just fourteen (Rio de Janero, September 15, 1963). He first came to Europe after winning a scholarship to the Naples Conservatory in 1967. In 1972 he won the 2nd Prize at the J.S. Bach Competition in Leipzig and quickly gained recognition throughout Europe as a soloist and recitalist.

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, possessed a panoply of talents – leading swordsman, athlete, virtuoso violinist, composer and musical director – so it is not surprising that by the standards of his age he was not especially prolific. Nevertheless, Saint-Georges’ violin concertos demonstrate a gift for writing attractive and engaging music as well as a virtuoso technique with which to dazzle audiences, not least in his own performances. Published in pairs, the concertos recorded here show his originality of expression, his command of structure and a bravura exploitation of the violin’s higher register.

Heaven & Hell was issued on Philips in 1969, on the back of an earlier single,'Tobacco Ash Sunday'. This Traffic-influenced song was written by Terry Stamp (later in Third World War and also a solo artist) and was recently covered by Paul Weller. Heaven & Hell has never officially been reissued on CD. Now Esoteric are proud to announce that the album has finally been re-mastered from the original tapes, and expanded with four mono mixes issued across two singles. For the first time, the sleeve-notes tell the story of this obscure protoprogressive rock band from Stevenage, Hertfordshire who emerged out of the remnants of the Freightliner Blues Band.

This double-CD set covers the career of the Glitter Band, who began their career as Gary Glitter's backing band and quickly made the transition to singles act to score a variety of chart hits in Europe during the mid-'70s. All of those hits, plus a copious outpouring of album tracks, B-sides, and outtakes, are represented on Solid Silver: The Ultimate Glitter Band, Vol. 1. At their best, the Glitter Band hit the same combination of pop hooks and rock attitude that typified the best glam songs: "Angel Face" mixes glam chants and a stomping beat to powerful effect and "Goodbye My Love" benefits from a dynamic guitar-driven arrangement that highlights the drama of its lyrics.

The best album of Loudon Wainwright III's career, History features a mix of the humorous and the serious, the autobiographical and the observational, the rockin' and the balladic, all wrapped up in some classy arrangements. There is a mood of personal reflection hanging over the entire proceeding, inspired by the death of Wainwright's father, a noted American writer and editor. "People in Love" kicks the whole thing off with one of Wainwright's trademark observations on the perils of love. On "Men," the singer quietly discusses the whys and wherefores of male behavior, while "The Picture" is a musical reflection on a picture of Loudon and his sister taken 40 years earlier (and reproduced inside the CD booklet).

For two consecutive years listeners to Classic FM have voted Max Bruch’s First Violin Concerto their favourite among 300 classical works. His melodies have instant appeal and it is good to see three comparative rarities on this disc. Bruch loved alto-register instruments such as the clarinet and viola, and he wrote these works in 1911 when giant leaps were taking place in the development of music, all of which he eschewed in favour of mid-19th-century Romanticism. While the clarinet rides orchestral accompaniment with no difficulty, the viola sits right in the middle and can be drowned (a hazard in performing the Double Concerto but avoided in the recording studio). The viola Romance is a gem, while the Eight Pieces are colourful and varied. All the performers do ample justice to this beautiful and unashamedly Romantic music.

Vicente Martín y Soler, nicknamed ‘the Valencian Mozart’, was as famous in his own day as his Austrian contemporary. The ‘very rare thing’ depicted in his biggest success, the opera Una cosa rara, is the combination of beauty and honesty, in the person of a charming peasant girl! The work was arranged for wind ensemble by Johann Nepomuk Wendt, and Mozart quoted from it in Don Giovanni. This programme is completed by premiere recordings of three divertimenti.

The twenty pieces comprising the musical collection in the Codex Trujillo del Perú are an exceptional case in the history of the indigenous music of the New World. This collection of tonadas, cachuas, tonadillas, bayles, cachuytas and lanchas offers a glimpse of the repertory native to the traditions of the country, as indicated by the text of one of the cachuas sung “al uso de nuestra tierra” (“according to the customs of our land”) and in particular the songs and dances favoured by the popular classes who lived in the “Viceroyalty of Peru” at the end of the 18th century.

Originally composed for the funeral of the dauphine, Princess Marie-Anne-Christine-Victoire of Bavaria, on May 1, 1690, this remarkable setting of Dies irae was revised in 1711, either because of the dauphin's death, or that of Lalande's two daughters, both distinguished sopranos ; all died from smallpox within a period of six weeks. Lully's setting of Dies irae, for the death of the queen in 1683, had shown the possibilities of this text as a grand motet for soloists, choirs and orchestra. But it was Lalande, seven years later, who developed the concept, and produced a much more striking result - perhaps the first setting of Dies irae in the history of music where the composer exploited in such dramatic style the contrasts inherent in the 18 rhyming stanzas and final couplet of this 13th-century poem.

2008 digitally remastered two CD set containing a pair of albums from Felix Cavaliere and The Rascals: Peaceful World (1971) and Island of Real (1972), both originally released on Columbia Records. These recordings, sadly, were to prove the last for the band, though founder Felix Cavaliere went on to a solo career. Comes housed in a slipcase with extensive liner notes.
What's remarkable about both these recordings is how far ahead of their time they were. Cavaliere had become deeply interested in the writings and teachings of the great Sufi master musician Hazrat Inayat Khan, who - through his own tradition - looked at music holistically, as an integral part of earthly and spiritual life. He also came under the sway of the emerging sounds of jazz, gospel, and the emerging uptownfunk and soul of the period…

Don Ellis' Orchestra is heard at the peak of its powers on this Columbia LP. "Pussy Wiggle Stomp," a variation on "My dad's better than your dad" but performed in 7/4 time, became the band's theme song, and it has its riotous moments. The 19-and-a-half minute, six-part "Variations for Trumpet" is a major showcase for Ellis, "Scratt and Fluggs" is a brief bit of silliness, and the relatively straightforward "K.C. Blues" features altoist Frank Strozier, John Klemmer on tenor, and keyboardist Pete Robinson. However it is the 17-and-a-half minute "Indian Lady" (a live remake) that really finds the band going crazy. Ellis, trombonist Glen Ferris, and keyboardist Robinson play humorous solos before tenors John Klemmer and Sam Falzone engage in a long and nutty tradeoff that is often quite hilarious. The many false endings at the end of this performance add to the general atmosphere. This is a classic release.