Plácido Domingo accomplishes the rare feat of singing both lead roles on the same night in opera's most popular double-bill. James Levine conducts the tenor in Franco Zeffirelli's classic production, opposite the superb singing actors Tatiana Troyanos, Teresa Stratas, and Sherrill Milnes.

Works is a compilation album of songs by British progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in 1983. It features a variety of material, including two of the band's early singles, "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play," alternative mixes of tracks from The Dark Side of the Moon and the studio outtake "Embryo."

Jethro Tull's 11th studio album, Heavy Horses, is one of their prettier records, a veritable celebration of English folk music chock-full of gorgeous melodies, briskly played acoustic guitars and mandolins, and Ian Anderson's lilting flute backed by the group in top form. This record is a fairly close cousin to 1977's Songs from the Wood – and was ultimately the hinge-piece and first of an ecologically themed trilogy which concluded with 1979's Stormwatch – except that its songs are decidedly more passionate, delivered with a rough, robust energy that much of Tull's work since Thick as a Brick had been missing. In its lustiness it arguably surpasses even Aqualung.

Kaum ein Komponist zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts hat so viele ehrenvolle Kompositionsaufträge zu festlichen staatlichen oder gesellschaftlichen Anlässen erhalten wie der gebürtige Salzburger Sigismund Neukomm. Im zeitlichen Zusammenhang mit dem Wiener Kongress 1814/15 war er es (und nicht etwa Beethoven), der 1815 beauftragt wurde, das Requiem zum Gedenken des 1793 auf dem Schafott hingerichteten Königs Ludwig XVI. zu komponieren. Neukomm (und nicht etwa Cherubini) war ebenfalls der Verfasser des Te Deum, das 1814 in Notre Dame von Paris beim festlichen Einzug von König Ludwig XVIII. erklang.

Praetorius devoted most of his life to church music: he published more than twenty collections, mostly of settings of Lutheran chorales, and a number of others are known to have existed in manuscript. He also planned a series of collections of secular music named after the various Greek muses, including Euterpe (Italian and English dances), Thalia (toccatas and canzonas) and Erato (German secular songs). Unfortunately, in the event he managed to publish only one, Terpsichore, musarum aoniarum quinta (1612), consisting of 312 dances in four, five and six parts.

The reissue of keyboardist Claude Bolling's recordings of the 1960s may prompt a positive reevaluation of his contributions. Bolling has been known, at least outside France, mostly for the flute-and-piano works he composed for Jean-Pierre Rampal; his recordings with Rampal hit a certain popular groove and stuck with the formula. They were undeniably appealing in a simple way, but they became fatally overexposed. Bolling's earlier recordings reveal more imagination in his treatment of the relationship between jazz and classical music. Take for example this 1965 album, recorded in Paris. It's one of the few successful jazz treatments of Mozart, who is notoriously resistant to jazz treatment. The difficulty comes as a result of Mozart's reliance on harmonic rhythm, or the speed of the rate of change of the harmonies in the music. This feature seems impossible to capture in jazz, which heavily relies on regular chord changes, but Bolling's solutions here, making use of a classic jazz sextet, are brilliantly imaginative.

While the goth scene in England was picking up commercial steam in the mid-'80s, the Sisters of Mercy may have seemed quiet, but they roared back with 1987's Floodland. Opening with the driving two-part hymn "Dominion/Mother Russia," Sisters leader Andrew Eldritch (along with bassist Patricia Morrison) creates a black soundscape that is majestic and vast. While the earlier Sisters releases were noisy, sometimes harsh affairs, Floodland is filled with lush production (thanks to Meat Loaf writer/producer Jim Steinman and the New York Choral Society) and lyric imagery that is both scary and glorious. The slower tracks, like "Flood" and "1959," are some of the best ethereal sounds goth has to offer, and the downright regal "This Corrosion" is one of the best songs of the genre. A definite milestone.

What more can you ask for? Asleep at the Wheel playing on Austin City Limits running through a smoking program of rocking, strolling Western swing tunes – with special guests like Eldon Shamblin, Johnny Gimble, Leon Rausch, and Herb Remington no less. Asleep at the Wheel have performed on Austin City Limits numerous times – including the very first broadcast program back in 1976 – but this show, recorded gorgeously from 1992, is special. The bandmembers are so relaxed, open, and in the groove here that this stands out among their live recordings. It's true that the program is familiar, full of favorites and legendary swing tunes, though "Boot Scoot Boogie" by Brooks & Dunn's Ronnie Dunn is also here. Some of the standouts include "Roly Poly," "Corrine, Corrina," "Blues for Dixie," and the closing read of the Cindy Walker/Bob Wills tune "Sugar Moon."

Many so-called blues releases are actually filled with bluesy R&B, soul, pop, and rock. There is no such stylistic confusion in Sadie Mae from Nick Moss & the Flip Tops. The music is no-nonsense blues, played with spirit, drive, and swing. Most of the selections are concise, getting their message across and not overstaying their welcome. By varying tempos and moods plus including occasional instrumentals, the quintet performs enjoyable and memorable music, with an emphasis on cooking straight-ahead grooves. Lead voices are Nick Moss on guitar and vocals, harmonica player Gerry Hunot, and pianist Bob Welsh (doubling on organ), but the tight yet loose rhythm section is not to be overlooked either. This is a fun set, well worthy of several listens.

Haydn’s Seven Last Words—heard here in the composer’s own arrangement for string quartet—is simply sublime, and a fitting testimonial to the composer’s deep, enduring faith. It provides an apt and generous coupling for the two magnificent Op 77 quartets, Haydn’s final complete contribution to the string quartet genre.

Acclaimed GRAMMY-winning multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello makes her Blue Note Records debut with The Omnichord Real Book, a visionary, expansive, and deeply jazz-influenced album that marks the start of a new chapter in her career. Following her 2018 album Ventriloquism, Meshell returns with an album of new original material that taps into a broad spectrum of her musical roots. The Omnichord Real Book was produced by Josh Johnson and features a wide range of guest artists including Jason Moran, Ambrose Akinmusire, Joel Ross, Jeff Parker, Brandee Younger, Julius Rodriguez, Mark Guiliana, Cory Henry, Joan As Police Woman, Thandiswa, and others.

With Uma Elmo, his fifth album as a leader for ECM, Danish guitarist Jakob Bro presents a new trio featuring Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen and Spanish drummer Jorge Rossy. Astonishingly, given the trio’s musical synergy, the first time these three musicians ever performed together was for the album’s sessions at the Swiss Radio studio in Lugano, with ECM founder Manfred Eicher producing. Uma Elmo reaffirms the observation about Bro’s work by London Jazz News that “there is no hurry to this music, but there is great depth.” Among the album’s highlights is opener “Reconstructing a Dream,” a darkly lyrical reverie.

Alhaji Waziri Oshomah, “the greatest entertainer in all of Edo State”, delivers a joyful sermon of Muslim Highlife on the same Luaka Bop series that gave us The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane.