Two of today’s most brilliant tenors, Michael Spyres and Lawrence Brownlee, strike sparks off each other as they celebrate the star tenors of Rossini’s time, such as Andrea Nozzari, Giovanni David, and Manuel García. Amici e Rivali – ‘Friends and Rivals’ – comprises arias, duets and trios from seven of the composer’s operas, including the ever-popular Il barbiere di Siviglia and the rarely heard Ricciardo e Zoraide. The ‘duelling tenors’ are joined by the effervescent Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, the prize-winning young Spanish tenor Xabier Anduaga, I Virtuosi Italiani and conductor Corrado Rovaris.

S.​Mikorey in FonoForum 9/84:"Das Resul- tat begeistert.​Und das selbstverständlich nicht nur hinsichtlich der überraschend gu- ten Aufnahmetechnik,dem klar aufgeschlüs- selten und doch voluminösen Klangbild,son- dern vor allem in bezug auf den interpreta- torischen Rang.​ .​.​Eine sehr persöhnliche, hochdramatisch zugespitzte Auslegung.​"

Back in the '70s, both Pat Travers and Carmine Appice were responsible for laying down the boogie – Travers as a leader of the Pat Travers Band, and Appice as a member of Cactus and Beck Bogert & Appice. Fast forward three decades later, and the duo has decided to combine their talents (along with session pro bassist T.M. Stevens), as Travers & Appice. Touring in support of a debut album with the title of It Takes a Lot of Balls, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that their shows were rift with testosterone-heavy rock (but with a bluesy feel). Less than a year after the arrival of their debut comes a concert set, 2005's Live at the House of Blues.

Amongst the treasures of volume two you will find a little gem called The Kremlin. First movement, guts. Second movement, quiet introspection. Third movement, glory. It has it all. It may not be quite as extroverted as, say, Capriccio Espagnol, but it definitely has backbone and bottom, as Chief Whip Francis Urquhart would say. And that’s more than a lot of music has. Certainly more than you’d think Glazunov to have, if you listen to the “conventional wisdom.” Conventional nonsense, more like. (People say Ravel was a master of orchestral color—well, just listen to the tolling-bell effect in the second movement and tell me Glazunov wasn’t a genius of orchestration!) This is perhaps the last of the great 19th century Russian musical postcards and a very fitting end to the tradition. Out with a bang, not with a whimper.

Timothy Ridout gives us the opportunity to discover the splendid viola version of Elgar’s famous Cello Concerto – an arrangement approved by the composer, who conducted its premiere in 1930. In addition to this deeply moving work, he gives us a powerful, poetic reading of Bloch’s all too rarely performed Suite for Viola and Orchestra, in which the Swiss composer indulged his fascination with the Orient.

Having played straightforward hard rock with Mr. Big since the tail end of the '80s, bass virtuoso Billy Sheehan formed Niacin as an outlet for his jazz fusion and prog rock inclinations during the mid-'90s. The trio also featured keyboardist John Novello and drummer Dennis Chambers, both musicians who had crossed frequently between the worlds of jazz and rock during their careers. With Niacin, Novello devoted himself especially to the Hammond B-3 organ, a longtime mainstay of both jazz and prog rock.

You'd get differing answers to the question of whether John Adams is America's greatest living composer, but he's the one to whom the country turned in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The demand for new work from him has only increased since he achieved senior citizen status. Fortunately, he's been able to meet that demand with distinctive large-scale works. Consider 2016's Scheherazade.2, recorded here by the violinist who premiered the work, Leila Josefowicz, with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under David Robertson. The piece succeeds on several levels. It is, outwardly, as close as Adams has come to writing a big Romantic violin concerto, and it will no doubt be welcomed into the concert repertory as such. Yet go into it more deeply, and it seems less a concerto than – well, what, exactly? Adams calls it a "dramatic symphony." English critic Nick Breckenfield has compared it to Berlioz's Harold in Italy, with the soloist representing an individual making her way through a series of adventures that may have a threatening tinge.

Imme-Jeanne Klett clearly demonstrates on this recording that one particular solo instrument had a very special place in the affections of the German baroque composer Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783): the flute. For no other instrument did he write as many concertos and chamber music works.