Most of the Cantatas in this this last but one issue of the complete Cantata work has been composed between 1730 and 1740. This volume contains - among others - the famous cantata "Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme" BWV 140, with the famous chorale "Zion hört die Wächter singen".

In the early part of his musical career, before he became one of the most revered conductors of his time, Bruno Walter saw himself as a conductor-composer much like his friend and rôle model, Gustav Mahler. His large-scale Piano Quintet, couched in the late-Romantic idiom, is a powerful expression of Walter’s consummate compositional skill. The Violin Sonata in A major, Walter’s last chamber work, offers a study in expressive contrasts, its unsettled moods reflective of the time in which it was written.

Mozart was still in nappies at the time when Haydn more or less single-handedly invented the string quartet. Nearly half a century later, as he struggled - and failed - to complete his last quartet, Beethoven was already at work on his Eroica Symphony. In the interim, Haydn wrote considerably more quartet masterpieces than Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert put together, raising the medium to a level of sophistication, subtlety and originality that provided a yardstick for all later composers. Mind you, it took him some time to get there: it isn't until the eighth CD of this set that we reach the first of the unequivocally great works, the six quartets which make up Op. 20.

Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford, Hertfordshire, in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical approach has changed over the years. Originally formed as a psychedelic rock and progressive rock band, they shifted to a heavier sound with their 1970 album Deep Purple in Rock. Deep Purple, together with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, have been referred to as the "unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal in the early to mid-seventies". They were listed in the 1975 Guinness Book of World Records as "the globe's loudest band" for a 1972 concert at London's Rainbow Theatre and have sold over 100 million albums worldwide.

A guitarist who first found fame in the progressive rock era only to later resurface as an ambient techno cult hero, Steve Hillage was born August 2, 1951. In 1967 he co-founded the group Uriel with bassist Mont Campbell, organist Dave Stewart, and drummer Clive Brooks; the unit subsequently continued on as the trio Egg upon Hillage's 1968 departure for university. He did not return to music for another three years, reuniting with Stewart in 1971 in Khan, which recorded the 1972 prog rock effort Space Shanty before soon splitting.

Released in March 1980, "Keepin' the Summer Alive" is the twenty-fourth studio album by The Beach Boys, their first released in the 1980s, and their second release under their contract with CBS Records. The band took a small break to re-think the project, with Bruce Johnston taking complete control of the album's production, and placing the songs in a more contemporary-sounding context. The album ended up as a mixture of brand new songs and older songs from the archives that hadn't been released. The older songs date back to 1970 ("When Girls Get Together"), 1972 ("Endless Harmony", the only track on the album where Dennis is heard) and 1978 ("Santa Ana Winds"). "Keepin' the Summer Alive" reached #75 in the U.S. and #54 in the UK. This would become the last Beach Boys album to feature Dennis Wilson since he died in 1983.

"The Gold Collection" is a compilation album by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), released in 1996 on EMI Records. Album including 'Roll Over Beethoven', '10538 Overture', 'Mr. Radio', 'Look At Me Now' and many more.

The beauty of Roxette is that the duo of Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson can do practically anything in terms of Top 40 music. From the quiet desperation of "Spending My Time" to the chanting carnival of "Joyride" to the folky "Church of Your Heart," they bring a worldliness to their lyrics and melodies that most pop A-listers don't even have the imagination to dream of. This, the follow-up to their breakthrough disc, Look Sharp!, sees through on what that collection hinted at, meaning most of the songs sound like they were designed to be hit singles, not just filler between two or three good cuts. "The Big L," "Soul Deep," and "Hotblooded" all follow in the successful vein Gessle and Fredriksson mined with "The Look," while "Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)," an insistent rock ballad, and the accordion-driven "Perfect Day" take things down a notch.

What these sound recordings attempt to do is to bring you face-to-face — or, perhaps more appropriately, sound to-heart — with actual works of the troubadours and, occasionally, of others in their circle of influence. The task is daunting for so many reasons: songs got written down decades, even centuries, after their dates of creation; only about ten percent of the original melodies survive; and most direct knowledge of how performers worked out their interpretations at the time has been lost. We know nothing whatsoever about the singing style, or about the techniques of instrumental accompaniment that may have been employed. These performances, therefore, of necessity, reflect a confluence of musicological and philological knowledge with performers' instincts and intuitions, as all of these tendencies interacted with each other at a specific moment in history, the late twentieth century.

This release is a unique mix of rock, pop, jazz, and classical music - remains one of the 60's most satisfying secret pleasures. The album was reissued by Sundazed Records in 1995 with six bonus tracks.
The Moth Confesses is the 1969 debut album by The Neon Philharmonic. Described as "A Phonograph Opera," it was inspired, according to the liner notes, by a production of Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, which Saussy attended after The New York Times claimed that it was a terrible opera, and wanted to see what a terrible opera looked like, which he surmised was its deliberate attempt to appeal to a one-time audience. In response, he conceived this album as a condensed opera, with a moth-like protagonist, focused on the "literary theme" of desperation. Saussy did not imagine it could be staged like Tommy, but offered it up as a challenge.