La Traviata, Giuseppe Verdi very personal opera, was premiered in 1853 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The first night was a fiasco, but after a few revisions the opera set out to conquer the world. La Traviata offers no scope for grandiose crowd scenes or historical pomp. In keeping with the intimate nature of the action, Verdi’s music reflects the inner feelings of the protagonists. The heroine, whose emotional state is determined by external circumstances, is in the centre of the story of emotional upheavals. Jürgen Flimm haunting staging stays close to Verdi’s intent. He focuses on the protagonists, showing their shakiness, emotions, despair, love, sacrifice and tragedy rather than concentrating on the abysses of the Parisian demi-monde. Eva Mei and Piotr Beczala are a perfectly matched couple. Her soft and flexible soprano and his lyrical tenor, marked by excellent diction, work very well together, joined by the “golden” voice of outstanding Thomas Hampson.

Strut revives a lost recording from the archives in January with a 2002 collaboration between acclaimed South African folk singer Vusi Mahlasela, singer songwriter Norman Zulu and Swedish jazz / soul collective Jive Connection.

Double vinyl LP pressing. Digitally remastered edition of this 1993 album from the Alt-Rock band led by Billy Corgan. While their album Gish had brought them to the attention of the Alternative crowd, Siamese Dream was the album that broke the quartet in a big way. Features the hits 'Cherub Rock', 'Today' and many more.

Considered by many country fans (and also many country artists) to be the father of modern country singing, Lefty Frizzell came seemingly out of nowhere in the late 1940s to influence a massive number of future country icons, from George Jones, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson to Randy Travis and Dwight Yoakam - just a few of the superstars of country who have recorded Lefty's compositions.

Toninho Horta has been a reliable sideman and occasionally a leader in his lengthy career playing contemporary Brazilian music. The acoustic and electric guitarist has a quiet intensity that reflects the passion and verve of genius composer Antonio Carlos Jobim. This tribute to Jobim is quite laden with string charts, most done quite tastefully, rarely overarranged, and pleasantly emphasizing a flute section. Horta has an impressive complementary combo of pianist Dave Kikoski, bassist Gary Peacock, percussionists Paulo Braga and Manolo Badrena, special guests as saxophonist Bob Mintzer, harmonicist William Galison, trumpeter Glenn Drewes, Charles Pillow on oboe, John Clark on French horn, and several members of the large Horta family.

Two years after “Restored, Returned” introduced this line-up and with extensive touring behind them, on “The Well” the four musicians of the Gustavsen Quartet really blossom as a band in a programme of new tunes by Tord. Sax player Tore Brunborg is given an important voice here, his melodic lines combining bluesy sonority and Nordic cry. Gently but effectively propelled by the subtle pulses of drummer Jarle Vespestad and bassist Mats Eilertsen, Gustavsen’s gospel-tinged, unhurried piano playing displays a characteristic warmth and tenderness.

A subtle and profound Spanish theme runs through Recuerdos – ‘Memories’. Violinist Augustin Hadelich has conceived an album that unites three works for violin and orchestra and a piece originally written for solo guitar. For Britten’s Violin Concerto, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No 2 and Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy he is joined by the WDR Sinfonieorchester and its Chief Conductor, Cristian Măcelaru; he remains alone for Ruggero Ricci’s arrangement of Tárrega’s shimmering Recuerdos de la Alhambra.

Stepping back from its 1979 disco foray, Tower of Power dropped out of sight for the better part of a decade, as internal strife and member changes ripped the band asunder and the Tower of Power Horns spent more time backing other musicians. Returning to the studio in 1986 with only Steve Fulton and Willie James Fulton held over from the earlier regime, the band recorded the shaky TOP LP (different from a similarly titled 1993 date). Initially released only in Sweden, the album was trimmed of two tracks, retitled Power, and racked in America the following year. But even the rejigging couldn't help what ultimately emerged as an uninspired and mediocre set, showcasing musicians who sounded like they really didn't care anymore. It was a feeling that was only reinforced by their fans – the album was the first to miss the charts since their 1970 debut.

It's been more than ten years since Tribal Tech's last release, and if this uncompromising fusion group was beginning to show signs of wear and tear by the time of Rocket Science (ESC, 2000), its return to recording proves that sometimes a hiatus can be a healthy thing. After working through a number of personnel shifts, guitarist Scott Henderson and bassist Gary Willis—who introduced the group with Spears (Passport, 1985), releasing eight more albums and one compilation between 1986 and 2000—finally found the perfect collaborators in keyboardist Scott Kinsey and drummer Kirk Covington by 1992's Illicit. It's this seminal incarnation that returns for X, and the result rivals TT's criminally out-of-print Tribal Tech (Relativity, 1991) as its finest hour.

Since it's billed as "Directions in Music by Miles Davis," it should come as little surprise that Filles de Kilimanjaro is the beginning of a new phase for Miles, the place that he begins to dive headfirst into jazz-rock fusion. It also happens to be the swan song for his second classic quintet, arguably the finest collective of musicians he ever worked with, and what makes this album so fascinating is that it's possible to hear the breaking point – though his quintet all followed him into fusion (three of his supporting players were on In a Silent Way), it's possible to hear them all break with the conventional notions of what constituted even adventurous jazz, turning into something new. According to Miles, the change in "direction" was as much inspired by a desire to return to something earthy and bluesy as it was to find new musical territory, and Filles de Kilimanjaro bears him out.