A four-disc box set spanning Eric Clapton's entire career – running from the Yardbirds to his '80s solo recordings – Crossroads not only revitalized Clapton's commercial standing, but it established the rock & roll multi-disc box set retrospective as a commercially viable proposition. Bob Dylan's Biograph was successful two years before the release of Crossroads, but Clapton's set was a bona fide blockbuster. And it's easy to see why. Crossroads manages to sum up Clapton's career succinctly and thoroughly, touching upon all of his hits and adding a bevy of first-rate unreleased material (most notably selections from the scrapped second Derek and the Dominos album). Although not all of his greatest performances are included on the set – none of his work as a session musician or guest artist is included, for instance – every truly essential item he recorded is present on these four discs. No other Clapton album accurately explains why the guitarist was so influential, or demonstrates exactly what he accomplished.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold wrote a significant body of chamber music (the Piano Trio and String Sextet are on Naxos 8.574008). His three String Quartets reflect differing periods of composition. The First marries impetuousness with enticing harmonies and rapt eloquence. The Second, which dates from 1933, is notable for its clarity, rhythmic impetus and melodic directness. The post-war Third is more relaxed, unexpectedly juxtaposing the archaic and modern with a joyful conclusion.

An homage to the Baroque singer and composer Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677), this album is titled La voce sola. That final word, 'single', 'only' or 'alone', points to the fact that most of Strozzi's works are written for solo voice, usually her own, a fact that makes her music especially intimate and personal. It emphasizes the uniqueness of her musical language and her distinctive voice as a composer but also refers to the difficulties of her striving alone in her personal and creative endeavors. This recital is a career survey of this great composer, from her first collections to her last opus, in chronological order, including a world-premiere recording of a work with no opus number.

Pop music in the ’60s and ’70s was a kaleidoscope of sound – a dizzying, diverse wonderland unthinkable in these days of targeted demographics and niche marketing. Whereas Hard To Find 45s on CD Volume 11: Sugar Pop Classics focuses on a specific – if ephemeral – slice of the pop pie, Volume 12: 60s & 70s Pop Classics embraces the cacophony, culling nearly an hour’s worth of wildly divergent Top 20 Hits not commonly found on other collections.

Thrash metal band Municipal Waste have reissued their 2002 EP Tango and Thrash via Nuclear Blast Records. The album is fully remastered with bonus tracks and updated artwork.

Chicago’s unmistakable sound has made them one of the best-selling music groups of all time, with over 100 million records sold worldwide! Chicago’s massive popularity extends to Christmas music. The group have released two RIAA Gold-Certified Christmas albums - Chicago 25 and What’s It Gonna Be, Santa? Both albums were celebrated with a Gold Record presentation to the band at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on August 19th. Rhino / Warner Music release a new collection titled Chicago Greatest Christmas Hits, featuring their most popular Christmas songs.

Purcell’s genius abounds throughout the latest volume of The Sixteen’s celebrated exploration of his music for monarchy. Rarely recorded in recent years, Harry Christophers and his award-winning ensemble breathe fresh life into these exquisite works, including two Welcome Songs and one of Purcell’s most famous verse anthems, Rejoice in the Lord always.

BMG follow up this years The Kinks The Journey release (from March this year), and continue the 60th anniversary celebrations, with Part 2, which will be available as a 2CD or 2LP package. Compiled by the band, this collection is curated “according to themes inspired by the trials and tribulations of their journey through life together as a band since 1963”.

The viola was Hindemith's instrument (though he could play almost any), and he wrote some of his most expressive chamber music for it. This two-disc set includes all four of Hindemith's sonatas for solo violin and the three for viola and piano. I prefer the wildness of Hindemith's earlier music to the sometimes arid calm of his later music, so listeners like myself who like Hindemith can have a feast here as most of these are early works. They are played with energy and passion by an outstanding violist and a fine pianist.

From the opening bars of Soul on Fire you could be forgiven for thinking you were listening to a new Ry Cooder album at last but you would be wrong by a windmill or two. Influenced by the likes of Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy, Dutch guitarist Hans Theessink (pronounced "tay-sink") successfully moves across musical borders with ease on his 15th album. Lifeline is just the right mixture of deftly played acoustic blues, gospel and soul channelled into a union that highlights the diversity and durability of roots music at it's best with guests like Charles Brown and The Holmes Brothers. There are 11 excellent original tracks to soak up, as well as covers of Rev Gary Davis, Blind Willie Johnson, and the Neville Brothers. A rare treat!

If it's hard to follow in the footsteps of a famous parent, it must be even tougher to do so when said parent is the offspring of a music legend. Singer/songwriter Holly Williams not only faces the daunting task of standing in the long shadow cast by her father, rough-and-tumble country outlaw Hank Jr., but the even longer shadow cast by the grandfather she never knew, country progenitor Hank Williams. While most famous offspring are lacking in the talent department and have to lean heavily on their family name, Williams doesn't. The comely singer drips talent on her Mercury Nashville debut, Here with Me. Her music is a pop-Americana hybrid, raw and real while at the same time polished to a beautiful shine.

Master Series is the title of a line of greatest hits albums, released in European countries. In 1996 was released in this series also album the best hits of Sam Brown. Great things have been predicted for British vocalist and keyboardist Sam Brown. Her debut album, Stop!, reached the Top Four on the British music charts, sold more than two-and-a-half million copies, and included two hit singles, "Stop" and "This Feeling." She worked as a session backing vocalist, working with artists such as Small Faces, Spandau Ballet, Adam Ant, Jon Lord (of Deep Purple), Pink Floyd (also David Gilmour), The Firm, Gary Moore, George Harrison and Nick Cave. Brown released her debut album Stop! in 1988. Since then, she has released five studio albums, one EP and three compilation albums.

Celine Dion began work on Encore un Soir in the summer of 2015 when her husband Rene Angelil was quite ill. He passed away in January 2016, around the midpoint of the sessions, so it could stand to reason the album was a way for Dion to work through her grief, but this French-language record isn't quite as simple as that. For one, Dion's art isn't strictly autobiographical; she may pour herself into her performances but a correlation between her personal life and her recordings isn't easy to draw. Secondly, Encore un Soir is evenly divided between pop tunes and ballads, not too dissimilar from her usual albums.