This is a rather brisk reading of Brahms' masterpiece, the most ambitious work in his output and one of the greatest compositions of its type. Though Herreweghe's tempos often pushed the music to its limits here (except for the first section), the performance never actually sounded fast, or at least not offensively fast. In fact, it challenges the Levine/RCA effort.

Chef d'oeuvre de fraîcheur et d'invention mélodique, l'Octuor de Mendelssohn, exprime le génie précoce d'un jeune homme de seize ans. Cet effectif élargi peut se combiner par la réunion de deux quatuors (les Smetana & Janacek, les Kocian & Prazak…) ou être confié à des formations ad hoc, comme le Wiener Oktett que nous entendons ici dans sa formation tardive de 1972, menée par Anton Fietz au premier archet. Les instrumentistes autrichiens privilégient la souplesse du matériau à la vigueur de l'élan, adouci par la texture fondue de leur sonorité suave.

For 2,000 years, Christmas has filled both young and old with wonder. A time for celebration, a time for reunions, moments of simplicity and sharing. At its heart, Christmas is about a birth—the birth of a newborn in a manger. During the winter solstice, light spreads everywhere, bringing perfect joy.

A superb 4 CD set of Sinfonie Concertanti and oboe concertos by J C Bach. Played by Lajos Lencies, Janos Balint, Bela Banfalvi with the Budapest Strings. This a wonderful collection of these suplime works, presented at a very special price.

Today, Miklós Rózsa is best known for classic film scores like Ben-Hur and Lust for Life. Living in America, yet yearning for his native Hungary, Rózsa took a momentary step away from Hollywood to write a violin concerto that sings, dances and positively smoulders. This rare performance of his Violin Concerto shows that even without the pictures, his music can hold an audience spellbound.Taking centre stage for this recording is London Symphony Orchestra Leader, Roman Simovic, who joined the Orchestra in 2010. His virtuosity and musicality have taken him throughout all continents, performing as soloist with world-leading orchestras and conductors.

On ne saurait rester insensible à l’écoute de ce « Geitsliches Singspiel » (Drame sacré) composé par un enfant de 12 ans. On reste évidemment ahuri par tant de science et de sensibilité, même si Léopold (le papa) veillait au grain en mettant parfois son nez (et sa main) sur le manuscrit de son divin rejeton. Créé à Salzbourg pour les fêtes de Pâques 1767, Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebots, K 35 (Le Devoir du Premier Commandement), résulte d’une commande de l’archevêque Colloredo dont le nom et le caractère retors ont traversé le temps grâce à son orageuse confrontation avec le jeune Mozart. On sent dans la partition que ce gamin génial est déjà possédé par le théâtre et qu’il a assimilé les styles italiens et germaniques. A la tête de l’Ensemble Il Caravaggio, Camille Delaforge dirige cet ouvrage d’extrême jeunesse avec, comme il l’écrit si bien, « l’âme juvénile à l’heure de la maturité ». Sa direction est souple et vivante, théâtrale comme l’exige l’écriture souvent si proche des arias d’opéra avec ses acrobaties vocales et ses vocalises éperdues. Ses solistes don’t (Adèle Charvet) sont tous excellents. Cette œuvre va bien au-delà de la simple curiosité, car elle révèle déjà l’incroyable talent du futur génie.

Dedicated to Bramwell Tovey, this album of world premiere recordings by celebrated composer Roderick Elms features soloists Carlos Bonell (guitar), Derek Hannigan (bass clarinet) and Joanna Smith (piano) and Roderick Elms himself, with the BBC Concert Orchestra under the baton of Barry Wordsworth.

At his arrival in Venice in 1613, Monteverdi, ever the tireless worker, finally found a challenge that suited him: he would compose every day, both sacred and secular music, for the glory of God or his patrons. In the twilight of his life, he gathered his works into a corpus, intended to inspire musicians during the celebration of religious services. This recording is a musical testament to his carefully preserved life's work. Vincent Dumestre and Le Poeme Harmonique pay tribute to the brilliant composer who set the tone for all 17th-century sacred music.

A very nice box set from Capriccio of Prokofiev’s complete incidental music, featuring some of his most well known musical scores. The Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin play with fire and panache under the baton of conductor, Michail Jurowski.

The fashionable literary salons of Paris were centres of experimentation in the refined art of conversation that expressed an idealised vision of love as well as a most poetic depiction of aristocratic society. The women who founded these salons, such as the Marquise de Rambouillet and Madeleine de Scudery, exerted a considerable influence on social culture and its fashion for preciosite, creating a poetic style whose inevitably plaintive accents would swiftly lead lovers who frequented such salons down the winding paths of the pays de Tendre. "The true character of those who love is composed of tenderness and plaintiveness", according to Abbe Charles Cotin – and music was employed as a means of expressing every nuance of amorous feeling that many poets of the style galant took great pains to depict. The musicians who were most in vogue would then take their galant verses and set them to song in the form of airs serieux, a genre which dominated all secular French music for most of the reign of Louis XIV. This album, a world premiere recording, is devoted to the airs serieux of Joseph Chabanceau de La Barre, a scion of one of the most prestigious families of French musicians of the 17th century.

The lute became the instrument of choice at European courts around 1500, the time of their greatest cultural and spiritual importance. The lute was considered by the Humanists to represent Orpheus's lyre, as it embodied the metaphysical ideal of the power of music and was also closely linked to improvisation. Here we revive this tradition for the first time on record: this programme is almost entirely improvised and presents the Renaissance lute with all its surprising colours and sonorities as a living instrument.

Orlando di Lasso (b. 1532 in Mons) was one of the most important and prolific composers in the whole of sixteenth-century Europe. Famed as a singer from boyhood, he escaped several kidnapping attempts ordered by princes who coveted his talent for their courts. Di Lasso is a fascinating character: an extravagant and provocative musical figure, an adventurous artist and cultivated polyglot. On being asked to provide the soundtrack for a documentary on di Lasso by Joachim Thome, Simon-Pierre Bestion became immersed in the composer's multiverse. This album, an extension of the music for that film, projects the iconoclast di Lasso into our 21st century world. As Bestion explains: 'I made a deliberate choice here to interpret this music with a great freedom of instrumentation and of timbre. What is more, even though there were no drums or saxophones in di Lasso's day, the performer was free to choose whichever or the ornamentation he wanted.' Join La Tempete for this unpredictable, fantasy-enriched exploration of the timeless realm of Orlando.

2016 five CD set containing a quintet of classic studio albums packaged together in a new slim-line slipcase from the punk rock/new wave pioneer Graham Parker. Featuring the albums Howlin' Wind, Stick To Me, Squeezing Out Sparks, The Up Escalator and Struck By Lightning.

Post Script, features some very apt artwork because the contents of this disk is mainly geared towards the 'World Music' WOMAD side of Peters works. There are some generally weaker and ‘oddball’ tracks such as Warm Doorway making up the body of this one, although as you’d expect there are a fistful of gems to be unearthed. One such track is the amazing While The Earth Sleeps which adopts an almost (albeit causal) dance and techno type feel to it which is certainly new ground for Peters’ ever evolving style and direction. One of my favourite ‘early’ Gabriel numbers, the dark ballad Here Comes The Flood is included and more importantly is sung in German which is a nice twist, and the ultra rare Ain’t That Peculiar is included too. The latter was recorded live in 1979 with Robert Fripp and is a sure fire winner.

2009 three CD collection from the former Smiths frontman containing all his solo singles released between 1988 and 1995. Featuring the a and B-sides of each single, this triple disc set is the ultimate Morrissey collection and is a must-own, even if you have already purchased all of the original singles! From 'Suede head' straight through to 'A Swallow on My Neck', this set includes 62 tracks including plenty of non-album cuts, live recordings and so much more. Contains the hits 'Everyday Is Like Sunday', 'The Last of the Famous International Playboys', 'The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get', 'My Love Life', 'Suede head' and many others. Absolutely essential!