A Gramophone editor's Choice, this double album brings together the third volume of Concerti per archi (strings) and the complete Concerti for viola d'amore by the Venetian genius. The Accademia Bizantina and its iconic chief Ottavio Dantone bring to this release a talent so great it is matched only by their dedication. The Vivaldi Edition is an ambitious project begun at the beginning of the century to record some 450 works by Vivaldi, many of them unknown, found in the National University Library of Turin. With the collaboration of today’s leading interpreters of Baroque music we are making available to the public hundreds of works, many in the composer’s own hand and covering every musical genre.

The organ works of Gottlieb Muffat (1690-1770), imperial court and chamber organist in Vienna since 1717, are based on the classical genres, which Muffat, however, knows how to skilfully combine with the musical language of his time. His most important organ works remained unprinted during his lifetime and have only survived in copies, thanks in part to the Viennese Minorite Father Alexander Giessel. Only in recent years has his collection been made accessible in a modern edition, which Jörg-Andreas Bötticher has recorded here for the first time. The three organs of the monastery church of Muri in the canton of Aargau, which are among the best preserved baroque organs in Switzerland, were at his disposal.

Graham Johnson’s latest Lieder project for Hyperion reaches its fourth volume. Brahms is of course a giant of the Romantic era but his songs and vocal works are rather less well known than much of his other music. There is so much to discover and enjoy in the beautiful, often elegiac melodies and characteristic piano writing.

For their 20th anniversary Club des Belugas are releasing a 3-CD album "Best of 2002 - 2022", with 51 tracks and a total playing time of 3 hours and 50 minutes. A compilation of the best-selling tracks on the one hand, and what the band believes to be the best tracks on the other (which is often, but not always, identical). Club des Belugas is one of the leading Nujazz bands in Europe, perhaps in the world. They combine contemporary European Electro, Lounge & Nujazz Styles with Brazilian Beats, Swing and American Black Soul of the fifties, sixties and seventies using their unique creativity and intensity. Since 2002 they released 12 studio albums, a 2CD live album, a live DVD, 22 singles, 1 EP and a 3 CD album BEST OF 2002 - 2022.

The official 25th anniversary collection. 63 tracks all remastered, 20 previously unreleased / alternative versions. 60 page book containing full band history plus rare photographs, memorabilia & full discograhy. A Time of Revelation is a four-disc box set spanning Uriah Heep's entire career. The bulk of the set draws from the Heep's '70s heyday, including album tracks, live cuts, and previously unavailable-on-disc rarities. For the die-hard collector, the set is a must-have for its obscure items. While the set may be too much for casual fans, it does a good job of rounding up the highlights, so any casual listener wanting a comprehensive collection should turn here.

Shostakovich’s energetic piano concertos feature striking and attractive themes, with sudden changes of mood between the burlesque and haunting, perfectly captured in these live recordings with pianist Martin Helmchen and the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski. The Piano Quintet displays perhaps an even greater range of styles within a work of unusual purity written under the looming shadow of war.

During the sixteenth century in Italy, the motto ‘i galli cantano’ (the Gauls are singing) circulated, acknowledging the supremacy of the Franco-Flemish ‘transalpine’ musicians who were summoned to the peninsula to serve princes and prelates in the techniques of composing and performing vocal polyphony. Josquin Desprez, ‘Giosquino’ to the Italians, was the emblematic figure: in addition to France, he was in the service of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza in both Milan and Rome (1484, 1498) and of the papal (1489-95) and Este chapels (1503-4). On the fifth centenary of the composer’s death (1521), the Odhecaton ensemble proposes to retrace Josquin’s Italian itinerary with the Missa Hercules dux Ferrariæ, composed for the Duke of Ferrara Ercole I d’Este, and a selection of motets commissioned by Italian patrons.

Rafał Blechacz has been deeply associated with the music of Fryderyk Chopin across his whole career. His devotion to the music of his great compatriot began long before 2005 when he won the Warsaw Chopin Competition. Blechacz complements the two large works with Chopin’s haunting F sharp minor Nocturne and his exquisite Barcarolle.