The rich, lengthy, and sometimes painful history of Lynyrd Skynyrd is not only one of the true epic tales of Southern rock, but in all of rock & roll itself. The early rise to fame, the tragic loss, and eventual rebirth of the group has been well documented over and over again in the form of box sets, greatest-hits collections, and deluxe reissues. But this sampler takes the best of the best and puts it all into one disc. The greatest moments of Skynyrd's career – "Freebird," "Sweet Home Alabama," and "What's Your Name" – are all here. But what makes Family truly special is the branching out into the side projects like .38 Special, Rossington Collins Band, and Van Zant to name but a few. This might not be the most comprehensive collection available, but it is certainly one of the more enjoyable and easily accessible.

Hoelderlin (formed as Hölderlin) started out playing cover tunes in Germany in the 1960s until they received an offer for a record contract in the early 1970s. The band was led by two brothers, Christian and Joachim Grumbkow, who wrote most of the music. The debut-album "Hölderlin's Traum" was released in 1972 with a nine-piece line up, including female vocals and instruments like the Mellotron, Grand piano, violin, cello, sitar, tablas and flute. Their sound is a progressive blend of rock, jazz and folk. Troubles soon arose when the band's producer wanted to have the band change their sound. After a long three year legal battle, the band was able to get rid of their contract, slightly change their name and release their second album, "Hoelderlin" in 1975. The band called their music 'romantic rock', it sounded more jazzy and it contained echoes from King Crimson and Genesis…

The Junction is the twenty-third studio album by The Manhattan Transfer, released on March 30, 2018. This is their first album in nine years since their last album; The Chick Corea Songbook. Beginning with their first performances in the early 1970s, THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER have become the cornerstones of contemporary music. Originally launched by Tim Hauser in 1969, Hauser, Alan Paul, Janis Siegel and Laurel Masse were the group by 1972. Cheryl Bentyne joined the group in 1979 after Laurel Masse left. One of the co-writers on The Junction – the group’s new album which draws inspiration in part from The Transfer’s classic 1975 version of Glenn Miller’s “Tuxedo Junction”—is the group’s new mem- ber, bass vocalist Trist Curless. Curless began subbing on the road for the late band founder Tim Hauser in 2013, officially joining after Hauser’s passing in late 2014.

A great collection of Who songs, accompanied by the ultimate collection, makes for superb listening of your favourite Who songs. Few rock & roll bands were riddled with as many contradictions as the Who. All four members had wildly different personalities, as their notorious live performances demonstrated: Keith Moon fell over his drum kit while Pete Townshend leaped into the air with his guitar, spinning his right hand in exaggerated windmills.

This is a bargain priced box set of Lydia Mordkovitch's violin sonata recordings made for Chandos in the 1980s. I am admirer of her playing, particularly in the English repertoire, Howells, Dyson and Vaughan Williams (the Carlton disc with Julian Milford is a lost classic), none of which is unfortunately represented here. What we are given is a cross-section of continental work with the emphasis heavily on the Central-European tradition, tempered to some extent by the inclusion of Prokofiev and Fauré. T

Like so many of his contemporaries Bartok underwent a period of artistic self-examination immediately after the First World War. The Violin Sonata No. 1 is the first result of that reappraisal and it has all the hallmarks of a style in transition—in other words, it is a jolly tough nut to crack, and it remains so even in a performance as consistently colorful and high-powered as Kremer and Argerich's.

These chamber works center around the horn as a chamber instrument. The horn contributes an interesting character to the music, especially when there is a piano employed. The String Trio of 1984 is here scored for horn, violin, and piano. The Horn Quartet of 1975 is scored for horn, violin, cello, and piano. The Trio is more representative of Simpson's mature style; it tends more toward a melodic polytonality. His Horn Quartet is more rugged, and the scales are tipped toward atonality. Extremely interesting postmodern works.

Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud spent more than twenty years as a member of the experimental and always innovative Kronos Quartet. She left the group in 1999, and has since created an adventurous and captivating body work, including four previous CD releases, including the Grammy-nominated Strange Toys ( Talking House Records, 2008) and 2010's Pop-Pop (Deconet Records), in collaboration with percussionist/multi-instrumentalist PC Munoz.

Electronic trio Tangerine Dream embrace their equipment and take their audience on an actual journey through this especially good, two-part showcase recorded live in France and Britain. Featuring the early and memorable lineup of Chris Franke, Edgar Froese, and Peter Baumann, Ricochet continuously evolves to the next plateau of pulsing experimentation without getting lost or over-indulgent like other bands of the genre. This album finds the three at a time when they knew exactly what they were doing; rocking without the drums, and looking over their shoulder to make sure the audience was still enjoying themselves. It takes a snapshot of the band when they were young, influential, and at the height of the genre.

This cycle of "O" Antiphons is part of the Christmas Vespers ceremony, centered around the Magnificat. In the present case, they are heavily troped, and end with a liturgical motet in a more triumphant mood.
The music itself it thoroughly isorhythmic, and heavily syncopated. The pieces form a true cycle, linked by both a sequence of modality and motivic figures. This is the most elaborate sacred section of the huge Turin manuscript (Torino, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS J. II 9), the one source for the Cypriot repertory.

Franco Fagioli lavishes his "extraordinary agility and richly upholstered voice" (Gramophone) on Leonardo Vinci, the Neapolitan composer who influenced Handel and many later masters of Italian opera. Fagioli is joined again by Il Pomo d'Oro led by Zefira Valova, the superb period-instrument ensemble on his previous album. Veni, Vidi, Vinci features seven world premiere recordings from the Neapolitan composer, unearthed for this great recording.