Equal parts heady and hedonistic, pensive and euphoric, Return To Zero (the 3rd LP from Neal Francis), echoes both his deep-rooted psych-rock sensibilities and lifelong love of classic funk. Amid a tour schedule that found him playing 400 shows from 2021 to 2024, the Chicago-based singer/songwriter/pianist immersed himself in creating a beautiful, strange, all-analog entangling of timeless rock & roll and ’70s-era dance music, merging supremely heavy guitar riffs with lush, pulsating groove.

The Cavatina Duo — renowned Bosnian guitarist Denis Azabagić and Spanish flutist Eugenia Moliner — collaborates with the Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet on River of Fire, an album featuring world-premiere recordings of five original compositions that bridge classical traditions and Gypsy influences.The works, composed for the duo by Clarice Assad, Sérgio Assad, Matthew Dunne, Stacy Garrop, and Atanas Ourkouzounov, draw on the music and history of the Romani diaspora, weaving a narrative of migration, displacement, and resilience. The Cavatina Duo is committed to innovation and cultural exploration with a deep understanding of historical influences, from Balkan and Spanish Gypsy music to Indian classical traditions, emphasizing an East-to-West and West-to-East exchange, echoing Gypsy music’s historic migration.

Where Are You? is perfect in every sense. Recorded when Frank Sinatra was 42, the torch album finds him in impeccable voice and spirit. The dozen tracks fit together as a unified whole; it’s difficult to imagine one song missing, or another added. Arranger Gordon Jenkins reads Sinatra’s mind, affording him with lush arrangements that break hearts and underscore deliberation. Topping it off, Sinatra’s interpretive skills utterly astonish. Genres aside, this 1957 Capitol classic is inarguably one of the ten-best vocal pop efforts made in the 1950s.
While not as known as Only the Lonely, Where Are You? is its creative equivalent, a poignant masterwork on which Sinatra reflects on what could have been, ponders life’s deep questions, elicits sympathy via romantic distress, and does whatever it takes to get through the night…

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director Jader Bignamini present Wynton Marsalis’ Blues Symphony. The piece is a triumphant ode to the power of the blues and the scope of America’s musical heritage. With a blend of influences from ragtime to habanera, the piece takes listeners on a sonic journey through America’s revolutionary era, the early beginnings of jazz in New Orleans, and a big city soundscape that serves as a nod to the Great Migration. Detroit being one of the most vibrant melting pots of musical cultures in the US, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra seems the ideal advocate for this original contribution to the symphonic repertoire. The recording is also the first with Jader Bignamini, giving a new dimension to his music directorship. Wynton Marsalis is a world-renowned trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and a leading advocate of American culture. Jader Bignamini has worked with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies, preferably conducting without a score to guarantee maximum engagement with his players. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, America’s fourth-oldest, has a history as varied and exciting as that of its hometown.

Mendelssohn conceived the Violin Concerto in E minor for his childhood friend, Ferdinand David, concertmaster of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, though it took the composer years to perfect it. The concerto remains one of the most significant works in the genre – serene, lyrical and luminous. Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major is another of the 19th century’s greatest concertos, written for his favourite student, Iosif Kotek, and a work of great beauty bristling with virtuoso challenges. On this album they are performed by the brilliant Guido Sant’Anna, the first South American violinist to win the prestigious Fritz Kreisler International Competition.

Afraid of sunlight was Marillion's first real progressive album since Fish had left the band. While it does not rank as high as classics like Script for a Jester's Tear or Fugazi, it still has some very strong moments. "Cannibal Surf Babe" is a tribute to the '60s (sort of). It starts off like the Beach Boys' "California Girls" before turning into the nightmarish tale of a cannibal woman! But the best moments are in the second half of the album, with tracks such as "Out of This World," "Afraid of Sunlight," and "King." As usual with Marillion, the keyboards stand out the most. There are some very beautiful melodic moments and perhaps a better mix between calm and agressive melodies than on previous albums made with Steve Hogarth.

Alongside the renowned female composers of the 17th century, such as Francesca Caccini and Barbara Strozzi, and the leading singers (the prime donne) that dominated the stages of opera houses, such as Anna Renzi and Giulia Masotti, we should also appreciate the considerable number of excellent – yet largely unknown – “virtuose”. Though customarily concealed amidst the ranks of a court, serving as maids of honour to a queen, princess or noblewoman, these were extremely accomplished musicians who often provided vital inspiration for the celebrated composers of the day.

The Art of Fugue is Bach's final composition and one of his most challenging. In this album Phantasm and its director Laurence Dreyfus showcase all the hidden beauties of the composer's magnum opus, arguably the pinnacle of the fugue genre. Printed in open score, the format allows a rendition on viols, as recorded here. Brimming with rich counterpoint and dynamic conversation among the parts, the work can legitimately claim a place within the consort repertoire. Bach manages to paint a finely delineated set of contrasting musical portraits full of revelations and surprises. Far from an academic encyclopaedia of arcane musical techniques, The Art of Fugue thus embarks on a (unfinished) voyage of discovery shared by an inveterate explorer whose thirst for invention knows no bounds. Organist Daniel Hyde performs four movements in this welcome follow-up to Phantasm's acclaimed Well-Tempered Consort series.

For the second volume in this series, devoted to each new stage in Bach’s life, Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants show us how the composer appropriated the usages of the church cantata to his own ends.Borrowing from the French style and reinterpreting the Italian concerto, Bach left a lasting mark on the genre and blazed a new trail for it.

The Phoenix Orchestra is an artist led music organization founded by Artistic Director, Angel Wang, a Chinese born Canadian violinist. It is dedicated to the performance of Western and Chinese classical music played on a variety of traditional and modern instruments with the intent to foster a deeper appreciation of both cultures in Toronto and the broader Canadian society through both live and digital performances.

Eleven meditative, atmospheric tracks filled with elegant melodic clarity form Norwegian electronic musician Erik Wøllo’s latest album, Where The River Widens. The impressionistic, minimalist electric guitar lines are looped and layered with effect pedals for a seamless balance of intimacy and spaciousness. Created and inspired in the valley of Skåbu, Norway, during the late summer of 2024, the 44-minute album is imbued with the spirit of its mountainous surroundings. It captures a slow tranquil intensity preserving spontaneous moments.
Where The River Widens' organic expression and sonic texture evoke a seamless fusion of emotion and stillness.

Rough-and-tumble singer/songwriter Sara K.'s brilliant new record, Hobo, is her hottest and hardest-hitting effort to date. Already regarded as a star internationally, Sara is poised to make her mark on America with her fourth Chesky release, which brims with smoky, road-worn songs about love and life. Hobo finds Sara's voice beautifully captured by Chesky's new 96/24 technology, and you'll be amazed by the range of tone and emotion that she conveys on this recording. Sara K. tells her musical war-stories with heart-cutting lyrics and tunes that you'll be singing long after the disc has stopped playing.

Aside from his only opera Fidelio, Beethoven’s general link with the theatre in Vienna came about largely with incidental music or songs to be inserted into the works of other composers—insertion arias. König Stephan was written to celebrate the politically significant opening of a new theatre in Pest, its triumphant mood honouring the ruling Austrian Emperor. Standard-bearer of female heroism Leonore Prohaska is commemorated with a Soldier’s Chorus and a Romance with harp accompaniment. In Friedrich von Matthisson’s poem Opferlied (‘Sacrificial Song’), a young man prays to Zeus to bestow upon him beauty and goodness in youth and old age. Two of Beethoven’s four settings are heard on this wide-ranging programme.

The Florentine Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (1682-1732) was the finest theorbo player in early 18th-century Europe, and spent almost his entire career at the Habsburg court in Vienna. He composed sacred and secular vocal works special enough to warrant the attention of both Bach and Handel. Conti's oratorio David, a setting of a dramatic libretto by Apostolo Zeno, was first performed at Vienna in March 1724. The cast of singers included the tenor Francesco Borosini, soon afterwards a principal cast member for Handel in Tamerlano and Rodelinda (Conti's writing for Borosini descends to a low G, hence the decision here to cast baritone Furio Zanasi as Saul).

This is the first installment of the series dedicated to Sergei Prokofiev's Symphonies performed by the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie under the baton of ist chief conductor Pietari Inkinen.