This new album of Beethovens late String Quartets by the prestigious Tetzlaff Quartett offers a fitting tribute to Beethovens 250th anniversary year. These monumental works which are given fresh interpretations by the quartet are among the greatest achievements in the history of Western art music written by a composer who had already largely lost contact with the world. When writing his final String Quartets (Op. 127135) Beethoven was quickly becoming increasingly ill and understood that he would never be able to recover fully.

'Ulysse' by Jean-Fery Rebel (1666-1747), with its prologue and five acts, was given at the Paris Opera on January 23 1703. The libretto by Henry Guichard, after Homer, recounts the return of Ulysses to Ithaca, where Circe, still in love with him, attempts to regain him by magic. The opera ends in the triumph of love over evil. Rebel followed the formal framework of the lyric tragedies of his master Lully, including some scenes to marvel at. But his orchestral writing also announces Rameau, especially in the depiction of battles, earthquakes or storms.

Innerhalb kurzer Zeit entschied sich Claudio Abbado zweimal, zusammen mit seinen Berlinern die gesamten Beethoven Sinfonien aufzunehmen. Die vorliegende zweite Aufnahme muss sich also zurecht der Frage stellen: War das wirklich nötig? Die Antwort ist simpel: Es war nötig, denn Abbado nahm zahlreiche Schönheitskorrekturen vor, wodurch ein Zyklus entstand, der mit Abstand das Beste ist, was in den letzten Jahren auf diesem Gebiet vorgestellt wurde, allerdings mit einigen kleinen Schönheitsfehlern.

Antonio Soler’s eminent position at the eighteenth-century Spanish court led to a series of important works, both sacred and secular. Of them, the best known are his keyboard sonatas, many of which were written for the young prince, Don Gabriel, son of Carlos III. The sonatas manage to absorb the influence of Domenico Scarlatti but also exude the prevailing modernist trends of Vienna. Some are designed in pairs, and many employ subtle echo effects, syncopation and exciting, athletic leaps that show his delight in repetition and contrast.

The best-known alter ego of the Harry Vanda/George Young songwriting team (the creative force behind the Easybeats), Flash and the Pan began simply as a between-production project in 1976. By 1979, the project had turned out a novelty hit with the single "Hey St. Peter." A second single, "Down Among the Dead," also became a hit throughout Australia and Europe, inspiring the release of the album Flash and the Pan. American radio began playing import copies which led to a deal with Epic Records. The album would soon reach the Top 100 in the U.S. despite the lack of a supporting tour.

For a band whose useful lifespan ran to nine albums, 10cc have been oddly represented by the compilations market. Their first two albums, of course, have been reissued and rejigged in virtually every conceivable permutation; the next four have at least been bled for the hits on a near-annual basis. But a super-rare Japanese four-CD box set notwithstanding, no attempt has ever been made to truly illustrate the band's entire career, from "Donna" to demise. Welcome, then, The Ultimate Collection, which not only does a fine job in unearthing all you need to know about those nine original albums, it also splits the discs in such a way that the first one gives you all the hits you remember, while the second serves up the songs that you very likely missed altogether.