A glance at the catalogue of works by the composer Otto Nicolai quickly reveals that, although he composed an astonishing amount of music during his short, incredibly eventful life of barely 39 years, he paid rather scant attention to the piano—an instrument he played superbly—when it came to his own compositions. Alongside half a dozen operas and two symphonies, as well as a wealth of sacred and secular vocal music, he wrote a handful of piano works that easily fit on a double album. The result is a veritable bonbonnière. Two starkly contrasting sonatas represent the “serious” Nicolai. The founder of the Vienna Philharmonic and director of the Vienna Court Opera is represented, amongst other things, by theatrical occasional music and a fantasia on Casta Diva. The trend conscious, playful composer of The Merry Wives of Windsor also composed a number of light pieces such as the Moon Waltz, which has nothing to fear from comparison to anyone named Strauss.

Shostakovich was genuinely trying to break new ground but had been sharply brought into line (viz. the edict issued against his opera "Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk"). His 5th Symphony seems to cast doubt on the Marxist purity of the Party in power. He conveys his rage in unexpectedly neo-Mahlerian style, but concludes with politically correct optimism. A quarter of a century later he produced "The Year 1917", a skilfully produced commission which sounds like a film score. Even today Mravinsky is still the most effective interpreter of this contradictory diptych, capable of rendering both its intrinsic power and resounding ambiguities.

Jason Isbell - award-winning artist is back with his fifth album 'Something More Than Free', featuring Isbell's Southern-inspired vignettes of working class men, women and traditions that permeate these 11 new songs. The pure honesty and authenticity of Isbell's poetic lyrics and soulful vocals have connected deeply with so many, and they shine as brightly as ever on the new album. It is Isbell's most sonically diverse album to date.

This Was Then is the ninth full-length album by pianist/composer Erik Deutsch. His long-running NYC sextet has once again been enlisted to conjure their magic: Tony Mason on drums, Jeff Hill on bass, Avi Bortnick on drums, Mike McGinnis on Reeds, and Brian Drye on trombone; plus special guests Mauro Refosco on percussion and Victoria Reed on vocals. In between touring full time with The Black Crowes, piloting multiple projects, and recording with an incredible variety of artists, Deutsch has found the time to create an excellent new album of original material.

Renowned songwriter, musician, artist and best-selling author Josh Ritter releases his new album “I Believe In You, My Honeydew”. The new record features ten new tracks produced by Sam Kassirer and features Ritter alongside his Royal City Band: Kassirer (piano, organ, synthesizer, accordion), Zachariah Hickman (acoustic and electric bass, thumb piano, mandolin), Rich Hinman (guitars, pedal steel, mandolin) and Ray Rizzo (drums, percussion).

The Grateful Dead’s April 3, 1988 concert at the Hartford Civic Center serves as night one of a famous three-night spring run, which has been newly mastered and officially released from the vault in July 2026 under the band's official Dead Drops series.

Anarchic carnival street music from Haiti. Traces of New Orleans' Second Line jazz meets Cuban carnival Comparsas and Brazilian afro blocs and as deep as the Art Ensemble of Chicago!

10 years of Jo Didderen & L'Equipe De Rêve - that's something to celebrate! L’Equipe Lab swings, twists, surprises, soothes, thinks, explodes, and comforts. Anything goes, everything’s allowed.

Gunar Letzbor and his ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria present two magnificent major works from two important Baroque centres of Catholic church music north of the Alps: from Salzburg comes Biber’s multi-choir Vespers for 32 voices, which splendidly demonstrates the importance of Salzburg Cathedral. Benedikt Anton Aufschnaiter was Kapellmeister at Passau Cathedral, and his magnificent festive mass Missa ‘Lætamur in ea’ is heard as a world premiere recording. The instrumentation of the Ars Antiqua Austria ensemble is based on that of the Salzburg Cathedral Choir at the time of Biber, and Letzbor adds the soprano and alto voices of the St. Florian Boys’ Choir to the outstanding soloists.

Bartók’s 44 Duos go well beyond the scope of their original purpose of illustrating a graded violin method. Sensitively alert to the popular origin of these pieces, based on folk songs from Central Europe to Algeria, Antoine Tamestit and Alexandra Preucil present a strikingly free and fresh reading for violin and viola. As preludes to their performances, they have interspersed several original recordings captured by Bartók during his field trips.

Countertenor John Holiday presents Over My Head, a striking and deeply personal debut that reflects both the breadth of his artistry and the clarity of his artistic voice. Praised as one of the finest countertenors of his generation, Holiday brings together a thoughtfully curated programme spanning spirituals, contemporary works, and art song. From intimate moments at the piano to collaborations with pianist Kevin Miller, the album includes works by Hall Johnson, Robert L. Morris, H. Leslie Adams, world premieres by Theo Morrison and Carlos Simon, and arrangements by Holiday himself, highlighting repertoire shaped by curiosity, individuality, and expressive depth.

Michael Fine’s String Quartet No. 3, performed by the Studio 9 Quartet, is a highly expressive contemporary classical release characterized by deeply poignant lyricism and masterful structural contrast. Released on the Evidence Classics label, this composition beautifully showcases Fine's signature tonal accessibility blended with an evocative, late-romantic depth.

Emil Friis has spent much of his career in the shadows of the music industry. Originally a songwriter, he's evolved into a sought after composer, but remained relatively unknown outside the professional world of ‘music for pictures’. A largely self taught musician, through his lack of formal training he's created a musical language filled with sensibility, tension, brightness and somber beauty.

Acid Jazz presents the new album from Mama Terra – ‘Inner Space’, out 17 July, 2026. It follows their 2023 debut ‘The Summoned’ (“Bursts with zeal and vigour,” **** MOJO), ‘Chameleons: Live Interpretations of Herbie Hancock’, and a series of showcase and festival performances that have cemented their place as one of the UK’s leading jazz acts. After releasing opening track ‘Inner Space (Narration By Conrad Roberts)’ last month, to announce the album, we present the new single ‘Isha’.

Wilhelm Berger, the son of a music shop owner in Bremen, was not only destined for a tragic end (he died at barely fifty in the same year as Gustav Mahler). A student of Ernst Rudorff, Friedrich Kiel, and Woldemar Bargiel, and later the court conductor in Meiningen, he took a much more conservative musical direction than contemporaries such as Richard Strauss, and as a result, he was no longer in vogue soon after his death; moreover, due to a shared surname, he remained in the shadow of the Swedish composer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger for many decades after his death—even though, from a musical standpoint, the two cannot possibly be confused.