Arthaus presents a rare document of an early nineties operatic highlight: the Japanese premiere of Wolfgang Sawallisch’s last production at the Bavarian State Opera. The Company’s tour of Nagoya and Tokyo in autumn 1992 under director and principal conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch was a particularly important event. Sawallisch was celebrating both the twenty-fifth anniversary of his first appearance as visiting guest conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and his departure, after twenty-one years, from his two principal posts with the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Sawallisch - an acclaimed interpreter of the music of Richard Strauss - chose Die Frau ohne Schatten to commemorate these anniversaries.

In his time Pierné was hugely successful as composer, conductor and organist—a sort of latter-day Saint-Saëns, and indeed his music is very reminiscent of that composer. The earliest three works on this CD were all written between 1885 and 1890 and could easily be mistaken for the older composer, the piano concerto even follows the unusual layout of Saint-Saëns' 2nd piano concerto in having a scherzo but no slow movement. The Poëme symphonique of 1903 is harmonically more daring and reminiscent of Franck. This work is a true orchestral symphonic poem with the piano fully integrated into the musical argument, it is also perhaps the most impressive work on this disc and its obscurity is inexplicable.

While most bluesy hard rock acts of the '70s and '80s hailed from the United States, there were several exceptions to the rule. Canadian singer/guitarist/keyboardist Pat Travers with his hard, edgy tone, rough and rowdy vocals, and barroom boogie aesthetic is a stellar example. Arriving during the reign of hard blues-rock guitar slingers such as Johnny Winter, George Thorogood, and Robin Trower, his eight-album run for Polydor from the self-titled 1976 debut through 1984's Hot Shot, netted seven Top 200 chart placements (all but one in the upper half) and two Top 40 singles, including the party anthem classic "Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights)."

Although Free was never destined to scrape the same skies as Led Zeppelin, when they first burst out of the traps in 1968, close to a year ahead of Jimmy Page and company, they set the world of British blues-rock firmly on its head, a blistering combination of youth, ambition, and, despite those tender years, experience that, across the course of their debut album, did indeed lay the groundwork for all that Zeppelin would embrace…

German band The Real Ax Band was formed by Marlon Klein and Toffi Mache in 1976. Between then and early 1977 people came and went while the group played dozens of small concerts in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Early in 1977 the line-up that made their first and only album coalesced when Ghana-born Maria Archer, Heinz-Otto Gwiasda and Dieter Miekautsch entered the frame. Maria Archer and Dieter Miekautsch were newly returned from Africa and were looking for a new band with whom they could perform. Both had already worked with Embryo.
Band mixed and matched rock, jazz, soul and Latino elements. In Maria Archer the group had a vocalist who sounded real when singing English, not like KrautRock's standard painful Anglo-American imitation…

Composer Anthony Cheung releases All Roads, a follow up to FCR215 Cycles and Arrows. Featuring performances by the Escher Quartet, violinist Miranda Cuckson, soprano Paulina Swierczek, and pianists Jacob Greenberg, Gilles Vonsattel, and Cheung himself, All Roads encapsulates Cheung's penchant for drawing on broad sources of inspiration and filtering them through an incisive and discriminating compositional process to produce substantial, structurally airtight works.

AMERICAN SCENES, from composer Samuel A. Livingston is, as its title suggests, a painterly tribute to America. The album’s title piece, Three American Scenes, is a three-movement suite that expresses the grandeur of the American west, the serenity of a mountain lake at dawn, and the bustle of a busy day in a large city. The album opens with Celebrating the Fourth, which depicts an American Fourth of July celebration. The final two selections feature works for concert band with a solo instrument – the flute, in Silvertube Variations, and the clarinet, in Balkan Dance. In that last selection, Livingston turns his attention beyond our shores, to the harmonies and rhythms of the folk music of the Balkan countries, especially Bulgaria and Macedonia. Altogether, AMERICAN SCENES is thoughtfully-crafted and unabashedly jubilant, expressing appreciation for America and the world beyond with refreshing sincerity.

Danny Elfman delivers Bigger. Messier., an ambitious double-album collection of remixed and reimagined tracks from his highly acclaimed Big Mess album.This sprawling, 23 track collection features tracks reworked by some of the most groundbreaking and subversive artists around today.

TEXTURES IN CLASSICS from renowned pianist and music scholar Sang-Hie Lee explores the rich musical possibilities offered by the piano. To do so, Lee performs works from some of the seminal composers in Western music including Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. The album captures Lee’s unique pianism at the height of her maturity as an artist. While contemporary performers often place an outsized emphasis on virtuosic technical skill, Lee’s performances examine the notion of texture in piano music; this ranges from the clean, crisp soundscape of Mozart’s early pianoforte to Beethoven’s exacting technique and lush harmonies. There is little doubt that TEXTURES IN CLASSICS will cement Lee’s legacy as a scholarly-artistic pianist.

Contemporary music needn’t sacrifice order and aesthetic appeal, even when it deals with complex issues. A glowing example of this is BORN: THE MUSIC OF EDIE HILL AND MICHAEL GILBERTSON, with conductor Donald Nally leading GRAMMY-winning professional chamber choir The Crossing on a breathtakingly beautiful expedition into themes of extinctions, relationships and their complexities, loss, and love.

John Francis Bongiovi, Jr. - American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as the founder, occasional rhythm guitarist, and lead singer of rock band Bon Jovi. Son of John Bongiovi, Sr. and nephew of Tony Bongiovi…

Bassist Jaco Pastorius' Word of Mouth orchestra was an unfulfilled dream, a worthy concept that did not last long enough to live up to its potential. Its debut album was released without a listing of the personnel, so here it is: Wayne Shorter, Michael Brecker, and Tom Scott on reeds, trumpeter Chuck Findley, the easily recognizable Toots Thielemans on harmonica, Howard Johnson on tuba, drummers Jack DeJohnette and Peter Erskine, and percussionist Don Alias. The music ranges from the Beatles' "Blackbird" and some Bach to Jaco originals that cover straight-ahead jazz, Coltrane-ish vamps, and fusion. Next to the bassist/leader, Thielemans emerges as the main voice.

Une compilation d'oeuvres du grand Jean-Sbastien Bach pour son pouse. Un incontournable de toute bibliothque musicale ! Cadeau Anna Magdalena Bach de son poux Jean-Sbastien, ce petit livre deviendra vite un album familial. Leurs fils (Johann Christian, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Gottfried Heinrich) l'utilisent galement pour leurs essais de composition. Pour autant, ce livre est aussi ouvert aux autres compositeurs de l'poque. On y trouve des partitions pour clavier (principalement des menuets, marches et polonaises) mais aussi des chants et des chorals. Cet enregistrement est servi par certains des plus grands artistes actuels de l'art baroque rassembls autour du claveciniste Olivier Baumont : Anne Magout, Christine Plubeau, Aurlien Delage et Julien Chauvin.