This is also known as Piano Greats (according to Amazon). the album consists of three sides by Corea (featuring Hubert Laws, Woody Shaw , Bennie Maupin , Dave Holland , Jack DeJohnette , and …), and three sides by Mike Longo – to provide, according to the sleeve notes, "a brief rest between the more demanding works composed by Chick Corea".

This program is simply delicious As with other releases in this series, Howard Shelley plays Hummel with elegance and flair. Much of this music, particularly in the shorter concert works, is very brilliant and highly decorative, but Shelley never makes you feel as though it consists of empty note-spinning. The London Mozart Players accompany sensitively and with aplomb. A good time was clearly had by all, including the engineers, who provide vivid sonics.

Gathered here are two masterpieces of late 19th-century French orchestral music. Cesar Franck's Symphony in D minor (1888) is his only symphony. Drawing its lineage from later Beethoven and Schumann, it's very cohesive and its themes are quite distinct, remaining quite popular. Vincent d'Indy's Symphonie su un chant montagnard francais (1886) is a very efficient fusion of a symphony with a piano concerto. The themes are supple yet smoothly integrated into a three-movement tapestry that has also never seen its popularity fade. Many versions of these exist on disc, but Charles Dutoit seems to have a better feel than most.

Legendary British Blues Rock band Savoy Brown led by founding member Kim Simmonds, announces the release of their exciting new album, Ain't Done Yet, on Quarto Valley Records. The new album follows Savoy Brown's critically acclaimed 2019 album, City Night. "The new album continues the approach I've been taking with the band this past decade," says guitarist/singer/songwriter Kim Simmonds, who formed the band in 1965 in London, England, and is one of the longest running Blues Rock bands in existence. "The big difference with the new album is the multi-layer approach I took to recording the guitar parts. It's all blues-based rock music. I try to find new and progressive ways to write and play the music I've loved since I was a young teenager."

This disc present the essence of Grainger in many familiar pieces without the density of voices or the enchanting demands of richly dished-up arrangements. The piano is usually a sine qua non. The Arrival Platform Humlet is slightly Bachian. Stephen Orton and Hamish Milne play Scandinavie – a five movement suite for cello and piano. This encompasses soulful, Alfvén jolly and Griegian light romantic. It’s a surprise we do not hear this more often or indeed the other nicely calculated pieces here.

David Darling continues his extraordinary solo cello voyage launched on Journal October (1979) and continued with Cello (1992). The cinematic qualities of Darling's solo music has led to its use in films by Jean Luc Godard and Wim Wenders. Dark Wood inspires a different art form: the CD booklet contains a short story, 'Disturbing the Night', specially written to accompany the music by Barry Lopez, American author of the acclaimed Arctic Dreams. Lopez wrote the story as a literary counterpoint to the evocative music of Dark Wood. The music experiments further with the unique multi-tracking techniques used on Cello, creating haunting harmonies and rich textures.

Dee Dee Bridgewater performs 13 of Horace Silver's songs on her very well-conceived release. On most selections she is accompanied by her French quintet, but there are also two guest appearances apiece for organist Jimmy Smith and pianist Silver ("Nice's Dream" and "Song for My Father"). Bridgewater uplifts Silver's lyrics, proves to be in prime form, and swings up a storm. Other high points include "Filthy McNasty," "Doodlin'," and "Blowin' the Blues Away." A gem.

For her entry into the increasingly popular Great American Songbook subgenre, Diane Schuur de-emphasizes the vocal histrionics that in the past have come close to spoiling some of her recordings and maintains a steady, clear, exuberant tone. Good move: one of Schuur's gifts is her multi-octave range, but she has often over-relied on it at the expense of whatever song she was singing. Here, she takes to the classic compositions of George and Ira Gershwin, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, and the like with a respectfulness and glee that allow her to frame and expose these culturally embedded lyrics and melodies without beating on them.

It's hard to believe this CD was done with only a violin, viola da gama and harpsichord. This is polyphonic music at its finest. It does tribute to Buxtehude, who preceded Bach. The ensemble is perfect - the instruments complement each other. When they go from slow to fast, it is remarkable to hear the contrast. These are expert musicians with a complete mastery of their instruments. They use loud-soft as easily as any masters of the Baroque. The result is joyous, lively and entertaining.

In the words of a survey of nineteenth-century Italian opera, published by the Corriere della sera to mark the turning of the century, Mascagni was "condemned to a masterpiece": after the triumph of Cavalleria rusticana nothing less would do. He lived for another 55 years, and although some of his 14 subsequent operas were immensely successful for a while (he claimed that Iris was better received than Cavalleria, and there was a near-riot of enthusiasm at the premiere of Il piccolo Marat) none was judged by the critics to be the awaited 'masterpiece', and nearly all had fallen from the repertory by the end of his life.

Glyndebourne has wisely preserved the best of Melly Still's literal,cluttered and ugly 2009 staging; its world-class soundtrack;.Dvorak's operatic masterpiece is in Belohlavek's bones, and he gets a thrilling and luminous account of the ravishing score from the LPO on virtually flawless form. It is the most central European of london's symphonic bands, and certainly equals, if not surpasses, the idiomatic Czech Philharmonic on rival sets conducted by Vaclav Neumann (supraphon) and Charles Mackerras (Decca). Ana Maria Martinez's Rusalka-more warm -blooded than Gabriela Benackova , less self-indulgent then Renee Fleming-gives one of the most ecstatic acounts of the famous Song to the Moon on disc.

Helsinki music institution FIVE FIFTEEN delivers again, after more than 20 years of playing. Classic rock deluxe with roots in the 70's, but with an modern touch, and always excellent guitarwork by Mika Järvinen.