2016 three CD collection. 10cc's witty and satiric brand of tongue-in-cheek art pop sustained their reputation for being poignant songwriters for the entirety of their existence. They have notched up over 15 million album sales in the UK and frontman Graham Gouldman has been the recipient of three Ivor Novello Awards for achievements in songwriting. This collection features two #1 hits and a selection of prime cuts taken from across a very strong back catalog and features rare live versions of some of the band's most well-known tracks.

An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band: First Set is the thirteenth album by the rock group the Allman Brothers Band. It was recorded live in December 1991 and March 1992, and released in 1992. An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band: First Set was the first live Allman Brothers Band album, and the third overall, to feature Warren Haynes on guitar and Allen Woody on bass. Haynes and Woody had joined the group when it reformed in 1989.

THREE CELLO SUITES from clarinetist Joshua Ranz and Navona Records is a truly groundbreaking take on Bach’s legendary works; In this album, for the first time ever, listeners may enjoy three unabridged cello suites by Bach arranged for the bass clarinet. Ranz selected Suites 1, 4, and 2 for this recording because, together, they form a cohesive and dynamic whole. Ranz holds the chair of principal clarinet for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and has played on such blockbuster soundtracks as Toy Story 3 and 4, and Star Wars episodes VII and IX. He can be heard prominently featured in La La Land, Catch Me If You Can, and An American Pickle. Ranz lends a fresh voice to Bach’s profoundly-beautiful music in THREE CELLO SUITES.

The young Austrian soprano Miriam Feuersinger presents her debut CD accompanied by the Capricornus Consort Basel with a selection of several cantatas by the Kapellmeister at the Darmstadt court. With the agreeable timbre of her easily appealing voice, she succeeds wonderfully in recreating the appropriate tone of Graupner's sensuous cantata style. As with those of Bach, the cantatas of Graupner aim to stir the listener, but without sacrificing intellectual elegance or even the composure fitting for a predominantly courtly community. Unlike the confidently catchy Telemann, Graupner prefers a refined and subtle elaboration that audibly reckons with skilful interpreters and always seeks to move the listener. Despite all these advantages, the discographical exploration of Graupner's over 1400 cantatas has only just begun.

David Zinman's audiophile series of Gustav Mahler's symphonies for RCA has garnered much critical praise, due mainly to the coherence of his musical interpretations and the marvelous clarity of the playing by the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. Both qualities are vital to understanding Mahler, whose intensely varied music is never easily pinned down, and often just as easily muddled. The Symphony No. 7 in E minor, unofficially nicknamed "The Song of the Night," is one of Mahler's most complicated works because it contains a sprawling symphonic dirge, a haunted yet charmingly pastoral nocturne, a grim danse macabre, a humorously amorous serenade, and a rondo finale based on nineteenth century musical clichés, all designed to showcase the many moods and mood swings of Mahler, perhaps the most complicated composer of the twentieth century.

Almost a forgotten album, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart takes listeners to the deepest, most inward areas of Van Morrison's renegade Irish soul, the culmination of his spiritual jazz period and also – perhaps not coincidentally – the last record he made for Warner Bros. Four of the 11 tracks are moody instrumentals, which might partly explain the indifference of many rock critics toward the album, although the album's very title gives a clue to their presence. The mood is predominantly mellow but never flaccid or complacent; there is a radiance that glows throughout. "Higher Than the World" is simply one of the most beautiful recordings Morrison ever made, with Mark Isham's choir-like synthesizer laying down the lovely backdrop. The instrumental "Connswater" is the most Irish-flavored piece that Morrison had made up to that point, and would continue to be until he recorded with the Chieftains in 1988. "Rave on, John Donne" – in part a recitation invoking a roster of writers over a supple two-chord vamp – seems to have had the longest afterlife, reappearing in Morrison's live shows and greatest-hits compilations.

Thom Brennan's Mountains is one of the finest and most ambient offerings that Thom Brennan had made thus far. Thom Brennan's Mountains explores deep and profoundly resonant sonic atmospheres that evoke the beauty of moonlight shining down upon a mountainous peak as one watches from miles away. This is an excellently consonant recording and one that is firmly based in the sounds of beautiful synthesizer music, along the lines of Steve Roach's quieter stuff, including Quiet Music-Complete and The Dream Circle. This recording is interesting because it's as if all of the sequenced beats and drumming have been removed from Thom Brennan's beautiful work and listeners are left instead with these slowly evolving sonic timbres. In places Thom Brennan's sequenced rhythms do come into play, but they are not as prominent as they are in some of his other works. Mountains is a fantastic recording, and one that is very accessible to fans of space, new age, electronic, and ambient music alike. This is a great recording, and one that is highly recommended.

The surrounding nature always formed an integral source of inspiration for Finland’s ‘national composer’ Jean Sibelius. In his youth the composer imagined birds as various instruments of the orchestra, but also in his mature compositions the element of nature is very much present. When Sibelius moved to his home, Ainola, in 1904 – a place where he was to live and compose until his death in 1957 – his only request was a view to the lake nearby. As Sibelius’ biographer wrote: “When Sibelius first left Helsinki, Järvenpää [where Ainola is located] was to a large extent untouched countryside. Foals and sheep almost nosed their way into the house, and from time to time an elk majestically bestrode the grounds.” This peaceful environment inspired Sibelius to write the main part of his catalogue of works.