Sic transit gloria mundi – so vergeht der Ruhm der Welt, dieser alte lateinische Spruch kommt unwillkürlich dem in den Sinn, der sich mit Leben und Werk von Bernhard Romberg beschäftigt. Zu Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts gefeiert als exzellenter Virtuose auf dem Violoncello und anerkannt als einer der wichtigsten zeitgenössischen Komponisten drohte er schon gegen Ende seines Lebens als veraltet und sich selbst überlebt habend zu gelten.

L'abbaye de Chevetogne (que l'on appelle parfois également monastère de l'Union) est un monastère bénédictins de rite latin et byzantin situé à Chevetogne, province de Namur, Belgique. Fondée à Amay par Dom Lambert Beauduin, la communauté monastique s'est installée dans son prieuré à Chevetogne en 1939 et élevé en abbaye en 1990.

This is one of the best recordings I have ever heard. Jansons' phrasing is marvelous. The music emerges from a mist, taking shape slowly. In the finale, at around 7:30, the brass have a phrasing about it that casts a hollow, sanguinary shadow to events. The sudden 'end' to the massacre is greeted by the most haunting aural image I've ever heard. The chimes (?) at the close of the second movement is arresting. Then there is the bassoon in the third movement…how does Jansons get the player to produce that sound?? There is a seamless quality to the stings, as if Jansons was having them play 'bogen frie' (as Stokowski called it) or use free bowing. These are just some of the wonderful moments in this symphony.

Vocalist Michael Bublé's 2013 studio album, To Be Loved, is a slick and classy Bob Rock-produced affair that follows up his hit 2011 holiday album, Christmas, and once again showcases the Canadian crooner's take on swinging pop music. Most longtime Bublé fans will have a sense of what to expect here and, in that sense, should be quite pleased with the album. As with previous Bublé releases, To Be Loved finds the vocalist tackling a handful of American Popular Song standards and some more contemporary pop covers. This time around, Bublé even peppers the album with a few very vintage '60s soul-sounding numbers. To these ends, Bublé kicks things off with a brightly swinging take on "You Make Me Feel So Young," turns in a neo-soul version of the Bee Gees "To Love Somebody," and digs deep into Smokey Robinson's "Who's Lovin' You." Also adding flavor here are a few guest appearances including duets with actress Reese Witherspoon, Bryan Adams, and the Puppini Sisters.

Noted as a "maximalist" for his densely textured, intricately constructed serial works, Brian Ferneyhough is a challenging composer by any standard, and his uncompromising and intensely demanding scores are some of the most original of the late avant-garde. In such complicated chamber works as Funérailles I (1969-1977) and Funérailles II (1969-1980), both versions for seven strings and harp, Ferneyhough presents thickets of notes and short gestures that are tightly organized, but so abrupt and pointillistic that the lay listener may mistake them as random fragments, not at all as recurring ideas. Similarly, in the rhythmically layered Bone Alphabet for percussion (1991) and the angular Unsichtbare Farben (Invisible Colors) for solo violin (1999), the ear can only take in the surfaces of the music, having no way to grasp the underlying patterns that are employed. Yet it would be a mistake to think these pieces are just cerebral exercises, since Ferneyhough is too good a composer to pass off intellectual doodles as serious work. While there are designs in these pieces only a theoretician may comprehend and abrasive sonorities only a die-hard modernist may love, there are points of tension and release that are easily perceived, and textures and timbres that a prepared listener may appreciate without too much strain.

This collection of Artie Shaw big band recordings comes from his brief association with the Musicraft label. Having assembled and broken up several earlier units, this edition, heard in recordings made between 1945 and 1946, is more of an arranger's band than one that features many soloists, other than the leader. During this period of Shaw's career, he was constantly changing the instrumentation of his band and making personnel substitutions. Fellow Musicraft artist Mel Tormé and his group the Mel-Tones are added on some tracks, though this was a studio relationship exclusively and they were not a part of Shaw's organization. The innovative blend of strings, voices and brass in the swinging arrangement of "What Is This Thing Called Love" is the highlight of the vocal selections, along with an updated instrumental version of the clarinetist's earlier hit, "Begin the Beguine." The only reservation about this compilation is that several tracks are abruptly faded or even truncated.

This 16-track compilation covers Senegalese singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Youssou N'Dour's Columbia Records period, from 1991 to 1996. Perhaps the most popular pop culture figure in Senegal's history, N'Dour created a music of his own from various sources, which he called "mbalax" and which incorporates everything from jazz, soul, hard R&B styles, hip-hop, and even Cuban samba, and juxtaposes them with the folk melodies and polyrhythms of his native land. The cuts here, particularly "Old Man," "New Africa," "Yo le Le, (Fulani Rhythm)," and the covers of Smokey Robinson's "Don't Look Back," and Lennon and McCartney's "Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da," reveal N'Dour's idiosyncratic, yet very accessible grasp and integration of Western and African pop styles.

Queen drummer Roger Taylor's first solo album is a fairly strong set of up-tempo rockers and well-written ballads featuring Taylor's rough voice and effective croon. Much of the material is reminiscent of Taylor's work for Queen - more guitar-based and less bombastic than the work of his cohorts in that band. That's not to say Taylor doesn't get over-dramatic. On "Future Management" and "Magic Is Loose," Taylor's vocals are quite over the top. However, "No Violins" and "Let's Get Crazy" balance things out with some fairly straightforward rock numbers that show the influence of 1950s rock & roll. Surprisingly, Taylor, who rarely wrote a ballad with Queen, shows himself quite adept at writing slower pieces on the lovely "Laugh or Cry"…

Swedish composer Melcher Melchers (1882–1961) has been largely forgotten by music history. Melchers studied composition in Paris and his circle of friends included, among others, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, Guillaume Apollinaire, Erik Satie, and members of Les Six. Among the Nordic composers he had the biggest impact on the French music life but his aesthetics in music were quite conservative: d’Indy, Chausson and César Franck were his greatest influences. This album by the Gävle Symphony Orchestra and conductor Jaime Martín includes Melchers’ magnum opus, his finely crafted Symphony in D minor, Op. 19 together with world première recordings of two symphonic poems.

Nine years after his "No Decoder", RPWL frontman Yogi Lang announces a new solo album -expectations are high after such a long time. The new album titled "A Way Out Of Here" not only offers a colourful palette of art rock with its nine songs, but also illuminates the essentials of life with all obstacles, fears and rays of hope. A song-serving brilliant band, analog synthesizers and epic choirs provide the basis for Yogi Lang’s gilmouresque voice.