François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles offer us a double-sided portrait of Saint-Saëns here. On one side, some of the most fascinating symphonic poems of French Romanticism are revealed in all the shimmering timbres of the period. On the other, we rediscover a composer who enjoyed a good laugh (The Carnival of the Animals also returns to it's original colors), when he was not involved in the early days of the cinema, with the very first music ever composed for a film.

The journey continues: Deutsche Grammophon is releasing an exclusive box set of Rachmaninov's four piano concertos, recorded by Daniil Trifonov and the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézét -Séguin, to mark the 150th Rachmaninov anniversary. Also included are the Paganini Rhapsody, as well as Trifonov's own Rachmaninov transcriptions.

Gordon Jacob’s Piano Concerto no.2 in E flat was completed in 1957 and premiered on 11 July of that year at the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth by the soloist Edith Vogel. A Proms performance took place at the Royal Albert Hall on 9 August 1957 with the same soloist. A review in The Times of the 1957 Proms performance of Gordon Jacob’s Piano Concerto No.2 declared that ‘the composer’s masterly understanding of the orchestra enables him to express each idea economically and in the most clean and attractive colours’, while The Sunday Times’ critic wrote that, ‘having taught the craft of orchestration to a whole generation of composers, Dr. Jacob is himself a past master at clear and effective scoring’.

Tomorrow Blue is the second album by the Swiss rock band Toad released in 1972. It was the second Toad album engineered by British producer Martin Birch. Musically, their songs take over a more blues mood on this album, although they didn't totally abandon the hard rock/prog rock sound they previously had.

With "Nephilim Grove," Chicago's Novembers Doom celebrate their 30th anniversary in style, building upon the grandiose vision founder Paul Kuhr has developed throughout the years. As an entity existing in his singular musical universe of doom, death and progressive metal, the band by now dodges all endeavors of categorization.
From the rolling thunder that is 'Petrichor' across the goth-tinged title track and 'Black Light,' which marries thrashing outbursts with melodic finesse, to the dramatic finale 'The Obelus,' the record marks nothing less than a stately upgrade of genre.

Recorded - Grosser Saal, Musikverein, Vienna 27th May 1953. During the 1950's, Karl Böhm made a handful of orchestral recordings for Decca with the Wiener Philharmoniker of, music by, among others, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Weber. Reappearing here, for the first time on CD, internationally, are his swift recordings of Beethoven's Eighth and of two Schubert symphonies (Nos. 5 and 8). Never imposing his will too strongly on his Viennese orchestra - and they had these classics in their blood - he directs performances that are fresh and gives full rein to the Vienna Philharmonic's wonderful tonal resources. Add the acoustic of the Grosser Saal at the Musikverein, familiar as daily bread to all the participants, and you have the best kind of tradition.

This project showcases a union between two artists expressing their infinite love of the piano after years of joint concerts and international collaboration.

As the name implies, the album features old music, mainly compositions from the Renaissance and Baroque eras, which in the warm but unconventional embrace of this unique band receive a new, significantly different interpretations from the traditional. The backgrounds of the musicians range from jazz music to baroque, Argentine tango to contemporary music, improvisation and all kinds of experimentation. This has made the collaboration of the quartet a real exploration during its six-year history.

As the piano came into its own in the mid-19th century, the Vienna-born/French-based Henri Herz (1803-1888) all but dominated the scene as a brilliant virtuoso, popular teacher, and best-selling composer. Listening to this first CD entirely devoted to his solo piano works, you can understand Herz’s one-time appeal, as well as why his music predeceased him. As the Op. 81 variations, the nocturnes, and the ballades demonstrate, Herz was a charming yet unmemorable melodist, whose intricate yet harmonically bland keyboard textures go in one ear and out the other. Flashy devices such as tremolos and repeated notes (Herz adored repeated notes) tend to wear out their welcome long after they’ve made their virtuosic point. You sense this in long stretches of the Fantasie dramatique (based upon “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”) and in Op. 158’s “Yankee Doodle” section. And Le mouvement perpetual owes its existence to Weber’s earlier and far more concise rondo finale from the Piano Sonata No. 1. Herz may not be a great composer, yet his stuff certainly is fun to digest in small doses, especially when you consider Philip Martin’s appropriately light and colorful touch, supple finger work, and marvelous sense of dramatic timing.

"Thunder in My Heart" and "Easy to Love" barely nicked the Top 40, and of his eight chart hits from 1975 to 1981, these two were the weakest, but this disco album by the quirky singer, once again produced by Richard Perry, is listenable and has more than its share of good players. Olivia Newton-John songwriter Tom Snow co-wrote the title track with Sayer, while Albert Hammond helped out on the second song and follow-up hit. Half of the ten songs are Snow co-writes, with Hammond, Michael Omartian, Bruce Roberts, and others all contributing. The second Hammond/Sayer title, "I Want You Back," is a pleasant album track, but with Omartian on piano, Jeff Porcaro on drums, and Larry Carlton on guitar, Perry could just put the session on automatic pilot.