Most notable is a Liebestod of superbly controlled intensity. In the Narrative and Curse the exultant, passionate power of Varnay's singing exposes one hint of mannerism—a tendency to press too hard on certain syllables, and to seem, in consequence, an Isolde more unyielding than volatile. The difficulty a great Wagnerian can have in scaling her voice down is most noticeable in the first of the Wesendonk Lieder: Varnay is best in the rapt, inner intensity of No. 3, "Im Treibhaus". Such inner intensity is also abundant in the long extract from Act 2 of Tristan.

Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin is as well-loved by the public as he is appreciated by his peers, who awarded him the Canada Council for the Arts Virginia Parker Prize in September 2000. At the helm of the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal since March 2000, Yannick Nézet-Séguin has worked tirelessly to broaden the scope of the orchestra’s involvement in a variety of venues, while always maintaining his own rigorous standards and keeping in close touch with the music-loving public.

This live recording brings a new and fresh light on Rossini's most famous works after Il Barbiere di Siviglia. The concert took place in Paris - Basilique de Saint-Denis, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the work, first performed in March 1864, in Paris. The amazing quality of the solo voices (Julia Lezhneva, Delphine Galou, Michael Spyres, Alexander Vinogradov) meets the dynamic and delicate direction of Ottavio Dantone and is supported by the unique atmosphere of accentus chamber choir.

Vivaldi is best known as a composer of instrumental music, but the man has also written a lot of secular vocal music, from large-scale operas to the more intimate cantatas. "La Senna festeggiante" is not a real opera, but a 'serenata', a word derived from the Italian 'sereno' (clear). The genre was so named because the spectacles in question were performed outdoors on clear, warm summer nights. Serenatas were usually written by order of a nobleman or high clergyman, as part of large celebrations to mark a special event such as a birthday, the birth of an heir, a marriage, the arrival of an important person, and so on. They were usually performed in the principal's palace garden.

"The Best Of Jazz Fusion" is a compilation album released in 1994 under the Nectar (or Nektar) label. Compiled By – Nic Moran.

Joe Jackson's debut single, 'Is She Really Going Out With Him?', was not an immediate hit; however, by the time his debut album Look Sharp! Was released, the song had reached charts in the U.K. and U.S., earning him a gold record. For the follow-up, he produced the top 5 hit 'It's Different For Girls', Joe received the highest musical accolade of the Netherlands, the Edison Award. After two edgy new wave pop records, his next tracks included some reggae influences such as the tracks 'One to One' and 'Mad At You', while Jumpin' Jive - recorded with jazz musicians - was full of old jump blues and swing tunes. The huge commercial success came with his crafted pop songs 'Steppin' Out' and jazzy 'Breaking Us In Two' climbing the charts worldwide. Joe Jackson produced even jazzier hits in 1984 such as 'Happy Ending', (a duet with Elaine Caswell), 'Be My Number Two' and 'You Can't Get What You Want'. The album Big World (1986), a live album of entirely new material including 'Home Town', was recorded during six concerts.

One of the finest Aaron Neville compilations available, 2008’s two-disc GOLD presents highlights from the New Orleans-born singer’s decades-spanning solo career. Neville’s soulful, soaring voice is fully showcased on hits such as the emotive “Don’t Know Much” (with Linda Ronstadt), his easy-going version of Main Ingredient’s “Everybody Plays the Fool,” and Sam Cooke's “A Change Is Gonna Come.”

For listeners willing to overlook the fact that this Crusaders retrospective begins the story in 1970 – nine years after the combo began recording excellent hard bop and soul-jazz – the two-disc set Gold is just as good and nearly as thorough as the 1996 four-disc box Way Back Home. (Since the running time is only 17 seconds shy of 160 minutes, it's truly jam-packed.) Focusing on the '70s allows the set to dwell considerably on each record the group released during the decade that produced its most popular (although not most rewarding) music. After grabbing a pair of tracks from the Crusaders' two Chisa LPs of 1970-1971, the set moves on to the Blue Thumb years with multiple selections from every main album of the '70s – 1, The 2nd Crusade, Scratch, Chain Reaction, Free as the Wind. The material is primarily fusion and jazz-funk, moving into crossover jazz by the second disc, and while the group never quite matched great themes with great grooves, this is the easiest way to get to the heart of their discography. (Rare groove fanatics may agree or disagree with the inclusion of the shortened 12" version of "Street Life," although it still clocks in north of five minutes.)

The Choir of Girton College, Cambridge, continues its pioneering exploration of the music of the Italian Renaissance master Marc’Antonio Ingegneri (c. 1535/36–92) with a journey through the liturgical year, as mirrored in Ingegneri’s motets. A ‘concept album’ of Renaissance polyphony may be an unusual undertaking, but this one illustrates how Ingegneri took his lead from the emotions implicit in each major celebration of the church – from sorrow and awe to joy and jubilation – expressed in music of extraordinary beauty, belying the internal complexity that gives it its emotional power.

Anthology is a compilation album by The Alan Parsons Project. This compilation of songs was released by Arista Records in 1991, as part of their "Connoisseur Collection" series. Note that the tracks are in chronological order.

Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was the guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of the Velvet Underground, and his solo career spanned five decades. Reed began a solo career in 1972. Reed was known for his distinctive deadpan voice and poetic lyrics, and for pioneering and coining the term ostrich guitar tuning. Rolling Stone magazine voted Reed's 1989 New York album the 19th best of the 1980s. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time included two albums by Reed as a solo artist: Transformer and Berlin. Rock n Roll Animal is a live album by Lou Reed, released in 1974. In its original form, it features five songs, four of which are Velvet Underground songs. They are all re-arranged into what will later be called a powerful glam rock set. The album was recorded live on December 21, 1973, at Howard Stein's Academy of Music in New York. A remastered version was released on CD in 2000. It featured two tracks not included on the original LP or 1990 CD release.

Stand in Line is the first studio album by heavy metal band Impellitteri, released in 1988 through Relativity Records. The album reached No. 91 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and remained on that chart for twenty weeks. Whitney Z. Gomes at AllMusic gave Stand in Line four stars out of five, noting "Secret Lover", "Tonight I Fly", "Goodnight and Goodbye" and the title track as highlights. He mainly praised singer Graham Bonnet's vocals throughout the album, but heavily criticized the guitarist and bandleader Chris Impellitteri's cover versions of "Since You Been Gone" and "Over the Rainbow" as "excessive and useless", writing that they "almost [run] the record into the ground". Further criticism was directed at the album's mixing and production, but he concluded by saying, "When Stand in Line works, it rules."

Armchair Theatre is the first solo album by Jeff Lynne, released in 1990. The album reunited Lynne with Electric Light Orchestra's keyboard player Richard Tandy and featured fellow Traveling Wilburys member George Harrison. A remaster by Frontiers was released on 19 April 2013 in the UK, and on 23 April 2013 in the US, and included two bonus tracks, one of them being previously unreleased.

The Devils Orchard (Live At Rock Hard Festival 2009) is a live gem an exclusive cd album that came with the September 2011 issue of the German Metal Hammer magazine. It has an advance copy of the album version (from Heritage) of The Devil’s Ochard, which was still a week or so from the albums release. The album clocks in at about an hour, making it as long as a full-length album. While the sound of the live recording is not quite as sharp as those of Opeth’s other live albums, it’s much better than bootleg quality, as this is basically an official release, although a very limited one. The physical cd is high-quality, with a beautiful cover and a booklet that opens up to a great two-panel photo of Opeth onstage at the 2009 Rock Hard Festival…

If The Times They Are a-Changin' isn't a marked step forward from The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, even if it is his first collection of all originals, it's nevertheless a fine collection all the same. It isn't as rich as Freewheelin', and Dylan has tempered his sense of humor considerably, choosing to concentrate on social protests in the style of "Blowin' in the Wind." With the title track, he wrote an anthem that nearly equaled that song, and "With God on Our Side" and "Only a Pawn in Their Game" are nearly as good, while "Ballad of Hollis Brown" and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" are remarkably skilled re-castings of contemporary tales of injustice. His absurdity is missed, but he makes up for it with the wonderful "One Too Many Mornings" and "Boots of Spanish Leather," two lovely classics…