Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony started life as a single-movement tone poem called Todtenfeier ('Funeral Rites'). Completed in 1888 one year before Richard Strauss' Death and Transfiguration it echoed the composer's vision of seeing himself lying dead in a funeral bier surrounded by flowers. Deciding to use it as his opening movement, Mahler didn't finish the complete five-movement symphony until more than six years later, the longest time he spent on any work.

Anyone can set out to perform and record a set of compositions by a given composer. But to truly take the time to bring listeners into the world of both composer and performer, and to engage the listener with as many senses as possible, makes for a truly exceptional recording. Such is the case with this album of Tartini's Sonatas for Solo Violin with violinist Chiara Banchini and soprano Patrizia Bovi. Tartini made a habit of writing excerpts from poetry in the margins of his scores – works that he presumably read before writing to gain inspiration.

Passion Jaroussky marks 20 years since Philippe Jaroussky made his professional debut and commenced his rapid ascent to stardom. As the French countertenor says, “Even after all these years, my passion for music is undimmed.” Ranging musically from the 16th to the 21st century, the triple album comprises both new recordings and highlights from recent albums, and it also showcases Jaroussky’s collaborations with a host of major singers – from the worlds of both classical music and pop – instrumentalists, conductors and orchestras.

A virtuoso pianist, Ferdinand Ries began composing piano sonatas at a time when the genre was undergoing significant changes from the models of Haydn and Mozart to new developments by Clementi, Beethoven and Hummel. Ries also pre-figures Schubert’s poignant harmonic language, Mendelssohn’s expressive sweetness and Chopin’s brilliant figurations, notably in The Dream. Opening with a stately polonaise in rondo form, Ries’s C major Sonata concludes with a thrilling perpetuum mobile finale. In his only named sonata, The Unfortunate, the influence of Beethoven’s Pathétique is apparent.

The beautifully played Sibelius recordings by conductor Leif Segerstam and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra have often been revelatory, not least in the much-neglected area of the composer's theater music. Segerstam found much of interest in the composer's incidental music, the forerunner of the soundtracks Sibelius might well have written if he had lived in our time. But Scaramouche, Op. 71, composed in 1913, is something else again: it is music for a pantomime, a genre not much in evidence for today (although it certainly has affinities with the music video). The action of the mostly wordless play (there were a few spoken passages, excised in this performance) was continuous, and so, thus, was Sibelius' music. It is thus a genuine piece of dramatic music, of which there is very little in the Sibelius catalog, and for the most part it has more to do with the developmental thinking of the symphonies than it does with the incidental music scores.

If you know the great orchestral works of English modernist composer Gerald Finzi – his cello and clarinet concertos, his Eclogue, and Grand Fantasia & Toccata for piano and orchestra – you don't know the half of Finzi. And even if you know his great setting of Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality" for tenor, chorus, and orchestra, you still don't know the best of Finzi. For the best of Finzi, try this two-disc set of his five-song cycle to poems by Thomas Hardy. Like Schubert with Müller, Finzi had a particular affinity for Hardy and his special brand of pantheistic pastoral pessimism and his settings have a depth of understanding and an authenticity of utterance that make them especially effective and affecting.

Virgin Killer (1976). Virgin Killer is the first of four studio releases that really defined the Scorpions and their highly influential urgent metallic sound. It was released in 1976 and was the first album of the band to attract attention outside Europe. The album was a step in the band's shift from psychedelic music to hard rock. For the first time in the band's career the line-up stayed the same with Klaus Meine on vocals, Uli Jon Roth on lead guitar, Rudolf Schenker on rhythm guitar, Francis Buchholz on bass, and Rudy Lenners on drums. The nine tracks were laid down with Dieter Dierks producing. The band is in top form and churns out some melodic yet blistering heavy rock. Virgin Killer is full of heavy songs and exceptionally, fast, innovative guitar leads by Uli Jon Roth. These songs are infectious and Uli's guitar solo on the Jimi Hendrix inspired "Polar Nights" exhibits the thunder-heavy riffs and grooves that make it a classic…

This is the first compilation sampling the blues roster of Alligator Records as it existed in its earliest incarnation. These 11 tunes capture several Chicago blues and modern soul-blues artists, including Lonnie Brooks, Koko Taylor, James Cotton, Jimmy Johnson, Hound Dog Taylor, Son Seals, Fenton Robinson, Albert Collins, as well as Johnny Winter, Lonnie Mack, and Roy Buchanan.

A surprising Bud Powell album for Reprise Records - and one of the label's hippest jazz titles ever! When Frank Sinatra first started up the Reprise imprint, he let Duke Ellington do a bit of A&R for the jazz division - and one of the first things Ellington did was capture the great Bud Powell in his then-local setting of Paris - in this rough edgey session that turned out to be one of Powell's last albums, and one of his best from the 60s. The record is nothing fancy on the outside - just simple piano trio versions of jazz standards like "Parisian Thoroughfare", "I Can't Get Started", "Jordu", and "Dear Old Stockholm" - but Powell's dark genius turns the tracks into jagged little razors, cutting with an emotional depth that's quite surprising. Duke Ellington produced - and trio members include Gilbert Rovere on bass and Carl Fields on drums.

Here is an excellent example of the US Progressive rock scene of the Seventies: having both technique and excellence, imagination & talent. They seemed to be influenced by a variety of styles. Their sound was a little folky at times, poppy at others, even a little jazzy at times, loosely in the shadow of Kansas, Yes, Genesis, early King Crimson and others, with lots of vocals everywhere.

There can only be one Chillout and Lounge Compilation Series being the market leader and it certainly is the Café Del Mar series! There have since been many imitators, but only one true Café Del Mar. No other album will reaffirm further this very simple statement than Volume 20 Includes exclusive tracks from Nightmares on Wax, Goldfrapp, Thievery Corporation, Rae & Christian, Penguin Café, Moby, M83, Morcheeba, Boards of Canada.

Bourgeois was born in Hainault, which today is a province of Belgium. Between 1700 and 1705 he was active as a church musician in Toul and Strasbourg, then went to Paris to sing as an haute-contre in the Académie Royale de Musique. He also gave music lessons and published his first compositions: a book with chamber cantatas and two ballet operas. In 1721 he was in charge of the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. He was forced to leave because of financial mismanagement, and went to The Hague, where he headed the French theatre.