Hans Neuenfels, the luminary of modern director’s theatre, provides a compelling, multi-layered staging of Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame at Salzburg Festival. In the stark, mostly abstract sets by Christian Schmidt, Neuenfels ‘draws gripping performances from a strong cast’ (The New York Times) including Brandon Jovanovich and Evgenia Muraveva in the title roles of Herman and Lisa and legendary singer Hanna Schwarz as Countess. Mariss Jansons, ‘a compelling director in his element’ (The New York Times) makes his rare appearance as an opera conductor, at the helm of the Wiener Philharmoniker – ‘Another triumph in this hot festival summer!’ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung). Mariss Jansons, ‘maybe the best connoisseur of this unjustly neglected opera’ (Süddeutsche Zeitung), turns this Queen of Spades with as much verve as sensitivity into a ‘captivating musical drama’ (Die Zeit).

Rainmaker is the 1980 debut album by Kevin Moore, now more commonly known as Keb' Mo'. The album features the songs "Rainmaker" and "Anybody Seen My Girl" which were each re-released in Moore's later releases Slow Down and Keb' Mo' respectively.

In response to critical carping that his ambitious, evocative music somehow didn't swing enough, Charles Mingus returned to the earthiest and earliest sources of black musical expression, namely the blues, gospel, and old-time New Orleans jazz. The resulting LP, Blues and Roots, isn't quite as wildly eclectic as usual, but it ranks as arguably Mingus' most joyously swinging outing. Working with simple forms, Mingus boosts the complexity of the music by assembling a nine-piece outfit and arranging multiple lines to be played simultaneously - somewhat akin to the Dixieland ensembles of old, but with an acutely modern flavor. Anyone who had heard "Haitian Fight Song" shouldn't have been surprised that such an album was well within Mingus' range, but jazz's self-appointed guardians have long greeted innovation with reactionary distaste…

This CD's title, Messe Noire, and its dark cover art may mislead some into thinking this album is filled with evil, forbidden things; but the only selection that suggests the diabolical is Alexander Scriabin's macabre Sonata No. 9, "Black Mass," and it comes at the very end, after Igor Stravinsky's light, neo-Classical Serenade in A, Dmitry Shostakovich's sardonic Sonata No. 2, and Sergey Prokofiev's witty but brutal knuckle-buster, the Sonata No. 7, which all have their dark moments, certainly, but not the same sinister mood found in Scriabin. If pianist Aleksei Lubimov's aim in bringing these Russian masterworks together points to some other unifying idea – perhaps the significance of the piano in these composers' thinking – then some other title might have been more helpful. As it is, though, this album seems most unified in Lubimov's vigorous style of playing, brittle execution, and emphasis on the piano's percussive sonorities, evident in each performance. This spiky approach works best in Prokofiev's sonata, and fairly well in Shostakovich's and Stravinsky's pieces; but it seems too sterile in Scriabin's music, which needs more languor and sensuous writhing than clarity or crispness.

Following TSOP's first Omnibus box set subtitled "The Early Years" from 2018, this new set contains the albums On We Sail (2017), Archiviarum (2018), Toki No Kaze (2019) and Beyond the Wardrobe (2020) with five bonus tracks.
A must for the festive period when one can spoil one-self, beautiful presentation mini LP style card box sleeve package with extensive booklet as ever by Ed Unitsky. 4 disc with bonus tracks, symphonic prog of the highest quality. Limited issue so don't miss out.

The third in Klaus Schulze's series of three-disc compilations of live and rare material (all of it previously released in his 50-disc Ultimate Edition box from 2000) is pure bliss for fans of early-'70s analog synthesizer music. The melodies swoop and whoosh like comets passing by a slowly drifting space station manned by dudes and ladies in unisex jumpsuits with long, perfectly coiffed hair, and beards on the men. Close your eyes and you're there. Many of these tracks are grouped into half-hour suites, but at the same time the whole nearly four-hour document can be seen as one solid piece of art, or a shaving from a vast iceberg. Schulze's droning pulses are like the rhythm of the universe, unending and, while beautiful, totally inhuman. If Kraftwerk was the sound of musicians attempting to become machines, Klaus Schulze's work is the sound of one musician attempting to become a planet. The beeping rhythms, like a heart monitor, provide a slight anchor to keep one from floating away completely as this music spins itself out in ever wider spiraling arcs across endless vistas of empty space, but the ultimate effect is near-total trance.

The R&B elements get stronger, the sound and mix are more attuned to the dancefloor, yet this brings out the best in George Benson's funky side. Thanks in part to the more rigid beat, Benson pares down his style to its rhythmic essentials, refusing to spray notes all over the place at random, and as a result, the record cooks and dances. His treatment of Vince Guaraldi's "Cast Your Fate to the Wind," hugely complemented by Joe Farrell's wistfully prancing flute, is a mini-masterpiece in the use of space, of hitting exactly the right stabbing note right in the pocket. Again, Creed Taylor turns to a James Brown alumnus, David Matthews, for arrangements, and he discreetly and wisely stays out of Bad George's way. Buy this one for "Cast Your Fate," but there is plenty more to savor here.

This one-man extravaganza finds John Fogerty plowing the same ground he worked with Creedence Clearwater Revival. This mix of originals and rock & roll classics finds him in fine voice, with the familiar vocal scream and hot guitars augmented in places by saxophones reminiscent of CCR's "Travelin' Band." Several of these songs rank with the top tier of Fogerty's Creedence material, particularly "The Wall," "Almost Saturday Night," and the anthemic "Rockin' All Over the World." He also delivers satisfying versions of Jackie Wilson's "Lonely Teardrops" and Frankie Ford's "Sea Cruise" (written by Huey "Piano" Smith). The closer, "Flyin' Away," could have come off the Doobie Brothers' Toulouse Street. This underappreciated album is worth checking out.

Tensongs is the fourth studio album by the German synthpop band Hubert Kah, and their first English language album, released in 1986. It was produced by Michael Cretu and Armand Volker. Three singles were released from the album: "Limousine", "Something I Should Know" and "Love Is So Sensible". The opening track "Pogo the Clown" is based on the American serial killer John Wayne Gacy. "Get Strange" featured on the 1986 film Rad.
Tensongs is somewhat a cross between German synth-group Yello of the 80's and Alphaville. Kah's music has a cold yet dramatically likeable sound with rich synthesized textures. Lead singer Hubert Kemmler's voice is what adds the warmth and likeability factor to this material.

It's hard to imagine a better-produced package of Moby Grape's work than this two-disc, 48-track condensation of their best late-'60s recordings. The first disc of this set centers around their entire 1967 self-titled debut LP (included in its entirety), which mixed blues, country, and folk influences with hard-charging psychedelic rock & roll. The result was one of the Summer of Love's more enduring works. The second disc boils their wildly inconsistent 1968-69 material down to a fairly strong and coherent selection. While it doesn't match the peak of the group's initial burst, it features some strong folk and country-rock originals that wear much better in the absence of the bloated jams and half-baked hard rock that could make their albums a chore to sit through. Each disc includes interesting demos, outtakes, and live performances…