Mingus Ah Um is a studio album by American jazz musician Charles Mingus, released in 1959 by Columbia Records. It was his first album recorded for Columbia. The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD calls this album "an extended tribute to ancestors" (and awards it one of their rare crowns), and Mingus's musical forebears figure largely throughout.

"Into the Music" is the 11th studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, and was released in August 1979. It includes "Bright Side of the Road", which peaked at number 63 on the UK Singles Chart, and other songs in which Morrison sought to return to his more profound and transcendent style after the pop-oriented Wavelength. The record received favorable reviews from several music critics and was named as one of the year's best albums in the Pazz & Jop critics' poll.

Erkki-Sven Tüür, born in Estonia in 1959, writes music that is characterised by intense energetic transformation. The intuitive and rational approach is synthesised into a complete organic system. He is the composer of nine symphonies, ten concertos, numerous chamber works and an opera. Dedicated to his compatriot Paavo Järvi and composed to mark the centenary of the Estonian Republic in 2018, Tüür’s Ninth Symphony is entitled "Mythos". According to the composer, this refers to the myths that arise about nations and how they have acquired their independence, and also deals with the long history of the Finno-Ugric peoples.

The early nineteenth century was an era of great stylistic changes in music, as composers searched for new forms of expression and tonal possibilities, which spurred rapid innovation in the field of instrument design and manufacturing. A larger sound spectrum and greater variety of technical possibilities became a defined ideal. Ludwig van Beethoven and Friedrich Kuhlau were musical giants of their time, both seeking to exploit fully the potential brought by these new developments. Beethovens Serenade bends the boundaries of Classicism with impulsive dynamic changes and contrasting motifs, while Kuhlaus Grande Sonate Concertante eagerly explores a more Romantic aesthetic, containing an expressive freedom in its virtuosic writing and rich harmonic textures.

The Orchestre national d’Auvergne invite us to dive into the lyricism of the musical universe of Berg, Webern and Schreker.

Some works seem to echo one another, resounding across eras with a quasi-mystical correspondence that invites us into a strange voyage. Gathering ‘the last Liszt’ and ‘the last Scriabin’ on the same album struck me as obvious. To me, they both have a marvellously indescribable capacity to allow listeners to hear mystery, to create unique soundscapes, to explore ever further and farther, always to innovate and to extend the limits of a certain ending.

The year 1802 was a decisive one for Beethoven. In the autumn, he wrote the Heiligenstadt Testament, in which he clearly expressed his awareness of the outcome of his inexorably increasing deafness. At almost the same time, he told his friend Krumpholz that he was, "not satisfied" with his "work so far," and he was planning to embark on "a new path." The works, skillfully grouped together by Andreas Staier, correspond precisely to that new direction.