During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Bach family with its many branches occupied an exceptional position in Central German music life. Over several decades, its members were guarantors of high musical quality at numerous princely courts as well as at ecclesiastical and municipal institutions.

This second of two releases to mark the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s birth presents a further two major song collections by the composer, while bringing to light another selection of songs by his student Elizabeth Maconchy. Her works here are almost all unpublished and virtually unknown since their first performances from manuscript, and span several decades of the composer’s career from the time of her studies with Vaughan Williams in the mid-1920s through to her committed espousal of the British modernist aesthetic by the 1960s and 70s.

Claudio Arrau war das jüngste von drei Kindern der Eheleute Don Carlos und Lucretia Leon de Arrau. Seine Mutter, die bei seiner Geburt 43 Jahre alt war, erteilte Klavierunterricht.

With Jean-Baptiste Stuck's Polydore, Gyorgy Vashegyi's directing talents alight once again on a French opera from the era between Lully and Rameau. Whist Louis XIV's reign was gradually drawing to a close, his nephew, duke Philippe d'Orleans - due to become regent for Louis XV on the death of the child's great-grandfather, the Sun King - was greatly expanding his own court cultural activities (within which he had a pronounced predilection for Italian music).

Paris, London, Naples, Venice… and Lisbon! The cartography of the (late) baroque music of Europe gives an ever better overview also of the musical happenings in the Portuguese capital in the 18th century. The revival of the Portuguese musical heritage is one of the main activities of the Divino Sospiro orchestra under its director Masssimo Mazzeo. A particularly worthwhile discovery is the composer Pedro Antonio Avondano (1714-1782), descended from a dynasty of musicians of Italian origin who were active in Lisbon in the 18th century.

Flauguissimo duo, Yu-Wei Hu and Johan Löfving are joined by violinist Magdalena Loth-Hill, soprano Emily Atkinson, and viola da gamba player Henrik Persson for this recording of eighteenth-century sonatas, arias and trios by Johan Helmich Roman.

Bach composed ten partitas – three for solo violin, one for solo flute and six for keyboard. As the term partita may mean, to quote from the Oxford Composer Companion to Bach, “a suite of dances or a set of variations” – it is no more precise than many other musical terms. If there is no obvious difference between the partita and the suite, there seems to be no justification for two separate terms. In the sixteenth century partita indicated one of a sequence of variations, but this meaning evolved, coming to signify a collection of movements and later – by the time of Bach's keyboard partitas – a suite of dances.

The Waltzes of Chopin, like his Mazurkas and his Polonaises, bear witness to the composer’s predilection for dance forms. Most of them, however, are not for dancing, as, unlike the Strauss family, Chopin never intended to write dances, but to touch hearts and minds. Combining grace, poetry and refinement, these Waltzes are central in the piano repertoire and for almost two centuries they have been constantly rediscovered.

Bruckner entered new musical territory with his Sixth Symphony. The meandering harmonies, intricate rhythms and imaginative orchestration are coupled with contrasting moods and a theme that pleasantly moves from dark to light.

A few months after their self-titled seventh album announced the return of Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala as The Mars Volta, the group present a potent reimagining of that reunion opus. Much more than a simple “unplugged” reading of The Mars Volta’s 14 songs, this acoustic rendition furthers the mission of the source music, which drew into sharper focus the traditional Latin influences that have always inspired their music. This is, says Rodríguez-López, The Mars Volta’s version of a “folk record”, tracing the melodies and rhythms of the parent album back to their traditional Caribbean roots and challenging listeners to hear the group in an entirely new light.

Accomplished soloists, violinist Gidon Kremer and cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, bring forth the musical soul of Gubaidulina’s unique approach to compositions. The Kremerata Baltica backs the two musicians. A centerpiece on the album is Gubaidulina’s “The Lyre of Orpheus,” an emotional tribute to the memory of her daughter. With bare lyricism and inspired delivery, the ensemble dazzles with pulsating tones.

Natalie Imbruglia finds inspiration for her new album from her favourite male artists. "Male", her first album since 2009, is a collection of classic and contemporary songs all performed by men including Cat Stevens, Damien Rice, Tom Petty, Pete Townsend and Zac Brown Band among others. It is produced by Billy Mann, who has also worked with Pink, John Legend, Celine Dion and Sting, among others.

"Lords of Summer" is a song by heavy metal band Metallica. This song was released in 2014 as a Digital Single and a limited edition Black Friday vinyl single containing the studio version and a live version of the song.

"I Disappear" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica. The song was recorded as a contribution to the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks for seven weeks in summer 2000. It does not appear on any of Metallica's studio albums, making it the band's only standalone single. The song, which won a 2000 Metal Edge Readers' Choice Award for "Song of the Year From a Movie Soundtrack", is the last Metallica studio recording to feature bassist Jason Newsted.

Dead & Company recently revealed that their final tour will be in 2023, and now they've announced the dates for it.