The plot of La cambiale di matrimonie, which Rossini composed when he was just eighteen years old, revolves around the farcical attempts of Tobia Mill, a rich English merchant, to combine business with pleasure by forcing this daughter, the lovely Fanny (“the merchandise”) to marry Slook, his rich colonial correspondent from America, by means of a bill of exchange. Eventually, it is the gallant Slook himself who persuades Mill to allow Fanny to marry her true love, Edoardo Milfort. This Rossini Opera Festival—Pesaro production features two well-established singers, Désirée Rancatore and Saimir Pirgu, who are joined by three promising young singers: Fabio Maria Capitanucci, Enrico Maria Marabellie and Maria Gortsevskaya.

The unsung heart and soul of the Motor City rock & roll scene, Mitch Ryder was simply one of the most powerful vocalists to rise to fame in the '60s, a full-bodied rock belter who was also one of the most credible blue-eyed soul men of his generation. He first made a nationwide impression fronting Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, whose fiery R&B attack boasted a gritty passion and incendiary energy matched by few artists on either side of the color line.

Open-minded listeners looking for unfamiliar string quartets by a master composer of the same period as Beethoven and Schubert will likely be delighted by the six quartets of Luigi Cherubini. Written mostly between 1829 and 1837, the Italian-French composer's quartets are in the standard forms in the usual four movements. He fills those forms with entirely new content, which, if not as vigorously argued as Beethoven's nor as gloriously lyrical as Schubert's, is nevertheless elegantly expressive, consummately dramatic, and often utterly unexpected. Cherubini's quartets have received occasional recordings, but none have matched this set from Germany's Melos Quartet.

The well-known Concert de la Loge, the period instruments orchestra led by the violinist Julien Chauvin, return with the third episode of Haydn’s journey in Paris. His complete Parisian Symphonies recording continues this Autumn with the number 82 nicknamed ‘The Bear’. It is coupled with the Symphonie concertante for bassoon, horn, flute and oboe of one of his contemporaries, François Devienne. This colourful third volume draws a witty and virtuoso panorama of French 18th century music.

With the Verve Remixed project, Y'all Don't (Really) Care About Black Women, Melanie Charles sets out to take this group of songs and breathe new energy into them. Melanie was immediately drawn to the rapturous voices of Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughn who inspired her to record arrangements of "God Bless the Child" and "Detour Ahead." This album is a love letter to the unheralded labor of black women. Melanie asks listeners to be accountable to black women as much as they care for their works.

Lindsey Webster is the undisputed queen of Smooth/Contemporary Jazz vocalists. She is the first vocalist to score 4 #1 smooth jazz radio hits in a row. The debut single from Reasons, "I Didn't Mean It," has already reached top 10 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Radio Chart!!! Reasons, featuring a star-studded Grammy winning cast, elevates Lindsey Webster's sensuous artistry to a new level. Highlights such as the sensuous "Just The Night," the soulful "Stay With Me" and the spirited "You Take Me" make Reasons a must have album!

The trio Slagr releases their sixth album Linde, made up of music created in a time of new beginnings. The music on the album is written by Katrine Schiøtt in the middle of maternity leave, giving a new touch to the trios distinctive sound. Postpartum - lack of sleep, emotional vulnerability, an extreme focus on something outside oneself; providing nourishment and love to the newborn. A minor state of emergency where small moments can inspire to musical fragments and contemplation on the beginning of life, eternity and transience. In this state, this music was conceived. Slagr’s music is detached from time, place and the concrete materiality of life.

"FIRST NOEL" is a Christmas album including 25 of the greatest classics as well as three exclusive new tracks Ibrahim composed especially for the very first Christmas of his son, and in honor of his grandma Odette's last one, past year. The Christmas memories he has are full of wonderful moments, so he insisted on recording this album staying true to the magic of these instants.

The touch and musicianship of the Hungarian pianist Klára Würtz is amply attested by a substantial catalogue of Brilliant Classics and Piano Classics albums stretching from Mozart to Bartók. Her latest recording turns to a pillar of the keyboard repertoire, the variation set composed by J.S. Bach in 1741 as the fourth and final volume of his compendious Clavier-Übung (Keyboard exercise) project. Practical instruction, entertainment and profound expression went hand in hand for Bach: one artistic goal never obscured the others. However, few of his works attain all three goals with the sublime mastery of the Goldberg Variations.

Nikolai Demidenko is a celebrated piano virtuoso, considered a leading exponent of the Russian school of playing. His blend of technical brilliance and musical vision have earned him consistent raves since he first emerged on the international scene in the mid-1980s, and he has become a musical fixture in his adopted home of Great Britain, where he gained citizenship in 1995. Demidenko began playing before the age of five, learning on his grandfather's old, beaten-up piano. By the age of six, he was a student of Anna Kantor (Evgeny Kissin's teacher) at the Gnessin School of Music. An obstinate student who disliked scales and technique, Demidenko still made swift progress, and he eventually entered the Moscow Conservatory. There, he studied with Dmitri Bashkirov, whom Demidenko credits with fostering his more individual qualities as a player, as well as ironing out the remaining wrinkles in his technique. Reaching the finals of both the 1976 Montreal competition and the 1978 Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow (where he played through an acute case of the flu) served as a final springboard to professional recognition.

One From the Heart is the score to the most misunderstood of Francis Ford Coppola's films. Far ahead of its time in terms of technology, use of color, montage, and set design, its soundtrack is the only thing that grounds it to earth. Coppola's movie is a metaphorical retelling of the exploits of Zeus and Hera set in Las Vegas. Coppola claims to have been taken with the male-female narrative implications of the track "I Don't Talk to Strangers," off Tom Waits' Foreign Affairs album. That cut was a duet with Bette Midler. Midler wasn't available for One From the Heart, however, so Waits chose Crystal Gayle as his vocal foil. The result is one of the most beautifully wrought soundtrack collaborations in history. Along with producer Bones Howe, Waits and Gayle cut their duets largely from the studio floor, live with the small combo-style studio band that included the saxophonist Teddy Edwards, drummer Shelly Manne…