Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht's six suites of piano pieces entitled La Nursery are among the most unjustly neglected masterworks of French impressionism. All but the third and fourth suites first appeared in 1905 and undoubtedly provided direct inspiration for Claude Debussy's Children's Corner, composed in 1908 and likewise included as filler on this fine ATMA Classique disc featuring Canadian pianist Lise Boucher. These solo versions of Inghelbrecht's signature work have not appeared on compact disc before – the earliest versions of these works were intended as teaching pieces and were scored out for piano four-hands.

Charles Tournemire (1870-1939) was a mystic composer who expressed his faith through his works, the most important of which is L’Orgue mystique (The Mystic Organ). The present recording, however, proposes the rare and fascinating piano cycle Douze Préludes-Poèmes, Op. 58 (Twelve Prelude-Poems). Composed in Paris between March 17 and May 21, 1932, these Prelude-Poems form a mystic vision of man’s life-long relationship with his Creator. The pianist Lise Boucher performs this magnificent and original music, which is both an extension of Debussy and a foreshadowing of Messiaen.

The International Forum for Young Composers was conceived and established by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. A biennial event, Forum was launched in 1991, organized in collaboration with the Faculty of Music of the University of Montreal as well as the Société Radio-Canada, and sponsored by the International Music Council (UNESCO). Forum’s Montreal roots notwithstanding, we responded enthusiastically to the kind invitation from the Telstra Adelaide Festival to ‘relocate’ the 2000 event to Australia. In 2002, Forum returned to the University of Montreal for its sixth edition.

Is there a subgroup of works among the creations of top composers that has been more neglected than Mozart's songs? They're neglected partly because they're a very mixed bag; they were mostly composed for specific purposes, and they don't develop as a group in an orderly way as do, say, the piano concertos. At any rate, any new recording of Mozart's songs is good to have – the album title referring to "Lieder" is a bit misleading, for there are songs in French and Italian here as well as German.

Finnish Baroque Orchestra’s second release of Christoph Graupner’s (1683–1760) music continues to reveal delightful masterpieces by the Baroquemaster, who November 2014 during his lifetime was even more well known than his colleague Johann Sebastian Bach. After the acclaimed release of Graupner’s orchestral works (ODE12202; The Finnish broadcasting company YLE Record of the Year 2013), this new album focuses on some of the chamber works by Graupner – the Trio Sonatas. Graupner was extremely productive as a composer, with a catalogue of over 2’000 works varying from orchestral works to cantatas, concertos and chamber music. He also possessed a unique personal style of writing music and often favoured certain rarer instruments in his works. Among these are the viola d’amore as well as the chalumeau, both instruments being heard also on this disc. From his contemporaries Graupner’s music stands out with its exceptional command of melody and harmony.

The successful self-titled reissue of Fame-era material released in early 2004 allowed Candi Staton to make this, her first secular album in several years. Where 1999's Outside In was a way to take advantage of her unplanned return to the clubs – a couple singles released during the '90s used a vocal she recorded for a documentary about a man's struggle with life-threatening obesity – His Hands is 100 percent Southern soul. Staton involves several family members and longtime associates, including son Marcus Williams (a seasoned drummer who has played with her for years), daughter Cassandra Hightower, sister Maggie Staton Peebles, and Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section organist Barry Beckett. It might be surprising to see that Lambchop's Mark Nevers produced the session, and that Lambchop ally Lloyd Barry arranged the horns, but both men have done extensive work with Staton's peers in the gospel world.