Hans Zimmer delivers a bright and impeccable score on The Power of One, drawing from traditional hymnals and incorporating the Bulawayo church choir against lush orchestral drumming backdrops. The film, directed by John Avildsen (Rocky and The Karate Kid) centers around the director's favorite theme of one young man who defeats great odds to become a hero. The Power of One, which was no box office hit like Avildsen's previous films, is a more ambitious film. It is more ambitious not because it was filmed in Zimbabwe, but because it deals with the events surrounding World War II, neo-Nazis, and apartheid. Lebo M, who worked with Zimmer on The Lion King soundtrack, wrote the lyrics, of which none are in English. Listening to the power of this music reminds us that there was a lot more to the soundtrack of The Lion King than Elton John and Tim Rice's pop songs…

In 2002, after a six-year layoff from the recording studio, Canadian prog rock heroes Rush returned with the album Vapor Trails, the group's first album of the new millennium, and a return to the business of making music after drummer Neil Peart struggled with the death of his wife and daughter. While the group's loyal fans embraced this new batch of songs, not everyone was happy with the way the album sounded - including the members of Rush. Bassist Geddy Lee told a reporter in 2013, "We overcooked it…the mixes were really loud and brash. The mastering job was harsh and distorted." When Rush released the compilation Retrospective, Vol. 3 in 2009, they included newly remixed versions of two tracks from Vapor Trails, "Earthshine" and "One Little Victory"…

Since the definitive three-LP box set Thundering Herds is out-of-print, this single CD is the best place for listeners to go first when starting to explore the music of Woody Herman. There are 16 selections from what was arguably his best band, his First Herd, and two numbers (including the original version of "Four Brothers") by The Second Herd. A few rarities (such as "A Jug of wine" and "The Blues Are Brewing") are mixed in with such classics as "Apple Honey," "Northwest Passage," "Your Father's Mustache" and a new version of "Woodchopper's Ball," but there is unavoidably a lot missing from this single disc, a set which will have to suffice until a more complete reissue series comes along.

On her new album pioneering Romanian vocalist Teodora Brody joins forces with one of the world’s great orchestras to explore well-known classical repertoire from an entirely fresh perspective. Rising with style and energy to realise virtuosic orchestrations by Lee Reynolds, the London Symphony Orchestra voyage with Teodora through classical, jazz and Romanian folk traditions, resulting in a multi-faceted, truly unique musical experience.

The starting point for this album was a concert of Weinberg's Sonata, in which Shirley Brill was deeply moved by the overwhelming emotional power. Being Jewish herself, she was deeply moved by the rich folkloric klezmer elements that are so intensely expressed in this sonata. This experience sparked her passion for exploring the integration of national feelings into classical music, with a particular focus on Germany and Poland.

World premiere recording of the Piano Concerto and Symphony No. 1 by the Finnish composer Helvi Leiviskä. Oliver Triendl has brought the works out of oblivion and made them known to a broad public.

After seven albums spearheading Hedvig Mollestad Trio (still very much active!) and three solo albums, the guitarist is here introducing a brand new, exciting trio while breaking some new ground in the process. Ståle Storløkken (keys) is known from Supersilent and Elephant9, while Ole Mofjell (drums) is part of a young generation making waves on the European improscenes. Weejuns is a solid step into shimmering, hardcore improvisation and breathtaking instrumental interplay, echoing The Tony Williams Lifetime, Henry Cow, Soft Machine, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Supersilent and 73-74 period King Crimson.

Cellist Edgar Moreau, with the WDR Sinfonieorchester and conductor Andris Poga, performs two concertante works from the mid-20th century: Mieczysław Weinberg’s Concerto in C minor (1956), and Henri Dutilleux’s Tout un monde lointain … (1970). Both were premiered by the great Mstislav Rostropovich, which creates a special link with Moreau: in 2014 in Paris, he won the Young Soloist Prize in the Rostropovich Cello Competition.

Dejan Lazić: The concept behind our present undertaking, the Mozart Piano Concertos CD-trilogy, is to bring together concertos of Mozart’s miscellaneous composing and performing periods, styles, techniques, and instrumentations side by side, thus to deeply examine and throughout his travels more closely explore his many creative phases within this genre. That is linked further with an encore-like single work on each CD, yet the additional connecting link between these initially planned six piano concertos is the Cadenzas & Lead-ins which I have composed myself.

In the circles of early music lovers, documented information about performance practice is so important as to be obsessively searched for by musicians and musicologists. While iconography sometimes cannot be relied on as evidence because of its symbolic meaning, a piece of information on the aesthetics of a performance, the making of an instrument, the composition of a group of instruments, or the repertoire performed is all the more valuable if it comes from a document, be it official or private, such as a letter. Considering that Isabella d’Este was a passionate lover of music and also a musician herself, it is easy to understand that the massive corpus of letters written and received by her can be an extraordinary mine of this type of information.

Abraxis were a Belgian jazz-rock band that recorded a self-titled album for local EMI subsidiary IBC in 1976. Several of the bandmembers played in other Belgian jazz-rock groups such as Placebo, Waterloo, Cos and Pazop. This album is a cross between flute jazz, Canterbury inspired fusion and 70s funk. Somewhere between Chris Hinze, Cos, Cortex and Herbie Hancock is where you'll find the sound of Abraxis. Flute drives the melody and solo lines, but there's plenty of introspective piano sections as well. Which play nicely against the ferocious electric guitar. Their only album can be recommended to fans of that 70's jazz rock style of the bands mentioned.

Guitar legend Pat Travers is known for holding court with numerous A-list players who have moved through the ranks of his band over the Toronto native's storied career. In 1981, Radio Active found Travers on the cusp of a crossroads in developing a new sound. The result was this bluesy collection of hard rock in which Travis finally focused his considerable virtuosity for a set of concise tunes.