Yundi Li is being groomed for superstardom. He's got the looks, youth, and keyboard athleticism to fill that role, but on the basis of this all-Chopin disc (and his previous Chopin and Liszt recitals), he still lacks the interpretive maturity that translates into staying power. His B minor Scherzo, for example, comes off as excessively sectional, and its central section lacks poetry. Other works here fare better, but his attention appears focused on pianistic fluency and dazzling finger work, often at the expense of a full measure of emotional communication.

The new Weyes Blood record, Front Row Seat To Earth, is the folk music of the near future. Natalie Mering, the being behind Weyes Blood, embeds her sublime song in a harmonic gauze of arpeggiated piano, acoustic guitar, druggy horns, and outer space electronics. Propulsive, spare drums carry us across the album’s course.

Sweet Creep includes the lyricism of prior release Dad Country with an added air of hopefulness. Recorded in Jim James' (of My Morning Jacket) makeshift hilltop studio in Montecito Heights, Sweet Creep reverberates with the feeling of sunny vistas. From album opener Are You Thirsty to the summer-crushy 'Humidifier', Sweet Creep is a freshly-signed lease on life. Jonny throws himself into the new album by stripping things down to the essentials. He gathered Nashville's Joshua Hedley and Dawes' Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith and recorded the whole album in three days.

This past winter, Conor Oberst found himself hibernating in his hometown of Omaha after living in New York City for more than a decade. He emerged with the unexpectedly raw, unadorned solo album Ruminations, available October 14, 2016, on Nonesuch Records. "I wasn't expecting to write a record," says Oberst. "I honestly wasn't expecting to do much of anything. Winter in Omaha can have a paralyzing effect on a person but in this case it worked in my favor.

We wanted to create something special. A record which could be listened to in one go, from start to finish, a listening experience that is becoming increasingly rare. So as well as a host of full Beyond The Wizards Sleeve re-animations here, there are interludes, ambience, ebb and flow…each section flowing into a bigger piece. We tried many things along the way: spoken word sections, days out collecting field recordings, yet ended up letting the original songs and their beautiful arrangements and melodies guide us. There is so much happening under the surface of Sun Structures, and deep within each track, it was a pleasure to dive in and see what we could find. it inspired us to pick up our guitars, plug in our synthesisers and add some wizardry on top. Enjoy this trip. And it is a trip. Sun Structures was initially released in February and is one of the best selling releases of 2014 so far. The 12-track album, self-produced by the band's James Bagshaw, has been a massive worldwide success.

Witness is the highly anticipated follow-up to Benjamin Booker's critically acclaimed self-titled debut album. The album's ten new, original tracks were all written by Booker, produced by Sam Cohen (Kevin Morby) and mixed by Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes), and the title track features a guest vocal from Mavis Staples.

Sometime last year, I discovered that the original name for "The Wild Ones" (one of the great English-language ballads of the last 100 years or so) was "Ken." I had an epiphany, I was physically struck by this information. In an attempt to hold on to this feeling, I decided to lift the original title of that song and use it for my own purposes. It's unclear to me what that purpose is, or what the connection is. I was not thinking about Suede when making this record. I was thinking about the last few years of the Thatcher era.

For the past 70 years, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (‘The SPO’) has played a leading role in enriching the cultural lives of Korea’s citizens. In 2005, under the inspirational leadership of Maestro Myung-Whun Chung, the orchestra was reborn and this set a new standard for orchestral music in Korea. The SPO performs a wide range of repertoire from Mozart to Messiaen and continues to shatter box office records. Indeed, in 2011 the SPO became Asia’s first orchestra to sign an exclusive worldwide ten-CD contract with the Deutsche Grammophon record label. Impressively, the first two albums that were released instantly went platinum.

Very greedy Paul Lay who starts the year 2017 with not one but two albums that he publishes simultaneously: Alcazar Memories and The Party. The first is built around his piano, a voice (that of Isabel Sörling) and a bass (held by Simon Tailleu). "It was the sound I had in mind for this repertoire of songs and poems inspired by nature and its riches, to create many climates and music as dense as air. All these pieces celebrate this Nature, its strength, its multitude, but also describe the Man and his moods, through songs of love. "Paul Lay brings together personal compositions but also signed pieces including Gershwin or Vincent Scotto.

'Mein Weihnachten' - Thomas Quasthoff singt US-Standards und liest deutsche Gedichte Incl. It's beginning to look like Christmas, White Christmas und Gedichten von Bonhoeffer, Brecht, Rilke u.a. mit Frank Chastenier, Dieter Ilg, Wolfgang Haffner, Bruno Müller.

I have no problem with notes none at all, was Feldmans cryptic comment on For Bunita Marcus. Throughout the seventy-two-minute duration of this extraordinary work, notes coalesce into wisps of melody which drift softly in and out of an immense silence. You are indeed, as Marc-André Hamelin writes, about to enter a world unlike any other.

Almost every music lover has probably heard Erich Höbarth play at least once: active as Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s concertmaster, as first violinist of the Quatuor Mosaïques, and in many other positions of musical life, heard in numerous recordings and television broadcasts, he is an almost omnipresent figure. Höbarth unites historical performance practice with the self-assured poise of an individual artistic personality. The Viennese violinist has found here a congenial partner in the young Aapo Häkkinen from Helsinki, who, exactly like Höbarth, can already boast extensive experience as an ensemble director.

22-year old Japanese-American violinist Ryu Goto is an international classical music superstar and one of the most successful artists of his generation, with a large and growing fan base in Asia, North America and Europe. Through his technique, dedication to his art and personal charisma, Ryu is changing the way people think about- and listen to classical music.

Si "la musique commence là où s'arrête le pouvoir des mots", si elle est une abstraction insaisissable et limitée dans le temps, si, enfin, elle se suffit à elle-même, les musiciens ont parfois relevé le défi de traduire en sons une beauté toute autre : l'éternelle splendeur d'une peinture, d'une sculpture ou d'un paysage automnal. L'auditeur perçoit alors le tableau transformé à travers le double prisme du compositeur et de l'interprète, renouvelant dans l'éphémère son regard.