Passion is Peter Gabriel’s soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese film The Last Temptation of Christ. Like much of Gabriel’s solo work, the album is a product of his continuing fascination with world music, which he employs here to create an exceptionally beautiful and atmospheric tapestry of sound perfectly evocative of the film’s resonant spiritual drama.

Initially rooted in the U.K.’s New Romantic movement, modern rock icons Depeche Mode first formed in 1980 with founding partners Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Vince Clarke, and Andrew Fletcher. Their pioneering, synthesizer-based sound became a global phenomenon that made them wildly successful electro-pop superstars who loomed as large as cult heroes as they did as commercial heavies. With an originality of vision that’s only grown over time, the band’s wealth of singles and signature tracks ranges from bold dance grooves to atmospheric alt-pop to dramatic, industrial flavored masterpieces.

This album marks the return of Battiato to pop, after a period in which he substantially produced experimental music (1972–1978). The title song's theme, the "white boar", is inspired to an ancient Celtic myth.

Alexander Ffinch puts Cheltenham College Chapel’s organ through its paces in fine style in this first recording since the 1897 Norman & Beard instrument was given a major overhaul by Harrison & Harrison in 2017. Its symphonic heft is vividly felt in the variegated, muscular poetry of Jongen’s Sonata eroïca, its broad colour palette and dynamic range lit up by Liszt’s Fantasia & Fugue on the Chorale ‘Ad nos, ad salutarem undam’. Ffinch traverses its constant transformations of tone and temperament with the agility of an Olympic slalom skier, finding zen-like stillness in the translucent textures of its middle movement and thunderous directness in its stirring finale. There’s vital advocacy, too, for Jonathan Dove’s rhythmically buoyant, delightfully animated The Dancing Pipes in its first recording.

This new release is a unique interpretation of some of the finest works in the chamber music repertoire: violinist Natalia Lomeiko, violist Yuri Zhislin and pianist Ivan Martin perform trios by Brahms, Bruch and Schubert. Described by The Strad as a “virtuoso with a truly romantic temperament”, Yuri Zhislin recorded his first Orchid Classics album with The Russian Virtuosi of Europe (now Camerata Tchaikovsky), hailed as BBC Music Magazine’s orchestral album of the month in April 2016. Both Zhislin and Natalia Lomeiko are Russian artists who are currently professors at the Royal College of Music, and they are joined by the versatile Ivan Martin on the piano.

The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin kickstarts their Handel trilogy with this recording of the first six concerti grossi op. 6. Originally designed as attractive interludes to English oratorio performances, Handel’s concerti grossi soon gained fame as the most appealing orchestral music of the baroque era. Written in London in 1739, towards the end of his career, Handel paid tribute to the immensely popular concerti grossi of Corelli while simultaneously proving his mastery incorporating all musical styles of his times.

One of the most acclaimed concept albums of all time, The Wall is Roger Waters’ masterpiece. A double album with the theme of isolation and loss, its accompanying, hugely theatrical, concerts were rated as the best live shows ever. Featuring the unique artwork of Gerald Scarfe, the album yielded the US & UK No.1 hit Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2, and also includes Hey You, Run Like Hell and the enduring Comfortably Numb.

"Young violinist Franziska Hölscher presents her debut album Sequenza on CAvi. In Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 2 Franziska Hölscher and the pianist Severin von Eckardstein prove to be a well-rehearsed duo that knows how to perform Schumann’s music with a lively, communicative and often very intimist playing. This is a highly interesting and above all very honest interpretation of this sonata. Inspired and inspiring performances of works by Heinrich Ignaz Biber, Salvatore Sciarrino and Luciano Berio complete the program. Hölscher’s playing technique is outstanding. Every note, every phrasing arises from a deep and very natural understanding of the music." (Alain Steffen, pizzicato.lu)

Tangerine Dream hit the U.S. charts again with this 1977 LP, which gave piano and guitar (not to mention harmonica and harpsichord) equal billing with the synths and effects. The hypnotizing title piece joins Invisible Limits; The Big Sleep in Search of Hades , and more! The LP reached No.39 in the UK, in a 4-week chart run, and eventually reached silver status for selling in excess of 60,000 copies.

The new album MOZART Vol. 2 of the Armida Quartet will be released on 28 June 2019 on CAvi-music. The recording was co-produced by Bayrischer Rundfunk BR-KLASSIK and features KV 80, KV 458 (The Hunt) and KV 499 (Hoffmeister Quartet) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A special feature for all string quartet fans is the use of the new Mozart Urtext Edition by G.Henle Verlag!

No worldly commotion is heard in Heaven! All live in gentlest peace'. Such is the child-like innocence which permeates Mahler's Fourth Symphony, and yet beneath the surface there is more than meets the eye: an undercurrent of mysticism; a momentary glimpse behind the curtain at something timeless and unsettling. Star Russian soprano Sofia Fomina joins the London Philharmonic Orchestra and its Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski in this performance of Mahler's beguiling Symphony, recorded live at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall.

When the Russian designer and architect Viktor Hartmann died unexpectedly of an aneurysm in 1873, Mussorgsky fell into a state of profound depression. The two artists had grown close. A memorial exhibition was quickly planned, and over four hundred of Hartmann's works were displayed. Some of the paintings and sketches exhibited were the source of inspiration for Mussorgsky as he set out to compose Pictures at an Exhibition, a suite of brief movements penned in June 1874 - three months after the exposition took place. Seemingly depicting the viewer wandering through the gallery, moving from one painting to the next, the piece has become one of the giants of the piano repertoire, and has been orchestrated by a number of composers, including the splendid version by Maurice Ravel.

Der persönliche und musikalische Weg des in Bergedorf bei Hamburg geborenen Johann Adolph Hasse (1699–1783) führte vom strahlenden Barock Alessandro Scarlattis zur Klassik im Stile Joseph Haydns, von Neapel nach Wien, von Dresden nach Venedig und vom französischen zum preußischen Hof; dabei entwickelte er sich nicht nur zu einem wahren Europäer im umfassendsten Sinn des Wortes, sondern auch zu einem meisterhaften Schöpfer italienischer und lateinischer Vokalmusik.

The chamber combination of trombone and piano is unusual and charming. On "Sapphire", Peter Steiner and his pianist partner Constanze Hochwartner give an insight into how this combination can work, thereby exploding the myth of commonly-held preconceptions about what the trombone is capable of. It is not just the instrument that shall sound on the Day of Judgment; it can sing tenderly and sweetly, producing a myriad of timbres that sparkle like a sapphire.

The piece is unlike no other of its kind”, Béla Bartók affirmed: “the world of ideas it contains is entirely new”. Timbre acquired an unusual, novel dimension by having the two lowest strings tuned one half-step down, to B and F#, respectively. Thus the three lower strings form a B Minor chord, which Kodály places in particular prominence at the onset of the sonata……