By now everyone has heard at least one of Antonio Carlos Jobim's beautiful compositions, if only his most famous ones, "Girl From Ipanema" or "Desafinado," playing poppishly in an elevator or mall somewhere. His work has been recorded by every combination of instrument and voice, including Sinatra's. What distinguishes this CD from hundreds of others is its inclusion of 11 relatively obscure Jobim tunes, and the way this classy trio succeeds in communicating the essence of his special gifts with a minimum of fuss and feathers. (One track is a Carlos Lyra composition, "Voce e Eu," which blends in nicely.) The arrangements are elegant, combining jazz and Brazilian rhythms to gently swing the melodies and highlight Jobim's lush harmonies…

This release is part of the complete cycle of Vaughan Williams' symphonies undertaken by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the energetic Martyn Brabbins holding the baton. Like others in the series, the reading of the Symphony No. 5 is a strong performance, understated in the English way, with themes arising naturally, as if organically. Listen to the emergence of the second theme in the opening movement for a good idea of what to expect from the whole. The big news here is the presence of a new Vaughan Williams work: the Scenes Adapted from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, composed in 1906.

Diese CD bietet eine breite Palette russischer Komponisten, die in der Tradition orthodoxer Kirchenmusik komponierten. Sie reicht von Michail Glinka, Peter Tschaikowsky, Sergej Tanejew und Sergej Rachmaninoff bis zu Alfred Schnittke und Sofia Gubaidulina, von romantisch-expressiven Vertonungen bis zu den expressiven Klängen der beiden neueren Komponisten.

Finnish record label Lion Music releases their second highly anticipated classic style re-issue of 2005 with Spelar Nilsson by a quartet called De Gladas Kapell. This album was originally recorded in one session back in May of 1978 by some of the finest musicians available in Sweden, and this is the first time it has become available on CD. Coste Apetrea was also featured prominently on Lion’s first re-issue as the 2nd guitarist playing on the excellent JTB album by Finnish guitarist Jukka Tolonen. Although touted by Lion as being “one of the true landmarks of Swedish progressive rock”, the music on Spelar Nilsson actually owes a lot more to jazz than it does to rock…