This performance can be labeled Portuguese only loosely, since many of the pieces are sung in Spanish, or taken from Spanish manuscripts, or more properly Galician than Lusitanian. But hey! Who cares? Really artful recordings of any Iberian music of the 'Golden Age' are not sprouting from the cork trees even today. Male alto Gerard Lesne has seldom recorded pre-Baroque chansons, and it's a thrill to hear what he can do with them. Track 9, for instance, the Latin cantiga "Clamabat autem mulier" by Mudarra, takes Lesne from his usual alto register down seamlessly into his tenor chest voice. Wow! Not every counter-tenor can do that and still sound musical!

There is an enormous amount to admire in Munch’s reading of Saint-Saëns’ ‘Organ’ symphony, right from the glowing strings of the opening through to the truly superbly articulated first-movement climax. Munch gets real delicacy from his Bostonians in the Poco adagio, and the organ’s entry in the finale is certainly highly impressive. Perhaps the Scherzo could be more on-the-ball, though. This remains one of the top recommendations for this piece.

A NEW, STELLAR AND ECLECTIC JOURNEY OF OLD METAL IN THE DARKTHRONE ODYSSEY. From their formation back in 1986, to becoming one of Norways’s finest musical exports (with a number of highly revered black metal masterpieces released in the early 90’s helping to solidify their legacy), Darkthrone has continued to evolve and challenge in equal measure, throughout their illustrious recording career spanning over three decades. And now, the ever-productive duo of Nocturno and Fenriz continue their own metallic saga with a new selection of fine, vintage sounding headbanging classics in the making. ‘Astral Fortress’ is itself a swift follow-up to 2021’s ‘Eternal Hails’ opus, as a result of Darkthrone’s consistent and ongoing writing process, which has been in force for some years now. For Darkthrone does not sleep - it only waits. Carried on the brisk wind of eager rock, with foundations in black, thrash, doom and heavy metal, ‘Astral Fortress’ is the latest album of stellar, eclectic old metal in the Darkthrone odyssey.

Over the years, El Chicano has often been compared to Santana and, to be sure, there are a lot of parallels. Both are from California, both are led by Mexican-Americans, both have recorded in English as well as Spanish, and both have favored a very eclectic and unpredictable mixture of rock, soul, funk, jazz, blues, and Afro-Cuban salsa.
After creating a buzz in East L.A. in the late '60s, El Chicano signed with MCA in 1970 and recorded its debut album, Viva Tirado. The instrumental title song, which was written by jazz pianist Gerald Wilson, was released as a single and became El Chicano's biggest hit; the recording reached number 28 on Billboard's pop singles chart and number 20 on its R&B singles chart. On regional L.A. charts, "Viva Tirado" spent about 12 weeks at number one…

Wieniawski's scintillating works are played with brilliance and great musical charm here by Perlman and Sanders (piano) for the duets, and Ozawa conducting the LPO for the concertos. It is somtimes said that Perlman's playing has often been recorded too "forward", so one can hear the "between the notes" bowing sounds when he plays.

On Deutsche Barocklieder, Harmonia Mundi's outstanding imprint Les Nouveaux Musiciens introduces German soprano Annette Dasch in a recital of German Baroque songs. Not one of these 18 selections is familiar, and that is good; it is an overlooked area of the repertory consisting of a monumental amount of material.

“A strong and pleasing voice, in both high and low notes – a combination which one rarely encounters,” ran one contemporary report of Catarina Cavalieri, the soprano who created Konstanze in Die Entführung. Though I’d put it rather less laconically, that verdict holds equally good for Diana Damrau, whose new Mozart recital includes two arias composed for Cavalieri, “Martern aller Arten” and Elvira’s “Mi tradì” (added for the 1788 Viennese revival of Don Giovanni). The glamorous German soprano, now in her mid-thirties, made her international reputation as a sensational Queen of the Night and Zerbinetta.