Trevor Pinnock's sparkling and precise interpretation of Handel offers the sort of support a virtuoso of Simon Preston's calibre thrives on: in the virile ritornellos of the allegros they play with vigour and brilliance, in antiphonal passages they are especially alert to the seams. Simon Preston plays with wit and charm; the ad libitum passages are models of taste and discretion.

This is one of many fine recordings made by Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert for Archiv in the 1980s. Pinnock is here joined by four soloists- Simon Standage and Micaela Comberti (violins), Lisa Beznosuik (flute) & Anthony Pleeth ('cello). As well as five trio sonatas we hear a solo violin sonata from Op 1, all played with with the same warmth and freshness which characterised virtually all the EC's recordings at the time.

Johannes Brahms likely had several influences that spurred him to write A German Requiem, which he completed in 1868. After the death of his friend and mentor Robert Schumann in 1856, Brahms considered creating a musical memorial. Yet perhaps a more direct impetus was the death of his own mother in 1865. Indeed, the texts that he excerpted from Luther’s Bible prominently feature the idea of motherly comfort for those who mourn.

The lack of popularity of Haydn's first oratorio, written in 1775 on a subject from the Apocrypha for a musicians' benevolent society in Vienna and subsequently amplified by two choruses, is due to the wearisomely moralistic and dramatically inept libretto by Boccherini's brother—which relegates to a couple of lines of recitative even Tobias's battle with the monstrous fish and the threat of the demon Asmodeus (who has murdered seven previous bridegrooms of Sara, Tobias's new bride)—and the great length of the music (including the protracted but inventive and expressive accompanied recitatives), which reduces what little action there is to the pace of an arthritic snail. In his original review of this recording, Roger Fiske commented on the risibility of Tobias, seeking to cure his father's blindness from cataract, exclaiming ''Delay could prove fatal'' and then singing an eight-minute aria, at which his mother Anna remarks ''A just sense of urgency spurs him on''.

Here is the most ambitious composition left by Johann Ludwig Bach, known as ‘the Meiningen Bach’, who belonged to a branch of the family separated from Johann Sebastian’s since the 16th century. Its genesis was rather unusual: Johann Ludwig composed his cantatas to texts by his patron, Duke Ernst Ludwig, and was therefore commissioned to set the poem which the duke had written for his own funeral, in November 1724. Five years before St Matthew Passion, this score already requires two choirs and a large array of instruments, and must have utilised every musician in the court Kapelle. Since the 2007-08 season Hans-Christoph Rademann has been chief conductor of the RIAS Kammerchor. He grew up in a family of Kantors, and during his training as a choral and orchestral conductor at the Musikhochschule in Dresden he already founded the Dresdner Kammerchor, with which he made a reputation both in Germany and abroad, and which he still directs today.

Complete remastered editions of the two studio albums from the short-lived hard rock outfit Wild Horses.

Vince Gill is set to release Down At The Borderline, the fourth installment of his year-long EP series 50 Years From Home, this Friday, (Feb. 13) via MCA. The title track of the new collection is a collaboration with Lainey Wilson. Down At The Borderline follows the previous 50 Years From Home volumes I Gave You Everything I Had, Secondhand Smoke, and Brown’s Diner Bar.

In July 2004, when Leszek Możdżer, Lars Danielsson, and Zohar Fresco performed together for the first time in Warsaw, few could have predicted that this trio would evolve into one of jazz’s most enduring and celebrated ensembles. Now, 20 years later, they return with “Beamo” - an album that not only reaffirms their mastery but also opens a bold new chapter in their musical story.

Star-violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter releases her personally curated album My London. The release is the first of seven albums that will come out at irregular intervals in 2026 and 2027. Each album will focus on a city with which Mutter has had outstanding musical encounters, concerts, and recordings. They will follow the artist “around the globe,” traveling via Berlin, Lucerne, Salzburg, and Vienna to Tokyo and New York. The programme, which underscores her curiosity, commitment, and creative drive for the future of music, celebrates her 50th stage anniversary and five decades in the recording studio. The violinist has created completely new albums from recordings that are important to her, which function like small concerts – bringing us closer to the artist and the music capitals of the world.

Produced by Bob Thiele and recorded at Electric Lady studios with engineer Eddie Kramer, Barefoot Boy is one of Larry Coryell's finest recordings as a leader. "Gypsy Queen" was recorded prior to bassist Mervin Bronson's arrival at the studio, and features the percussion section locking into a groove over which Coryell lays down a riff and Steve Marcus cuts loose with a fiery soprano sax solo. When it's his turn to solo on this opening number, Coryell turns up the heat, sounding like a cross between Jimi Hendrix and Sonny Sharrock. (Coryell played with Sharrock on Herbie Mann's Memphis Underground.) "The Great Escape" finds Coryell cooking over a bass and percussion groove, with Marcus on tenor sax. "Call to the Higher Consciousness" is a side-long 20-minute jam in which all the players take a ride, with Marcus once again cooking on the soprano sax. Roy Haynes is superb throughout, working in tandem with the percussionists to keep the music moving. This recording is a noteworthy example of the possibilities inherent in the early days of fusion, blending the electrifying energy of rock with the improvisational excitement of jazz.