Recorded At – Mannheim Eisstadion. July 2 & 3, 1980/Eisstadion, Mannheim, Germany. Original soundboard recordings.

A 2 CD set that collects all the many singles of Styx can't be all that bad, but it is marred by its seemingly random track order. Come Sail Away - The Best of Styx is another 2 CD set that corrects this error. However, Styx's best music can't even fit on two CDs, and the band's music is begging for the boxed set treatment. This will never come about because of licensing issues, record executive's doubts about its sale-ability, and the fact that the band's different songwriters would likely want to emphasize their own songs over the others. So make your own boxed set, and my advice about how to do so is below. Note that almost all the songs on this 2 CD set, plus all the singles it left off, are listed below

If you like your Shostakovich quartets big, brawny, and a bit brutal, you'll like the Emerson Quartet's Shostakovich quartets. The Allegros are muscular, with sharp attacks, strong sforzandos, and relentless rhythms. The Passacaglias are powerful, with massive sonorities, monumental structures, and inexorable tempos. And the Allegrettos are aggressive, with ironic accents, sarcastic tones, and mordent tempos.

There is no question that Kennedy believes Bach is the greatest of composers. He has said so when giving his inimitable introductions to encore items at concerts, and his commitment to Bach's cause is the foundation upon which these recorded performances is based.

Bobby Sherman never got much critical respect during the prime years of his career. Oh, he sold tons of records, to be sure, but the virtues of those recordings were eclipsed by his good looks and the publicity successes of his management, which got him on the cover of every teen magazine in the country, seemingly for four years running. Listening to this collection, it dawns on one just how much respect he did deserve as a singer (and reportedly still does, based on what people say of his 21st century shows). This is bubblegum rock, to be sure, but it's all amazingly "unsticky" for bubblegum rock, and Sherman's delivery on the 18 songs here is solid and effective, and holds up across 40 years. When he delivers the key lines from "Seattle" (the theme song from his series Here Come the Brides), he makes you feel that he feels the "hopes and fears" referred to, and the loneliness behind "time to leave your home and your loved ones" – and then he turns around and melds into the jauntiness of "Easy Come, Easy Go" just as easily. Sherman then switches gears into the Day-Glo-toned "Hey, Mister Sun," and makes you feel the boundless, easygoing joy around those lyrics. The fact is, Sherman was not only a superb singer but also a better actor than he ever got credit for being, an attribute that he throws into his records and which, coupled with first-rate pop production, makes them work brilliantly, even four decades on.

Within the first few seconds of the first track–the Sonata No. 1 in G major–most listeners will find themselves in surprisingly familiar territory–surprising because this little-known 18th-century composer seems to have written a popular tune long attributed to Pergolesi, a misattribution given additional false credibility by its use in Stravinsky's Pulcinella. In fact Stravinsky used selections from several of Domenico Gallo's trio sonatas in his famous ballet music, thinking them to be works of Pergolesi because they were published under his name in late-19th century English editions.

Record Store Day 2025. Morphine's Bootleg Detroit, recorded live at St. Andrew’s Hall during their legendary 1994 Cure for Pain tour, available for the first time on vinyl. This remastered edition is pressed on translucent milky clear vinyl and features the classic songs Buena and Cure For Pain.

The 11 20th-century violin works included on Anne-Sophie Mutter's meaty four-CD compilation were recorded between February 1988 and January 1997. Mutter is a dazzling performer. Her performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto throbs with new-dawn optimism. Her intense dialogue with pianist Lambert Orkis is spiked with wit in Bartók's Violin Sonata No.2 , the only chamber piece in the set.

George Antheil's one-hit wonder was the Ballet Mécanique. Although Antheil was a first-rate composer, it should be mentioned that most of his other works - the symphonies in particular - will sound somewhat conservative by comparison, at least in terms of means of expression and harmonic language. They are nevertheless chockful of fascinating ideas, imaginative developments, energy, color and spirit. Stylistically both symphonies here appear to be somewhat indebted to Russian contemporaries - the first symphony has touches of Petrouchka, and the sixth sounds very much indebted to Prokofiev, yet both of Antheil's works are unmistakably American.

None of these reconstructions are included in Teldec’s Bach 2000, although the better-known ‘originals’ obviously are. The real newcomer is the Sinfonia, BWV1045 (5'34'') ‘to an unknown cantata’ which – as befits a BWV number that immediately precedes the First Brandenburg Concerto – is rumbustious, festive and thematically likeable. Time and again I could sense allusions to other Bach instrumental pieces, though the soloist’s ceaseless arpeggiating is sometimes a distraction. We’re told it’s authentic (the manuscript source suggests a violin concerto in the making) but something about its harmonic language doesn’t quite ring true, though that reaction might well be due to lack of familiarity.

For connoisseurs of modern jazz guitar, “Conversation” will be a revelation. The interplay between the two guitarists Pat Martino and Michael Sagmeister is marked by profound mutual understanding - which is no small wonder, considering Michael Sagmeister has long been interested in Martino’s music. In the meantime, these two world-class musicians are connected by a personal friendship, and they now communicate as two equals. Joining them are Michael Sagmeister’s long-standing rhythm group, Michael Küttner on drums, Thomas Heidepriem on bass. The powerful and flowing grooves of the two musicians form the basis for the unfolding of well-set lines and improvisations by Martino and Sagmeister. The tradition of modern jazz guitar can be followed in exemplary form on “Conversation”, and at the same time, one can hear how a guitar duo should sound in our time.

Black Sabbath's classic 1970s output has been repackaged countless times over the years, but undoubtedly one of the best collections to surface is the aptly titled Best of Black Sabbath on Sanctuary.

There's nothing meek or morbid about Telemann's 'Jesu' in this passion oratorio. This is a confident muscular Jesu, closer to the Saxon Heliand than to the Man of Sorrows depicted on the CD cover; the first aria proclaims Him a hero: "Du Held… du kannst und willst mein Schutzgott sein." (You Hero… you can and will be my Protector-God.) Before that, the Siegfriedesque cantabile for horn that opens the composition sounds not so much like a lament as a call to don one's spiritual armor, and throughout the whole text Jesu is portrayed as indomitable amid the torment and agony of his followers. Specifically, He is the Lion of Judah, the model of Christian fortitude against all enemies.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Mark’s debut solo release Golden Heart in 1996, a new box set, Mark Knopfler - The Studio Albums 1996-2007, will be released on 1st October Worldwide, and 10th December in the US.
Gathering his first five post-Dire Straits solo albums (not counting film scores), and a bonus disc of B-sides titled The Gravy Train, this collection is as sleepy and nonchalant as an old friend’s affable shrug. Knopfler does what he does, blending folk, blues, country and rock into a tension-free take on Americana that’s faintly personal but more about delivering a carpet atmosphere of reflective rumination.
The audio of each album has been newly remastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios in London.

Japanese erotic music from 60's and early 70's. Limited edition 6CD Oiroke Box "Miwaku no Mood Hihōkan". Including a booklet of 160 sides with colour pictures of all singles sleeves and information about the artists. All written in Japanese.