After five decades of records made chiefly of original material, Deep Purple’s 22nd studio album consists solely of songs written and previously recorded by other artists: a criminal offense commonly described by the rock police and purists Grand Jury as “doing covers.” Studio recordings of songs previously released by Love, Huey “Piano” Smith, Fleetwood Mac, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles & Quincy Jones, Little Feat, The Yardbirds, Lonnie Donegan/ Johnny Horton, Bob Seger System, Cream, plus the “Caught In The Act” medley feat. songs by Freddie King, Booker T. and the M.G.’s, The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin and The Spencer Davis Group came to life with the band, for the first time in their career, recording them while not being in the same room. “Turning To Crime” is Deep Purple enjoying playing music without commercial plans nor losing their edge and drive. This is Deep Purple coming full circle. This is 100% Deep Purple.

With the major project "Bach Organ Landscapes" and the recording of all of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ works, the German conductor, harpsichordist and organist Jörg Halubek invites you on a comprehensive journey to historical organ builders who shaped Johann Sebastian Bach. "The further you look back into music history, the more regional developments can be discovered," says the artist. “These connections between instrument and organ work characterize the so-called organ landscapes”. The third and fourth albums of the ten-part series are about 'Hamburg' and 'Lüneburg & Altenbruch'.

With the major project "Bach Organ Landscapes" and the recording of all of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ works, the German conductor, harpsichordist and organist Jörg Halubek invites you on a comprehensive journey to historical organ builders who shaped Johann Sebastian Bach. "The further you look back into music history, the more regional developments can be discovered," says the artist. “These connections between instrument and organ work characterize the so-called organ landscapes”. The third and fourth albums of the ten-part series are about 'Hamburg' and 'Lüneburg & Altenbruch'.

B.B.King said “The blues are a mystery“, and Willie Dixon stated: „The Blues are the true facts of life.“ When Hans Theessink and Big Daddy Wilson sing Blind Willie Johnson‘s classic “Everybody Ought To Treat A Stranger Right” – first recorded in 1930, the song has lost none of its relevance in the present day. Theessink’s own “Virus Blues”, is a haunting reflection of our own time and age right now: “Makes no difference if you’re rich or poor, if you’re yellow, black or white.” And remember, “You gonna reap what you sow” – one day “PAY DAY” is gonna come.

Anton Rubinstein wrote his Persian Songs in 1854, while on tour in Germany. The source was a recent collection of poems by Friedrich von Bodenstedt, who advertised them as translations from the work of the Azeri poet Mirza Shafi Vazeh (Mirzə Şəfi Vazeh, 1805-52), with whom he had studied during his travels to the Caucasus. Tchaikovsky was later commissioned to produce a singable Russian translation of the German texts, but he disputed the provenance, maintaining that Bodenstedt, whom he had met, did not know Persian and simply invented the poems (Bodenstedt, as it happens, had by then decided to claim the authorship of these bestselling poems for himself). The 20th century saw a revival of Vazeh’s work, and an examination of the original texts showed that Bodenstedt had indeed translated them, although his versions were much more effusive than Vazeh’s.

Having begun their collaboration in 1997, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and its conductor laureate Thomas Dausgaard have developed an unusually tight partnership. Nowhere is this demonstrated more clearly than in their cycles of the symphonies of Schumann, Schubert and, most recently, Brahms – performances which have been characterized by reviewers as variously ‘fresh’, ‘vivid’, ‘transparent’ and ‘invigorating’.

Friends of long standing as well as regular partners in chamber music, Michael Collins and Stephen Hough bring their combined musical insights and expertise to bear on Johannes Brahms’s sonatas for clarinet and piano. Together with the composer’s trio for clarinet, cello and piano and clarinet quintet, the sonatas are among the most treasured works in the repertoire of the instrument – but it is partly down to good luck that we have them at all. When Brahms in 1891 heard the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld, principal clarinet of the Meiningen Court Orchestra, he had already announced his retirement. He was enraptured by Mühlfeld’s playing and its vocal qualities, however, and made a ‘comeback’: during the following couple of years he composed all four of his clarinet works.

After Camerata’s pre-Christmas concert at London’s King Place a few years back, where we played my arrangement of Silent Night as an encore, Matthew Trusler and I discussed the idea of recording jazzy arrangements of Christmas favourites. We came up with a programme which includes some of my own arrangements as well as those of a friend of mine, a brilliant violinist and arranger, Bjorn Kleiman. It also includes my orchestration of Take 6’s fantastic arrangement of O Come All Ye Faithful, taken from their 1991 album “Oh! He is Christmas”, as well as the 2nd movement of Winter from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Tchaikovsky’s Melody, Op.42.

In 2019, when Alexandre Kantorow, at the age of 22, became the first French pianist to win the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky competition, his programme included no less than three works by Johannes Brahms. Two of these, Piano Sonata No. 2 and the Rhapsody in B minor, he went on to record for release on his previous, highly praised recital disc, which was awarded distinctions such as Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice, Diapason d’Or, and Choc de Classica. The Brahms interpretations won Kantorow particular praise – the Guardian (UK) described them as ‘magisterial’ while the website ResMusica placed his sonata ‘among the great reference recordings of the piece – if not the modern one.’

Tomoyuki Hirota has been principal oboe of the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra since 2006, and also is the training executive of the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra. Prior to these positions, he was appointed solo oboist of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra while a student at Kunitachi College of Music, making him the first contract solo oboist of the Japanese orchestras ever. Mr. Hirota was highly acclaimed by The Times at a European tour with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2003.

Former Public Image Ltd. bassist and innovative musical visionary, Jah Wobble, revisits an old stomping ground for this brilliant album of brand new studio recordings! Wobble returns to the hugely influential 1979 album from PiL, Metal Box, completely reinventing 8 of the album's songs with sophisticated dub interpretations and mind-expanding production! Also includes two bonus tracks - all new renditions of two tracks from the classic debut PiL album!