To mark the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich’s death on August 9, the Oliver Schnyder Trio—joined by violinist Julia Fischer and violist Nils Mönkemeyer—has recorded Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57. This cornerstone of his chamber output is complemented by both of his piano trios.

Saint-Saëns, as Mats Lidström notes, did not have exclusive rights to draw inspiration from swans and this album presents twenty-four examples from a wide range of composers, written before and after the one featuring in Saint-Saëns’s menagerie. Most are heard in arrangements for cello made especially for the album by Mats, who is accompanied by his son, Leif Kaner-Lidström.

The Gesualdo Six explore different aspects of light and shade—musical evocations of dawn and dusk, the seasonal and the sacred—by composers from Saint Hildegard, writing in the twelfth century, to Owain Park in the twenty-first. The participation of trumpeter Matilda Lloyd, whether soaring above or blending with the voices, makes this a G6 album like no other. Matilda Lloyd is an exclusive artist of Chandos Records and appears here with their kind permission

Fulfillment! Singer/songwriter Dave Cousins finds a space somewhere between Bob Dylan and John Bunyan, Hudson and Ford come up with some superb hooks, and the electric sound is powerful and majestic. The music is serious - perhaps too much so - bracing, and sincere, if a bit downbeat. For most of the fans though, it represented another major step forward for the Strawbs.

Clavier Übung means 'a keyboard exercise' or 'practice', which is rather a humble term for such exquisitely-crafted music. Bach borrowed it from Johann Kuhnau, his predecessor as cantor of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, who in 1689 had published a collection called Neue Clavier-Übung consisting of seven suites of dances. Bach's Clavier Übung III was published in 1739, when Leipzig was celebrating the bicentenary of the Lutheran Reformation. The hymns on which the 12 organ chorales on this disc are based focus on the six chief parts of the Lutheran Catechism: the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, Holy Baptism, Confession and Communion.

Born in Danzig in 1626, Balthasar Erben was a cosmopolitan. When he applied for the position of Kapellmeister of the main church of St. Marien in his hometown at the age of 27, the council granted him a generous scholarship so that he could "look around the world and perfect himself as a composer". For five years, Erben traveled throughout Europe, visiting all the centres of musical culture of the time, including Rome. His compositional style, which was developed during this time, is correspondingly distinctive: a combination of different influences, cleverly interwoven. The Abendmusiken Basel offer an impressive collection of instrumental and sacred works by the composer who is unfortunately little known today.

Published in 1733, Pietro Locatelli’s L'Arte del violino for solo violin, strings, and basso continuo took both violin technique and the solo concerto as a genre into a whole new realm. The twelve concertos included in the collection also played a part in forming the image of the violin virtuoso, reaching its full bloom with Paganini towards the end of the century. While the unusually high technical demands of the solo part are obvious to the listener from the start, the great surprise comes at the end of the first and third movements of each of the concertos. Here Locatelli inserts Capriccios for the soloist alone of a difficulty previously unheard of, with a left hand technique making use of extensions, octaves, unprepared tenths, double and triple stopping, arpeggios and double trills.

The music to this project was inspired by Dali's "Salon of the Masterworks" exhibit at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Dalinian philosophy calls for sudden materialization of suggested image… phantoms endowed with the realism of tangible objects. Who else but Dali would paint a still life… moving fast? An angel's ear? Or a Hallucinogenic Toreador? Scott Duncan's music somehow rings eerily true to the themes behind the inspiration. As if he had gone inside. This captivating music Scott has written definitely brings an entirely new dimension to New Age.

French Symphonic Masters Fairyland are back with the long-awaited album The Story Remains. Fairyland is a well-known name in the symphonic metal scene, appreciated and with a specific trademark made of majestic orchestration able to bring the listeners in their fantasy world. The band was formed in 1998 as Fantasia Philippe Giordana and Willdric Lievin. Both musicians shared the same passion for epic and symphonic heavy metal. Fantasia recruited guitarist Anthony Parker and entered Wizard Studio in February 2002. During the recording, they found Elisa C. Martin, already known for her work with the power metal band Dark Moor. At this time, the band's name was changed to Fairyland.
The Story Remains has the band’s trademark 100%, songs like A New Dawn or Karma are a perfect example of the amazing album that will make every symphonic metal freak’s heart beat with excitement!

The making of Congo Funk!, our long-awaited journey to the musical heart of the African continent, took the Analog Africa Team on two journeys to Kinshasa and one to Brazzaville. Selected meticulously from around 2000 songs and boiled down to 14, this compilation aims to showcase the many facets of the funky, hypnotic and schizophrenic tunes emanating from the two Congolese capitals nestled on the banks of the Congo River.

The textbook charge usually levelled against Alligator sessions are that they're sanitized. You couldn't lodge that one against this set with a straight face; if anything, somebody turned Sonny Terry loose. It didn't hurt that Johnny Winter was around on guitar and piano, playing gritty blues with a passion. It didn't help that Terry didn't put any amplified muscle behind his harmonica, however. Otherwise, this is a strong session.