Born in Granada, Morente is the eldest daughter of the late, legendary flamenco singer Enrique Morente and the dancer Aurora Carbonell. She grew up surrounded by flamenco and has since become one of Spain’s most sought-after performers, drawing modern elements of pop and jazz balladry into her music while remaining true to the classic flamenco tradition. Morente’s music has been universally lauded by demanding flamenco connoisseurs and modern rock artists alike for its crystalline timbre and for the singer’s ability to move seamlessly between warm, seductive tones to more raw and expressive phrases. A deep knowledge of the art form, as well as innate musical taste has made Morente a point of reference for aficionados and newcomers to flamenco singing.

The Orchestra of Douai from the region Hauts-de-France presents the great composers of their region on this new CD, Edouard Lalo and Albert Roussel. The Symphonie Espagnole is well known to any music enthousiast. Svetlin Roussev plays it so brilliantly, that the Spanish rhythms are electrifying the listener from the first to the last note. Roussel unfortunately is less known than Lalo - after listening to this CD, people may wonder why. The Concert pour Petit Orchestre spans from poetic lines in the Andante to a captivatingly dynamic waltz, the conductor Jean-Jacques Kantorow carves out all subtle nuances. And like in the Symphonie Espagnole, Kantorow takes the role of the sensitive accompanist in the final piano concerto by Rossel. Together with the soloist Alain Raës he shows the countless colours of this wonderful music.

There has been a resurgence of interest in Handel's Italian-language cantatas as recordings have begun to reflect the vast totality of his output rather than a selection of big hits ideologically bound up with British nationhood. The works on this disc date from early in Handel's career, while he was working in Italy; this Italian recording accurately uses the German spelling of the composer's name, Händel, which he would still have been employing at the time. They are youthful works in the best sense of the word: they break formal boundaries, give full voice to passions, and feel gloriously free to push performers to the edge.

How, you might ask yourself, could Béla Bartók's concertos take up three whole discs? After all, he only wrote three piano concertos, two violin concertos, and a viola concerto, and altogether they'd take up pretty much exactly two discs. So how did the artist and repertoire people at EMI manage to fill out three discs here? In a word, they cheated. They've added not only the Concerto for Orchestra, arguably a fair call considering the nature of the work, but the Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin and the Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, as well.

By the time they released Fire On the Bayou in 1975, the Meters (now a quintet, with addition of Cyril Neville to the lineup) had graduated from regional cult heroes to internationally renowned recording act. In addition to playing on records by the likes of Paul McCartney, Dr. John, LaBelle and Robert Palmer, they were personally invited by the Rolling Stones to open their 1975 U.S. tour. The momentum helped Fire On the Bayou to become one of the Meters' most acclaimed and commercially successful albums. It remains a fan favorite, thanks to such gritty classic jams as "Talkin' 'bout New Orleans" and "They All Ask'd for You," which demonstrate the band's effortless instrumental expertise and organic rhythmic rapport. This remastered expanded edition contains five bonus tracks.

Oh, My Girl, the second album by singer/songwriter Jesse Sykes and her band the Sweet Hereafter – led by Phil Wandscher – picks up where her debut, Reckless Burning, left off. Songs are played at cough-syrup tempo, production is sparse, instrumentation equally so, offering just enough of a frame for the melody and lyrics to hang themselves on, and everything, absolutely everything, is underplayed. There is plenty of dynamic tension, but little to no dynamic range. Yes, this is a good thing. Sykes' ghostly voice, which hovers about her words more than inhabits them, has enough old-world folkiness, raw – if intentionally muted – willingness, and lonesome country pain in it to carry off these tunes with authority. Produced, mixed and engineered by multi-instrumentalist Tucker Martine, Oh, My Girl is full of slow, dipping passion, moody expressionism and poetic smarts to make it stand out in a sensual, narcotic way from the rest of the gothic alterna-twang pack. And one more thing: Sykes has more emotion in the grain of her halting, cracking voice than a whole army of Margo Timmins'es – so let the comparisons stop now, please.

In this wonderful new recording, Baroque splendour, atmospheric and stylish elegance and cheerful Christmas melodies are put together for a festive Advent trumpet gala. Using masterful arrangements, the outstanding trumpeters Gernot Kahofer, Manuel Lichtenwöhrer and Leonhard Leeb are accompanied by organist Bernhard Macheiner and the drummer Thomas Mair. Recorded onto a surround SACD, this is guaranteed to make your Christmas an aural festive feast!

The Gloriosa Piano Trio is one of the finest piano trios based in the U.S. today. This program includes the wonderful Saint-Saens Trio No. 2 with a work by Piazzolla, and two contemporary American works, both from 2016. “Driven by lush violin-and-cello unison melodies” and a timbre that is “fuller than the brain imagines three musicians can sound” (Jon Sobel, BlogCritics), the Gloriosa Piano Trio burst onto the music scene in January 2014 as brightly as the flame lily for which the group is named.

The Schubert Impromptus Op. 90 and Sonata in B-flat Major are two of the greatest of Schubert's piano works. Winner of major competitions, Alexander Kobrin gives magisterial performances of these great works. Called the "Van Cliburn of today" by the BBC, pianist Alexander Kobrin has placed himself at the forefront of today's performing musicians. His prize-winning performances have been praised for their brilliant technique, musicality, and emotional engagement with the audience.

This music was recorded by Ashkenazy and the London Wind Soloists in 1966, quite early in his career outside Russia. It is outstanding in every way, not the least of which is the balance among the instruments, all of which have rewarding music to play. I have heard much more recent recordings of chamber groups that don't achieve this kind of balance. The Mozart Quintet dates from 1784, when he was at the peak of his powers, and this particular mix of instruments had not been tried before. It is a good-natured work, lively in the outer movements, with each player getting a chance to take the lead, so to speak, and the blended textures are arresting and appealing.

NOBODYS BUSINESS was formed in the summer of 1977 and was a ‘supergroup’ with a pedigree that shone brightly. BOBBY HARRISON (Procol Harum, Freedom, Snafu), TONY STEVENS (Savoy Brown. Foghat, Rock Follies, Midnight Flyer), JOE JAMMER (Olympic Runners), JERRY FRANK (session drummer extraordinaire). They went to Nice, France and recorded the album ‘Nobodys Business’ which was released in 1978. The promo videos featured on the DVD were produced by Sylvia Anderson (Space 1999 etc). Now for the first time ever the album is remastered with bonus tracks and released on CD along with all promo videos recorded on DVD.

Continuing its excellent series of Guarnieri Symphonies, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra under John Neschling presents another program of marvelous music that deserves the widest possible exposure outside of its native Brazil. Guarnieri's First Symphony was composed in 1944 and dedicated to Serge Koussevitsky. It's as fine an example of American (in the widest sense) neo-classicism as anything by Copland, Harris, or Piston, and it's worth pointing out that this confidently mature work actually precedes much of those composers' symphonic output, as it does, say, Tippett's, whose rhythmic complexity and contrapuntal business it in some ways resembles. The central slow movement, marked "Profundo", is particularly well sustained and supports the composer's claim to be regarded a major 20th century symphonist.

In the blues world it's OK to be a late bloomer, and when it came to recording, Joe Beard was exactly that. The charismatic singer/guitarist, whose influences range from Jimmy Reed to Lightnin' Hopkins, worked "day gigs" when his kids were growing up and didn't start to build a catalog until he was in his fifties. Blues lovers who heard Beard's AudioQuest dates of the '90s found themselves saying, "Hey, this guy is very talented; why haven't I heard of him until now?" And, of course, the answer to that question is that his nine-to-fives and family life had kept him from being a full-time bluesman. But when his kids reached adulthood, the Mississippi native turned Rochester, NY, resident had more time to devote to music. Recorded in April 2000 (when he was 62), Dealin' is Beard's third CD for AudioQuest and underscores his ability to handle a variety of electric blues styles.

For this last volume of recordings emanating from Danish Radio, Erling Blöndal Bengtsson plays six cello concertos, all by Danish composers, exhibiting a wide range of styles, from romantic to modern. Conductors include Thomas Jensen and Oliver Knussen. Also included is Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, conducted by the legendary Pierre Monteux. Once again, Bengtsson’s open-mindedness, versatility, impeccable technique and sterling musicianship are presented as part of an infallible showcase.

Organ? Bach? Classical music? Yes! With pleasure! The joy of Johann Sebastian Bach seizes the listener immediately while listening to this recording. The organ being one of the most important instruments in Bach's oeuvre, Keiko Nakata explores prominent works she has written for this wonderful instrument.Besides sacred works like the Fantasia super: "Komm, Heiliger Geist", BWV 651 and the Choral prelude "O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß", BWV 622, there are major works like the famous Toccata und Fuge d-Moll, BWV 565 and Bach's adaption of the Concerto d-Moll, BWV 596 after Antonio Vivaldi on Keiko Nakata's debut album. She plays on the organ of Marc Garnier in the Temple Saint-Jean in Belfort.