This 1957 LP features the great singer Dinah Washington on a variety of "greatest hits" dating back to 1943. The blues-oriented material includes "Evil Gal Blues," "Trouble in Mind," "TV Is the Thing This Year," and "New Blowtop Blues," and was taken from five different sessions spanning a decade. This accessible effort serves as a fine introduction to the spirited early style of Washington.

Franck Dervieux was the keyboardist of Jean Pierre Ferland, one of Quebec's best known singers. Dervieux became ill with cancer and after regaining his strength, he released an album called "Dimension M" in 1972, in which his life's philosophy is aptly, yet abstractly, described on the insert. The band comprised Yves Laferrière (bass), Christiane Robichaud (vocals), Michel Robidoux (guitar), and Christian Saint-Roch (drums) who would all go on to form Contraction. Also present during sessions was Michel Séguin (percussion), who later formed Toubabou.
Dervieux dedicates the album to his 3 doctors from Sherbrooke, who he says on the insert 'preserved' him. Indeed they saved him just long enough to produce what is undoubtedly one of the finest progressive music LPs to have emerged from Quebec…

The last TD production with Johannes Schmoelling was the soundtrack for Ridley Scott's movie Legend, starring Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, Tim Currie and David Bennent. Jerry Goldsmith was the original composer of the music for Legend, but Universal Studios decided they wanted a more modern sounding music and contracted with TD, Jon Anderson (singer of Yes) and Bryan Ferry (formerly with Roxy Music) to supply new music. The TD score was used for the North American version of the film only, thus the TD soundtrack was released 1986 in USA and Canada only. All other world-wide releases used the Goldsmith film score.

Eduard Melkus brought Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's (1644-1704) Rosary Sonatas (Rosenkranzsonaten) to new life with his groundbreaking 1967 recording; in the six decades that have passed since then, the pieces, which are as virtuoso as they are meditative in mood, have conquered a firm place in the discographies of ambitious baroque violinists. The Austrian violinist Gunar Letzbor has been considered one of the leading interpreters of this famous cycle since he recorded his interpretation on album for the Arcana label in 1996. The success was overwhelming: the critics were enthusiastic and the recording is still today available in the label's catalogue.

Leonard Elschenboich is joined by pianist Alexi Grynyuk for a program of Beethoven's five cello sonatas, which span his three creative periods. The audacious Op.5 sonatas date from his early years in Vienna as a piano virtuoso and aspiring composer (1792-99). The great Op.69 sonata is from the same period that saw the composition of Symphonies Nos.4-8, the Violin Concerto, Mass in C and the String Quartets Op.59. The two Op.102 sonatas are from the cusp of the 'late' period. This is the time of the Symphony No.9, the Missa Solemnis, the great string quartets Op.127-135 and the last five piano sonatas.

Partenope is mature Handel, and belongs in the top flight of his stage works. A comedy from 1730, which was first rejected as too frivolous by the Royal Academy of Music in London, the text had been set 20 years earlier by Caldara for an opera that had been a major influence on the young Handel. The tone is light and the action - all disguises and cross-dressing, with everyone ending up with the right partner - is swift moving; there are relatively few extended arias but a number of ensembles, as well as the obligatory sinfonia and march for the battle scene at the beginning of the second act. This performance under Christian Curnyn hits the right spot from the very start.

Brief Encounters is a studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in 2009 by independent label Just Good Music for Your Ears. A two-CD set, Brief Encounters consists of downtempo pop songs and ballads on disc 1 ('For the Heart'), and uptempo dance tracks and remixes on disc 2 ('For the Feet'). The album included a number of cover versions of tracks like Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black", Lenny Kravitz's "I Belong to You" and Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" alongside new songs, written mainly by Enrico Petrelli and Amanda Lear.

A brand new career spanning Best Of that includes all the hit singles off the latest "Rain or Shine" album as well as a rare version of "The Living Years." Paul Melvyn Carrack is an English singer, songwriter and musician who has recorded as both a solo artist and as a member of several popular bands. The BBC dubbed Carrack "The Man with the Golden Voice", and described him as "something of a national treasure". William Pinfold of Record Collector remarked: "If vocal talent equalled financial success, Paul Carrack would be a bigger name than legends such as Phil Collins or Elton John."