After the breakup of Emerson, Lake & Palmer in 1978, Greg Lake set out to launch a solo career. He teamed up with guitar virtuoso Gary Moore and enlisted the talents of Bruce Springsteen's sax player, Clarence Clemmons, as well as Toto veterans Steve Lukather, David Paich, and Jeff Porcaro. The result was his 1981 self-titled debut album. After more than a decade with prog-rock legends ELP and King Crimson, it is clear Lake was looking for a musical change and a chance to perform as a guitarist, his primary instrument, after more than a decade mainly playing bass. The album is a guitar driven venture into straight forward rock & roll which features well written songs and some sizzling guitar work by Gary Moore. Lake's voice soars, as it did with ELP, and we see that his guitar prowess is something too often hidden in the past. His skill as a producer is also evident as he brings out the power of each note with a big, energizing sound…

Japanese composer, conductor and pianist Joe Hisaishi announces his upcoming album Joe Hisaishi Conducts, which documents a concert given at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall on 31 July 2024. There Hisaishi performed his own The End of the World suite in a version as well as his friend and colleague Steve Reich’s The Desert Music.

We begin with one of Shostakovich's earliest chamber works, the Cello Sonata, originally premiered by cellist Viktor Kubatsky with the composer at the piano. Kubatsky later transcribed the cello part for the viola with Shostakovich's approval. His version, along with subsequent transcriptions by Evgeny Strakov and Annette Bartholdy, adapted certain passages to suit the viola. For this recording, I chose to remain as faithful as possible to the original cello version, raising some passages by an octave to accommodate the viola's range. This is followed by Shostakovich's Impromptu, a brief but captivating piece discovered in 2017. The album concludes with Shostakovich's Viola Sonata, which stands as one of the cornerstones of the viola repertoire. Not only is it his final composition, but it's also one of his most profound. In this work, Shostakovich seems to bid a poignant farewell, weaving in quotations from his earlier pieces and even paying tribute to Beethoven in the final movement.

Okhotsk Genso is a new track composed by Tomita, inspired by a ficticious letter written by the sister of poet/author Kenji Miyazawa to Miyazawa, who inspired his latest original work, Symphony Ihatov. Tracks 2-7 were previously on Daphnis et Chloe (although three tracks from the orginal Daphnis et Chloe are not included) and tracks 8-12, were previously on the double album, Sound Creature released in 1977, and are released onto CD for the first time. Sound Creature originally demonstrated how Tomita created his works by stripping the sound down and through sound and illustrations in the booklet how the final version came into being.

In 2009, a large collection of guitar music from the Gitarristische Vereinigung München (‘Munich Guitar Society’) was rediscovered in an attic in Munich. The collection included many significant works for guitar that have been hidden from view for decades. Many of these works are by neglected composers whose names are deserving of exploration and revival. Wilhelm Schmoelzl’s Introduction und Variationen exists on the threshold between Classicism and Romanticism, while Adam Darr’s perfectly realised Sonata is notable for its striking use of Alpine folk music. The programme concludes with Carl Kamberger’s witty and surprising Grand Fantasy, with its multitude of quoted themes and unconventional techniques.

Antonio Soler enjoyed high prestige at Spain’s royal palace, the Escorial, where his contributions to keyboard technique, harmonic innovation and his Spanish musical identity served to bridge the stylistic gap between the late Baroque and early Classicism. Soler’s innovations have often been overlooked but the intricate modulations and rhythmic vitality found in his sonatas offer compelling evidence of their importance. Sonatas Nos. 99–111 offer a wealth of entrancing features, which include sophisticated ornamentation, a synthesis of contrapuntal and Iberian folkloric traditions, and humorous cadences.