A sublime survey of sacred music of the high Renaissance, Hyperion's 2018 release Amarae Morti offers transparent performances by Peter Phillips and the a cappella chamber choir El León de Oro. Covering music of the Franco-Flemish and Iberian schools, the program follows a trajectory from darkness to light, from somber motets by Dominique Phinot, Orlande de Lassus, Nicolas Gombert, and Manuel Cardoso to glorious works by Tomás Luis de Victoria, Cristóbal de Morales, and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. There is a consistency of subjects in the program, which includes settings of the Lamentations, Media Vita, the Regina Coeli, and the Magnificat, revealing different treatments of these familiar texts and varying levels of complexity and contrapuntal mastery, which culminate in the magnificent polychoral works of Victoria and Palestrina.

Festival d'Aix-en-Provence has firmly established itself as France’s preeminent summer festival and is a key fixture on the international festival calendar. It is particularly in the field of opera that the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence continues to break new ground and this release from the 2016 festival demonstrates that. In this new staging – a coproduction with the Opéra de Lille, Théâtre de Caen – Emmanuelle Haïm directs Le Concert d’Astrée with a star-studded cast including Franco Fagioli, Sara Mingardo, Michael Spyres, and exclusive Erato artist Sabine Devieilhe.

Neapolitan music of the 18th century, so important in the formation of the musical lingua franca of the Classical period, is a massively neglected area wherein lie many riches. Despite his greater interest in opera, Leo was maestro di cappella at the Naples royal chapel and composed a good deal of church music, especially towards the end of his life (he died in 1744), in which sound counterpoint and the clarity of modern melodic developments are successfully combined. These are not sterile exercises in ‘old-style’ polyphony, but works of honest, thoroughly Italianate expression.

Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante expand the Vivaldi edition with the eleventh volume of violin concertos bearing the name of one of the most famous interpreters of the early eighteenth century: Anna Maria. Hailed as a "child prodigy" and outstanding artist of the Ospedale della Pietà, where Vivaldi taught for forty years, Anna Maria was an accomplished violinist, but also mastered the viola d'amore and theorbo, as well as the harpsichord, cello, lute, and mandolin. Her reputation spread throughout Europe, and we know that Vivaldi dedicated at least twenty-four concertos to her.

It's little wonder why Drake felt frustrated at the lack of commercial success his music initially gathered, considering the help he had on his debut record. Besides fine production from Joe Boyd and assistance from folks like Fairport Convention's Richard Thompson and his unrelated bass counterpart from Pentangle, Danny Thompson, Drake also recruited school friend Robert Kirby to create most of the just-right string and wind arrangements. His own performance itself steered a careful balance between too-easy accessibility and maudlin self-reflection, combining the best of both worlds while avoiding the pitfalls on either side. The result was a fantastic debut appearance, and if the cult of Drake consistently reads more into his work than is perhaps deserved, Five Leaves Left is still a most successful effort.

The Peel Sessions is an album by Irish band Thin Lizzy, released in 1994. This album consists of a series of recordings made for BBC Radio 1, and originally broadcast on the John Peel show. The Peel Sessions features raw and wild versions of great Lizzy songs that provide a great historical overview of the band's development.

Head Games is the third studio album by the British-American rock band Foreigner, released on 10 September 1979 by Atlantic Records. Recorded at Atlantic Studios in New York, with additional recording and whole mixing taking place at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles, it was the only Foreigner album co-produced by Roy Thomas Baker, best known for working on Queen's classic albums. It marked the first appearance of new bass guitarist Rick Wills who replaced Ed Gagliardi (who was fired from the band), and was the last album with founding members Ian McDonald and Al Greenwood who would leave the band after the recording.

James Timothy Hardin (December 23, 1941 – December 29, 1980)] was an American folk music and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. In addition to his own success, his songs "If I Were a Carpenter", "Reason to Believe", "Misty Roses" and "The Lady Came from Baltimore" were hits for other artists.

The Best of UB40, Vol. 1 is an adequate collection of the group's biggest '80s hits, including "Breakfast in Bed," "Red Red Wine," "Rat in Mi Kitchen," "Food for Thought," "Please Don't Make Me Cry," "Don't Break My Heart," and "Sing Our Own Song." Although it doesn't give enough weight to the group's earliest, edgiest (and best) recordings, it still offers a good sense of the band's evolution into a fine pop-reggae band, and it will satiate the needs of most casual fans. The Best of UB40, Vol. 2 concentrates on the group's '90s recordings, when the band concentrated on pop-reggae crossovers instead of genuine reggae. There are a number of hits here – including "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)," "Kingston Town," "The Way You Do the Things You Do," "Where Did I Go Wrong?," "Until My Dying Day," "Higher Ground" and "Can't Help Falling in Love" – but fans of UB40's political edge and their genuine reggae roots won't find much of interest here. This is a collection for pop fans, not reggae fans, and in that sense, it is a good summation of the band's second decade indeed.

Three CDs Featuring 47 tracks including the band's three studio albums recorded between 1985 and 1990 - Cock Robin (1985), After Here Through Midland (1987), and the ripe for rediscovery, First Love / Last Rites (1989). Also includes single B-sides and 12" remixes. Cock Robin's self-titled debut album achieved multi-platinum success across Europe in 1985. It included the hits 'The Promise You Made', 'Thought You Were On My Side', and 'When Your Heart Is Weak.' The success of the singles propelled the album into the top 10. Their second album, 'After Here Through Midland', followed in 1987 and was another huge success across Europe. It included the hit 'Just Around The Corner.' Europe's love affair with the band propelled the album into the top 10 (Netherlands #6, Belgium #3, Germany #6, France #4) and it went platinum in France. Third album, 'First Love / Last Rites' produced by Rhett Davies, who worked with Roxy Music, was released in 1989. Despite it's high quality the album fared less well except in France where it reached #11 and went 2 x gold. In the US and Japan the album was issued in 1990 with their cover of Conway Twitty's 'It's Only Make Believe' added as track six and that's been included here.

Walkabout is the fourth studio album by the English new wave band the Fixx, released in 1986. The first single, "Secret Separation", spent two weeks atop the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart in July 1986; it was the band's second No. 1 single on the chart.

Elvis Costello: King of America & Other Realms – The collection is anchored by CD1: a new 2024 remaster of the album King Of America from the original master tapes. CD2 is a collection of songs featuring studio recordings, previously unreleased demos, outtakes & live recordings from this wild and wonderfully odd odyssey.

The last of the pianoless quartet albums that Gerry Mulligan recorded in the 1950s is one of the best, featuring the complementary trumpet of Art Farmer, bassist Bill Crow, and drummer Dave Bailey along with the baritonist/leader. This recording is a little skimpy on playing time but makes every moment count. Virtually every selection is memorable, with "What Is There to Say," "Just in Time," "Festive Minor," "My Funny Valentine," and "Utter Chaos" being the high points. Highly recommended both to Mulligan collectors and to jazz listeners who are just discovering the great baritonist.

They didn't reach stadium-level superstardom like the Clash and the Police, but few contemporaries could hold a candle to the punky reggae of the Ruts. Nearly equal parts righteous dread and six-string fury, the London quartet was one of the most important bands to emerge during punk's second wave, and this collection – one of a series that also included well-chosen retrospectives of acts like the Members and the Records – expertly compiles the finest moments of the Ruts' too-short career. Like many British bands who incorporated reggae rhythms into their pogo stomp, the group began life leaning heavily toward the hard and fast, as documented by their initial single, 1978's "In a Rut." But very early on, they began to toy with Jamaican sounds and themes – just listen to the brief, dub-style guitar lick in the middle of "Babylon's Burning," the title of which draws a link to Rastafarian unrest at home and abroad during the late '70s.

Jazz pianist Beegie Adair has undertaken a series of songbook recordings devoted to particular songwriters of the classic pop era, calling them the "romantic songs of," each one, even though she isn't particularly strict about that definition. This one of music by Irving Berlin is typical. (In what sense are "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "White Christmas," or "God Bless America" "romantic songs"? Since no one is singing the lyrics, maybe it doesn't matter.) Adair leads a trio through instrumental treatments that adhere closely to the melodies most of the time, although she does introduce variations and brief improvisations. More adventurous jazz fans may find the results tame, but casual music lovers can program this disc beside previously issued ones of the music of George Gershwin and Hoagy Carmichael to accompany a candlelight dinner.