Elton John's Classic Album Selection (1970-73) box set is comprised of five of the music legend's most influential and critical acclaimed albums: Elton John, Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across The Water, Honky Chateau, and Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player. These albums (now including selected bonus tracks) provided the backbone of Elton’s early career and were the source of a series of breakthrough hits which would propel him to become one of the most successful British artists of all time.

Les Noces is a screaming, shrieking, flat-out masterpiece. Leonard Bernstein himself has referred to it as Stravinsky's greatest work, and listening to this incendiary performance, it's awfully hard to disagree. Scored for voices, four pianos, and percussion, the work provided the inspiration for the entire career of Orff (of Carmina Burana fame), but it's so much better as sheer music than anything Orff wrote. And what a cast! The pianists for this performance include Martha Argerich, Krystian Zimerman, Cyprien Katsaris, and Homero Francesch, four certified virtuoso performers, while the singers of the English Bach Festival Chorus really cover themselves with glory in both works. A stunner.

Music is the very soul of Venice. In every square, street, and canal, singing is to be heard, wrote Goldoni. Musical dilettantes were non-professionals who played for their own pleasure and enjoyment, to entertain themselves. This programme is devoted to a number of composers who, without being professionals, left their own very personal mark on the history of music. After Bad Guys , his first album for Aparté (2013), Xavier Sabata presents I Dilettanti , accompanied by the lively ensemble Latinitas Nostras. This recording, made in the singer s native Spain, bears witness to the sincere friendship between these artists, brought together by a passion for music, and to their dilettante spirit.

Listening to these fluent, expressive performances, it’s difficult to see how even Cramer—one of the great virtuosos of his day—could have matched the effortless mastery so characteristic of Howard Shelley’s pianism.

This recording by Trevor Pinnock is one of the finest ever. Played on original baroque instruments, the sound is a little thinner than what we are used to with modern orchestras. This is not a fault - it is actually an advantage. It brings Bach to life - every instrument is heard clearly, the feel is gutsy, real, lively. This is the Brandenburgs as Bach himself would have heard it. Wonderful stuff.