The third long-player from San Francisco psychedelic icons Quicksilver Messenger Service (QMS) is a direct contrast from their previous discs. Shady Grove (1969) is comprised mostly of shorter and self-contained pieces as opposed to the long and extended jams that were so prevalent on their self-titled debut (1967) and Happy Trails (1969). Ironically, the one stretched-out instrumental is courtesy of their latest acquisition - Brit recording session guru Nicky Hopkins (keyboards). Another possible reason for the shift in style as well as personnel is the conspicuous absence of Gary Duncan (guitar) - who is rumored to have been a "guest" of Bay Area law enforcement at the time. The band incorporate a number of different styles on the album. Kicking off the disc is an up-tempo rocking version of the traditional Appalachian folk song "Shady Grove"…

Buckwheat Zydeco can be counted on for a joyous, upbeat zydeco party groove and his albums are remarkably consistent in that regard. This set draws tracks from his mid-'80s albums for Rounder Records, including sides from 1983's Turning Point, 1985's Waitin' for My Ya Ya, and 1987's Buckwheat's Zydeco Party, and makes a nice sampler and introduction to what was arguably Buckwheat Zydeco's most commercially viable and inspired period. The title track, "Let the Good Times Roll," "Hot Tamale Baby," and a nice version of Fats Domino's "Walkin' to New Orleans" are among the highlights.

Formed in 1967, this Japanese proggy-doom heavy rockin' band started their career with 60's West coast acid rock covers under the name Yuya Uchida & The Flowers ("Challenge", 1969). With "Anywhere" (1970 they were in search of their own sound and musical identity, surfing on 70's California rock and on the stoned heavy rock of the Sabbath. Satori (1971) remains their ultimate masterpiece, delivering a really captivating, personal psych-hard rockin' trip with discreet Eastern mystical influences. After this mesmerising stoner rock essay the band released a last album "Make up" (1973). Flower Travellin' Band is definitely a 70's cult psychedelic/space rock standard and a strong reference on the Japaneses underground scene with other psych-proto-metallers as Brush!? and Les Rallizes Denudes.

Andre Konchalovsky's 1986 film Shy People, would seem the perfect vehicle for a Tangerine Dream score. Alternately pensive and paranoid, full of taut drama and dreamy expanses as well as moments of true psychological horror, Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke, and Paul Haslinger not only scored the film, but produced and engineered the recording, too.

Two of today’s most brilliant tenors, Michael Spyres and Lawrence Brownlee, strike sparks off each other as they celebrate the star tenors of Rossini’s time, such as Andrea Nozzari, Giovanni David, and Manuel García. Amici e Rivali – ‘Friends and Rivals’ – comprises arias, duets and trios from seven of the composer’s operas, including the ever-popular Il barbiere di Siviglia and the rarely heard Ricciardo e Zoraide. The ‘duelling tenors’ are joined by the effervescent Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, the prize-winning young Spanish tenor Xabier Anduaga, I Virtuosi Italiani and conductor Corrado Rovaris.

When Kirill Petrenko performed Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony with the Berliner Philharmoniker in March 2017, one critic was ''stunned at how beautiful and breathtakingly exciting this music can be''. This first audio release of the orchestra and its new chief conductor reflects the whole sonority and intensity of the interpretation - and offers a taste of an exciting new beginning.

The preeminent violin and piano partnership of Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien give matchless accounts of Brahms's three Violin Sonatas. The works, which reveal the composer at his most lyrically reflective, are coupled with a fabulous encore by Clara Schumann.

In 1998, it would have been a cheap joke to say that Mariah Carey had no other kind of hits than ballads, but in the ensuing decade she steadily remade herself into an R&B diva, obscuring if not quite erasing the well-mannered adult contemporary singer of the '90s. The 2009 compilation The Ballads – released just before Valentines Day 2009 – attempts to turn back the clock by focusing just on those AC tunes – 18 of them, in fact, including such mammoth hits as "Hero," "One Sweet Day," "Vision of Love," "I'll Be There," "I Still Believe," "Dreamlover," and "Always Be My Baby."

These four cycles make an excellent and generous coupling, with Dagmar Pecková, brilliantly supported by Irwin Gage, a most persuasive advocate. Hers is an ideal voice, unmistakably Slavonic in timbre, yet firm and pure as well as rich. She retains a freshness specially apt for the songs inviting a girlish manner, including Dvorák's most famous song, the fourth of the seven Gypsy Melodies, 'Songs my mother taught me', sounding fresh and new.

Is Candy Dulfer a jazz saxophonist with a feel for funk or a funk player with a jazz side to her musical personality? On FUNKED UP, she leans toward the latter. While there is some smooth melodious jazz here, most of this set is geared to paying tribute to old-school funk–Parliament, Funkadelic, James Brown, and the earliest efforts by Kool & the Gang and Rick James. There’s some rapping along with overtones of reggae rhymes and Latin rhythms, but for the most part FUNKED lives up to its title, with Dulfer’s heated sax shining throughout. This special edition of FUNKED UP! also includes a second disc of Candy Dulfer "chill-out" instrumentals.