Violinist Amandine Beyer has a variety of musical interests but is best known as a specialist in the Baroque violin, with a repertory stretching from the early Baroque to the Classical period. She has collaborated with numerous top historical performance groups, founded the chamber orchestra Gli Incogniti, and is a co-founder of the Kitgut Quartet. Beyer was born in 1974 in Aix-en-Provence, France. She began taking lessons at age four on both the violin and recorder. In 1990, she entered the Paris Conservatory as a violin student, studying with Sylvie Gazeau, graduating in 1994 with a first prize in violin.

The acclaimed Icelandic composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Snorri Hallgrímsson releases his debut on DG with the EP Longer shadows, softer stones. Following several collaborations with DG in recent years, Hallgrímsson has now produced six original thought-provoking tracks in this release that aim to transform listeners’ disillusion with the darkness of the world and encourage them to travel with hope instead.

Vincenzo Bellini was one of the most important composers of Italian opera in his time.

Following a devastating cancer diagnosis in September 2022, Adrian Sutton, composer of the music for War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and other National Theatre productions, made a conscious decision to change his focus, committing himself to working solely on music for the concert hall. This has led to a series of major new works, including his Violin Concerto which received its world première at the Southbank Centre in June 2023, played by Fenella Humphreys and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Adrian commented: ‘We all have limited time – and resources. How to make best use of them? In my situation, there’s only one answer: avoid egregious waste of both time and energy ruminating on things I can’t change. Instead, I can choose how I react to the facts – and I’m choosing not to be a victim.’ This new album of world-première record ings reflects the composer’s new focus. Of the album, Adrian Sutton says: ‘Here's the real musical me. My core musical DNA. The Violin Concerto in particular (being a violinist myself) is for me the main course on this disc, but the other works are a showcase for what I’ve always been about… ranging from the bracing and instrumentally challenging A Fist Full of Fives through to orchestral suites derived from my theatre works. I’m very proud of them all, and pleased to have had the opportunity to share them.’

Pop, Latin, and R&B hits are given a 60s makeover on this collection.

The Clarion Choir and its Artistic Director Steven Fox make their Pentatone debut with a recording of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s choral masterpiece, the All-Night Vigil, demonstrating their exceptional proficiency in Russian repertoire. The All-Night Vigil is an evening service that gradually moves towards daybreak, symbolizing the Resurrection of Christ. This message of light and hope emanating from the darkness is both universal and very topical in the troubled world we find ourselves in. On this recording, many of the movements are preceded by the original Kiev and Znameny chants on which Rachmaninoff based his composition, adding another layer to this mesmerizing piece.

Rob Zombie The longtime frontman for '90s industrial superstars White Zombie, New England-bred multi-hyphenate Rob Zombie went on to forge a highly successful solo career and later branched off into the world of film. A lover of B-movie camp, horror nostalgia, and psychedelic imagery, his enduring 1998 debut Hellbilly Deluxe set him apart from contemporaries by balancing brutal metal power with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor and sexiness that never took itself too seriously. Over the decades, he remained a fixture in the U.S. Top Ten, scoring additional hits with 2001's The Sinister Urge and 2006's Educated Horses.

Barbara Hannigan, a Grammy award-winning artist at the forefront of creation, leads an ensemble of outstanding young musicians from the Royal Academy of Music and The Juilliard School. Since 2002, the Academy and The Juilliard School, both international leaders in their field, have enjoyed a special and fruitful friendship based on 20 years of performances, exchanges and recordings. In this latest collaboration, Hannigan directs students from both institutions in an all-Stravinsky programme, including the Octet, Dumbarton Oaks, Ragtime and Three Japanese Lyrics. Recently appointed the Reinbert de Leeuw Professor of Music at the Academy, Hannigan conducts this transatlantic group in a wonderfully intelligent and engaging programme of Stravinsky's most iconic ensemble repertoire.

'The rehearsals for La Vie parisienne are almost driving me insane', wrote librettist Ludovic Halevy a few days before the work's first performance. The artists of the Palais-Royal company were struggling with some of the musical numbers Offenbach had written for them. Under pressure, composer and librettists had to simplify, cut, rewrite and sometimes even abandon some of their most successful inspirations. The international success of the final score soon ensured the hundreds of pages reluctantly deleted by Offenbach were well and truly forgotten. Now the research of the Palazzetto Bru Zane team has uncovered all this musical material, making it possible to present the world premiere recording. Listeners can now enjoy a delightful Diplomatic Trio, a Seduction Quintet, a Roadsweeper's Song, an air for Urbain, the Fabliau of the Baroness, and more. The team of fourteen soloists assembled under the baton of Romain Dumas benefits from the glittering sonorities of the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, which previously recorded Offenbach's 'other' Vie parisienne back in… 1976.

DRUG CHURCH might be somewhat of a household name to those that have been acutely tuned into post-hardcore over the last decade and change, but they are a band that has seen a massive influx of attention in the years following the release of their critically acclaimed third album Cheer. Since then, the band have released yet another critically acclaimed record with 2022’s Hygiene, touring the both the USA and Europe extensively before and since. Recent years have turned a lot of heads towards the band – attention that they have used wisely, capitalising on it with yet another new record – PRUDE.

A collection of Christmas songs from Amanda McBroom, writer of Bette Midler's hit THE ROSE. Standards and originals make this anew holiday classic.

Like many eponymous albums, Shakira's self-titled 2014 set marks a new beginning: a new album for a new label after she got a new job. The new job was as a co-host on the hit American televised musical contest The Voice, the new label was RCA, and the new album was her first full-fledged pop album since She Wolf, the rather brilliant, hard electronic dance record that stiffed in 2009. She bounced back in 2010 with Sale el Sol, but that album wasn't made with the U.S. market in mind, something that certainly can't be said of Shakira. Opening up with a duet with Rihanna, and later finding space for her Voice co-host Blake Shelton, Shakira is determined to appeal to all audiences here: don't like the relentless dance of "Dare (La La La)"? Stick around for the reggae collaboration with Magic! on "Cut Me Deep," or maybe the appealing faux-folk of "23" or the full-bore adult-pop assault of "The One Thing," which may be the best cut here.

Last time around, Shakira touched upon so many styles she couldn’t be contained on one album, splitting Oral Fixation in two. This time, she focuses on one sound only: a pulsating electro-disco that crosses all boundaries and welcomes all nationalities. Such concentration behooves Shakira, freeing her to release her inner She Wolf, a wild wacko who’s as cuckoo as she is carnal. And for as sexy as Shakira is – crucially, her music is sexy too – what really gives She Wolf its bite is her inspired nuttiness, how she laments that Matt Damon’s not meant for her, and wishes her ex-lover and his new girl a horrible vacation where the room smells and the toilet doesn’t flush. “Darling, it is no joke, this is lycanthropy,” she sings on the title track with no small trace of humor, and this blend of cheerful weirdness and sick beats – often supplied by the Neptunes, delivering tough, sensual rhythms in a way they haven’t in a long time, but also John Hill and Wyclef Jean – is giddily addicting, a celebration of all the strange sensuality that comes out at night.

Credit to Train for capturing a specific seasonal vibe on their 2015 holiday album Christmas in Tahoe and, furthermore, for making it plain right in the record's title. Where most Christmas albums focus on afternoons filled with snow and evenings by the fire, Train zero in on a Californian Christmas, one with plenty of sun and margaritas to share. Appropriately, the band isn't big on carols – only one makes the cut and that's "O Holy Night," its presence vaguely bringing to mind the Letterman tradition of Paul Shaffer singing it as Cher every holiday – choosing to cover popular favorites from the '50s through the 21st century, throwing in a couple of peppy (and pretty good) originals along the way.

Looking back on Fatboy Slim's discography, Palookaville is up against some stiff competition, which makes it the low point only because it isn't another beginning-to-end stunner. The Fatboy himself – Norman Cook – had given plenty of hints in the press before the album's release that this was going to be different. He went through marriage problems and declared a renewed interest in hip-hop over dance music, dance being a genre he sees as going through another dry period. Still, this isn't a "forget everything you know about…" album since the jittery "Slash Dot Dash" and "Jin Go Lo Ba" sound like old outtakes. They're the lesser tracks on an album that could have been tighter had Cook not played it safe by including them.