This exceptional mid-1990s CD compilation packages two historically significant mid-1960s sessions originally recorded for the legendary Verve Records label, beautifully pairing the distinctive groove architectures of guitarist Grant Green and trumpeter Donald Byrd. The first segment resurrects Green's highly danceable 1965 organ-trio date, highlighting his lean, blues-inflected linear picking alongside the masterful, innovative modal bass pedals and swelling chords of organist Larry Young. The second half shifts seamlessly into Byrd's soulful, big-ensemble production from 1964, characterized by sophisticated brass arrangements from Claus Ogerman and Herbie Hancock, dynamic gospel-influenced choir accompaniments, and high-energy rhythm sections. Both landmark albums represent a critical transitional bridge where the hard-driving logic of hard bop naturally coalesces with urban rhythm and blues, resulting in a historically vital, multi-layered collection overflowing with infectious rhythmic pockets, memorable grooves, and world-class instrumental virtuosity.

For their 11th album on Hyperion, award-winning vocal outfit The Gesualdo Six return to some of the repertoire that they spent their first year performing and touring together some 11 years ago, in 2015, recording this music for the first time.

Battle Cry is a spectacularly ambitious, deeply powerful, and masterfully harmonized classical crossover studio release by the acclaimed Australian vocal ensemble The University of Newcastle Choir, released in 2008 by the major international label Universal Music. Spanning over 47 minutes across 12 beautifully dynamic tracks, this high-fidelity studio document stands as a remarkable peak statement in modern choral transformation, breaking down the traditional boundaries between classical vocal performance and legendary rock/pop histories. Under precision artistic direction, the massive choral wall replaces conventional guitars, synthesizers, and heavy rhythm sections, multi-tracking intricate polyphonic parts to recreate the raw energy, structural density, and emotional weight of world-famous stadium hits.

The Harmoniemesse, Haydn’s last major sacred work, combines liturgical solemnity with dazzling orchestral writing empowered by his masterly use of the winds. In contrast, the intimate, luminous Missa brevis ‘St John of God’, reveals a more contemplative faith. Directing Les Arts Florissants, William Christie illuminates these two sides of the composer with authority and poetic sensitivity, well served by a top-flight quartet of soloists.

The Art of Courtly Love takes center stage on Duo Trobairitz's Hyperion CD The Language of Love, which is devoted to French troubadour and trouvère songs of the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. These are monophonic songs originally performed in the courts of France of that day, and performing them in modern times has proven a challenge; as this is some of the earliest secular music to be written down, the sources don't reveal a whole lot about the way such pieces were heard. While a handful of treatises and other accounts exist about troubadours and the practices they observed, listeners still need to use their imagination to make a performance of such music credible and comprehensive to a twenty-first century audience.

Christina Pluhar leads her ensemble L’Arpeggiata in the multi-faceted Wonder Women. The culture-crossing album pays special homage to Italian female composers of the 17th century (notably Barbara Strozzi und Francesca Caccini), but also to women of character as portrayed in the traditional music of Italy and Latin America: heroines, saints, witches, supernatural figures and mere mortals. Joining Pluhar and the instrumentalists of L’Arpeggiata are four guest singers – soprano Céline Scheen, mezzo-sopranos Luciana Mancini and Benedetta Mazzucato, and alto Vincenzo Capezzuto.

The French division of the massive EMI corporation has released a compendium called Les Introuvables de Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (EMI 68509, six CDs), and it contains so much outstanding material that one feels churlish complaining about what it lacks. But here we go. These six discs contain more than 125 lieder, ballads, cantatas and songs – primarily in German, but also in French, Italian, Latin and English – recorded mostly in the 1950s and '60s when Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's voice was one of the wonders of the musical universe.

Radio Italia Hits And Christmas is a magnificent, heartwarming double-CD anthology released in 2016 by Sony Music in partnership with the major Italian broadcaster Radio Italia. Spanning nearly two hours across 30 tracks, this high-fidelity compilation functions as a spectacular dual-concept release, dividing its runtime between contemporary mainstream radio chart-toppers and evocative seasonal pop gems. Disc one showcases the peak of mid-2010s Italian pop music, bringing together massive, radio-friendly hits from elite vocalists and bands including Elisa, Alessandra Amoroso, Nek, Negramaro, and Zucchero, alongside highly popular collaborative tracks like Alvaro Soler with Emma, and Stadio featuring rock icon Vasco Rossi. In beautiful contrast, disc two changes directions completely into a cozy, festive atmosphere, offering a gorgeous selection of traditional and contemporary Italian Christmas songs interpreted by legendary historic voices such as Mina, Lucio Dalla, Biagio Antonacci, and Antonello Venditti, alongside beloved modern seasonal classics like Alicia's A Natale puoi. Exceptionally archived in flawless lossless quality, this comprehensive collection serves as an ultimate musical time capsule and a beautiful, festive listening experience for global collectors of modern Italian pop, melodic vocal music, and international holiday traditions.

Schöne Welt, wo bist du? These words by Friedrich Schiller are the first of this new project, an exploration of existence, wandering and mourning. Coline Dutilleul has conceived a programme in which keyboard works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Lieder by Franz Schubert echo themes of melancholy and death: inner states that music makes perceptible through tempo, texture and harmony. These works trace a journey marked by absence and resilience in which agitation, renunciation and appeasement follow one another like the stages of mourning.

This fabulous five disc set is replete with some of those old Stokowski warhorses all recorded in absolutely mind boggling Phase 4 sound, overblown perhaps but astounding for its time. Decca's remastering is absolutely magnificent and the discs are jam packed with almost six hours of music. This is another fine memorial to a great conductor who remained astonishingly vital until the very end of his life.

This captivating new release from PENTATONE celebrates the glittering world of 19th-century opera and the timeless beauty of the golden age of bel canto. Featuring music by Gaetano Donizetti, Gioacchino Rossini, Georges Bizet, Léo Delibes, and Giuseppe Verdi, the album showcases soprano Erin Morley and tenor Lawrence Brownlee—two of today’s most exciting voices—joined by the Münchner Rundfunkorchester under the baton of conductor Ivan Repušić. Together, they bring fresh brilliance to the French and Italian repertoire with performances that balance vocal agility, lyrical finesse, and emotional power.