The San Francisco Chronicle called Scarlatti’s La Gloria di Primavera a “feast of vocal invention, supplemented by wondrous instrumental writing for a strikingly large orchestra” after Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan presented acclaimed western hemisphere premiere performances in October 2015. PBO and McGegan are delighted to be the first to record this newly-discovered 300 year old serenata. After Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI acquired the kingdom of Naples in a treaty, the Neapolitans commissioned their court composer, Alessandro Scarlatti, to compose a grand serenata to celebrate the birth of Charles VI’s son, prince John Leopold. Scarlatti wrote the piece within a few weeks and it was performed to audiences in Naples immediately following the birth. Unfortunately, just months after La Gloria di Primavera premiered, the celebrated infant died and the incredible work was forgotten.

Following on from the previously released Volume One and Two, Marvin Gaye Volume Three: 1971-1981 is a collection of his last seven Motown studio albums on 180g vinyl in one fantastic box. Commonly referred to as the ‘Prince of Soul’, Marvin Gaye helped to shape the sound of Motown Records and was one of the greatest voices to emerge from the label.

Vespero got together as a quartet (Arkady Fedotov - vocals, bass, flute, synths; Valentin Rulev - violin, synths; Ivan Fedotov - drums, percussion; Alexander Kuzovlev - guitar, bass, synths) in Astrakhan (south of Russia) 2003 on the common interest in playing psychedelic music. Later Natalya Tjurina (vocals) joined, and the band moved into more progressive rock-related areas. As their Moscow fellows Kaftan Smekha, Vespero are deeply influenced by avant theatre and experimental poetry. Since the very first demos their sound has been influenced by Gong, early Pink Floyd, Faust and related bands from that era. Highly recommended for all fans of these (and beyond!).

An album the majority of whose contents consists of harp arrangements of music by Philip Glass might seem a bit arcane for a major label, but it seems that Sony knows what it is doing here. The Glass Effect double album is one of those releases that succeed on two different levels, an explicit one and one that, although not mentioned, is perhaps even more important. The former level here is the one denoted by the title, as Meijer picks up the rather neglected theme of Philip Glass' influence by offering, on disc two, a group of works by younger composers who follow Glass in varying degrees but who, it's safe to say, wouldn't have the styles they do without Glass having gone before. Much of the album consists of arrangements by Meijer herself, and these include, at the end, a remix of music from Koyaanisqatsi that's delightful and would be spoiled by description. But there's also solo harp music: sample the Suite for Harp by progressive rock musician Bryce Dessner, who certainly seems to have absorbed Glass' style far enough to make it his own.

Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice - June 2016. Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony was conceived in the Soviet Union as World War II was still raging. He gave out in a statement at the time that he intended it as "a hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit." He added "I cannot say that I deliberately chose this theme. It was born in me and clamoured for expression. The music matured within me. It filled my soul." Prokofiev originally wrote the Scythian Suite for the Sergei Diaghilev ballet Ala i Lolli, the story of which takes place among the Scythians. After Diaghilev called for a change of plan before the score was complete, the Prokofiev reworked the music into a suite for concert performance.

Released in 2003, the exceptional two-CD Rainbow collection Catch the Rainbow: The Anthology provides a deeper understanding of how the band influenced the direction of hard rock and heavy metal. Between 1975 and 1984, former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore guided his new band (which had dizzying revolving-door lineup changes) through visions of mystical heavy metal and polished, radio-friendly hard rock. Blackmore's employment of vocalists Ronnie James Dio, Graham Bonnet, and Joe Lynn Turner created three distinct periods, all of which Catch the Rainbow: The Anthology expands upon further than 2000's perfunctory 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Rainbow and 1997's stellar The Very Best of Rainbow.

A selection of 5 classic studio albums packaged together in a new slim-line slipcase by the legendary prog guitarist and former Genesis member, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Steve Hackett. Includes the albums: Voyage Of The Acolyte, Spectral Mornings, Defector, Highly Strung and Please Don’t Touch. Stephen Richard Hackett is an English musician, songwriter, singer, and producer who gained prominence as the lead guitarist of the progressive rock band Genesis from 1971 to 1977. Hackett contributed to six Genesis studio albums, three live albums, seven singles and one EP before he left to pursue a solo career. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.

Back in the ’80s, Adam Ant was a giant UK Pop star with ten top charting singles in the UK between 1980 and 1983. His second album, Kings Of The Wild Frontier, released in 1980 helped to start that historical run for Adam Ant. Curated and remastered by Adam Ant, this new Legacy edition includes the original 12 track UK album, B sides, previously unreleased studio demos and rough cuts, a previously unissued live recording and rarities all fully remastered from original tape by Adam Ant.

Having made an enormous contribution to the establishment of the Nashville Sound and the modernisation of country music, Anita Kerr felt the need to expand her artistic horizons and in 1965, made the move from Nashville to Hollywood. She wanted to work with different people, to get her own songs recorded, to play jazz, to conduct an orchestra, to take on more ambitious and more varied projects musically, and to form a vocal group which, rather than be confined to studio sessions, might also appear in club and concert settings. Her arrival on the West Coast was well timed. She had just fought off The Beatles to win a Grammy for the album We Dig Mancini and she was quickly able to assemble a stellar Anita Kerr Singers (B.J Baker: alto, Gene Merlino: tenor; Bob Tebow: bass, with Anita herself as soprano and soloist) and secure a contract more tailored to her needs with Warner Brothers. The result over the next two years, were these five superbly fashioned albums.

Fabio Bonizzoni, one of Baroque music performance leading conductors of our time, and his group La Risonanza make their debut on Challenge Classics with Dido and Aeneas, Purcell's operatic masterpiece. It is coupled with The Love of Mars and Venus by John Eccles and Gottfried Finger, Purcell's near contemporaries. Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, composed in the 1680s, is arguably the most beloved and best-known opera in English. Bonizzoni says: "The charm of this opera is in that it contains everything, like Cervantes' Don Quixote: any life experience is within it. Love, hate, death, dream, despair, the innocent and the wicked play.

Digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of this 1981 album. The original release of Fourth Drawer Down gathered The Associates' inventive, genre-defying singles released on Situation 2 on one LP. This new CD edition expands the original single LP to a two disc collection. The booklet features extensive liner notes, reproductions of original promotional material, previously unseen memorabilia and unpublished photos. Formed in in 1976 by Billy McKenzie and Alan Rankine, The Associates made lavish, genre-bending pop music.

Adult Cinema is a remarkable one-man project helmed by multi-instrumentalist Mike Weston. A winning blend of Meddle-era Pink Floyd, beguiling psych-folk and classic rock riffing. Mike Weston is an accomplished songwriter and musician who deserves a wider audience. Adult Cinema manage to negotiate that precarious edge, nodding a head back to the fine music of the past, and yet also making sounds and songs that are vibrant and contemporary. This is an Adult Cinema that hosts modern sonic movies that we all need to hear.

Polish Radio Jazz Archives Series, Volume 25. The twenty-fifth item in the Polish Radio Jazz Archives series is a CD entitled "Dizzy Gillespie Quintet in Warsaw 1965". Recordings from the 8th Jazz Jamboree '65 Festival in Warsaw. Sensation, Gillespie's quintet are themselves world-class stars. Kenny Barron on the piano, Dizzy Gillespie on the trumpet, James Moody on the flute and alto sax, Chris White on the double bass and Rudy Collins on the drums. Almost 70 minutes of great music. Mostly compositions by the leader, and one each by James Moody and Antonio Carlos Jabim.

Of all of the classic-era Pink Floyd albums, Animals is the strangest and darkest, a record that's hard to initially embrace yet winds up yielding as many rewards as its equally nihilistic successor, The Wall. It isn't that Roger Waters dismisses the human race as either pigs, dogs, or sheep, it's that he's constructed an album whose music is as bleak and bitter as that world view. Arriving after the warm-spirited (albeit melancholy) Wish You Were Here, the shift in tone comes as a bit of a surprise, and there are even less proper songs here than on either Wish or Dark Side. Animals is all extended pieces, yet it never drifts – it slowly, ominously works its way toward its destination…