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The Harmony Codex - the seventh album by Steven Wilson - takes you on a trip. A genre-spanning collection that opens up like a musical puzzle box, it presents a series of endlessly beautiful vistas that roll out and shift in front of you. Arguably the best album Wilson has made during a career that’s spanned more than three decades both as a band leader and as a solo artist, it represents the apotheosis of a life spent fully absorbed in music.

I set myself the challenge of writing a book of 24 preludes and fugues in all the major and minor keys and I approached family, friends, and several institutions I had been associated with, to commission a prelude and fugue each, with many of the resultant commissioners asking for references to pieces of music that had a special meaning for them, a request that I tried to follow through wherever possible. Within a very short space of time, I realised just what a task I had set myself. The project took me 8 years to complete, and it was not until 2019 that I finally put the finishing touches to the concluding B minor Fugue.

After Bach's Goldberg Variations, which won him worldwide honours (including a "Diapason d'Or"), Hannes Minnaar challenges and confronts what has become a "classic" of the 20th century repertoire: Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues, composed in 1951. Here again, the qualities of his pianism, for which he is recognised as one of the leading musicians of our time, come under the spotlight: the diversity of touch and the suppleness between tension and tranquillity to characterise every Prelude and Fugue, the precision of tone, the lack of any affectation, a natural finesse in phrasing and articulation, and a familiarity with the score going hand in hand with a freshness that conjures a sense of improvisation. Here we encounter a new landmark in the crowded field of interpretations of this wonderful music.

London-based composer Matt Dibble tragically passed away in 2021 shortly after completing his 24 Preludes and Fugues for solo piano. His death, attributed to complications from the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination, left a void in the classical, jazz, and pop music scenes where he was beloved and respected. Dibble’s compositions showcased his remarkable versatility, blending neo-Baroque, jazz, pop, and modernist influences into a deeply personal collection crafted over six years.

Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues stands as one of the most profound and technically demanding collections of piano music from the 20th century.

The most striking aspect of these Preludes by Chopin undertaken by Eric Lu is the absolutely lyrical tranquility that dominates the forty-minute-long journey which is so arduous to build fluidly and coherently. Eric Lu deserves admiration for the expressive and polyphonic unity that he brings to the cycle, which is usually more contrasted. The American’s playing resounds as his phrases transport you on a grand, noble journey of emotion. Behind this soft façade is a somewhat more tragic melancholy, which increases over the course of the album and reveals the sombre, or at the very least anxious nature of the 24 Preludes. Chopin is at his darkest romanticism, not too far removed from the Schumann of the Kreisleriana (April 1838).

For Elvis fans, it's Christmas every day! As if the royal archives were a bottomless pit. And when you imagine the unreleased out of stock, Legacy Recordings releases new rarities like a magician showing a rabbit in his hat. On the menu for the summer of 2019, this crazy Live 1969, box set maousse (216 titles!) Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Elvis concerts at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. After eight years of absence, the King was back on stage by polling 57 concerts showing all full! It is during these shows where he is supported by choirs, Imperials and Sweet Inspirations and musicians side, a large band and a group that will become the TCB Band, which he will sing for the first time live his mythical Suspicious Minds.

Half grand opera, half roof-raising choral- orchestral spectacular, Berlioz’s ‘The Damnation of Faust’ caused a scandal in 1846 when it was first performed, and with its supernatural story and thumping good melodies, it’s still one of 19th century music’s most rivetingly sinful treats.

The compositions on this CD mark the final forays of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco into expansive works crafted for concert guitarists, bound together by a cohesive concept and a consistent unity of inspiration. Most importantly, they stand as the ultimate pieces for solo guitar that the Italian composer managed to fully complete. “Appunti” op. 210, his final composition for solo guitar, commissioned by Ruggero Chiesa, remain unfinished, albeit of notable merit: Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s death precluded their completion, with just the initial two notebooks fulfilled. Moreover, these notebooks were expressly designed for a student audience, since they are characterised by their approachability and mechanical simplicity.

GRAMMY® Award-winning American soprano Susan Narucki is one of today's most committed advocates of the music of our time.