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Helmuth Rilling’s unabated desire to record and re-record Bach is clearly endemic in his profound identification with a choral oeuvre of which he is, arguably, the world’s most experienced living exponent. Geschwinde, ihr wirbelnden Winde (better known as “The Contest between Phoebus and Pan”) is a colourful setting of Picander’s tame libretto of Phoebus’s whitewashing of Pan’s musical credentials, a Meistersinger scenario spiced up with a subtext on the increasing banality of musical tastes c1730: “inflated heat but little ballast”, as Mercury has it. This recording contains many Rilling attributes, old and new; most strikingly, to his credit, there is no letting up in the adrenalin level as he gets older, as there clearly was with his late compatriot, Karl Richter.

The Bee Gees made a commercial comeback outside the U.S. with 1987's E.S.P. and its single, "You Win Again." One, on the other hand, had an improved chart showing in the U.S., while sales fell off elsewhere. The Bee Gees are remarkable pop craftsmen – "It's My Neighborhood" is a canny, if blatant, rewrite of Michael Jackson's "Beat It," for example, and it only reminds you that Jackson's falsetto whoops owe something to Barry Gibb. And, say what you will, "One" and "House of Shame" are convincing pop music. ("One" was a Top Ten comeback hit that topped soft rock radio playlists.) This stuff works as pop for the same reason "I've Gotta Get a Message to You" and "You Should Be Dancing" did: the melodies are catchy, the hooks are deathless, and the vocals convey emotion over meaning. It may be weightless, but it's polished.

Hong Kong is a live album by Jean-Michel Jarre released in 1994 on Disques Dreyfus. Even though the album is called Hong Kong and has pictures of the event on its booklet, most of the tracks are from the Europe in Concert venues, except for "Souvenir of China" which is a special mix consisting of the Paris la Defense version and the actual track played in Hong Kong. Also, "Fishing Junks at Sunset" was recorded from the Hong Kong concert rehearsals. Magnetic Fields 2 comes from the encore at Barcelona 1993, which appears on the VHS tape released of this concert. Band In The Rain is also from the Barcelona show.

Even though Dmitry Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1 in F minor was an academic exercise from his teens, and the Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, ("The First of May"), a reflection of the avant-garde experimentation of the early Soviet period, these youthful works reveal salient characteristics of his personality that repeatedly surfaced in the later symphonies and should be considered as fully a part of the cycle. Shostakovich's expressions range from sardonic and brooding moods in the First to the energetic and violent activity of the Third, and these qualities are accurately conveyed in Vasily Petrenko's performances with the Royal Liverpool Orchestra, with the ensemble's choir included in the triumphal finale of the Third. The recordings have a wide audio range, so the extreme dynamics of Shostakovich's music can be heard with minimal adjustment of the volume. That said, much of the music is extremely quiet and eerily thin in texture, so attentive listening is required. But the fortissimos are everything they should be, and Petrenko elicits full sonorities from the orchestra.