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A portrait, on the tercentenary of the composer's birth, of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), probably the most gifted of the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach. Highly admired in his own century by Haydn, Gluck and Mozart, he stands out today as a brilliant and highly original composer. For CPE Bach, music had to be an expression of personal feelings and to achieve his aim, he revolutionised the established principles of form, harmony and rhythm.

This hard-hitting, mightily swinging Jazz Messengers unit may well have been one of Art Blakey's best. Propelled by the omnipresent swing and verve of the indefatigable bandleader/drummer, young Jazz Messengers Donald Brown, Charles Fambrough, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis and Bill Pierce play with masterful technique, soulful swing and unbridled fire in this live Blakey classic. Honored with two Grammy Award Nominations—Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group and Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Solo—Concord Jazz is proud to present the incendiary Keystone 3 in stellar Super Audio CD (SACD) sound.

„Pavane pour une infante défunte“, an early work, takes us into the world of dance that perfumes the musical world of Ravel. „Gaspard de la nuit“ in the French Romantic tradition, is a triptych inspired by three of Aloysius Bertrand's prose-ballads: Ondine, the water nymph; Le Gibet (Gallows), paints a gruesome picture of „a bell tolling from the walls of a city, beneath the skyline, and the body of a hanged man, reddened by the setting sun“; Scarbo, depicts the night-time mischief of a mocking dwarf. We return to the dance with the bold‚ “Valses nobles et sentimentales“, a series of waltzes written in 1911. Finally, „Ma Mère l'Oye“ (Mother Goose), shows Ravel's affection for his childhood days. Vanessa Wagner brings out the modernity of these scores, their sudden movements of violence, their moments of ineffable sweetness. She plays with rigour, intensity and a velvet touch.

"Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Edgar Allan Poe" is the debut studio album by English rock band The Alan Parsons Project. The lyrical and musical themes of the album, which are retellings of horror stories and poetry by Edgar Allan Poe, attracted a cult audience. The title of the album is taken from the title of a collection of Poe's macabre stories of the same name. This 40th Anniversary edition features remastered Stereo version of the Original album mix and newly mastered in Surround Multichannel mix of the 1987's remix.

Arguably the peak of Rush’s technical ambitions, 1978’s "Hemispheres" captures the iconic Canadian trio of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart drawing as much as they ever would on sheer musical ability and compositional chops. By May of 1978, a month before recording was set to begin on Rush’s sixth studio album, all three members of the band had achieved such a high level of mastery on their respective instruments, not to mention their collective playing that they saw fit, for the first time in their career, to begin working on an album without the benefit of having any material prepared. Unsurprisingly, making the album proved to be an arduous task, even for a band as diligent as Rush. The Blu-Ray from 40th Anniversary Edition of "Hemispheres" features the album newly mixed from the original multi-tracks in 5.1 Surround Sound along with the 2015 Stereo Remaster.

Stephen Richard "Steve" Hackett is an English musician, songwriter and singer. He gained prominence as lead guitarist of the British progressive rock group Genesis, which he joined in 1970 and left in 1977 to pursue a solo career. This album has been described by Hackett himself as his best work. His impressive and varied solo career has now entered its 40th year and covered various genres from blues to classical, as well as a significant number of albums widely regarded by many as bone-fide prog rock classics, so this is no small boast. Happily, it turns out to be exactly right.

An unblinking look at an entertainment-obsessed society, Amused to Death addresses issues that have only grown in complexity and urgency over the past two decades. With Amused to Death, Roger Waters sounded the alarm about a society increasingly — and unthinkingly — in thrall to its television screens. Twenty-three years later, Amused to Death speaks to our present moment in ways that could scarcely have been anticipated two decades ago. In 2015, television is just one option in an endless array of distractions available to us anytime, anywhere, courtesy of our laptops, tablets and smartphones. With eyes glued to our screens, the dilemmas and injustices of the real world can easily recede from view. The 2015 SACD edition of Amused to Death features a new 5.1 surround remix of the album completed by longtime Roger Waters / Pink Floyd collaborator and co-producer, James Guthrie. The art has been updated for 2015 by Sean Evans, the creative director of Waters’ 2010-2013 “The Wall Live” tour and movie.

The eclectic, multi-talented concert pianist, conductor, arranger, and composer, Bruno Fontaine is difficult to pidgeon-hole. Upon graduating from the Paris Conservatoire, covered in prizes, he soon embarked on a rewarding career that merges his talent in all genres from Johnny Hallyday, to Ute Lemper via Barbara Hendricks. This is the marriage of genres that Aparté propose here, in an album dedicated to Ragtime: 20 compositions by major masters of the genre: Scott Joplin, Tom Turpin, James Scott, Joseph Lamb, Joseph Daly, plus a trip to the great Fats Waller. Fontaine added the famous 'Golliwog's Cake-Walk' by Claude Debussy, 'Ragtime Parade' by Erik Satie and finally for the contemporary French touch, he composed two ragtime numbers of his own.