Arturo Himmer, "popular Collection 1, 2, 4 10, & Christmas (flute Solo; Flute + Piano Keyboard)"

Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks has made several stabs at a solo career since 1978, writing and recording in various styles and occasionally under different group names. However, none of his attempts have been very commercially successful, a sore point for the man many deem responsible for a large portion of the Genesis sound…

Beethoven’s monumental contribution to Western classical music is celebrated here in this definitive collection marking the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Surveying the totality of his career and achievement, the Complete Edition spans orchestral, concerto, keyboard, chamber, music for the stage, choral and vocal works, encompassing his most familiar and iconic masterpieces, alongside rarities and recently reconstructed fragments and sketches in world premiere recordings. The roster of artists and ensembles includes some of Beethoven’s greatest contemporary exponents, in performances that have won critical acclaim worldwide.

Kenneth Earl Burrell (born July 31, 1931) is an American jazz guitarist known for his work on numerous top jazz labels: Prestige, Blue Note, Verve, CTI, Muse, and Concord. His collaborations with Jimmy Smith were notable, and produced the 1965 Billboard Top Twenty hit Verve album Organ Grinder Swing…

Saverio Mercadante was one of Italy’s ground-breaking composers in the development of opera, admired by contemporaries such as Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi. But during the years 1814 to 1820, inspired by fellow conservatoire students and their virtuoso teachers, he embarked on a series of works for the flute. They include seven concertos, happy exceptions to the rule in opera-obsessed Italy of the day. The solo writing is vividly characterised, full of technical demands perfectly adapted to the instrument’s then more limited capabilities and permeated with a rich bel canto lyricism.

Soloist-conducted piano concertos can sometimes mean compromise, even chaos…but not in this case. Indeed, the playing of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Murray Perahia is even sprightlier than on a rival EMI recording of the same repertoire where Sir Neville Marriner conducts and Andrei Gavrilov plays the keyboard part. As soloist, Perahia is his usual stylish, discreet and pianistically refined self. He takes the D minor Concerto’s opening at a fair lick, a hot-foot sprinter embellishing the line with taste and affecting a little ritardando at 3'21 (just as the mood momentarily brightens) a la Edwin Fischer.

"Mozart Violin Sonatas," proclaims the main graphic of this release by pianist Cédric Tiberghien and violinist Alina Ibragimova. Then the track list title reads "Sonatas for keyboard and violin." In reality the program contains both types, for the two-CD set traverses much of Mozart's output for the two instruments, and his attitude toward the relationship between them changed over the course of his career.