Final Portrait (2017)

A new anthology of the oft-overlooked 1990s indie rockers zeroes in on what they did best: gentle jangle, tumbleweed drift, and hazy harmonies that display profound comfort in quietude. Despite its seemingly utilitarian title, 1992-2001 is no comprehensive career retrospective. A handful of the band’s official singles are nowhere to be found here, and over half of its 16 tracks are previously unreleased, salvaged from a stash of rehearsal-room demos that had been languishing in drummer Steve Hadley’s backyard shed all these years.

The first instalment of Vladimir Jurowski’s Tchaikovsky cycle – the Manfred Symphony – was recorded live in December 2004, one of the early releases on the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s own label. With all the classic symphonic, melodic, and ballet elements of a Tchaikovsky composition, this Manfred is haunting, brilliant and seamless, as good a Tchaikovsky symphonic performance as you could want, and the most enjoyable.

London born soprano Nancy Storace was a good friend of both W.A. Mozart and J. Haydn. During her stay in Vienna she performed in about 20 operas, including the world premiere of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (with Benucci in the title role), among other things.

Blending jazz improvisation, post-John Cage modernism, funk and the occasional touch of rock, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and its co-founder, Roscoe Mitchell, made good on the ambition of its motto: "Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future". Mr. Mitchell formed that group in the wake of his involvement in the 1965 founding of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a pathbreaking collective of black artists known as the A.A.C.M.