Leo Fall

While nothing is predictable or certain about improvisation, when the piano magician Carolyn Hume meets the vocal wonder Katja Cruz there is one thing we can be sure about. They will create a haunting, hypnotising, mesmerising atmosphere full of suspense and ghostly images that will linger in your memory forever. This is both the magic and mystery of making music. Carolyn Hume's previous four Leo-albums with the drummer Paul May created a user friendly variant of free jazz that was both tuneful and fashionable. Similarly, these ten, mostly improvised solo piano pieces prove impeccably ambient and easy on the ear, even when the notes are discordant,they make very attractive patterns as they fall.

Decca pays tribute to Joan Sutherland - "La Stupenda" to her numerous fans - with a limited-edition 23-CD set of her complete studio recitals. Joan Sutherland shot to international fame in February1959 when she sang the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and a month later she recorded her first solo album in Paris for Decca - the start of an exclusive association that would last until her retirement from the operatic stage on 31 December 1990. This is the first time all of Joan Sutherland's studio recitals have been made available in a single collection and the set is released in time for what would have been the diva's 85th birthday on 7 November; October 10 marks the first anniversary of her death. The CDs are presented in sleeves with original cover art a 48-page booklet contains an appreciation of Joan Sutherland by opera wrter and critic George Hall.