Cbs Sony

This recording is clear, sharp and well-executed. The last two numbers with Katia Ricciarelli are stunning. She has a clear and lush voice with a dark, luminous quality that is finer than any clarinet. I could not get enough of her singing "Tanti affeti" at the end of the opera. What an incredible soprano. Certainly Joyce DiDonato is the current reigning Rossini mezzo but she (Ms. DiDonato) sings this at a slower tempo, with more ornamentation, perhaps to display her gifts better, though I think with less overall emotional impact.

Bridge Over Troubled Water was one of the biggest-selling albums of its decade, and it hasn't fallen too far down on the list in years since. Apart from the gospel-flavored title track, which took some evolution to get to what it finally became, however, much of Bridge Over Troubled Water also constitutes a stepping back from the music that Simon & Garfunkel had made on Bookends – this was mostly because the creative partnership that had formed the body and the motivation for the duo's four prior albums literally consumed itself in the making of Bridge Over Troubled Water. The overall effect was perhaps the most delicately textured album to close out the 1960s from any major rock act.

Metallica formed in 1981 by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich. The duo first met through an ad in a Los Angeles-based music newspaper. At the time, Ulrich had little musical experience and no band but managed to secure a slot on an upcoming compilation record called “Metal Massacre”. Metallica’s contribution, “Hit The Lights”, featured Hetfield, Ulrich and lead guitarist Lloyd Grant. Afterwards, Ron McGovney became the band's bassist and Dave Mustaine joined the band as lead guitarist…

The stellar 45-year career of singer-songwriter-guitarist Nils Lofgren receives a comprehensive retrospective in Face the Music, a Limited Edition 9CD + Bonus DVD boxed set that is individually hand signed and numbered by the artist.

"Riot Live" (not to be confused with the 1982 EP of the same name with Rhett Forrester on vocals) is Riot's first full-length live album, recorded in the UK in 1980, but not issued until 1989 on CBS/Sony Music in Japan. This is the band's last output with original vocalist Guy Speranza. The album contains a cover of the well known 1950s rock'n'roll classic, "Train Kept A-Rollin'", brought to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s by the likes of The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, and Aerosmith.