Little Snich 6

To celebrate what would have been the 60th birthday of Stevie Ray Vaughan (1954-1990), Epic Records/Legacy Recordings will issue Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: The Complete Epic Recordings Collection, collecting the trailblazing blues guitarist's most scintillating studio and live works.

Melodious and charming, The Cunning Little Vixen is a work rooted in Czech history and folk music; a sentimental journey through the cycles of life. For Sir Simon Rattle, it's a deeply personal and emotional work. "It's the piece that made me want to become an opera conductor… and still one of the pieces that reduces me to tears more easily than any other," says the LSO's Music Director. Recorded with an outstanding cast during semi-staged performances, this recording is the second in an LSO Live series showcasing acclaimed collaborations between Rattle and the celebrated stage director Peter Sellars. Towering fanfares open Janácek's Sinfonietta, an ode to the composer's hometown of Brno in the now Czech Republic. It's a portrait composed for a national celebration of Slavic culture, with Janácek's love of musical tradition evident in dancing strings and celebratory brass.

Formed Seattle in 1982, Metal Church consisted of vocalist David Wayne, guitarists Kurdt Vanderhoof and Craig Wells, bassist Duke Erickson, and drummer Kirk Arrington. Their 1985 self-titled debut album, recorded when the thrash/speed metal genre was still evolving, made a huge splash on the scene, as did its similar follow-up, The Dark…

From the outset of his recording career, Maurizio Pollini has championed modern music – in benchmark accounts of Bartók, Boulez, Manzoni, Nono, Prokofiev, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Webern, to which can be added his later recordings of Debussy and Berg. Here are his complete recordings of 20th-century music, brought together on a specially-priced 6-CD set for the first time.