London Years Sacd

By 1957 Erick Friedman was regarded as one of the most promising and talented young American violinists, the artist who just might become the next Heifetz. Instead, he became a student of Heifetz and put his burgeoning career on hold for three years. While he enjoyed great success in the early '60s, his star quickly dimmed and he eventually branched out into teaching and conducting. This RCA "Red Seal" 1962-63 recordings featuring Erick Friedman and the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Malcom Sargent & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Walter Hendl, perform violin showpieces by Saint-Saëns, Paganini, Ravel and more.

My Way or the Highway is the first major studio album released by blues guitarist Guitar Shorty (David Kearney), even though he had been in the business since the 1950s. The album is credited to "Guitar Shorty & The Otis Grand Blues Band"; it was at the behest and producing of Grand that Shorty made the record.

Eugene Pao is Hong Kong's most publicly recognized jazz musician and his name is synonymous with jazz in the city. Such reputation cannot be more deserving as Eugene has been at the vanguard of promoting jazz in the territory through his performances and recordings over the last twenty plus years. In 1999, Eugene released This Window another outstanding album, record on which he penned half of the tunes, with the support of Jack DeJohnette, bassist Marc Johnson and pianist Joey Calderazzo.

Rachel Podger has been recording and performing Bach's music for violin to critical acclaim for over two decades. In 2015 she became the tenth (and first female) recipient of the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize. On this release she leads her own ensemble, Brecon Baroque, in JS Bach's monumental Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge). Bach's The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, broken off at the end by the composer's death, was written out in open score, with no indication of instrumentation. This has given rise over the years to a variety of instrumental realizations, with keyboard performances being the most common, but string orchestra, or wind versions, and so forth, are also often essayed.

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is a 1978 concept album by Jeff Wayne, retelling the story of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. Its format is progressive rock and string orchestra, using narration and leitmotifs to carry the story via rhyming melodic lyrics that express the feelings of the various characters. The two-disc album remains a bestseller, having sold millions of records around the world, and is the 38th best selling album of all time in the UK.

Excitable Boy established Warren Zevon as rock's gonzo figurehead – or, as Jackson Browne aptly called him, "the first and foremost proponent of song noir." A supreme collision of over-caffeinated energy, acerbic wit, dark humor, irreverent reporting, bittersweet romance, swept-under-the-rug truth, and illicit desire sent up with booze, pills, and therapist confessions, the breakthrough album zeroes in on frightening aspects of American culture with an incisiveness that's even sharper today than upon the effort's release in 1978. And the music has never sounded so excitable.

Over the course of almost 10 years, Yevgeny Sudbin has been recording Sergei Rachmaninov's works for piano and orchestra. Reviewers remarked on the soloists transcendental virtuosity and kaleidoscopic keyboard colour (BBC Music Magazine) and enjoyed piano-playing with depth of tone, subtlety and richness of texture, and scintillating dynamism allied to acute lyrical sensibility (Gramophone). The grand finale of Sudbin's Rachmaninov cycle combines the two best-loved concertos No. 2 in C minor and No. 3 in D minor but it also constitutes a home-coming of a kind, as it was recorded in London, Yevgeny Sudbins base since 1997. For his partners in these monumental and almost iconic concertos, Sudbin has chosen the BBC Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Sakari Oramo.

The late Lowell Fulson had passed his peak when he recorded this album in London in 1984. After all, his classic sides had come in the '50s and '60s. But even a good 20 years later he could still cut it, as this disc shows all too clearly. Ably supported by Eddie C. Campbell on second guitar and John Altman on saxes, in addition to the excellent John Dummer on drums, Fulson showed that if he'd lost a step through age, he's gained two with experience.

Claire Martin has long been among the most versatile and wide-ranging of singers. "Time & Place" with The Montpellier Cello Quartet, is no exception. The listener marvels at Claire Martin's ability and determination to create a wholly new pad of repertoire from zero.