Flautists tend to know that Quantz gave flute lessons to Frederick the Great and that he wrote about 300 concertos for the instrument. Only a few of these concertos have been easily accessible in print or on disc. However, in this welcome recording of five Quantz concertos, flautist Rachel Brown seems the perfect ambassador to bring a few of these unfamiliar but intriguing works back into the repertoire. Whether playing a Baroque-inspired fugue, a more ‘classically styled’ Allegro or languid slow movement, Brown’s daring expression and technical brilliance – together with the Brandenburg Consort’s focused sound and racy pace – seem intuitive. Quantz and Brown appear together again, briefly, in Concert in Sanssouci. ‘Sans souci’ means ‘without worry’, and was the name of Frederick the Great’s country house near Potsdam. A certain joie de vivre is in the air in this recreation of a typical evening’s concert chez Frederick. The Hanover Band, under Roy Goodman, plays with real spirit, although Nathalie Stutzmann’s rich contralto lends a more melancholic feel in arias by CH Graun. Although Frank de Bruine is a rather understated soloist in the CPE Bach oboe concerto, the band’s dynamic interpretations and composer’s inventiveness win through.

Hounds of Love is a 1985 album by Kate Bush. It was Bush's fifth studio album, and her second to top the album charts. It has since been certified Double Platinum in the UK. In 2002, Q Magazine named Hounds of Love the third Greatest Album of All-Time by a Female Artist, and in 2000, the twentieth Greatest British Album of All Time. A 1997 CD re-release of the album included six bonus tracks: 12" mixes of "The Big Sky" and "Running Up That Hill"; and the B-side singles "Under The Ivy", "Burning Bridge", "My Lagan Love", and "Be Kind To My Mistakes".

If Rhino had merely combined Linda Ronstadt's Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 and volume two, they would have a compilation that captured her at her peak. They didn't do that for 2002's The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt, but they did follow that basic blueprint very closely, with 16 of the 21 songs culled from her '70s heyday, with the remaining five drawing from her late-'80s/early-'90s adult contemporary comeback, including "Don't' Know Much" and "Somewhere out There." That these songs don't quite fit musically with the laid-back Californian soft rock of the '70s doesn't matter, nor does it matter that her excursions into other genres – her traditional pop albums with Nelson Riddle, her Mexican records, her country albums with Trio – are missing ("Different Drum" with the Stone Poneys is here), because this collection expertly delivers her biggest hits in an enjoyable fashion with very little fat. Those original hits records remain first-rate, but it's nicer to get all of these on one disc instead of two.

Anthems in Eden is a 1969 album by Shirley and Dolly Collins, with the Early Music Consort of London, directed by David Munrow. The album originally consisted of a 28-minute set of folk songs plus seven other individual pieces performed by the same group. The musical arrangements for these eight pieces included early music instruments, such as viols, recorders, sackbuts and crumhorns. In 1976, six new songs were recorded with a different assortment of accompanists, to replace the original seven individual songs. This 1976 album consisting of the 28-minute set plus the six new songs was released by Harvest Records under the title Amaranth. Subsequent releases have combined all fourteen pieces under the original title, Anthems in Eden.

On this 2006 release, Tab Benoit, the blues guitarist who throughout his career has embraced virtually every shade of American roots music, reconnects to his earliest and most profound influences with the help of some old friends. The thirteen-track set features Benoit's solid guitar and vocal attack supported by the popular Louisiana band, LeRoux, with the addition of special guest appearances by some of the most seasoned country and Cajun songwriters and musicians of the past three decades: Jim Lauderdale, Billy Joe Shaver and fiddler Waylon Thibodeaux.

Ukrainian composer Silvestrov is known for his "metaphorical" style of music, which sounds transparent, but is technically and emotionally complex. "Music should be so transparent that one can see the bottom and that poetry shimmers through this transparency." (Valentin Silvestrov)

The last great Kraftwerk album, Computer World (Computerwelt) captured the band right at the moment when its pioneering approach fully broke through in popular music, thanks to the rise of synth pop, hip-hop, and electro. As Arthur Baker sampled "Trans-Europe Express" for "Planet Rock" and disciples like Depeche Mode, OMD, and Gary Numan scored major hits, Computer World demonstrated that the old masters still had some last tricks up their collective sleeves. Compared to earlier albums, it fell readily in line with The Man-Machine, eschewing side-long efforts but with even more of an emphasis on shorter tracks mixed with longer but not epic compositions.

"It's no wonder that Leo Sayer is considered a music business legend. 43 years since his first album, he's had 5 worldwide No.1 hits, is a Grammy winning songwriter, and is considered one of the world's most thrilling and entertaining live performers. From his debut 1973 smash hit "The Show Must Go On" to his 2006 UK No 1 remix of "Thunder In My the infallible Leo Sayer has carved an incredible career including selling 80 million albums and garnering a Grammy award. And now he's back with 'Restless Years' his first studio album in 6 years, featuring 13 brand new songs ranging in a variety of styles from pop to country to rock. Now living in Australia, Leo hasn't stopped working since moving there, still paying frequent visits to the UK and Europe and wherever his audiences still demand his performance. To quote Leo's very first hit: 'The Show Must Go On!'

"Rosie" is the eighth studio album by folk-rock outfit Fairport Convention, released in 1973. The album was the first to feature Australian singer-songwriter guitarist Trevor Lucas and American lead guitarist Jerry Donahue. Both had previously played with ex-Fairport Sandy Denny, to whom Lucas was married, in the short-lived Fotheringay. Here they had effectively replaced Simon Nicol who had quit Fairport to join another ex-member Ashley Hutchings in The Albion Band, thus leaving the band with no original members until he rejoined in 1976. Remastered reissue includes previously unreleased bonus tracks, 'Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John' (Live), 'The Hen's March Through the Midden…' (Live), 'Rosie' (Live), & 'The Claw' (Live).

Live at Hammersmith Odeon is the first live album by the British singer Kate Bush. It is a recording of her first of only two concert tours, The Tour of Life from 1979, first released on home video in 1981. The video of The Tour of Life was re-released in 1994 as a boxed set that included a CD version of the performance. The twelve song live album is heavily abridged. The complete show consisted of twenty-four songs. The performance consists mainly of songs from The Kick Inside and Lionheart with a new song "Violin"; which would subsequently appear on Bush's third studio album Never for Ever in 1980.

Although Idris Muhammad was employed as a sideman on his share of soul-jazz sessions in the '70s, the drummer hasn't been terribly visible as a leader. So it came as a pleasant surprise when, in 1993, he sat in the driver's seat for My Turn, a decent collection of jazz-pop, soul-jazz, and R&B employing such big names as Grover Washington, Jr. (tenor and soprano sax), Randy Brecker (trumpeter and flügelhorn), Hiram Bullock (electric guitar), and Bob James (electric keyboards). Not unlike the type of project Muhammad would have gone for in the '70s, My Turn is far from straight-ahead hard bop but isn't a so-called "elevator jazz" date either. R&B, pop, and funk considerations are emphasized, but not at the expense of improvisational freedom. Washington and Brecker get in some inspired solos on tunes ranging from pianist Neal Creqe's funky "Dracula" to Washington's congenial "Happenstance," and Muhammad does a nice job combining pop and soul's accessibility with jazz's spontaneity. Those who like their crossover meaty instead of fluffy should enjoy this CD.

Catalan composer Bernat Vivancos's 'Blanc', released by Neu Records in 2013, was an acclaimed double album of premiere recordings by the Latvian Radio Choir, one of the world's finest chamber choirs, conducted by Sigvards Klava. This follow-up reunites the composer with these forces in a performance of his profound Requiem. The renowned musician Jordi Savall first encountered - and was greatly moved by - Vivancos's music through 'Blanc'. He says: "The innovative richness of the works by Bernat Vivancos are, I believe, the clearest and most striking proof of the vitality of a new musical Renaissance. His extraordinary talent and his profound spirituality are placed at the service of a process that is the invention of a new language which, in spite of its complexity and modernity, is capable of transmitting to us pure beauty and emotion." Vivancos composed his Requiem - scored for mixed choir, soloists, cello soloist (here Pau Codina), cello quartet, accordion and percussion - in memory of his father.

The music on this LP recalls the airy "Four Brothers" sound that tenor saxophonists Stan Getz, Zoot Sims and Herbie Steward, and baritone saxophonist Serge Charloff, plied in Woody Herman's band of 1947. For this outing, Steward and Charloff exit, and four become five with the addition of tenor luminaries Al Cohn, Brew Moore, and Allen Eager. The set appropriately kicks off with Gerry Mulligan's "Five Brothers," a tune reminiscent of Jimmy Giuffre's original "Four Brothers" in its fluid and bouncy arrangement. Three other attractive and similarly disposed originals (one more by Mulligan and two by Cohn) complete the saxophone session from 1949, all featuring swinging statements by each soloist. A 1952 sextet date led by Sims and Cohn is also included, offering up another round of original and buoyantly swinging cuts, bolstered by lively contributions from trombonist Kai Winding and solid rhythmic support by pianist George Wallington, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Art Blakey. A fine release that nicely showcases the cool, proto-West Coast bop forged by both these soloists and Miles Davis.

Although Autobahn was a left-field masterpiece, Trans-Europe Express is often cited as perhaps the archetypal (and most accessible) Kraftwerk album. Melodic themes are repeated often and occasionally interwoven over deliberate, chugging beats, sometimes with manipulated vocals; the effect is mechanical yet hypnotic.

Capitol Records took This Is Sinatra!, a compilation album, into the Top Ten in early 1957, which probably prompted the label to assemble a similar collection, This Is Nat "King" Cole, later in the year. Consisting of tracks not previously issued on a Cole LP, the disc contains seven recent Billboard singles chart entries among its 12 selections – "Too Young to Go Steady" (which reached number 21), "Forgive My Heart" (13), "Nothing Ever Changes My Love for You" (72), "To the Ends of the Earth" (25), "I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life" (57), "Someone You Love" (13), and "Never Let Me Go" (79) – while an eighth song, "That's All," was the B-side of the 1953 Top 20 hit "Lover, Come Back to Me!" "Too Young to Go Steady," which peaked in April 1956, turned out to be all that was really heard of a stage musical intended for Broadway, Strip for Action, with songs by Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson, which closed out of town. "I Just Found Out About Love" and "Love Me as Though There Were No Tomorrow," two more songs from that ill-fated show, are among the previously unheard tracks unearthed for this compilation.