As the sensual centrepiece of an album of 20th century French vocal masterpieces, Renée Fleming makes her first-ever recording of Ravel’s ravishing Shéhérazade.

Placed at New York City's Seventh Avenue South, the Village Vanguard is one of the truly legendary venues in jazz, a name that ranks along the fabled Birdland, Lighthouse, Bohemia, Basin Street, Blackhawk, and Blue Note of yesterday and today. Since the Vanguard first opened its doors in 1935, the list of jazz greats who have appeared on its stage at one time or another reads like a who's who in the field: John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Gerry Mulligan, Charles Mingus, Bill Evans, Stan Getz…

Now in his creative maturity, the Catalan composer Benet Casablancas has a growing interest in the sensuality of sound. Seven Scenes from Hamlet, one of his best-known works, is a theatrical mosaic of images inspired by Shakespeare’s play. The Epigrams and New Epigrams present a fertile whirlwind of sensations, references and surprises. In modo di Passacaglia unfolds as a cycle of forty variations on a twelve-note melodic theme, which fluctuate between agitated virtuosity and tranquility.

This CD of the complete music for solo piano by Elliott Carter, (b. 1908) offers the opportunity to get to know some of the most difficult and challenging works, musically and technically, for the instrument in American music. Although he has not written extensively for solo piano, Carter's two large works for the instrument, the Sonata (1946) and the "Night Fantasies" (1980) are extraordinary compositions. The pianist Ursula Oppens is a long-time champion of Carter and other contemporary composers.