Col Legno's third volume of Wolfgang Rihm's string quartets is, like its predecessors, an album of vigorous and challenging works that defy easy descriptions, resist stylistic associations, and put listeners on their mettle. If the fragmentary gestures, sudden digressions, and unconventional sounds (wood blocks, voices) of the String Quartet No. 7, "Veränderungen" (1985), are signs of Rihm's restless search for a music freed of expectations, then the …..

Blair Sanderson @ AllMusic.com

With the exception of a few works by Ottorino Respighi, and for reasons which are relatively obscure, the orchestral concert music of the generation of Italian composers to which Ildebrando Pizzetti belongs has—so far as international acceptance is concerned—remained little-known outside Italy. It can be claimed that this relative disregard surely has more to do with fashion and performing circumstance than with the quality of the music, and, of these undoubted masters, it is the art of Ildebrando Pizzetti which is perhaps most in need of reassessment and revival …….

Although from a historical standpoint Les Paul is perhaps best remembered for his invention of the solid-bodied electric guitar and his groundbreaking efforts in multi-tracking, this should not overshadow his considerable talent as a performer and virtuoso master of the guitar. Originally highly influenced by Django Reinhardt, by the time these recordings were made, Les Paul had developed a unique style that has gone on to influence countless others…

Django was easily the greatest guitarist of his time. Although he died in '53, his influence continues to help shape the direction of his instrument. The re-release of these rare recordings is no small cause for celebration. They feature Django in a number of settings from '34 to '41, with Joseph Reinhardt, Juan Fernandez, Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington (and his orchestra), Pierre Michelot, Hubert Fol, Stephane Grappelli, and more. This is a recording no jazz fan will be able to pass up.

On the last of her fully satisfying '60s releases, Buffy Sainte-Marie combined a strong assortment of original songs with a judicious selection of traditional folksongs and two Joni Mitchell covers (including "The Circle Game")…

John Tavener's music has the ability to make time stand still. 'The Protecting Veil' was the first of Tavener's instrumental pieces to become widely known. Tavener, an Orthodox mystic, wrote the solo line as a spiritual improvisation on the Mother of God. The cello stays mainly in the tessitura range, calling songfully into the atmosphere. Sometimes rhythmic and sometimes placid, the music never really touches ground.

Every true believer in the music of Czech nationalist composer Bedrich Smetana will have to check out this three-disc set of his orchestral works with Vladimir Válek leading the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. Not only does it contain Smetana's orchestral masterpiece Má Vlast plus his three fairly well-known tone poems Richard III, Wallenstein's Campo, and Hakon Jarl, it also contains his nearly completely unknown four-movement Triumph Symphony, his almost totally unknown March for Shakespeare, and the Ceremonial Prelude in C major along with three short orchestral dances, the Georginen, the Louisen, and the Our Lasses Polkas.