Saint Dominic's Preview is the sixth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in July 1972 by Warner Bros. Records. Rolling Stone declared it "the best-produced, most ambitious Van Morrison record yet released." The diversity of the material on the album highlighted Morrison's fusing of Celtic folk, R&B, blues, jazz and the singer-songwriter genre. "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)" and the title track were blends of soul and folk, while lesser known tracks such as "Gypsy" and "Redwood Tree" continued to display a lyrical celebration of nature's beauty. Also on the album were two lengthy tracks, "Listen to the Lion" and the closing "Almost Independence Day" which were given primal, cathartic and intense vocal performances from Morrison. These tracks were similar to the songs on his 1968 album, Astral Weeks.

Pressed between bodies heaving to the pulse. The room inside the drum: each of us within its envelope. Sent elsewhere. Stamped to distant locales but together in this resonating box. My wrists were broken. My mind screwed on tight.

The Huddersfield Choral society has one of the longest and most fruitful relationships with Handel s famous Messiah than perhaps any other chorus in the world: they first performed it in concert during their inception year of 1836, and have continued to do so annually since 1860 with concerts the world over as well as in their hometown of Huddersfield. Recorded live in concert in December 2010, this new recording combines the famous ensemble with the Northern Sinfonia and four world-class professionals, under the direction of Jane Glover CBE. The disc begins with John Wainwright s Christians Awake , a traditional addition to the Messiah programme at their concerts in Huddersfield.

For his first CD with La Dolce Volta, Olivier Latry has chosen a programme devoted to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. This recording, made on the massive Cavaillé-Coll organ of Notre-Dame de Paris, of which he is titular organist, raises a number of fascinating questions. “My approach highlights several paradoxes: the notion of performing these key works of Protestantism in one of the most emblematic centres of Catholicism, first of all, but also of playing them on an instrument that is, to say the least, far removed from the Baroque and Classical style of organ building.” - Olivier Latry

Written more than 15 years apart, these two scores, juxtaposed here for the first time, successively illustrate the somewhat morose ‘Nordic’ inspiration of the composer of Ein deutsches Requiem, then a more intimate poetic feeling, and finally a communicative serenity, the headiness of a ‘Hungarian’ dance in the Quartet, a sort of wild csárdás with quasi-orchestral force in the coda of the Quintet.

To mark his 95th birthday Decca releases this outstanding CD edition: 'Christoph von Dohnányi - The Cleveland Years'. Born in Berlin in 1929, Dohnányi, who is still conducting today at the age of 94, is, together with Herbert Blomstedt, one of the true grand masters of the orchestral business. Decca's collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra and Dohnányi lasted from 1984 to 1997. Dohnányi's relationship with Cleveland was one of the most successful partnerships between an orchestra and a conductor, a collaboration that was captured in many critically acclaimed recordings. In addition to Mozart and the great Romantic works of Schumann, Mahler and Bruckner, this edition offers impressive recordings of 20th century composers: Varèse, Ives, Schönberg and Lutoslawski, to name but a few. Wagner's 'Rheingold' and 'Walküre' complete the set and offer a well-rounded portrait of the conductor's Cleveland years. The 40-CD set includes the original covers, photos of the recordings and an essay by Andrew Stewart.

The new label partnership between New Soil alongside Women in Jazz was announced late last year with the further revelation that Glaswegian producer, curator and broadcaster Rebecca Vasmant held the distinction of being the first artist signed to wave their collaborative flag.

STUNNING 1983 SHOW WITH IAN GILLAN ON VOCALS  Following a three-year stint as Black Sabbath’s vocalist following the departure of Ozzy Osbourne in 1979, Ronnie James Dio left Sabbath himself in 1982 to form his own band, and took drummer Vinny Appice with him.  The remaining original members, Tommy Iommi and Geezer Butler, began auditioning singers for the band's next release. Deep Purple and Whitesnake's David Coverdale, Samson's Nicky Moore and Lone Star's John Sloman were all considered and Iommi states in his autobiography that Michael Bolton auditioned. The band settled on former Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan to replace Dio in December 1982.

Clearwater wrote the lion's share of this well-produced collection, reaching back for material by Jimmy Reed, Otis Rush, and Willie Mabon to round it out. The usual infectious mix of shimmering West Side blues, hauling rockabilly, and even a touch of funk on "Little Bit of Blues." Guitarist Will Crosby shares lead chores with his boss, and Carey Bell (Eddy's cousin) handles the harp work.

This two-LP set, which was released in 1976 as part of United Artists' Blue Note reissue series, brought back trumpeter Freddie Hubbard's early album Hub Cap, a sextet session with tenor-saxophonist Jimmy Heath, trombonist Julian Priester, and pianist Cedar Walton. Although that session (comprised of four Hubbard compositions, one of Walton's songs, and Randy Weston's "Cry Me Not") is excellent, it is the full album of previously unreleased material from an all-star quintet that is of greatest interest. Hubbard teams up with fellow Jazz Messengers Wayne Shorter (on tenor), Walton, bassist Reggie Workman, and (in Blakey's spot) drummer Philly Joe Jones for some advanced hard bop. Highpoints include the fiery "Philly Mignon" and a strong version of "Body and Soul."

For reasons unknown, it took over two decades for Henry Mancini's score for the smash 1983 television miniseries The Thorn Birds to earn an official soundtrack release, but Varèse Sarabande's lavish two-disc release proves worth the wait. Nor has time dimmed The Thorn Birds' power – this deeply romantic, intimate score remains one of Mancini's most stirring, rivaling the composer's most legendary big-screen efforts. Mancini eschews epic drama in favor of smaller-scale nuance, evoking the doomed romance of novelist Colleen McCullough's tale in finely honed strokes. The music is elegant yet understated, rich in variety but amounting to something far greater than the sum of its disparate elements.

An avid chamber musician, Anne-Maria Hölscher regularly performs with various chamber music ensembles, contemporary music ensembles such as Ensemble Ascolta, Klangforum Heidelberg, Collegium Novum Zurich, and various orchestras. She also regularly performs solo concerts with a broad repertoire spanning the past five centuries.

It isn't hard to understand why some goth rock, darkwave, and gothic metal fans have been drawn to Anekdoten. Their music isn't goth rock, darkwave, or gothic metal; they are a progressive rock/art rock band that has strong '70s leanings and has been greatly influenced by King Crimson (with hints of Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull). But because their material tends to be melancholy, dark, and gloomy, some goth rock and darkwave enthusiasts have embraced them. And while Anekdoten's work has never been groundbreaking, much of it has been of a high quality. That high quality is evident on Chapters, a two-CD anthology that was assembled in 2009. Chapters ranges from previously released recordings from the '90s and 2000s to some previously unreleased rarities, including an alternate mix of "Sad Rain" and demos of "Book of Hours," "Prince of the Ocean," "This Is Far from the Sky," "Thirty Pieces," and "Nucleus"…

One of French pop's most poetic songwriters, Georges Brassens was also a highly acclaimed and much-beloved performer in his own right. Not only a brilliant manipulator of language and a feted poet in his own right, Brassens was also renowned for his subversive streak, satirizing religion, class, social conformity, and moral hypocrisy with a wicked glee. Yet beneath that surface was a compassionate concern for his fellow man, particularly the disadvantaged and desperate. His personal politics were forged during the Nazi occupation, and while his views on freedom bordered on anarchism, his songs expressed those convictions more subtly than those of his contemporary, Léo Ferré. Though he was a skilled songwriter, Brassens had little formal musical training, and he generally kept things uncomplicated – simple melodies and spare accompaniment from a bass and second guitar. Along with Jacques Brel, he became one of the most unique voices on the French cabaret circuit, and exerted a tremendous influence on many other singers and songwriters of the postwar era. His poetry and lyrics are still studied as part of France's standard educational curriculum.

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