At 1st sight, they appear to have nothing in common – but disregarding the stylistic elements & a difference of 2 centuries, you soon recognize that both are in a sense, musical architects, who as piano virtuosos were equally interested in miniature forms & inspired by folk music. On the 1 hand you have Scarlatti, who, after moving to Spain in 1729 composed almost exclusively for harpsichord & integrated elements of Spanish folklore into his compositions in an experimental way; on the other hand Bartk, who boosted the recognition of the rich native Hungarian peasant songs to an independent folk art, & was also influenced by Arabic folk music.

Jacintha is a Singaporean jazz singer/torch singer and stage actress who has been well-known in parts of the Asia-Pacific region since the '80s and has been increasing her exposure in North America since the late '90s. Jacintha has never been the type of jazz artist who goes out of her way to be abstract, difficult, or complicated; her work has been quite accessible and easy to absorb, drawing on direct or indirect influences that have included Julie London and Shirley Horn as well as Brazilian star Astrud Gilberto. Jacintha has long been fluent in English, which is widely spoken in Singapore and is one of its four official languages along with Malay, Mandarin Chinese and Tamil.

« FEVER » is a powerful, impassioned portrait raised to sublimity by the magical sound of Claire Chevallier's Erard. A great collector of pianos, she lives surrounded by them; they are part of her daily world. It was after buying an 1876 Erard, Liszt's favourite piano, that she felt the presence of the great composer behind its very characteristic sound and found she wanted to make this recording.

"Continuing its excellent series of Guarnieri symphonies, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra under John Neschling presents another programme of marvellous music that deserves the widest possible exposure outside of its native Brazil … Neschling and his orchestra turn in first-rate playing … this is world-class music making in the service of world-class music. Glorious sonics, solid on the bottom and bright but never shrill on top, complete a most attractive picture."

Since Bach was more than cryptic in indicating the instrumentation of what is often regarded as his musical testament, The Art of Fugue has been subjected to an infinite variety of arrangements for all sorts of instruments. This recording follows a series of performances in which the musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin tested a highly unusual concept: rather than play uniformly one after the other the contrapuncti and canons that Bach left us, they have made great efforts to diversify both the instrumentarium and the macrostructure – to the point where we end up, to our delight, experiencing their interpretation as an exciting musical game for several players!

Few works stir up as much debate over their 'meaning' as Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. And equally few works can boast an interpreter with such insight as Mstislav Rostropovich. His friendship with the composer gives him an almost unique understanding of Shostakovich's inner traumas, and as with the 2002's outstandingly successful LSO Live recording of the Symphony No 11, he inspires the LSO's players to the heights of virtuosity.

The Mariinsky Label presents the fourth installment in Valery Gergiev's Shostakovich symphony cycle - an emotionally-charged performance of the composer's Seventh Symphony.