in 2025, the world celebrates the 200th anniversary. The birthday of Johann Strauss's son – the composer who made Vienna dance and whose melodies have long become part of the soul of this city. For two centuries, his name has stood for elegance, romance and rhythm. But what happens when this timeless beauty speaks the language of modern jazz?

Juniper is the second studio album by British singer-songwriter Joy Crookes, released through Insanity Records on 19 September 2025, and follows her 2021 critically acclaimed debut Skin.[

Sublime pieces inspired by fantasy tales and the world of childhood (the magnificent suites from The Firebird, Jeux d'enfants and Ma mère l'Oye) by Carlo Maria Giulini and the Philharmonia Orchestra, available digitally for the first time in a splendid remastered version: one hour of pure orchestral magic!

Lucia di Lammermoor is one of the most iconic works of the bel canto repertoire, showcasing Gaetano Donizetti’s masterful blend of lyrical beauty and dramatic intensity. Based on Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor, the opera tells a haunting tale of love, political rivalry, and psychological collapse. At its heart lies the tragic heroine Lucia (Lisette Oropesa), caught between familial duty and a forbidden love, whose descent into madness culminates in one of the most famous and demanding scenes in all of opera—the legendary "mad scene."

L'incoronazione di Poppea (SV 308, The Coronation of Poppaea) is an Italian opera by Claudio Monteverdi. It was Monteverdi's last opera, with a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello, and was first performed at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice during the 1643 carnival season.

Fur and Gold is the debut studio album by English singer Bat for Lashes. It was released on 11 September 2006 by The Echo Label. It was met with critical acclaim and received a nomination for the 2007 Mercury Prize.

"Johnny Come Home" is a song by British band Fine Young Cannibals, released as the first single from their debut album, Fine Young Cannibals (1985). It is similar to the style of many other of the band's hits, a mixture of rock and ska with Roland Gift's distinctive vocals, as well as a jazz-type trumpet solo. It was released in May 1985 by London Records and was one of the group's most popular hits. The song tells the gritty realistic story of a runaway youth, and alternates from the first-person narrative, explaining how his arrival in the big city has not turned out as he expected, to the view of the parents in the chorus, expressing their wish that he would come home.

Some of the most revered Guided by Voices albums are the ones where songwriter Robert Pollard is able to balance his proclivities for strangeness with his gifts for melody and hooks. The reconfiguration of GbV that's been responsible for record after record (usually at least two a year) in the 2010s and 2020s has often leaned more toward the strange side of things, with a high number of the many tunes they churn out exploring prog rock or experimental song structures. Thick Rich and Delicious, the band's second full-length of 2025, is the album GbV fans who miss the band's more tuneful, pop-friendly days have been waiting for. These 15 songs are primarily energetic power pop, rich with catchy melodies, high-spirited vocal harmonies, and the type of sticky choruses Pollard has used sparingly on the albums directly preceding this. Songs like "A Tribute to Beatle Bob" or "Lucy's World" are almost too straightforwardly melodic, with huge, happy major-key chord progressions and hummable tunes. The band rocks out on riffy selections like the instrumental "Ozark Ivanho" and the garage punk of "Replay," and there's some woozy Who-like experimentalism on "Mother John," but by and large, Thick Rich and Delicious is all about pop. It's powerful power pop, too, with the band tracking the entire album live, with cranked amps direct to analog tape. The nostalgic effect of a Guided by Voices record this melodic seems not to be lost on the band

In keeping with previous Lennon box sets, the ‘Evolution’ mixes of New York City track the development of each of its nine songs using demos, rehearsals, snatches of dialogue, and early takes. It’s a thrill to hear these songs take shape and to hear an unguarded and uncompromising Lennon lead the sessions. “I know we’re gonna end up with that clean, clean recorded sound which I hate,” he frets before tearing into a ferocious version of the title track. We hear ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ transform from an eerie home demo to a rollicking boogie, with some choice Lennon witticisms along the way – “Of course, anyone daft enough to decide to play saxophone deserves torturing” and, when attempting to chivy things on, “C’mon, I want to get on to that female lib song before McCartney gets on to that!”. Meanwhile, the studio sessions for ‘Luck Of The Irish’ show Lennon’s softer side as he coaches Ono through her vocal.

The viola da gamba is not dead, despite a claim to the contrary in the Dictionary of Musicians by German composer, organist and cellist Ernst Ludwig Gerber (1746–1819). From the 16th century to the end of the 18th, the viola da gamba experienced a true apotheosis, becoming the favoured instrument for bourgeois entertainment, particularly in Germany, France, Italy and England, even if the instrument’s origins lie in the Spanish Renaissance. Because of these associations with the aristocracy, but also because of advances in musical style that demanded more from the role of the lower member of the string family, the gamba lost ground to the newer cello during the French Revolution.

The first part of this CD, "Cantus," consists of beautiful, evocative arrangements of arias and choral melodies by Bach, Brahms, and Pärt. The second part, "Rewe," features music by lesser-known French Impressionist composers, while the album concludes with Edvard Grieg's two Peer Gynt suites. Grieg musically recounts the adventures of the Norwegian peasant Peer Gynt.

Jeff Goldblum together with his long-time band, The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, returns to deliver sheer joy with his idiosyncratic take on a collection of standards that, for Jeff, are amongst the best songs ever written. Here, the actor yet again brings his on-screen charisma and eccentricities to the keys, with a groove that is totally unique. With all tracks newly arranged by The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra themselves, Jeff is, as the EP title suggests, joined by an array of talented, and unexpected, guest singers, all as thrilled to be accompanied by Jeff as he is to accompany them. Jeff and the band are joined by Kelly Clarkson, Mattiel Brown (of indie-rock duo Mattiel), Brazilian singer-songwriter Rodrigo Amarante and Freda Payne.

Roger Eno’s third solo album for Deutsche Grammophon is a poetic meditation on the fragility of life, memory, and nature. Spanning 12 tracks for piano and strings—including “There Was a Ship,” a haunting folk-tinged ballad of reunion, and “The Moon and the Sea,” an elegiac tale of unrequited love—this release blends delicate solo piano with rich orchestral textures.

Mike Bourne has been knocking audiences out around the globe with his unique style of jump blues, blues and roots music in clubs like the House of Blues, Hard Rock Cafe, Buddy Guys Legends and Festivals including the Roots and Blues Festival, the International Jazz and Blues festival in Manila, and the Coleman Hawkins Blues Festival.

This record is a love letter to Vancouver. The song titles refer to my favourite venues to play, subtle nods to friends and heartbreak in the city.