On the surface, this Ring cycle recording might seem like a poor relation to those by Sir Georg Solti, Herbert von Karajan, James Levine, and others, or to the live recordings from the 1950s by the likes of Wilhelm Furtwängler, Clemens Kraus, and Hans Knappertsbusch. The very names constitute big guns in opera, and their respective casts are not exactly weak either. Complicating matters further is the fact that Marek Janowski's Ring was originally released by Eurodisc/Ariola, a European-based label that, while huge over there, never had the profile or prestige of Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, orEMI; the fact that it's now on RCA/BMG doesn't exactly help, either, as the latter has lost a good deal of its luster as a major label since the 1980s. But the Janowski Ring also occupies its own place in history…

Of all the nearly forgotten music by Mendelssohn, the most nearly completely forgotten is his music for chorus. Only his songs come close to being as almost entirely ignored, but because a few of them have earned a place in the recital hall, even they have a more prominent place in the repertoire. This 10-disc Brilliant set of Mendelssohn's complete choral works featuring the Chamber Choir of Europe under Nicol Matt addresses this problem even though it may not solve it. The performances are uniformly excellent. The Choir has a smooth tone and superb diction and Matt elicits from them polished balanced and ardent interpretations.

Yıldız İbrahimova is a Bulgarian singer of Turkish ancestry. She is one of the most popular jazz singers in Europe. Besides jazz she has also recorded Bulgarian, Turkish, Gypsy and Russian folk songs. Yildiz Ibrahimova has participated in tours in over 40 countries in Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and Africa. She married Ali Dinçer, a leading Turkish politician, also born in Bulgaria and former mayor of Ankara in 1993. Since then she has lived in Turkey.

Never have I heard the extraordinary and even 'strange' or 'otherworldly' character of the late Beethoven string quartets better than in the performance of the Julliard Quartet. They perfectly caption what could not be better described then as the revolution in the writing of string quartets that these late quartets represent. One could even say that some passages lay a bomb under the expectations of contemporary listereners and even now could almost shock you. So powerful and profound is this music while only using the modest means of four string instruments. Away with civilised chitchat, away with certainty! Here comes Beethoven!

The Julliard String Quartet does a magnificent job of presenting Beethoven's material in a technically perfect performance. To a student, this would be the place to start. Classical music walks a tightrope between precision and passion. This recording by the Julliard String Quartet is the best combination of skill, sound, and material.

The Juilliard String Quartet is a classical music string quartet founded in 1946 at the Juilliard School in New York by William Schuman. The original members were violinists Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violist Raphael Hillyer, and cellist Arthur Winograd; Current members are Joseph Lin and Ronald Copes violinists, violist Roger Tapping, and cellist Astrid Schween. In 2010 Nick Eanet resigned from the Quartet because of health issues and was replaced by Joseph Lin in 2011.

The piano is squarely at the center of these 5 CDs of masterworks by the famed 19th-century Hungarian composer, whose breathtaking keyboard skills became the stuff of legend across Europe and around the world. Claudio Arrau and Sir Colin Davis are among the celebrated performers here as you hear Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Flat; Piano Concerto No. 2 in A; 3 Etudes De Concert; Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos. 1-6; A Faust Symphony; Symphonic Poem No. 5 "Prometheus"; Piano Sonata in B Minor; Liebestraum No. 3 in A Flat; Berceuse; Gnomenreigen; Valse Oubliée No. 1 in F Sharp , and more!

The 11 years covered in this first of two Don Gibson retrospectives by the German Bear Family label are the most captivating in his career.