As he proved in his production of David Benoit's 1989 smash Urban Daydreams, the younger brother of Dave Grusin is a master at texturing various synth textures with the acoustic piano. On his solo debut Grusin once again does a remarkable job of this, mixing up his styles along the way to include bits and pieces of funk, Brazilian and mainstream jazz, along with healthy doses of the obligatory pop jazz formulas. Though the ballads here, such as "Oracle," are likable, Grusin the player is most at home on funky and frisky numbers like the stealthy "Catwalk," which features some tasty acoustic improvisations layered sparingly amidst a contagious synth groove. The best cut is another funkfest, "Graffiti Bird," which features the very punchy solo chops of saxman Eric Marienthal.

Squeezebox frenzy on this collection that features the talents of the finest accordionists in the classical and jazz worlds - Peter and Mady Soave, Richard Galliano, Sebastiano Zorza and Denis Biasin. They perform a variety of settings: solo, duo with Nando de Luca on piano or Hamilton de Hollanda on mandolin, or as part of a quartet.

Irish family group, started as folk/folk-rock/folk fusion in the early 70s, but with their 1982 album, moved to an unusual style of folk-based music typically involves much use of synthesisers and electronic production techniques. Fronted by Maire Ni Bhraonain AKA Maire Brennan, who recreated her vocals from "Theme From Harry's Game" for Chicane's hit "Saltwater"…

Blood Orange (aka producer/composer/multi-instrumentalist Devonté Hynes) has announced a new album, Negro Swan. The follow-up to 2016’s Freetown Sound arrives August 24 via Domino.

To the extent that he is remembered at all, the Dresden-born August Alexander Klengel (1783–1852) retains a toe-hold in music history thanks to a monumental set of 48 canon and fugues. But he was an important early-Romantic composer and celebrated piano virtuoso. August Alexander Klengel enjoyed a reputation that stretched from St Petersburg to London; indeed, he lived in both cities for a while, although later returning to his native Dresden. This first recording of his piano and chamber music reveals a personality with a strong lyrical impulse, somewhere between Field, almost certainly an acquaintance during Klengel's five years in the Russian capital, and Mendelssohn and Chopin, who were personal friends. The principle task of the Trio Klengel founded in 2016 is to perform rare and forgotten chamber music. It takes its name from a trio founded a century ago by three daughters of the cellist Julius Klengel (Julius Röntgen's father-in-law), who was distantly related to August Alexander Klengel. This Trio Klengel consists of Keiko Yamaguchi (violin), Stefania Verità (cello) and Anna Petrova-Forster (piano).

Rossini's Stabat Mater experienced some birth difficulties; the work had been commissioned by a Spanish aristocrat in 1832 but the following year the composer had only finished half of it, and an illness prevented him from continuing. Eager to be satisfied with his sponsor - and his wallet, no doubt - Rossini asked his friend and colleague Giovanni Tadolini to compose the remaining numbers, and in 1833 resounded in Spain the world premiere of Rossini's Stabat Mater. had not hesitated to sign the entire score without mentioning Tadolini's name. What a little joker! In 1841, the book was bought by a Parisian publisher who was unaware of the deception, Rossini was offended all the more because he had reserved the rights, and after many financial tuggings that are not necessarily to his credit, Rossini himself completed his score which was given in full and integrally Rossini in 1842. The public and the criticism were divided; some observers a bit Germanic felt that for religious music, it sounded like an opera, others rejoiced that although it was religious music, it still looked like an opera. This new recording from the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and Choir, with a fine line of Italian soloists, will delight fans.

The Civitas Ensemble, an enterprising chamber group founded by Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians, teams up with Czech violin virtuoso Pavel Šporcl and his wildly popular Gipsy Way Ensemble for a groundbreaking collaboration at the crossroads of Western classical and Romani musical traditions.

If The Secret is indeed the title of a melody that Gabriel Fauré composed on a poem rather cutesy Armand Silvestre, it does not seem that it inspired the title of the present album entitled "The Secret Fauré", taken rather in a meaning of scarcity and intimacy. Ivor Bolton, at the head of the Basel Symphony Orchestra where he is the artistic director, offers a very subtle choice composed of extracts from stage or stage music: Caligula, Pénélope, Shylock, Pelléas and Mélisande, mixed with some melodies orchestrated by Fauré or more probably by his friends, like Charles Koechlin. Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko, the new international queen of bel canto, lends her voice to Fauré's discreet art. Forgotten his many Traviata Berlin, MET or Vienna, for the benefit of a song of a modest limpidity. At his side, the tenor Benjamin Bruns and the women's choir Balthasar Neumann complete this disc which dedicates a certain French spirit seen elsewhere, made of a mixture of carefree, discreet elegance and a je-ne- know what futility.

A significant composer of the Mendelssohn line is Arnold Mendelssohn (1855–1933), great-nephew of Felix. He was born in the Silesian town of Ratibor (now Racibórz, Poland) on December 26, 1855. Arnold Mendelssohn's piano works are modest in number and all of them are recorded here. The compilation begins with the 'pen-and-ink drawings' published in 1901 by Dreililien (Berlin) as Five Characteristic Pieces for Piano Solo, Op. 20. Nonetheless, these works are characteristic of Mendelssohn's sustained study and exploration of Classical sonata form, which the composer regarded as the be-all and end-all of instrumental music. (Excerpts from the booklet by Jens Markowsky.) Pianist Elzbieta Sternlicht began her studies at the State Music Academy in Warsaw. After several years of artistic activity in Paris, Sternlicht moved to Berlin in 1977, where she is a freelance musician and a lecturer at the Universität der Künste.

Tilman Skowroneck writes: This recording was initiated by Bengt Nassen, the owner of the harpsichord by Martin Skowroneck (1926-2014) that is featured here. Initially, I was planning to play music by Bach and Handel on this German instrument, which is based on early eighteenth-century models, but after acquainting myself with the instruments possibilities, I was led in a different direction. Its sound is located somewhere between Italian brilliance and a more intimate vocal character. Some French builders of the seventeenth century made instruments whose characteristics were quite similar, even though they arrived at these results by different constructions. And so the idea was born to use this sound to retrace the connections between the Italian and French sound worlds of the late seventeenth century.