Elton John began inching back into the mainstream with Jump Up, an uneven but strong record highlighted by "Empty Garden." Its success set the stage for Too Low for Zero, a full-fledged reunion with his best collaborator, Bernie Taupin, and his classic touring band…

By the release of their eighth studio album, The Sport of Kings, in 1986, Triumph were struggling to navigate the depressing hard rock cesspool of the mid-'80s, a period when serious musicianship, songwriting adventure, and individuality itself had come under assault by the inexplicable success of superficial hair metal bands…

If you're considering a career in opera, it doesn't hurt to have your parents speaking Swedish and Russian at home while your school teaches you French, German and English. It also helps to have one of the most beautiful tenor tones and strongest technical foundations in the world. The wide-ranging repertoire that resulted for Gedda is explored across 11 CDs…

With a little delay following the issue of a complete set of violin works, Supraphon is now coming with the sequel to that title in the "hommage ? Zdeněk Fibich" (1850 - 1900) series, presenting a new recording of the complete quartet output ofthis Czech neo-Romantic composer who has so far failed to get all the interest he would rightfully deserve.

This second compact disc, containing Zdeněk Fibich's piano quartet and quintet complements the first compilation, issued in 2001 (String Quartet in G major, String Quartet in A major, Theme and Variations, Panocha Quartet, SU 3470-2131). Fibich's complete chamber works, a small but significant collection of pieces, are now available to music lovers on two CDs. The composer, a consummate romantic, created true masterpieces which resonate with his distinctive artistic voice. Furthermore, this is the first digital recording of the D Major Piano Quintet in its original version with wind instruments.

A complete performance is scarcely imaginable, but Kvapil is adept at suggesting and holding some of these brief moods to make an attractive sequence; and he goes on to explore with elegance the five studies of paintings by Ruysdael, Breughel, Fra Angelico (a graceful dance of angels from the Last Judgement triptych), Correggio and Watteau (a charming generalized impression of his fetes galantes with some stylized period dancing). It is an appealing and touching record.

By the mid-’50s, when Ory started recording for Norman Granz at Verve, Ory’s second blooming was in full flower. He was touring Europe and the United States to packed houses. Audiences in France were so enthusiastic that Ory supposedly mistook their exuberance for aggression-he thought he was being jeered when he was actually being cheered. A recording of that night’s performance opens the Mosaic set, and in that hyper-charged atmosphere one will hear the closest Ory comes to the sort of raw rowdiness that is typical of so many trad trombonists today.