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This is Keith Jarrett, for the first time ever, in 96/24 DVD-Audio quality FLAC.  Available only at HDtracks.com.

Works from the eye of the Mozart fantasia storm: the C major Piano Concerto and the Prague Symphony were both composed in December 1786 along with the Recitative and Rondo K 505. This album invites you on a journey through time under the consummately sensitive command of Christian Zacharias and his Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne.

Following the success of Symphony No. 1, which was Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice, and Symphony No. 2 which was Classic FM magazine’s Disc of the Month, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Richard Hickox here performs Elgar’s Symphony No. 3 as elaborated and orchestrated by Anthony Payne. Gramophone’s reviewer noted that by ‘bringing out the glory of Elgar’s orchestral imagination’ the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Richard Hickox reveal a new dimension of Elgar.

Bryan’s honesty in her approach to song writing has created a stylization that defies category. Neon Angel is a unique and personal body of work. In it, her lyrics are visual and socially relevant, yet intimate, poetic and immediate. Her music ranges from the ethereal to a plaintive earthiness, and at times both expressions are grasped in the same moment. This recording is as classic and as powerful as Joni Mitchell’s legendary Blue.

Pidgeon’s fresh interpretations of traditional Celtic folk songs like “Fhear a Bhata”, “Black Jack Davey” and “Jock O Hazeldean” – blend her unmistakable vocal style with a distinctive Celtic flavor. Featuring some of Celtic music’s finest musicians such as Johnnie Cunningham on fiddle and mandolin and Jerry O’Sullivan on Uilleann Pipes, Four Marys is Pidgeon’s tribute to her musical heritage.

Kim Kashkashian’s new album following her Spanish and Argentinian songs on Asturiana is a carefully composed programme addressing fascinating connections between three contemporary composers from Israel and Armenia. With five pieces respectively based on traditional laments of the Near East, Armenian chant and Hasidic melody, the focus is again on essentially vocal expressivenss.

Martin Fröst continues his survey of the core clarinet repertoire with Brahms’ autumnal works for the instrument. Composed towards the end of Brahms’ life, the trio and two sonatas on this disc are the fruits of the meeting between a composer who feared that he had lost his inspiration, and a great musician who helped him find it again. Richard Mühlfeld was the favourite clarinettist of both Richard Wagner and Hans von Bülow, but these works by Brahms are surely the most impressive testimonial to his musicianship.  The album was named “Editor’s Choice” in Gramophone (April 2006) and “Chamber Choice of the Month” in BBC Music Magazine (February 2006).

Although Andy Sheppard has been featured on a dozen albums with Carla Bley for WATT, this is his first album for ECM proper. The British saxophonist heads an international quintet in a programme of self-penned pieces, all buoyant and strongly melodic. Sheppard’s elegant saxophone and the strongly-contrasting guitars of Parricelli and Aarset are lifted up by the rhythmic drive of Arild Andersen’s muscular bass and the crisp, dynamic tabla of Kuljit Bhamra, a musician well known in the UK as a key figure in the Asian pop and bhangra movements.

His forceful lines, graceful touch, assured sense of swing and sensitive support has made Scott Colley the bassist of choice for a variety of jazz greats. Guitarist Jim Hall and pianist Andrew Hill have regularly relied on Colley to supply a firm yet interactive foundation for their respective groups. Each has also engaged the bassist in intimate, highly conversational duos that have highlighted Colley’s remarkably empathetic skills and strong melodic penchant on the instrument.

After a 41 year long career initiated in 1965, when he joined the Sergio Mendes group, Chico Batera launches now Lume, his sixth solo work, through Biscoito Fino. Solo, in this case, is only relative; a percussionist is never completely alone since rhythm, in music, implies gathering and generosity. He is accompanied by Kiko Continentino (piano), and Luiz Alves (bass), with the participation of Marcos Nimrichter (accordion) and of his blue-eyed namesake –Chico Buarque– who interprets “Iracema voou”. That song, together with themes by Antonio Carlos Jobim, André Victor Corrêa, Contentino, and Batera himself, form the repertory of this record.

It was from Geraldo Carneiro´s verses in the samba “A Invenção da Rosa” that Francis Hime drew out the name “Arquitetura da Flor” for his second CD released by Biscoito Fino. Under a frugal sonority, which basically explores the possibilities of just a quintet (piano, bass, drums, electric guitar and percussion, with some interventions by wind instruments), contrasting with the orchestral grandiosity which characterizes the majority of his works, Francis displays a great number of nuances in the most confessional album of his career.

Les Paul & Friends-A Tribute To A Legend is a fitting honor to the genre-crossing icon with an eclectic collection of musicians spanning the musical spectrum. From the hard hitting thunder of Joe Bonammassa party rock guitar, to the fluid almost ethereal guitar groove provided by guitar icon Slash, this album covers the gamut of guitar and recording techniques.  Solid tributes, most of which also include the 93-year old Les Paul are turned in by Johnny Rzeznik covering U2’s “All I Ever Want Is You”, Joan Osborne’s smoky rendition of “I Don’t Wanna Be With Anybody But You”, and even Richie Sambora’s spiritual vocal on “Great Hall Of Fame.”

The stunning vocal presence and emotional range of Because Of You (the 1991 release featuring such classic tunes as “Haven’t We Met” and “Round Midnight”) catapulted Kenny Rankin to the forefront of American male vocalists. While he assumed great celebrity for his breakthrough pop releases of the 1970’s, the sophisticated and intimate approach he takes with his interpretations of classic American standards by Gershwin, Berlin, Rodgers & Hart, Monk, as well as his own original compositions, re-introduced him as a brilliant innovator in the elevation of pop music.

The Tokyo String Quartet continues its complete Beethoven cycle with this third volume. Both the graceful op.74 (nicknamed ‘Harp’ for its use of pizzicato) and op.95, with its quest for the essential, testify to the new maturity achieved by the composer around 1810.

Sergei Rachmaninoff was one of the most beloved composers of the twentieth century. His music is redolent of his Russian homeland, and it sings long, lush melodies that define the term “romantic.”

From combined musical and audiophile criteria we have compiled the most excellent recordings 2L has to offer. Discover what the unique Nordic Sound is all about!

These twelve astonishing tracks are drawn from a broad spectrum of early 70s West African psychedelic classics. Yet the fact that they scarcely registered on the Richter scale of contemporary underground music must surely be one of the greatest ironies of modern popular music, given that western counterculture drew so heavily on the musical, aesthetic and visual traditions of Africa.