Former Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover's first true solo album is an ambitious concept built around the properties and powers of the four elements – earth, wind, water, and fire – with the four principle tracks dedicated to each one in turn. Recorded with the Munich Philharmonic, plus an impressive arsenal of keyboards, percussion, and wind, the sound of the album is vast, yet never so prepossessing as to leave the listener feeling at all alienated by another ham-fisted attempt to meld rock with the classics. Rather, the Wagnerian scope of the music, and the immensity of the orchestra itself, are both wholly ingested into Glover's traditional knack for writing well-arranged, dynamic pop/prog rock.

In this series featuring ‘The Romantic Piano Concerto’, Dohnányi’s two works in this form are fitting examples of the genre because he was throughout his life a romantic both at heart and in his musical language. Although he died as late as 1960 he had little to do with the musical developments of the twentieth century. The two Concertos on this recording evoke a world which belongs to the nineteenth century. Dohnányi continued to compose in a style deeply rooted in the Austro-German classical tradition exemplified by Brahms. His merit as a composer is that he was able to prolong meaningfully the classico/romantic past, of which he was one of the last practitioners, well into this century, both in his chamber and orchestral music. This he did with elegance, wit, and stylish virtuosity. The two Piano Concertos are fine examples of his fluent mastery of form and instrumentation.

Composed in 1882/3, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Piano Concerto was the last of a series of works written in the very happy middle period of his life; other compositions of this period, rich in charming lyricism, included the opera The Snow Maiden and the orchestral Szakza (‘Fairy Tale’). The Concerto was first performed in March 1884 at one of Balakirev’s Free School concerts in St Petersburg and was the last work of Rimsky to be wholly approved of by his erstwhile mentor. While the lyricism is still sincere and deeply felt in the Concerto, the work also foreshadows the master artificer of the later years.

Ganymed was an Austrian/German space disco band founded in 1977. In 1978, they released their biggest hit, “It Takes Me Higher”, which hit #5 on the Austrian charts for four weeks and also hit #23 on the German charts…

Friedrich Abel, geboren 1723 in Köthen, gestorben 1787 in London hat seinen Platz der Musikgeschichte bisher stets als in zweiter Linie genannte Persönlichkeit gefunden. Er wirkt als »Ergänzungskraft«, wenn es gilt, das Bild in Bach- oder Mozart-Biographien abzurunden. Dabei gehört er zu Gruppe der ganz wichtigen Übergangsmusiker vom Barock zu Klassik, denen cpo schon seit geraumer Zeit große Aufmerksamkeit widmet und ohne deren »Pionierarbeit« so manche spätere klassische Großtat kaum möglich gewesen wäre.

Face the Heat is the twelfth studio album released by the German hard rock band Scorpions in 1993. It was produced by the band and the late Bruce Fairbairn and released on the PolyGram label. This album marked their status as a sort of political band with the song "Alien Nation", which was about the re-unification of Germany…

Anton Stepanovich Arensky and Sergei Eduardovich Bortkiewicz are hardly household names. Arensky’s delicious Piano Trio in D minor continues to keep its place on the fringes of the chamber repertoire, and the Waltz movement from his Suite for two pianos receives an occasional outing; otherwise nothing. Who has even heard of Bortkiewicz other than aficionados of the piano’s dustier repertoire?

Tommy is a soundtrack album by The Who with contributions from numerous artists. The soundtrack was used in the 1975 Tommy film that was based on the original album that was released by The Who in 1969. Pete Townshend oversaw the production of this double-LP recording that returned the music to its rock roots, and on which the unrecorded orchestral arrangements he had envisaged for the original Tommy LP were realised by the extensive use of synthesiser. The soundtrack LP also employed many leading sessions musicians including Caleb Quaye, Phil Chen and Nicky Hopkins (who also receives a "Special Thanks" in the album credits for help with the arrangements) as well as members of The Faces' Ronnie Wood and future Keith Moon replacement Kenney Jones.

None of the albums the O'Jays recorded for Philadelphia International in the 1970s were weak or disappointing, although some were stronger than others. So Full of Love isn't quite essential, and isn't in a class with Back Stabbers, Ship Ahoy or Family Reunion. But the platinum album does have a lot going for it, including the major hit "Use Ta Be My Girl," and the heartfelt ballads "Cry Together" and "Brandy," and the captivating "This Time Baby," which would become a hit for soul/disco diva Jackie Moore in 1979. A funk treasure that should have been a major hit was the intense "Strokety Stroke." Once again, the O'Jays worked with Philly's best – not only Gamble & Huff, but also Thom Bell and Bunny Sigler.

The band formed in late '68 as Iron Prophet, a heavy trio comprising Rick Sharpe, Clive Shepherd and Dick Hawkes. They changed their name to Five Day Rain in early 1970, with the arrival of Graham Maitland and the beginning of the recordings presented here. The usual disagreement between musicians, management and producers led the album to be shelved (only a few acetates were pressed) and the band to split. Rick Sharpe, Shepherd and Maitland formed the short-lived Studd Pump before taking separate ways, with Sharpe joining glam rockers Streak and Maitland resurfacing with Glencoe.

"Spooky" is a song by English band New Order. It was released in December 1993 as the fourth and final single from their sixth studio album, Republic (1993). The song would be their last single proper until 2001's "Crystal". CD one featured remixes by Fluke, while CD two featured remixes by Paul van Dyk and Tony Garcia.
Rising from the ashes of the legendary British post-punk unit Joy Division, New Order triumphed over tragedy to emerge as one of the most acclaimed bands of the 1980s; embracing the electronic textures and disco rhythms of the underground club culture many years in advance of its contemporaries, the group's pioneering fusion of new wave aesthetics and dance music successfully bridged the gap between the two worlds, creating a distinctively thoughtful and oblique brand of synth pop appealing equally to the mind, body, and soul.

Impeckable is Welsh rock band Budgie's seventh album, released in February 1978 on A&M Records. Guitarist Tony Bourge left the band after the album was released…

On this release, King comes close to equaling his past triumphs on small independent labels in the '50s and '60s. He's ditched the psuedo-hip production fodder and cut a 12-song set matching him with blues peers. His duets with Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, and Albert Collins are especially worthy, while the songs with Koko Taylor, Ruth Brown, and Irma Thomas have some good-natured banter and exchanges, as well as tasty vocals. The master gives willing pupils Joe Louis Walker and Robert Cray valuable lessons on their collaborations. There's also a medley in which King invokes the spirit of his chitlin circuit days, taking the vocal spotlight while his Orchestra roars along underneath.

If you view The Very Best of Yes as a singles sampler, not an attempt to offer a thorough overview of Yes' doggedly album-oriented career, this 11-track collection is actually quite successful, offering the bulk of the band's best-known songs, from "I've Seen All Good People," "Roundabout," and "Long Distance Runaround" to "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and "Leave It." It's sequenced chronologically, too, which gives some sense of the band's development. Therefore, for the curious, this offers a nice snapshot of what Yes did throughout the '70s and into the mid-'80s.

1993 collection featuring 14 tracks including 'Everyday I Have The Blues', 'Gone So Long' & 'Hey Now Baby'. Henry Roeland "Roy" Byrd, better known as Professor Longhair or "Fess" for short, was a New Orleans blues singer and pianist. He was active in two distinct periods, first in the heyday of early rhythm and blues from 1949 to 1964 and later in the resurgence of interest in traditional jazz after the founding of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1970. His piano style has been described as "instantly recognizable, combining rumba, mambo, and calypso." Professor Longhair can be considered as the creator of the New Orleans Rhythm & Blues. Inducted into Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 (Early Influence).