In Randy Newman’s musical version of Faust, not even God is safe from the poison baton. Newman has rounded up a bunch of his friends to sing the parts — James Taylor, Don Henley, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt and Linda Ronstadt. And that’s pretty close to the roster of the band playing in my idea of hell. Yet Faust turns out to be the best work in years for all involved. The musical poses a question Newman first raised in “God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind),” from 1972’s Sail Away, one that Christianity can’t adequately answer.

The debut album by one of Britain's lesser-starred supergroup is a markedly different beast than fans of their former bands, the Remo Four and Creation, might have expected. Heavily influenced by the trio's shared love for jazz-rock, its nine songs are moods as much as music, only occasionally stepping out into something instantly recognizable – distinctive covers of the Bee Gees' "New York Mining Disaster 1941" and Mose Allison's "Young Man Blues" are highlights. But the album peaks with its closing track, "As It Was in the First Place" a lengthy Ashton adaptation from the classical "Adagio from Concierto de Aranjuez."

This religious masterpiece, composed in memory of the great Italian novelist Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873), has themes even more cosmic than any in Verdi's other operas: life and death, heaven and hell, the Christian vision of humanity's redemption, the end of the world, and the last judgment. Verdi's music rises to the tremendous demands of this subject matter; it is music of grandeur, guilt, terror, and consolation, with a breadth of vision and an intensity of feeling unique in the composer's work and in religious music. John Eliot Gardiner's is the first recording made with period instruments, a kind of performance that some musiclovers still dismiss as dilettantism, more concerned with musicological correctness than feeling and communication.

Walk On is a classic "road" album in the sense that its songs largely seem written to or about people who are not present, either because the singer is away from them, he is singing about the past, or they are dead. John Hiatt exploits the resulting feelings of longing, anger, and mourning inherent in that premise, sometimes, as in "I Can't Wait," singing about wanting to be back home, sometimes, as in the odd love song "Ethylene," wishing for a departed lover, sometimes, as in "Dust Down a Country Road," reflecting as in a dream on the past. He employs rustic nature imagery, but frequently for ominous effects rather than gentle ones, and he is supported by spare, guitar-dominated backup that is alternately soothing and disturbing…

A compilation of classical music from the Romantic era reinterpreted by some of Windham Hill's top artists, Romantic Music of the 19th Century is primarily of interest to new age fans, since the atmospheric rearrangements recall the work of the performers, not the composers.

Stephen James "Steve" Howe is an English musician and songwriter. He is best known as the guitarist in the progressive rock group Yes. He has also been a member of the Syndicats, Bodast, Tomorrow, Asia, and GTR, as well as having released 19 solo albums as of 2010. Paul Sutin had already begun work on his first album Seraphim when he was introduced to Steve Howe. That introduction came via Terry Yallop. Together they released Seraphim, and then another album, entitled Voyagers (Sutin pre-recorded much of the album before Howe joined him in Switzerland.) Paul Sutin has also worked on some of Steve Howe's solo albums, including Skyline.

Gustav Leonhardt (30 May 1928 – 16 January 2012) was a Dutch keyboard player, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. He was a leading figure in the movement to perform music on period instruments. Leonhardt professionally played many instruments, including the harpsichord, pipe organ, claviorganum (a combination of harpsichord and organ), clavichord, fortepiano and piano. He also conducted orchestras and choruses.

The multiplicity of notes in Mendelssohn's piano music sometimes lays him open to the charge of 'note-spinning'. So what higher praise for Benjamin Frith than to say that thanks to his fluency, not a single work outstays its welcome here. The unchallengeable masterpiece is the Variations sérieuses, so enthusiastically taken up by Clara Schumann, and still a repertory work today. Frith characterises each variation with telling contrasts of tempo and touch without sacrificing the continuity and unity of the whole.

A most solid release by a player of distinct gift and musicality… his performances are entertaining and colorful. All in all, this is tasteful, skilled piano playing at a very high level, and I was pleased to make Frith's artistic acquaintance. Good sound.

Bruno Walter was always a most persuasive advocate of the gentler Beethoven–at least, that's what everyone thought until his stereo Beethoven cycle was remastered onto CD, revealing a much stronger musical profile than had been suspected. But that just made the cycle's best performances sound better still–and here they are, together on one midpriced CD! It's amazing that a man in his 80s, as Walter was when these performances were recorded, could take what was essentially a pickup orchestra and turn in performances of such power and authority. Walter and the Columbia Symphony had a genuine chemistry between them–they play these two symphonies as if they had been making music together for years.