Comment:Daria Rabotkina is on the music faculty of the Texas State University as Assistant Professor of Piano. Her inventive programme features Humoresques, that are mainly quite short. The one by Schumann lasting 28 minutes. Those by Reger will surprise!

Comment:Hartyga are a Russian World / Rock Music band. Nachyn Choreve fronts with his very distinctive throat singing, backed by heavy percussion and guitars. Folksy song texts in English are included, but it's the beats that count and these are great!

Comment:Like several classic works, Swan Lake proved a disaster at its first performances in 1877, and is known today by the version that appeared in 1893. These magnificent SACDs present Tchaikovsky's original 1877 score complete as he composed it.

Comment:The last Martinu recordings by the great Jiri Belohlavek present a World Premiere recording of a beautiful Opera-Pastoral from 1952 and Symphony No. 1 composed in 1942, Martinu's first American commisison that would take him in new directions.

Comment:These Sonatas by Viktor Kalabis (1923 - 2006) are late works composed in the wake of the Russian occupation of 1968, the Cello and Clarinet Sonatas reflect that tragic period. These are important works by a great Czech composer.

Comment:Cellist Marta Simidtchieva is Associate professor of cello at southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Her selection of Bulgarian Sketches ranges over major figures in 20th century Bulgarian music.

Comment:Slovakian pianist, Ladislav Fanzowitz continues his series of piano music by Dohnanyi (1877-1960), with a second volume devoted to an extended Passacaglia, Three Pieces and Ruralia Hungarica, later an orchestral work. Plus, a lovely Christmas theme.

Comment:The first recording by Jonathan Nott as Conductor of Orchestre de la Suisse Romande is a selection of orchestral works, each with a very different sound that play around games. Debussy outdoors, Strauss in the kitchen and Ligeti with acoustics.

Comment:Dvorak's most famous composition, one of the most recorded of all works of Classical music, sounding completely different when played on period instruments. It continues the cycle of Symphonies by period instrument orchestra Music Florea.

Comment:Master pianist Carig Sheppard plays these late piano works of Brahms, in which his sums up his creative life in a positive manner that also looks back with tinges of nostalgia. These short pieces also point the way forward to a new pianistic outlook.