In a long and remarkable career Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) composed 28 operas, which mark the culmination of the Italian tradition. Focusing on the most significant of these works and the monumental Requiem, Lederer highlights Verdi’s growth as a musical dramatist, from the early Nabucco to Aida, Otello and Falstaff. The accompanying CD features 19 historic recordings of excerpts from the operas, performed by such singers as Caruso, Tetrazzini and Claudia Muzio.

Tianwa Yang, violin; Fred Child, narrator; Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players; JoAnn Falletta.

Tchaikovsky: Impromptus; Two Pieces, Op.1; Trois morceaux, Op.9; Six morceaux, Op.21

Andrea Lauren Brown, soprano; Thomas E Bauer, baritone; Uta Hielscher, piano.

Ivan Pochekin, violin: Russian Philharmonic Orchestra; Dmitry Yablonsky.

Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Helmut Müller-Brühl

Chorus and Orchestra of the Opéra-Comique, Paris; Elie Cohen.

Otello: Robert Dean Smith, tenor; Desdemona: Raffaella Angeletti, soprano; Oviedo Filarmonía, Friedrich Haide

Ashley Wass, piano.

Tichman, Piano; Bieler, Violin; Kliegle, Cello.Recorded in the Clara Wieck Auditorium, Sandhausen, Germany 2006.

Christine Sohn and John Marcus, violins.

Luc Beauséjour, harpsichord.

Kungsbacka Piano Trio; Philip Dukes, Viola; Richard Hosford, Clarinet. Recorded at Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth, UK 2013

‘Music has, quite literally, saved my life.’ After experiencing sexual abuse, addiction and a devastating mental breakdown, James Rhodes found solace in listening to music and has since become a renowned concert pianist. In this memoir, by turns shocking, witty and outspoken, he describes his emotional turmoil, discusses the great composers and performers who mean the most to him, reflects on the state of classical music today and conveys his passionate belief in music’s power to transform all our lives.

Highlighting connections between 19th-century German music and nationalism, this study focuses on works based on popular, mythologized versions of historical subject-matter, in particular the life of Barbarossa and the Roman legions’ annihilation at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. It explores how compositions in many musical genres participated in a project of shaping the nation’s future and how composers such as Max Bruch and Carl Reinecke responded to contemporary notions of gender, landscape and religion.

Blamed by some for breaking up the Beatles, criticized for putting his wife in his band and challenged to live up to his reputation, Paul McCartney was under pressure during the 1970s. This biography reviews his life from the end of the Fab Four to the death of John Lennon, a period that saw the establishment of his hideaway in Kintyre, experimental music and hit records, small gigs and world tours, and numerous drugs busts.

The unique sound of the Hammond organ has had a profound influence on genres such as blues, jazz, soul, funk and rock. This book begins with information on the technology behind the instrument, followed by the story of its greatest players. The final section consists of musical examples illustrating the range of techniques available to the Hammond organist and a selection of short pieces in different performers’ styles; these are all recorded on the accompanying 39-track audio CD.

Orchestra of St. Luke's; Robert Craft

Oxford Camerata; Jeremy Summerly

Northern Sinfonia; Steuart Bedford

Orchestre National de Lyon; Leonard Slatkin

Cologne Chamber Orchestra; Helmut Müller-Brühl. PB 142pp + 2 CDs

Having stolen the show ahead of a cast of stars in Las Vegas, the 'Godfather of Soul', James Brown, shunned the after-show glad-handing and left; 'Kill 'em and leave,' he remarked to his friend, civil-rights activist Al Sharpton. This biography uses the recollections of people close to Brown, such as Sharpton, to piece together the story of a man who was notoriously secretive and evasive about his private life.

For more than half a century, Mary O’Hara’s voice has delighted audiences across the globe. In this warm and inspiring autobiography, she recalls her childhood in the west of Ireland, the tragic death of her first husband, and her retreat to a nunnery before re-emerging to restart her career to even greater acclaim. Enriched with humorous anecdotes of life on the road, it also recounts her later years as a charity worker with her second husband in Africa.

Anthony Burton’s 20,000-word essay surveys a millennium of British music, illustrating its distinctive features through the pieces assembled on the accompanying pair of CDs. These 47 tracks range from an anonymous motet honouring St Thomas of Canterbury (c.1300), via such composers as Boyce, Bax and Britten, to Colin Matthews’ Pluto, the Renewer, written in 2000 to complement Holst’s The Planets.

Christopher Purves, baritone; Simon Lindley, organ; Huddersfield Choral Society; Leeds Philharmonic Chorus; English Northern Philharmonia; Paul Daniel.

Felicity Lott, soprano; Martyn Hill, tenor; Craig Ogden, guitar; Graham Johnson, piano.

Madeleine Mitchell, violin; Howard Blake, piano; Jack Rothstein, violin; Kenneth Essex, viola; Peter Wilson, cello.

Raphael Wallfisch, cello; Raphael Terroni, piano.

Karina Gauvin, soprano: Matthew Larkin, organ; Choir of St. John's, Elora, Canada; Noel Edison.

Focusing on string players whose performances have been captured on disc, this guide sets acclaimed soloists of today, such as violinist Joshua Bell and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, alongside great performers of the past; each entry includes an appraisal of the player’s style and their recorded legacy. The book comes with four CDs, featuring tracks by 69 artists, which illustrate how string playing and recorded sound developed across the past century.

More than 300 of the 20th century’s greatest conductors are profiled in this alphabetical guide, with brief biographies complemented by lists of each musician’s most significant performances on disc. The accompanying CDs present more than five hours of remastered excerpts from historic recordings by 48 conductors, ranging from Arthur Nikisch’s pioneering 1913 account of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony to Guido Cantelli’s 1954 recording of Debussy’s La Mer.

This compact guide is an informative resource for everyone seeking to discover more about opera. An introduction charting the development of the genre from 1600 to the present is followed by an alphabetical guide to the characters, plots and theatrical history of hundreds of operas from Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppaea to John Adams’s Nixon in China, composer biographies and a glossary of operatic terms. This expanded second edition includes access to 130 tracks online.

Pestover/Meyer Piano Duo.

Sir Thomas Allen, baritone; Ty Jackson, boy soprano;, John Tessier, tenor; Nashville Symphony Chorus; Nashville Symphony Orchestra; Leonard Slatkin

Ida Bieler, violin; Nina Tichman, piano.

John Corigliano: The Red Violin Caprices, Sonata for Violin and Piano. Virgil Thomson: Three Portraits, Five Ladies, Eight Portraits - . Philippe Quint, violin; William Wolfram, piano.

Orion Weiss, piano; Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. JoAnn Falletta.

Music for Clarinet and Strings arranged by Frank Villard.Porgy and Bess Suite, Piano Concerto in F major (excerpt). An American In Paris (excerpt) and Three Preludes.

Martin Outram, viola; Laurence Jackson, Violin; Julian Rolton, piano.

Roberto Cappello, piano: Corale Luca Marenzio; Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma: Francesco La Vecchia

Alexander von Zemlinsky; Lyric Symphony; Alban Berg's Three Pieces from the Lyric Suite arranged for string orchestra. Roman Trekel, baritone. Twyla Robinson, soprano, Houston Symphony, Hans Graf.

CSR Symphony, Polish State Philharmonic and CSSR State Philharmonic orchestras.

Carl Herrin, guitar,

Cello Concerto and Concerto-Rhapsody. Dimitry Yablonsky, Cello, Moscow City Symphony Orchestra. Recorded by Russian State TV and Radio Company, Moscow 2007.

‘A blazingly musical city... Glasgow became a UNESCO City of Music in 2008 thanks to the countless kinds of music that coexist on these streets.’ This volume reflects the diversity of the city and its sounds in 21 richly illustrated essays on the music, history and life of 20 different venues, from the Cathedral to King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, by way of pubs, recording studios, concert halls, ballrooms, the College of Piping and the legendary Apollo.