Joyce DiDonato greets listeners with a song in her heart and twinkle in her eye. The American mezzo-soprano's album unites world-class musicians from the varied worlds of opera, jazz and tango in the pure pleasure of improvisation, experimentation and exchange. 

Forty-five years after his recording of Beethoven's Ninth, Seiji Ozawa returns to this epic masterpiece with the Mito Chamber Orchestra. This new recording features star players including Radek Baborak, Ricardo Morales, Philippe Tondre, and baritone Markus Eiche. 

With its rural tale of disguise and romantic scheming, its jaunty tunes, lively characters and farcical comedy, Alfred Cellier s light opera, Dorothy, has been almost entirely forgotten today. It had the longest run of any 19th-century piece of musical theatre and became such a popular hit in its day that the box office profits were able to fund the building of the Lyric Theatre on London s Shaftsbury Avenue. This acclaimed contemporary interpretation is being presented by The Victorian Opera.

Pianist Rafal Blechacz teams up with violinist Bomsori Kim for a collection of chamber works that showcases the musically symbiotic relationship between Polish melody and French elegance. Included are works by Faure, Chopin, Szymanwoski and Debussy.

Torn between obedience and conscience during the court of Queen Elizabeth I, some of England's most talented musicians - Philips, Dering and Dowland - chose a life of exile abroad. Others chose to remain in spiritual isolation in England, comparing themselves to the exiled Israelites in Babylon. Amongst them were Robert White, whose five-part Lamentations are one of the glories of English music of any age, and William Byrd, whose anguished music is referenced in Shakespeare's enigmatic poem 'The Phoenix and the Turtle. 

Vangelis releases an album inspired by nighttime, along with solo piano versions of his best-loved hits, including the themes from Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner.

Developed over time by a group of specialists in Norse song techniques from surviving accounts of the period, Skald is a vocal project inspired by Nordic mythology from the poetic Edda. The project originated when producer-composer Christophe Voisin-Boisvinet encountered a trio of talented singers whose voices had atypical timbres. Together they decided to breathe new life into the poetry of the ancient skalds, poets whose language, Old Norse, told stories of the Vikings and their gods. 

Hector Berlioz, France's greatest Romantic composer, exemplified the spirit of his age, yet his genius was also ahead of its time. Reflecting his colorful life, his music is astonishing for its originality, ambition and orchestration.