It's a testament to Andrew Lloyd Webber's crowd-pleasing compositional skills that the original cast recording of The Phantom of the Opera went on to become the biggest-selling cast album ever. So when the time came to adapt his music for the film version of the monumentally successful theatrical work, Webber enlisted the aid of longtime collaborators Nigel Wright and Simon Lee. They produced an expanded orchestral version of the score, grander and more sumptuous than the original, and assembled a 100-member ensemble to do it justice. However, the tragic story of the disfigured Phantom and Christine, the beautiful object of his desire, cannot be told without powerful performances of those roles. Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum quickly dispel any concerns regarding the adequacy of their portrayals. Butler's full-blooded renditions of "The Music of the Night" and the title song are tinged with a dark eroticism, while Rossum's account of "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" skillfully conveys her character's vulnerability and conflicted feelings. The soundtrack also features a newly penned song by Webber, the poignant "Learn to Be Lonely," sung by Minnie Driver, who appears in the role of Carlotta in the film.© Oreste Decimo /TiVo

This is a Barbiere "di qualità, di qualità": in fact, of very great quality indeed, from Deutsche Grammophon. Recorded in London in the summer of 1971, it is one of the first meetings of Claudio Abbado and the London Symphony Orchestra. It is also the first of Alberto Zedda's philological editions of Rossini's works, whose scores have been covered over by inherited errors for over a century. Getting rid of the additions which have, quite wrongly, become traditional, means restoring certain interruptions and the fine instrumentation of the period; and above all, singing and playing without exaggerations, thanks to an innate sense for the theatre. It's a spot of spring cleaning which has restored the youth of the 24-year-old composer's masterpiece. Bravo, signor barbiere, ma bravo! It is a dream record, with singers who are well-versed in the repertoire. Everyone is right where they need to be, from Teresa Berganza's wiley and cheeky Rosina, to the refined and hard-working Figaro played by Hermann Prey, via Luigi Alva's frivolous Count and the utterly ridiculous Basilio played by the outrageous Paolo Montarsolo. We're amused by their antics, as we admire the well-oiled and unstoppable machine of Rossini's theatre, under the unceasingly inventive and thrilling baton of Claudio Abbado. © François Hudry/Qobuz

This manuscript, from Christophe Rousset’s private collection, was discovered by him in 2004. Property of Madame de Théobon, one of Louis XIV’s mistresses, it contains not only the essential French harpsichord pieces of the late seventeenth century, but also many transcriptions of compositions by Lully and several hitherto completely unknown works. Providing precious insight into the musical practices of that time, these pieces are recorded here for the first time. With its powerful sound, the Nicolas Dumont harpsichord of 1704 does them full justice. © Aparté

Arguably one of Sparks' best albums, 1974's Kimono My House finds the brothers Mael (Ron wrote most the songs and played keyboards, while Russell was the singing frontman) ingeniously playing their guitar- and keyboard-heavy pop mix on 12 consistently fine tracks. Adding a touch of bubblegum, and even some of Zappa's own song-centric experimentalism to the menu, the Maels spruce up a sleazy Sunset Strip with a bevy of Broadway-worthy performances here: as the band expertly revs up the glam rock-meets-Andrew Lloyd Webber backdrops, Russell sends things into space with his operatic vocals and ever-clever lyrics. And besides two of their breakthrough hits (the English chart-toppers "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" and "Amateur Hour"), the album features one of their often-overlooked stunners, "Here in Heaven." Essential.© Stephen Cook /TiVo

For this double album, pianist Alexandre Tharaud invited a spectacular array of guest performers to join him in paying tribute to the great French singer-songwriter known simply as Barbara. One of the icons of the poetic chanson française, Barbara shares a place of honour with two other ‘B’s’, Jacques Brel and Georges Brassens. Among her most celebrated songs are ‘Ma plus belle histoire d'amour’, ‘Göttingen’, ‘Dis, quand reviendras-tu?’, ‘Mes hommes’ and ‘Nantes’. It is 20 years since Barbara died, aged 67, on November 24th 1997. Alexandre Tharaud’s idea for this album dates back to the day of her funeral. He, like many other fans, went to the cemetery in Bagneux on the outskirts of Paris. After the crowds and TV cameras had departed, a group of devotees remained at her grave and joined in an impromptu rendition of her songs. “I realised then that Barbara would live on through our voices,” says Tharaud. “I was young, but the recording studio was already central to my life. That morning, at Bagneux Cemetery, I vowed to make an album dedicated entirely to the music of Barbara. I needed time, and singers … The guests on this album are not those anonymous mourners, but dear friends I have invited to lend their own unique voices to this tribute” . For Hommage à Barbara, Tharaud has assembled a rich and imaginative line-up of performers from a variety of generations and diverse artistic and cultural backgrounds. While there is inevitably a Gallic bias among them, many of their names are well known around the globe. Among them are: actress-singers Juliette Binoche, Vanessa Paradis and Jane Birkin; rock star Radio Elvis; singer-songwriters Bénabar, Juliette, Dominique A, Tim Dup, Jean-Louis Aubert and Albin de la Simone; singers Camélia Jordana, Rokia Traoré, Hindi Zahra and Luz Casal; actor-director Guillaume Gallienne; Erato violinist Renaud Capuçon, clarinettist Michel Portal and the Modigliani string quartet. Alexandre Tharaud himself plays on nearly all the tracks – not just piano, but also electronic organ and keyboards, celesta and bells. Barbara was born in Paris in 1930 as Monique Serf, but she adopted her stage name from her grandmother, Varvara Brodsky, who had been born in Odessa. Her family was Jewish, and she was forced into hiding during World War II. Her suffering as a child was compounded by her sexually abusive father who eventually deserted the family when she was in her teens. She had some conservatory training as both a singer and pianist, but soon began to make her living as a performer, and spent a formative period working in Brussels in the early 1950s. She returned to Paris, where she became friends with the Belgian-born Jacques Brel and built a reputation in the clubs of the Latin Quarter, notably L’Écluse on the banks of the Seine. Her career began to take off in the early 1960s when she attracted attention with songs that she had written herself. Barbara became an important and much-loved figure, sometimes known as ‘La Dame en noir’, a reference to her penchant for elegant black dresses. If her signature number was ‘Ma plus belle histoire d'amour’, her song ‘Göttingen’, named after the city in Saxony, became an anthem of reconciliation for France and Germany; indeed, on the 40th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty in 2003, the then German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, quoted the song in his speech at Versailles. She was a favourite of François Mitterrand, France’s President from 1981-1995, developed a creative collaboration with the actor Gérard Depardieu, and in 1986 performed with ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov in a glittering gala at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. In the course of the 1980s she became active in the fight against AIDS and lent her name to a number of human rights causes. For all her fame and success, she had a difficult private life and suffered from debilitating ill health in her latter years, though she continued to write and record songs, releasing her last album in 1996. © Warner

The first notes of the descending chromatic theme break the silence and it seems as if time has stopped. The listener is drawn into the world of John Dowland, the greatest lutenist of all, in a journey through multiple shades of melancholy and lucent hope. Never before had the lute sounded as expressive and colourful as in these masterful Fancies, as dynamic as in these sparkling dances: Renaissance lute music here reached its summit. Bor Zuljan explores these qualities in his debut solo recording, breathing new life into Dowland's masterpieces. © Ricercar

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Thanks to Ego Death, their third album from 2015, The Internet has reached a wider audience… And yet, Purple Naked Ladies released in 2011 and Feel Good, released two years later, had already highlighted the soulful voice of their female singer Syd Tha Kyd and the rather sophisticated and mostly minimalist sounds from Matt Martians, both members of the Odd Future collective. The Internet was tackling different sections of the soul music, with a preference for 90s nu soul, sometimes veering toward R&B or even hip-hop. Three years later, the orgy of sensual beats that are most of all as languorous as ever is still on the menu of their fourth opus, Hive Mind. In its DNA, The Internet is viscerally chill and this chill & laid back philosophy even becomes here an ever more mastered trademark. A sound and an attitude that mean that none of the thirteen songs from the album will be obvious to your ears on the first listen. With its dreamy melodies, Hive Mind, like all the deep works, is only understood with time. It’s a luxury in 2018 to take your time… © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

They'd been calling him "El Rey" for years, but Tito Puente really proved it on this, one of his best original LPs on Tico. Yes, this is the one with "Oye Como Va," one of the brightest, most exuberant Latin performances of the century, but El Rey Bravo has plenty of other features for Puente's tight pachanga orchestra. "Tokyo de Noche" has great ensemble playing, as well as nice features for flute and violin, while "Tombola" (recorded the same year by the Puerto Rican All Stars) is a nice ballroom tune.© John Bush /TiVo