The music of Camille Saint-Saëns and the other French composers featured here is a bit off the usual track for superstar pianist Lang Lang, and the album is oddly titled; only half the music on the double album is by Saint-Saëns. As it happens, Lang Lang is a pretty strong Saint-Saëns player, with clean articulation and an understanding of the composer's Gallic wit. The main feature is The Carnival of the Animals, and part of the album's goal appears to be to allow Lang Lang the opportunity to perform with his wife, pianist Gina Alice. This works out well; the two pianos are well-integrated, even if they tend to stand out too much from the orchestra. There are draws, too, on the second part of the program, performed solo by Lang Lang, except in the Petite Suite for piano four hands of Debussy (which does receive a very sharp performance). Lang Lang includes a string of pieces by recently rediscovered female French composers, and there is plenty more where these came from; all these composers need is strong star advocacy to find a permanent place in the repertory and, in the likes of Lili Boulanger's "D'un jardin claire," Lang Lang shows what is possible. Much of the rest of the second volume consists of arrangements of standard tunes like Delibes' "Flower Duet" by Emile Naoumoff, and it is delivered with Lang Lang's characteristic easy flair. Except in the works by women composers, little new ground is broken here, but the album should certainly satisfy Lang Lang fans; it landed on classical best-seller lists in early 2024.© James Manheim /TiVo

Pianist Saskia Giorgini found both critical and commercial success with her 2022 recording of Liszt's Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, and this 2023 release, which immediately climbed onto classical best-seller charts, follows directly on the earlier album, with the same Bösendorfer piano and the same recording location, the Lisztzentrum in Raiding, Austria. Listeners will not be disappointed, for Consolations has all the virtues of her first Liszt album and adds a few more. The wonderfully controlled lyricism of the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses recurs in the heavily programmatic title work, where Giorgini's playing hints at the presence of all kinds of stories. She plainly excels in the religious, late Liszt, and there are two wonderful examples here, the Deux Legends, portraits of St. Francis of Assisi praying to the birds, and of St. François de Paule. These are difficult works that combine mysticism with Lisztian virtuosity; annotator Mark Berry is right to stress that Liszt did not fully renounce the virtuosity in his later years, but that is not all. Giorgini is just as good in the flashy Three Caprices-Valses and the reflective Liebesträume, the best-known music on the album. In the Valse-Impromptu, she has an uncanny way of suggesting the feeling of spontaneity that seems to have marked Liszt's own playing. Will Giorgini go on with Liszt? She certainly has the technical and emotional wherewithal to do so and to take on more famous works than these.© James Manheim /TiVo

Hailed for songwriting skill and an unironic embrace of outlaw country, Chris Stapleton, on his fourth album, puts his vocal versatility on impressive display. Supported by a moody, shadowy string section, he unfurls a torch-singer side on "Cold," a heartbreaker that lives up to its name in feel and lyrics—"Why you got to be so cold/ Why you got to go and cut me like a knife/ Put our love on ice." The lowdown-and-dirty guitar of "Whiskey Sunrise" is matched for power by a wailing blues delivery from Stapleton. And he cuts loose with a Southern-rock howl on the Tom Petty-esque swamp stomp "Devil Always Made Me Think Twice." An early Petty influence is alive and present across Starting Over, with Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench guesting on guitar and Hammond B3, respectively. Stapleton co-wrote the simmer-to-fury "Watch You Burn" with Campbell, and the guitarist's signature style is front-and-center on "Arkansas," a heavy Southern-rock blues burner celebrating the underrated beauty of the Ozarks. The ghost of Guy Clark also blesses the sessions, as Stapleton covers a back-to-back shot of the songwriter's "Worry B Gone" and "Old Friends" and former with a velocity that makes Willie Nelson's gentle version sound cute. (A flow-like-the-creek cover of John Fogerty's "Joy of My Life" is more faithful.) As on previous releases, Stapleton's wife and collaborator Morgane Stapleton lends angelic vocal harmonies, sweetening the sobering, Kristofferson-sounding ballad "When I'm With You," which find her husband taking stock of middle age and where it goes from there: "I'm 40 years old/ And it looks like the end of the rainbow ain't no pot of gold." She also shows up on that song's spiritual flip side and the album's title track, an optimistic, stripped-down guitar jangle: "I can be your lucky penny/ You can be my four-leaf clover.” Indeed, for all his tough-guy appearance, there's always been a tender side to Stapleton, and he shows every bit of it on "Maggie's Song," an absolute tearjerker about a found dog's life and death that's teed up and ready for a pickup truck commercial. (Nothing wrong with that.) And lest anyone ever doubt his outlaw tendencies, Stapleton ends on an absolutely gorgeous kiss-off to the country capital: "So long Nashville, Tennessee/ You can't have what's left of me." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

To record the Golberg Variations, the absolute pinnacle of western works on harpsichord and the apotheosis of the Baroque era, is the ultimate dream for many musicians. Lang Lang, who admits to have studied the fourth section of the Clavierübung by the Cantor of Leipzig for over twenty years, is no exception. This collection offers two interpretations of the same work. Firstly, a studio version, captured beautifully at the Berlin Jesus-Christus Kirche in March 2020 under the supervision of Christopher Alder, in which Lang Lang displays more measured tempos, particularly in the the initial aria and the first variation. This approach begins to animate itself more in the next section before the first variation in G minor which is slow, sluggish-sounding and unrelenting, taking on a stubborn and repetitive saraband rhythm - a remarkable conclusion to the first section. The outburst of the French Ouverture of Variation 16 is nothing short of spectacular. The following variations pass quickly before the second variation in G minor (Var. 21, Conone alla Settima.), with its very depressive phrasing, an imaginary Tombeau which momentarily instills an impressive gravity. Lang Lang nevertheless remains indifferent to the intrinsic structure of the Goldberg Variations, organised into ten successive groups of three variations with each group finishing with an increasingly complex canon (from the Var. 3’s Canone all’Unisono to Var.27’s Canone all Nona). For the Chinese pianist, his expressive heart seems to concentrate on the three minor key variations, and he doesn’t hesitate to project a Baroque expressionism that finishes the Golbergs with a touch of pathos and romanticism alongside a rounded and silky sound.The energy of the Leipzig public, on the 5 of March 2020, adds a welcome characteristic. During the concert, recorded by Philip Krause, who also accompanied Alder during his studio recording, Lang Lang has fun with the polyphony, beginning with the Aria. Here, he dances and injects subtle variations into the accents, thus opening up a wider and more diverse field of expression (Var. 1, Var. 7). Mischievous (Variation 23 has 2 harpsichords!), Lang Lang lets his imagination run rampant and the emotion that ensues is truly striking (Var. 21, with its obsessive delays). A certain weight is lifted, even in the way the harpsichord sounds, which bears witness to how the Chinese pianist’s sound has changed over the last fifteen years. © Pierre-Yves Lascar/Qobuz

John Wesley Harding suggested country with its textures and structures, but Nashville Skyline was a full-fledged country album, complete with steel guitars and brief, direct songs. It's a warm, friendly album, particularly since Bob Dylan is singing in a previously unheard gentle croon -- the sound of his voice is so different it may be disarming upon first listen, but it suits the songs. While there are a handful of lightweight numbers on the record, at its core are several excellent songs -- "Lay Lady Lay," "To Be Alone With You," "I Threw It All Away," "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You," as well as a duet with Johnny Cash on "Girl From the North Country" -- that have become country-rock standards. And there's no discounting that Nashville Skyline, arriving in the spring of 1969, established country-rock as a vital force in pop music, as well as a commercially viable genre.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Alongside Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell is part of that generation of songwriters who are raising the bar for country music today. Theirs is a country music that tends towards Americana, that rattle-bag music genre that mixes country, rock'n'roll, blues and folk. This is what makes the former member of the Drive-By Truckers a worthy heir to the outlaws of the 1970s (Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser, etc.) but also to people like Bob Dylan (his idol, the lyrics to whose Boots of Spanish Leather are tattooed on his arm) Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Bruce Springsteen or Ryan Adams. With The Nashville Sound, the southerner from Alabama hardly changes his tune in terms of substance, but really gets worked up around the form. With his up tempo numbers, this record is more rock than the two that came before. Like for his cinematic 2015 album Something More Than Free, his group 400 Unit is on hand, only this time Isbell notes it on the liner: surely a signal of their importance, or a way of copying the Boss, whocredits the E-Street Band on some of his albums... Produced by the ubiquitous Dave Coob,  The Nashville Sound brings together some of the artist's best songs. Through his histories of small people (Cumberland Gap), of fixes, fights and the life of outsiders, and even politics (Hope the High Road), Jason Isbell shows that he is on top of his game. And this time, even more so. Much more… © MZ/Qobuz

This archival mother lode gathers the four complete sets of music Jimi Hendrix and his then-new Band of Gypsys played at the Fillmore East in New York on December 31, 1969 and January 1, 1970. So...there's some guitar. Lots and lots of guitar, some of it initially released on the Band of Gypsys album but presented here in clearer fidelity. There are mind expanding, status-quo-smashing guitar ad-libs, machine-gun precise rhythm guitar riffs, and passages that start out in a mood of hazy reflection, only to swell into fits of heavy, snarling agitation. Where there's guitar there are stoptime guitar breaks, the fireworks-erupting moments rockers have used since the Chuck Berry days to kickstart the soloing. Hendrix was a master of these. To encounter him at peak, cue up the four (!) versions of "Them Changes," (the Buddy Miles tune that's curiously identified here as simply "Changes"). Zoom right to the end of verses, usually around the 2:00 mark. The set 1 break finds him dancing, with balletic precision, in the upper register. For set 2, he hangs expressively on a single note. Set 3 finds Hendrix in high-drama mode, pitchbending like a manic bluesman. Just before the break in set 4, he deviates from the riff in a way that sounds, at first, like a mistake; when the band stops, what follows is two measures of stone-cold diabolical genius. Studying the breaks is, of course, only one way to geek out on Hendrix. You can make like the School of Rock kids do and analyze the beginnings, endings and tempos of multiple versions of "Power Of Soul," "Machine Gun" and others. Of course, you can also just listen in chronological order, and marvel at this incendiary trio's ability to vary the tones and shades and energies of the music during what was clearly an intense, endurance-test run of shows. © Tom Moon / Qobuz

A few months before his 70th birthday, the Boss has released an album that’s totally out of step with his usual sound. Bye-bye to the E Street Band, his loyal backing band that gets entire stadiums up and dancing, and hello strings, brass and choirs! With Western Stars, Bruce Springsteen transforms himself into a kind of third millennium Glen Campbell. In fact, the singer who died in 2017 often comes to mind; building bridges between pop, country and soul with a voice as iconic as that of Sinatra or Elvis, Campbell topped the charts with hits like Gentle on My Mind, By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Wichita Lineman, Galveston, Rhinestone Cowboy.Much like his deceased elder, Springsteen detaches himself from the present and comes across as innocent and nonchalant rather than resistant or distrustful. In addition to a kitsch atmosphere that harkens back to California of the late sixties/early seventies (the Boss has clearly been playing Jimmy Webb, Harry Nilsson and Burt Bacharach on loop), we find an almost cinematic feel thanks to Ron Aniello's silky production. He’s not new to the job, having already worked with Springsteen on Wrecking Ball (2012) and High Hopes (2014). Here, Springsteen moves away from pure rock’n’roll and drenches his songs in melancholy. Western Stars is not just a compilation of thirteen tracks. It feels more like a novel or a film - one that you could watch over and over again and still find something new every time. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Firmly in his comfort zone, Tim McGraw doesn't stray from the expected on Standing Room Only. Working once again with Byron Gallimore, his producer since the beginning, McGraw sticks to the middle of the road, turning out ballads as well as love tunes and inspirational pop numbers that feel like ballads thanks to their immaculate polish. The smooth approach is the appeal of Standing Room Only -- it glides easily, it sounds as familiar and cozy as home -- but it's also something of a detriment. Not only do all the songs blend together on the album itself, the line separating Standing Room Only and Here on Earth -- or The Rest of Our Life, for that matter -- blurs easily: they all provide grist for an easy-listening mill, offering seamless comfortable entertainment on an endless Tim McGraw playlist.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Yaron Herman is never where you expect him to be. He’s recently made a remarkable return to the traditional acoustic trio format (Songs of Degrees in 2019) and rediscovered the joys of interplay through two albums (Everyday, Y) through which the pianist made a conscious effort to open up to other musical aesthetics. However, this new record presents him in the studio, alone at the piano with no safety net, no preparation and no predefined concept. He resolutely plunges into his music sixteen years after his first solo album (Variations, 2006), exploring an array of styles that his listeners won’t be accustomed to hearing him play. In this minimalistic context, Yaron Herman surprises with this deliberately understated music. It’s characterised by a certain gentleness, unfolding its ever-changing and nuanced moods according to his frequently renewing inspiration. Intuitively passing from spontaneous, free improvisations to the more standard (and here, masterfully deconstructed) ‘All the Things You Are’; from pieces borrowed from Israeli popular music (‘Yesh Li Sikuy’ by Eviatar Banar) to a very moving reading of Gabriel Fauré’s ‘Après un rêve’, Yaron Herman offers up a brand of impressionist music that is overtly melancholic but always lyrical, projecting an inexhaustible melodic imagination. © Stéphane Ollivier/Qobuz

Canadian, lesbian, crooner, country. This reductive four of a kind is a small piece of sellotape that has stuck to KD Lang’s fingers for years. Pop oddity, kind of a cult artist whom we love for her timelessness, precisely for the atypical nature of her artistic choices, Kathryn Dawn Lang isn’t only the lucky charm of people of taste, musically enlightened, the dish that you can only appreciate if you’ve mastered whole sides of the American folk music, from Nashville to Broadway. She’s above genres then… But it’s in the land of country music that the singer has made a name for herself at the end of the 80s, first by covering the classics made popular by the great Patsy Cline. Androgynous attitude, polished arrangements and velvet voice, Nashville sung by KD Lang isn’t a cowboy parade at Disney. With the Canadian, the pedal steel, typical instrument of the genre, is impressionist. As for her voice, it curls up more in the silk of a melancholy specific to crooners than in the yodels originating from cowboys. A bit like her idol Roy Orbison, with which she had the chance to sing when she was only 26. All these singularities are at the heart of Ingénue, which she released in March 1992. A splendid second album that gathers all the elements from her very personal cabaret and shines on songs like Constant Craving, Miss Chatelaine and The Mind Of Love. It’s a highly refined disc which just turned 25, in a remastered edition embellished with eight new titles taken from an MTV Unplugged recorded by KD Lang in 1993 in New York. © MZ/Qobuz

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Though among the most masterful of all popular musicians, bluegrass artists have had difficulty crossing over to a larger audience. Twenty years after Alison Krauss and her angelic voice broke through the pickin' and grinnin' ceiling with her cover of "Baby, Now That I've Found You," the massively talented Molly Tuttle is poised to do the same. After an evolution that included the EP, Rise, and pair of LPs—When You're Ready and …but i'd rather be with you (the latter serving notice of her ambitions with covers of FKA Twigs, Harry Styles and The Rolling Stones), Tuttle has made her momentous Nonesuch label debut with Crooked Tree. Tuttle aims for a sweet spot that successfully crosses bluegrass instrumental prowess with pop music appeal; she nails it from the first note. This once-in-a-generation talent and repeat winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Guitar Player of the Year award is also a gifted singer and, as heard here, an increasingly accomplished songwriter.  Recorded at Ocean Way Studio B in Nashville, Crooked Tree was produced by dobro player Jerry Douglas—once Krauss' producer of choice—who also adds his instrumental voice throughout. Other names on the well-chosen guest list include Margo Price, Viktor Krauss, and Gillian Welch. As a songwriter, Tuttle's focuses on the wonders of the natural environment and its organic scale of justice. In the title track, perfect trees come under the ax which "turned them into toothpicks and twenty dollar bills," but the crooked trees which "won't fit into the mill machine" are left "to grow wild and free."  Tuttle rolls through a North American travelog in "Big Backyard" (which features Old Crow Medicine Show): "Now my backyard is a redwood forest/ And yours is a rocky shore in New England/ Her backyard is the streets of New York/ And his is the hum of the LA freeway." The banjo-dobro-fiddle number "Flatland Girl," a duet with Price, has the feel of a folk music classic.  She's also become an artful storyteller whether treading the Copperhead Road in "Dooley's Farm" the oft-told tale of a pot farmer who "Got his schoolin' out in Vietnam" and who is eventually caught, but whose granddaughter carries on "growing green," or sharing the tale of "a woman who can’t trust a man in need" in the frightening "The River Knows." An eloquent album by a flourishing virtuoso. © Robert Baird/Qobuz