Cherubini's Les Abencérages, premiered in 1813, heralds the spectacle and extravagance of Romantic grand opera. From the Alhambra gardens to the battlefield, the action skillfully intertwines political conspiracies with a love story. Underpinned by the energy and timbres of period instruments, this recording demonstrates the work's modernity and it's musical qualities. Anaïs Constans valiantly tackles the demanding role of Noraïme, while Edgaras Montvidas displays his lyric tenor voice in a series of sublime airs whose beauty was already hinted at by none other than Roberto Alagna in a recital disc released in 2003. Around this couple, a plethoric cast of soloists (Dolié, Sargsyan, Williams, Martin, Lavoie, etc.) achieves the same high standards of French diction and style. The Hungarian conductor György Vashegyi, flanked by the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra, reveals here another key milestone of French Romantic opera. © Bru Zane

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In 1819, poet John Keats longed for a wine "tasting of Flora and the country green, dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth." Ever since, the sung poetry of medieval southern France has exemplified a cultural golden age. Working in the vanished Occitan or langue d'oc (language of the south) variant of Old French rather than in the Latin of educated courtiers, a professional class of traveling minstrel troubadours created a new poetry that combined incredible formal sophistication with a passionate language of interior emotion. This 1996 Sequentia disc presents seven pieces by troubadours of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, along with one instrumental composition. The selections are all quite long, around ten minutes; these are not short lyric effusions but large, ambitious literary constructions. Most of the vocal pieces are accompanied by a small ensemble of fiddles and harps, while a few are sung unaccompanied; Sequentia leaders Benjamin Bagby and Barbara Thornton divide the vocals.This was one of Sequentia's more successful discs, and its re-release on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi label is especially welcome. Listeners can encounter it on whatever level they choose; the recording's original release found buyers from beyond the usual early music circles, attracting interest from folk music fans. The general listener will enjoy lovely vocal lines that twist and turn, never settling into simple tunes, hinting at the deeper complexities they contain. Those who investigate the texts and the complete translations included will begin to appreciate a musico-poetic world that, in Bagby's words, "is a strange and demanding one, but ... feels familiar, nonetheless." The notes introduce an arcane and rather difficult subject with wonderful clarity. "These songs are like paintings, in words and tones, of involuted personal landscapes of a most secret and emotional nature," Bagby writes. "Within these landscapes, anything can happen, as in one's own dreams: snow can be green; a falcon can be a lady or a literary prize; a strongman impressive in battle can be reduced to a stammering fool because of love...." Sequentia molds its performing style according to years of scholarly investigations, but as usual they wear all the scholarship lightly and produce superlatively musical results.The Dante and the Troubadors title is superficially misleading, for there is no music here set to poetry by the Italian master who bridged the medieval and modern worlds of thought. Instead, Sequentia has selected works that Dante is known to have admired. The title turns out to be apposite to the question of how the modern arts of poetry and music were shaped by medieval examples, and there couldn't be a more musically luscious starting place for those interested in investigating this question. The sound, recorded in the medieval French Royal Abbey of Fontevraud, is unusually fine.© TiVo

In 1819, poet John Keats longed for a wine "tasting of Flora and the country green, dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth." Ever since, the sung poetry of medieval southern France has exemplified a cultural golden age. Working in the vanished Occitan or langue d'oc (language of the south) variant of Old French rather than in the Latin of educated courtiers, a professional class of traveling minstrel troubadours created a new poetry that combined incredible formal sophistication with a passionate language of interior emotion. This 1996 Sequentia disc presents seven pieces by troubadours of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, along with one instrumental composition. The selections are all quite long, around ten minutes; these are not short lyric effusions but large, ambitious literary constructions. Most of the vocal pieces are accompanied by a small ensemble of fiddles and harps, while a few are sung unaccompanied; Sequentia leaders Benjamin Bagby and Barbara Thornton divide the vocals.This was one of Sequentia's more successful discs, and its re-release on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi label is especially welcome. Listeners can encounter it on whatever level they choose; the recording's original release found buyers from beyond the usual early music circles, attracting interest from folk music fans. The general listener will enjoy lovely vocal lines that twist and turn, never settling into simple tunes, hinting at the deeper complexities they contain. Those who investigate the texts and the complete translations included will begin to appreciate a musico-poetic world that, in Bagby's words, "is a strange and demanding one, but ... feels familiar, nonetheless." The notes introduce an arcane and rather difficult subject with wonderful clarity. "These songs are like paintings, in words and tones, of involuted personal landscapes of a most secret and emotional nature," Bagby writes. "Within these landscapes, anything can happen, as in one's own dreams: snow can be green; a falcon can be a lady or a literary prize; a strongman impressive in battle can be reduced to a stammering fool because of love...." Sequentia molds its performing style according to years of scholarly investigations, but as usual they wear all the scholarship lightly and produce superlatively musical results.The Dante and the Troubadors title is superficially misleading, for there is no music here set to poetry by the Italian master who bridged the medieval and modern worlds of thought. Instead, Sequentia has selected works that Dante is known to have admired. The title turns out to be apposite to the question of how the modern arts of poetry and music were shaped by medieval examples, and there couldn't be a more musically luscious starting place for those interested in investigating this question. The sound, recorded in the medieval French Royal Abbey of Fontevraud, is unusually fine.© TiVo

In the mid-'50s, a Belgian missionary named Father Guido Haazen took a position at a school in what was then the Belgian Congo. He assembled a male choir, largely consisting of Congolese boys, along with 15 men and several percussionists. Under Haazen's direction, the group that became known as Troubadours du Roi Baudouin developed an African mass based on shared improvisations and traditional song forms. The resulting piece was called Missa Luba and its 1958 recording became an international success throughout the following decade. Its pairing of Catholic liturgical forms (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, etc.) and jubilant Congolese folk music provided major crossover appeal, and over time the record became quite influential. In 1963, Haazen and the choir made a second attempt at a Western-influenced mass with the beautiful album Christmas in the Congo. Opening with "Siku Kuu," a Congolese version of "Silent Night," the gentle choral hymns that begin the record slowly blossom into exuberant, celebratory pieces sung over vibrant tribal rhythms. It's easy to get swept up in the joyful noise of a track like "Munafika," and the young lead voice on "Mwendele Baki Binda" is achingly pure and disarming. Christmas in the Congo is hardly just a holiday album; it's a celebration of life. With the entire 16-track album clocking in at under 30 minutes, a 1968 recording of American jazz singer Eartha Kitt reading African folk tales has been added rather incongruously at the end of the CD. The six additional spoken word tracks from Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa are unique and well-told, but seem much too jarring after the lovely mood set by the Troubadours. They might have been better served attached to a different recording, but as it stands, Christmas in the Congo is a beautiful collection of music with or without the bonus tracks.© Timothy Monger /TiVo

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Turnpike Troubadours is one of those IYKYK acts, able to headline Red Rocks but rarely played on mainstream country radio. Often called one of the best groups in contemporary country music (though that's discounting their Red Dirt roots, incorporating folk, rock, bluegrass, Western swing and more), they are also a musicians' band able to attract a catholic list of openers including Dawes, Old 97's, the Avett Brothers, Steve Earle and Ray Wylie Hubbard. But four years ago, there was fear that the magic had disappeared after a high-profile demolition derby—including singer/guitaristEvan Felker temporarily leaving his wife for Miranda Lambert, plus show cancellations and a viral video of Felker seemingly so drunk he couldn't perform—that led to the band taking an open-ended hiatus. The break only reenergized them. Now sober, Felker sounds great, the band is tight, and the songwriting is sure and purposeful. Produced by Shooter Jennings, the Troubadours' sixth album is one of the most exciting of the year. It's also full of regrets and humility and a determination to make it right. Felker, an Americana poet, gets straight to the heart of the messy matter with "Chipping Mill," an apology to his wife, with whom he reunited and started a family. "Ran my heart through a chipping mill/ Sold my soul for rock 'n' roll … Drank my way through a hurricane/ Thinking about your wedding ring/ I done a lot of real dumb things/ But I always kept the best for you." "Mean Old Sun" is killer, all driving guitars and sorrowful fiddle from Kyle Nix, and Felker counting the "Empty promises I've given." Hank Early's steel guitar is like an empathetic echo on the easy-paced and declarative "The Rut," as Felker proclaims, "I don't miss the taste of liquor/ Or really anything about it/ But the temporary shelter." Felker adopts a sort of Billy Bragg delivery for "Brought Me," an excellent bit of winsome folk and Appalachian tent gospel. "Lucille" is stark and moody with a gorgeous chorus, and the title track—keening with eye-watering steel—has an Uncle Tupelo feel. "Three More Days" is lovely neotrad country. "East Side Love Song (Bottoms Up)" strides like a honky-tonk shuffle, while Cajun-swampy "Black Sky" features howling harmonica and fiddle plus creek-baptism chorus harmony. There's joy and redemption to be found in closer "Won't You GIve Me One More Chance," with its high-lonesome harmonica and The Last Waltz vibe. Fans can look forward to a moving singalong in concert: "Won't you give me one more chance/ To make it with you/ Forget about the bad/ I don't believe we're through." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

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On the cusp of breaking out of the Oklahoma/Texas corridor, Turnpike Troubadours have turned inward, hunkering down and honing their hard country on Goodbye Normal Street. Where their 2010 album Diamonds & Gasoline was anchored on several songs with a rock & roll bent -- including a stomping cover of John Hartford's "Long Hot Summer Days" -- Goodbye Normal Street gets into the dust and dirt of Texan country, the songs of Evan Felker often recalling those of Steve Earle or Townes Van Zandt. The Troubadours have a relaxed, broken-in virtuosity -- they're as comfortable kicking up the dirt on "Before the Devil Knows We're Dead" as they are laying back with a summery groove on "Southeastern Son," jerking out tears on the sad "Gone, Gone, Gone," or rocking & rolling a Cajun-inspired groove on "Quit While I'm Ahead" -- and this road-tested musicality perfectly suits the sturdiness of Felker's songs, which never have a wasted word or melodic line. This understated nature can mean that Goodbye Normal Street doesn't grab hold upon its first listen but it is, as they say, a grower, the kind of record that slowly reveals its depths and eventually seems like an album that you've always known by heart.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Into the Music may not seem like a great Van Morrison record, one of his very best, upon first listen, especially if you're trying to compare it to such masterpieces as Astral Weeks and Moondance, or even Tupelo Honey. Yet this is certainly one of his best records, one that is quietly winning and thoroughly ingratiating, sounding stronger, even irresistible, with each new spin. In a sense, this is the definitive post-classic-era Morrison, since it summarizes all of his attributes while showcasing each at a peak. Musically, this is a little harder and rootsier than its two predecessors, but only a little; this is still remarkably relaxed music, where the charm is in its ease of delivery and compositions. The difference, there's more grit in the performances, more substance in the songs, letting Van the craftsman shine through along with his spirituality and grace. There may be no masterworks on the level of his early-'70s records, but these are deft, subtle songs that are full-bodied songs, unlike their counterparts on this album's immediate predecessors or successors. There's little question that this is not a knockout record, and some could even be excused if they find its charms elusive -- but once you've entered Van's sizable cult, few records sound as much like Morrison as this, a record that served as culmination of where he was coming from and served as blueprint for where he was going.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo