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For fans of Bob Dylan's wide-ranging Bootleg series, More Blood, More Tracks (Vol. 14) is an entryway into one of the most mysterious, tangled stories in his recording career. These six discs contain the complete recordings sessions for 1975's Blood on the Tracks, 87 tracks in all, the vast majority unreleased. This box assists in offering a view of the process behind one of the songwriter's most enigmatic albums. On September 16 of 1974, Dylan entered Columbia's Studio with engineer Phil Ramone, with songs at once seething with anger, brokenness, and vulnerability. Written and recorded during his eventual divorce from first wife Sara, Dylan shrouds these songs in alliteration and metaphor, stretching time itself as past and present, commingling in numerous locations; they separate and return in new configurations. His protagonists speak in first and third person, often in the same verse. Once encountered, however, they're impossible to shake. Presented here are the complete sessions of the four days in New York, chronologically recorded, and, for the first time at the proper speed (Dylan had Ramone bump the master tape speed to make the tunes faster for radio play), and without the substantial reverb on the original tapes. These tunes were cut in a fit of white-heat inspiration, first by Dylan solo, and then with a band of folk-associated sidemen in Eric Weissberg & Deliverance. By the time you reach discs three through five, all the accompaniment, save for Dylan's guitar, harmonica, Tony Brown's bass, and occasional pedal steel and organ, are stripped away, resulting in what was then thought to be the completed album. Scheduled for late December release with a promotional campaign drafted, printed cover, and test pressings distributed, Dylan wasn't satisfied. Ultimately, he kept only one band track, "Meet Me in the Morning." He spent Christmas in Minnesota with his producer brother David Zimmerman, who was also less than enthused with the tracks. Dylan called his label and insisted on holding the album back. On December 27, he and a band of hastily assembled local players re-recorded five songs to complete Blood on the Tracks (captured on disc six). Since nearly half-a-million copies of the cover were already printed, the Minnesota musicians remained uncredited until now. This is exhaustive but fascinating material that sounds fantastic due to a painstaking remixing job -- nothing here sounds like a rough demo. Check the nine takes of "Idiot Wind," some offer different words, all roil with anger and bitterness. "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" is gradually revealed as one of Dylan's finest love songs in a dozen more takes. "You're a Big Girl Now," in 15 takes, is peeled away from its sarcasm to reveal a man saddled with regret. Multiple versions of "Tangled Up in Blue," "Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts," and "Simple Twist of Fate" offer proof that there were many versions of the songs before they assumed their final incarnations. Dylan's constant rewriting and creative flow are captured warts and all in false starts, stuttering alternate takes, studio conversation, and flowing inspiration in complete versions. There are hours of fascination awaiting listeners, and the music poses as many new questions as it does answers surrounding the album's mythos. As for the autobiographical nature of the content, it remains, thankfully, unclear. The enclosed photo book is as essential as the liner essays in the deluxe package. By any measure, More Blood, More Tracks is a monumentally important document in the history of popular music and a gem in Dylan's catalog. ~ Thom Jurek

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The story of the Pêcheurs de perles [Pearl Fishers] by Bizet is nothing short of torturous: after its first outing in 1863, the score – whose manuscript is now in private hands and no longer available, alas – fell into obscurity, and was only returned to its rightful place in the sun after the composer's death, once Carmen had made his name. Alas – a thousand times, alas – many different theatre directors took themselves for great geniuses and made little amendments to the work, cutting here, adding there, changing bits up to and including the end. Until the 1960s, this calamitously cack-handed version was the one that was performed – this libretto looks a little flat, why not add a few mistakes? – until musicologists stumbled across the original documents, in particular the cut-down version by Bizet himself, as well as the "conductor's score" of the time, which contained many notes about orchestration. This version, put together in 2014 by Hugh MacDonald, is sung by the flower of great French lyrical music – Julie Fuchs, Florian Sempey, Cyrille Dubois and Luc Bertin-Hugault – and returns as closely as possible to the original version of the work, so that the listener will encounter a number of big surprises, and good surprises too: additional numbers, several melodic and dramatic developments: almost a whole new score. © SM/Qobuz

When you see the names Miles Davis and John Coltrane on the same poster, you feel a shiver down your spine. This sixth instalment of the trumpet player's Bootleg Series that shiver grows – to put it euphemistically – to ecstasy. The Final Tour concentrates on the final chapter of the collaboration between Miles and Coltrane. On four CDs, it takes in performances recorded as part of their 1960 European tour – their last outing together before the saxophonist's death in July 1967. It includes both concerts at the Paris Olympia of 21 March 1960, the two concerts of 22 March in Stockholm, and of 24 March in Copenhagen, all available for the first time on a format other than quarter-inch tape. These five concerts take place about a year after the release of the masterpiece Kind of Blue, which shook the jazz world to its core. Our protagonists' nuclear creative power threaten the quintet with catastrophe at every turn. With pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb, Miles and Trane deliver torrential improvisations in which fusion and opposition battle it out. But miraculously, it all holds together. And how! It's the magic of these five concerts: hearing the five giants all at once, and their ability to match each other's pace, and roar in unison. In terms of the repertoire, this box set is a kind of davisian nirvana: it holds all the greatest themes (not always his own) which made the trumpeter's name: ’Round Midnight, Bye Bye Blackbird, On Green Dolphin Street, Walkin’, All Of You, Oleo, So What and All Blues… Finally, The Final Tour finishes on a jaw-dropping interview given by Coltrane to the Swedish DJ Carl-Erik Lindgren. "Do you feel angry?," asks Lindgren. "No, I don't," says Trane. "I was talking to a fellow the other day, and I told him, the reason I play so many sounds, maybe it sounds angry, I'm trying so many things at one time. I haven't sorted them out." Listening to these 1960 concerts, we can only respond: long live confusion! © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

At the turn of the 70s, David Bowie was not the only one to take rock and pop music into the backrooms of glam excesses. With Roxy Music, the genre even moves in an unexpected—and most of all even wackier—direction, probably because of the atypical cast of the British formation led by Bryan Ferry, a kind of neo dandy and a true crooner. At the outset, Roxy gathers a flock of freaks eager to experiment with all genres and go full-speed into avant-garde. In 1972, the band’s first eponymous album, as classy as it is slutty, is completely unclassifiable. Brian Eno pushes all the keys of his synthesizers. Andy Mackay plays the sax like a madman. And Phil Manzanera abuses his guitars like a serial killer in the middle of a dismemberment workshop! To celebrate the 45th birthday of the landing of this UFO on our planet, the required remastering of the original disc is coupled with a rather tasty BBC Session. Those are perfect suits of light to rediscover this grating session of rock ‘n’ roll bribery. But the best is yet to come as with the following album, For Your Pleasure, Roxy Music will take on an even more impressive dimension… © MZ/Qobuz

After a magical first work of fairly rough alternative country (A.M.) that was conceived at the time of the turbulent separation of his group Uncle Tupelo, Jeff Tweedy took his time to release a second album with Wilco. Already, the work was ambitious as it was a double album. Blending all their musical similarities, this was an album that from the moment it was released in October 1996 led quite a few journalists to write that Tweedy had signed his own Exile On Main Street. Much like the Rolling Stones’ masterpiece, eclecticism is the crucial ingredient to this mix of basic rock’n’roll, bluegrass, country rock, psychedelia, folk and soul. With loose guitars, pedal steel, brass and unlimited instrumentals, Wilco weaves here an impressive web between the Rolling Stones from their golden age, The Replacements, The Beatles and Big Star from the album Third. Alternating between ballads and electronic soundstorms, Tweedy demonstrates above all else that with a timeless and classical base, he is taking the lead with his grandiose songs and the stunning architecture of his compositions… This remastered Deluxe Edition offers, as well as the original album, fifteen unpublished bonus tracks notably including alternative versions of I Got You and Say You Miss Me alongside a live recording from 12th November 1996 in Troubadour, Los Angeles and a session for the radio station Santa Monica KCRW taken the next day. © MZ/Qobuz

We will gladly forgive the occasional "weakness" in sound technology in this recording of Troyens by Berlioz (recorded live in concert in April 2017). In light of the first-rate quality of the music and vocals that appear on the disc (a majority of which are French voices, with Stéphane Degout at their head) this immense work is from the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra and the three choirs which have been brought together – because the work demands immense swelling choirs – which are the choir of the Opéra national du Rhin, the Opéra National de Bade, and the Strasbourg Philharmonic's own choir. This recording rests, of course, on the complete original edition, which gives the listener a chance to hear Les Troyens as the work was performed in 1863, at the Théâtre-Lyrique, in which some intense chopping saw Acts I and II condensed into one part and Acts III to V into another, producing two distinct operas (La Prise de Troie and Les Troyens à Carthage). We also get a taste, naturally, of Berlioz's immensely rich orchestral innovations: with every new work, he would invent some exciting new prototype from scratch, never content to rest on his laurels. The listener should note the presence of six saxhorns, recently invented by Adolphe Sax (of whom Berlioz was an indefatigable champion, even if he didn't often use his instruments in his scores, no doubt because of the poor quality of the early instrumentalists who learned - however well or badly - Sax's instruments); bass clarinet, and an army of percussion pieces including several instruments which must have been rare in those days: crotales, goblet drums, tom-toms, thunder sheets... clearly, this is a milestone in the Berlioz discography. © SM/Qobuz

2017 brings the 50th anniversary (3rd June 1967) of the death of André Cluytens, the Belgian-born French conductor. While he is especially associated with France and with French music of the 19th and early 20th centuries, his recordings bear witness to his substantial international reputation and his command of an impressively wide repertoire. The set include many first-time releases. The producer of the set discovered a number of treasures in the Warner Classics archives, including unedited session tapes that have been carefully assembled for this release.

What was the context in which so great a masterpiece such as Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo could be born back in 1607, invested with such beauty, endowed with such profundity of expression and so perfect a structure, at a time when the operatic form was still in its infancy? These are precisely the questions that lie at the origin of this recording project, giving Pichon and his musicians the opportunity to discover the astonishing musico-dramatic productions that preceded L’Orfeo, notably those performed at the Medici court in Florence, in which one may discern the seeds of numerous elements to be found in L’Orfeo. At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, it was ovbviously the city of the Medici that was the main focus of one of the most fascinating moments in the history of music: the birth of opera. Concentrating on the years from 1589 to 1611, i.e. the premiere of the intermedi for theatre piece called La pellegrina at one end and the performance in Florence of Marco da Gagliano’s Dafne at the other, Pichon has devised four imaginary “interludes” – inspired by the form of the intermedio so popular at this period – in which he assembled some of the finest examples of the first stirrings of opera, the music pieces of which are signed Lorenzo Allegri, Antonio Brunelli, Giovanni Battista Buonamente, Giulio Caccini, Emilio de’ Cavalieri, Girolamo Fantini, Marco da Gagliano, Cristofano Malvezzi, Luca Marenzio, Alessandro Orologio, Jacopo Peri and Alessandro Striggio. In imitation of the ancient theatre, intermedi were entertainments inserted between the acts of plays, with sumptuous visual effects, which provided a pretext for allegories to the glory of the reigning dynasty. The place of music and the fantastic element in theatrical performances acquired an ever grander and more spectacular character, thanks notably to the genius of set designers and the progress made in the domain of stage machinery. Seeing the artistic and political potential of the genre, the powerful princely families of the northern half of Italy (Gonzagas, Este and Medici, as well as the papal court), encouraged its development. Intermedi ended up occupying so important a place that they became a show within the show, with the aim of dazzling the audience. It was in 1589 that the Florentine tradition of intermedi attained its zenith, with the six sumptuous entertainments devised by Count Bardi to accompany the comedy La pellegrina, performed on the occasion of the wedding of Grand Duke Ferdinando I and Princess Christina of Lorraine, grand-daughter of Catarina de’ Medici. In their variety and novelty, with a balanced combination of polyphony and the nascent monody, not forgetting instrumental and dance music, the intermedi of 1589 opened the way for an integrally sung form of theatre. And indeed it was once again Florence that witnessed the first examples of the Gesamtkunstwerk, the perfect model of the alliance between poetry and music. At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, a veritable laboratory was set up in Florence, prompting poets and composers to bring together several forms of musical expression in a single place? Building on the models established by earlier generations, composers continued their experiments with sound-space and the spatialisation of music, what with the proliferation of echo effects in the early monodies, or madrigals featuring dialogues between as many as seven independent choirs. But how can one tell this story nowadays, revive this rich adventure? The solution chosen for this recording was to create from scratch a large-scale imaginary work, resembling an initiatory journey, that would weld these multiple works into a single whole.

After Lloyd Cole split with his band the Commotions, he fulfilled his dream to move to New York City, where he hooked up with a new team of musicians and launched his solo career. It was a bumpy ride, full of highlights, disappointments, and ultimately a string of really good records, both released and unreleased at the time. Lloyd Cole in New York: Collected Recordings 1988-1996 contains the four albums he released during this timeframe (1990's Lloyd Cole, 1991's Don't Get Weird on Me Babe, 1993's Bad Vibes, 1995's Love Story); an album recorded in 1996 and never released (though all of the songs turned up later on Etc. or The Negatives); and -- most excitingly for Cole collectors -- a disc with 20 demos, many never heard before by anyone other than the musicians involved. It's fascinating to trace Cole's winding path, and reading the compelling essay throws new light on many of the recordings, as those involved aren't shy about telling some tough truths. Musically, the collection jumps from the slick rock & roll of Lloyd Cole with its angular Robert Quine guitar solos to Don't Get Weird, with one side of orchestrally scored songs and one with some of his catchiest pop songs showing some artistic vision. The leap from that rich sound to the very modern, sometime cheesy synthesized sound of Bad Vibes was a disappointment for Cole fans at the time, and remains one years later. As the next album proved very clearly, Cole is at his best when surrounded by woody warmth and guitar jangle. Sporting some of his most relaxed and peaceful songs yet, Love Story even took Cole back into the singles chart with the lilting "Like Lovers Do." It wasn't enough of a hit to keep the execs from shutting down Cole's next album, though. Titled Smile If You Want To here, the 1996 sessions were of a piece with those from Love Story, with Cole sounding assured and writing some of his best songs yet. It's a pity it was shelved at the time, but having all the songs together in one place makes for one of his strongest albums and the best part of the box set. The collected demos are the other huge selling point of the set. Recorded between 1989 and 1994, many of the songs didn't make the cut at the time, but it's hard to tell why. Mixed in with versions of songs that did make it onto albums, and his cover of Nick Cave's "The Ship Song," there are quite a few hidden gems. Some tracks have Lloyd trying things he didn't really explore further, like the jaunty pop-with-synths of "The English Weather," while some of them, like the Roy Orbison-sounding "Cold Empty Room," are just really good songs. It's a fine capper to a truly deluxe set that does justice to Cole's early solo career and makes it easy to rediscover the gentle genius of a sometimes overlooked singer/songwriter. ~ Tim Sendra

EDITORIAL NOTES: This complete edition brings together all Debussy’s known works. The one work that is not currently available is the orchestral version of an Intermezzo composed in June 1882. However, it is possible to form an idea of how this might have sounded thanks to Debussy’s own transcription of the piece for piano duet (7/6)2. The following works can be heard here in premiere recordings: —the Chanson des brises (1882) for soprano solo, female chorus and piano four-hands (24/12), the complete manuscript of which has recently come to light; —the first version (1898) of the two Chansons de Charles d’Orléans (25/5-6); —Diane au bois (1885-87), a “comédie lyrique” for soprano, tenor and piano (26/1-4); —the beginning of La Chute de la maison Usher, as it was when Debussy set the work aside in 1916 (30/6-10);   To this group of works, we have added the piano reductions of Khamma (4/13-16) – whose orchestration was mainly the work of Koechlin – and of Jeux (4/17), both of which provided the basis on which the choreography of the two ballets was devised. Moreover, some of Debussy’s transcriptions from the 1890s have never been recorded until now: —À la fontaine, an arrangement for piano solo of Am Springbrunnen from Schumann’s Op.85 set of piano duets (2/20); —Humoresque en forme de valse, an arrangement for piano solo of Raff’s Humoreske in Walzerform, Op.159, for piano duet (6/9); —Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No.2 and Airs d’Étienne Marcel, arranged for two pianos, four hands (11/8-18);   In addition to the above, we have included several arrangements of Debussy’s works made by composers with whom he was on friendly terms. The complete edition contains all the transcriptions by André Caplet (for piano solo, two pianos and orchestrations), even those carried out after Debussy’s death. Caplet’s orchestrations of two of the Ariettes oubliées (22/1415) are recorded here for the first time. Most of Caplet’s transcriptions received Debussy’s seal of approval, and the composer conducted the orchestral version of Children’s Corner (18/12-17) on several occasions and took part in performances of the two-piano version of Ibéria (10/57). The same applies to the arrangements made by Henri Busser, Jean Roger-Ducasse, Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht and Bernardino Molinari. Ravel’s transcriptions and orchestrations are testimony to his admiration for Debussy. Finally, it is worth noting that Debussy was on good terms with the violinist Arthur Hartmann and transcribed Minstrels (13/3), one of the piano Préludes, for his friend. The two men played the piece together at a concert on 5 February 1914, alongside two arrangements that Hartmann had made with the composer’s consent: another of the Préludes, La fille aux cheveux de lin (13/15), and the second of the Ariettes oubliées, Il pleure dans mon cœur (13/14). Finally, this set features the only known acoustic recording of Debussy, accompanying Mary Garden (33/15-18) and made in February 1904 for the French Gramophone Company, as well as piano rolls of fourteen pieces made using the Welte-Mignon system and probably recorded by the composer in November 1913 (33/1-14). Denis Herlin © 2017 Warner Classics

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Three challenging roles expertly personified by three major singers from the new generation, which some have heralded as the operatic events of the year. Jonas Kaufmann performs his first Radames, Anja Harteros her first Aida, Ludovic Tézier his first Amonasro – and under such dreamy conditions. A real studio recording, not hastily dispatched in a few general sessions, but rather resulting from a long work process which was preceded by a series of presentations in concert version. This work will also highlight the excellent reprisal of Amneris by Ekaterina Semenchuk, who has already played this role on numerous occasions. Pappano affords the stars of the Orchestre de l’Académie Sainte-Cécile in Rome the perfect acoustics of the Parco della Musica de Renzo Piano auditorium. The stars have aligned, even within the music! This new version of Aida is without doubt one of the finest in the work’s discography. The singers go to great lengths to avoid ‘overdoing’ it, which is without doubt due to the complicity of Pappano, who has always been known for his affinity for going back to basics. © Qobuz THE CAST : Anja Harteros (Aida), soprano Jonas Kaufmann (Radames), tenor Ekaterina Semenchuk (Amneris), mezzo-soprano Ludovic Tézier (Amonasro), baritone Erwin Schrott (Ramfis), baritone-basse Marco Spotti (Der King of Egypt), bass Paolo Fanale (The Messenger), tenor Eleonora Buratto (The Priestess), soprano Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (ligne en plus petit) Antonio Pappano, conductor

Weighing in at 15 CDs, The Studio Albums 1969-1983 is a hefty box set but, at $85, it is relatively affordable considering that it contains everything Alice Cooper -- both the band and the man -- recorded at Straight and Warner. Whatever bonus material attached to CD reissues over the years has been stripped away -- nothing from the 2001 deluxe edition of Billion Dollar Babies, then -- and there are no new remasters of the albums, but this set isn't bare bones. The mini-LP replicas contain a few inserts carried over from the vinyl and, more importantly, those early Straight Records are present, which is good because they were out of print for a while. Not everything here is great -- he did have a rough patch in the late '70s and early '80s -- but it's all interesting, and it's especially nice to be able to get the entire catalog so easily and cheaply. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine