Cloudspeakers

Is there a clause in Anne-Sophie Mutter’s contract that insists that every CD made by this statuesque icon of the violin should carry a bouquet of glamorous portraits that edge towards the kitsch? ... Read more

For a shy teenage singer-songwriter attempting to justify the faith of her major-label paymasters, the studio can be a terrifying place. At the end of 2007, while recording her Mercury Music Prize-... Read more

Another second volume completes the canonic works in Müller-Schott and Hewitt’s traversal of Beethoven’s music for cello and piano. Or the other way round, as his early sonatas, at least, were desi... Read more

For those who know Pachelbel only through the Canon, this disc will be revelatory. The music, unearthed and edited by Kah-Ming Ng, comes from a manuscript now in the Bodleian Library. It’s not a co... Read more

Mahler’s sketched but far from orchestrated 10th Symphony can only be known in a conjectural form, so this version for solo piano is, in a sense, as authoritative as any other presentation; and eng... Read more

Odd couples are 10 a penny in pop, and can, by pulling in starkly different directions, create a tension that is riveting: David Ball’s soundscapes for Soft Cell, or Malcolm Middleton’s for Arab St... Read more

I don’t know much about how Dell’Orso Records came into being, but I’m imagining a bunch of people sitting in a pub, and one of them says: “Do you think there are any other groups in Wales as good ... Read more

Ya-Ka-May is a noodle soup, served by street vendors in New Orleans and reputedly a great hangover cure. The music here, however, is firmly aimed at the time of day when you’re laying the foundatio... Read more

First released in 2004 as a limited-edition book with accompanying CD (a mere 150 copies were issued), this beautiful album, reupholstered here by Maxim Moston, of Antony and the Johnsons, serves a... Read more

If Wynton Marsalis remains the media’s jazz talisman, Brad Mehldau is giving him a run for his money. The American pianist possesses a delicious tone; with a little help from Radiohead et al, he ha... Read more