This 1960 recording sounds different than most of Art Pepper's west coast school recordings. Standards here, show tunes there from his famous records. But Smack Up feels different. A long drug sentence at San Quentin loomed over the sessions. That probably didn't help the general air of things.

This televised annual concert which began in 1939 to showcase the musical traditions of the great orchestra and Austria is considered the most important classical concert in the world, seen by over 50 million people in over 70 countries.

The repertoire is taken from the family of Johann Strauss and its contemporaries.

I was introduced to Nine Inch Nails by my twenty something son, who is a massive fan. Like a lot of kids in their early twenties, the concept of the music is easily as important as the melody, harmony and rhythm. Here’s where groups like Nine Inch Nails rule. Fronted by musical dynamo Trent Reznor, the ID, soundscape, sheer style of Nine Inch Nails (NIN) has jumped the cult shark. And, with Hesitation Marks, NIN’s first mainstream studio (Columbia) album since 2007, the public’s going to jump all over this.

Chet Baker's sad story is one of legend. From talented teenager (even Italian movie producers looked at him as a leading man) making records with the very best west coast jazzers to an ignominious death falling from an Amsterdam hotel after a life of heroin addiction.

This exceptionally refined artist can take his place among all the luminaries who have won the Chopin Competition, including Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini and Krystian Zimerman.

I watched the competition daily on YouTube and followed Seong-Jin Cho with great interest. I had my favourites, Charles Richard-Hamelin chief among them (and runner up), but Cho's wonderful musicianship won the jurors' hearts

I like the way violinist Isabelle Faust mix and matches her accompaniments on her wonderful recordings. Her modern violin playing with original instrumental groups such as the accompanying band here, Il Giardino Armonico. 21st Century fiddling, baroque bowing at times and HIP practice.

So, how does it work for Mozart's Salzburg Violin Concertos? 

This is becoming one of my favourite new releases. Who new way back in the 70s that DG vinyl releases would receive such raves? At the time, most DG LPs were best of the rest, far behind Bluebacks and RCAs.

Also cause for happiness, these early releases of two of DGs greatest roster members. I remember Abaddo's beginnings with the BSO and these early recordings. What a musician. And Argerich was a star from the beginning. A pair from musical heaven. And now the re release of their early gems.

Every young virtuoso has these two concertos in their back pocket. Georgian fiddler Lisa Batiashvili is among them. Her family left Georgia in 1991 and settled to study in Hamburg, After successes on the BBC, Batiashvili began her concert career. She quickly made a name for herself for refined, expressive playing. All of which may be heard on this wonderful new DG release.

As uber professionals, both the LSO and Valery Gergiev kept up the excitement to the end, but the truth was a little in the tiredness. Both needed a change. Gergiev got Munich's house band. Not in the LSO's league, but a money maker and musically safe.

An absolute gem from the young group from Stavanger, Norway.  

The cellist Clemens Hagan chose his accompanists well. His performance of Haydn's wonderful C Major Concerto is full of life and vitality. Of course, it's played with utmost virtuosity, but with such musicality and refined tone. A musical winner in every way and very highly recommended to Audiophilia readers.  

More Curate's Egg from Canadian crooner Michael Bublé. A real mix, but inevitably something for all his fans.

The man can sing. Gifted and musical, he also puts on a stage show that is pretty well unmatched today. I guess that's why he went from the 7 million club to the 70 million! Astounding.

Fad or fo real?

The air to searching musicians like Furtwangler, our great Daniel Barenboim has not let himself settle for being one of the finest stage musicians, simply conducting the best or playing the greatest concert stages. 

Considered by many to be the ultimate in high fidelity, this justly famous recording of Strauss’ enigmatic score glows on the Classic Records reissue. Based on the Nietzsche’s philosophical novel of the same name, Richard Strauss pulls out all of his tricks of orchestration to provide the listener with a musical journey of superhuman proportions. 

American born, Parisian raised Madeleine Peyroux is the true heir to Billie Holiday. Not so much in style, but in vocal character. Peyroux debuted on record almost twenty years ago with Dreamland. Her recordings over the years alternated between original material and covers. Secular Hymns is an album of covers. But the hymns take a lot of twists and turns. These are very original covers. 

I purposely listened to this CD before researching the players/quartet. It made for a very pleasant surprise. The playing on this CD is superlative. The players change from individual solo work to the most corporate quartet sound with consummate ease. Fabulous! And they are English. 

Young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado gets around. He's the music director of the orchestra on this new recording of Tchaikovsky, but it's as a guest conductor where Heras-Casado is making his mark. He's omnipresent with the great orchestras of London, Vienna and Berlin. And while the Orchestra of St Luke's is a fine group, I can't help thinking that the next major opening will be his for the choosing. 

A master pianist is at work, here. 

For many years, Perahia was known for his wonderful Mozart recordings on CBS/Sony. His many recordings are among the finest in the catalogue. His Beethoven, too. But he's such a fantastic musician, anything he records has magic in spades. This Bach recording in a new partnership with DG will be placed among the very best. 

One would think that after the initial release and subsequent success of this amazing Gaîté Parisienne, that a re-recording by the same forces would seem redundant. Yet, four years after this 1954 stereo gem, RCA released the excellent, but not quite-as-fine, remake (LSC-2267). To my delight, Michael Hobson of Classic Records chose the earlier historical document as his Gaîté of choice.

Australian singer/songwriter/guitarist Fiona Boyes is an earthy force of nature. Her gravelly vocal timbre is straight out of the red dirt of the Outback. No swishy Blues affectation, here. You'll be getting as honest a voice as you've heard in a long time. 'So bloody refreshing', as the Aussies might say. 

Iranian American harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani takes on the Everest for the harpsichord, J.  S. Bach's Goldberg Variations. Others have tackled this masterpiece and conquered the mountain. How does this Stanford-trained, Guildhall School of Music professor rank?