For more than 20 years, this quartet has been a musical melting pot, artfully blending American jazz, European classics, Indian and African music into an instantly recognizable, meditative sound experience.

ESP 2 is the true legacy of the music of Miles Davis, kept alive by his former sidemen who are now bandleaders in their own right. Together they honor the heritage of the legendary trumpet master.

Egberto Gismonti is a totally exotic musical missionary from Brazil who seldom gives solo concerts. Here he gives an unforgettable performance on piano and 8-string guitar. On Guitar: 28' On piano: 26

The Japanese pianist Aki Takase is a veritable typhoon of power and clarity. Her playing shows what can happen when the European rules of melody, harmony and rhythm come face to face with a distinctly Asian way of thinking!

Monteverdi is generally regarded as the father of European opera. His "Poppea" is a blood and thunder melodrama, set in Nero's Rome and loaded with passion, jealousy, murder and savage ambition.

Sir Peter Hall's outstanding Glyndebourne Festival Opera production of "Fidelio" remains remarkably faithful to the way Beethoven intended the opera to be. He managed to inject fresh excitement and suspense into "Fidelio", providing a perfect…

The Czech composer based his libretto on the play "Le Voyage de Thésée" by his friend and trusted source of inspiration, Georges Neveux. Martinu is said to have written the opera for Maria Callas. In this production, the role is sung by the…

The two musicians Terje Rypdal and Miroslav Vitous recently found a kindred spirit in the Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu, who manages to play drums and percussion simultaneously on the drum set he designed himself.

Live from Paris 1977

The form, rhythm and tone of Rabih Abou-Khalil's music usually follow the pattern of Arabian instrumental music, but for his amazingly cosmopolitan sound Abou-Khalil has created a synthesis of Arabian music with Western classical and jazz idioms.