The young Egyptian soprano Fatma Said, praised for the luminosity and rich colours of her voice, makes her recording debut for Warner Classics with El Nour. Her enticing and absorbing recital programme crosses cultures, combining art songs by French, Spanish and Egyptian composers with Egyptian folk songs and popular songs from the Middle East. As she explains, "'El Nour' in Arabic means 'the light', and this album sheds light on how music that has been interpreted many times can be perceived in a different light. The idea is to connect three cultures - Arabic, French and Spanish - and to show how much, despite cultural, geographical and historical differences, they have in common when it comes to music".

This album is a real dream come true for me. From my childhood days I've been absolutely passionate about musical theatre, which I discovered while taking my first steps on the stage. It's a genre whose magical power" to tell a story through theatre, song and dance I find utterly compelling. In this debut album I wanted to bring a French touch, an entirely personal sound, to the Broadway repertoire by including some French songs that were just as much a part of my first musical experiences. The combination of these two musical worlds is hugely meaningful for me, representing as it does my background and the songs, I used to sing all the time while growing up.

Classical Music

Christmas with The King's Singers New music, old music, music from the Renaissance and Baroque, spirituals, folksongs, jazz and pop... The Beatles, David Bowie, swing, classical avantgarde, waltzes by Strauss, and musical theatre songs. Which genre of music are the King's Singers actually yet to interpret? Which style have they not yet captured within their unique global reach and within their transparent and intimate six-voiced sound world? One thing is for sure - when the King's Singers came together at the end of the 1960s in Cambridge, no one would have believed the success story that lay ahead of them. Some musical experts were scathing: a male-only vocal sextet was most likely to be found in the pop sector. But trained voices are surely better suited to a professional career either in the opera world or in mixed professional choirs. After all, the founding members came from the famous King's College Choir - one of the oldest surviving vocal institutions with nearly 500 years of history to it's name. It is with this tradition behind them that the King's Singers display the typical British musical virtues in which seriousness and humour, self-discipline, and a dash of satire all mix together so wonderfully. This is especially evident in their Christmas repertoire. Christmas carols are a special national treasure for Brits and are therefore the focus of festivities. The six voices' festive destinations also include the continent, such as Spain and Germany. "Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen" by the German early Baroque master composer Michael Praetorius has become a Christmas standard. The world famous carol "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht" ("Silent Night") comes from the German-speaking world too, written for Christmas Eve in a village near Salzburg in 1818. The simple, classical melody radiates a little of the spirit of Mozart, who was born in Salzburg. What a pity there is no musical contribution to these Christmas festivities from Mozart, the King's Singers may have thought! Perhaps that's how they came up with the idea for an amusing and cheeky Christmas medley of melodies from the great classical composer, reinforced by the harpsichord playing of English conductor Richard Hickox and the singing of guest star Kiri Te Kanawa. � Oliver Buslau, 2017 Translation: texthouse

Classical Music

Piotr Anderszewski takes a characteristically creative approach to Bach's Das Wohltemperierte Klavier (The Well-tempered Clavier). Rather than recording all 48 of it's prelude-and-fugue pairings, he has focused on 12 pairings from Book Two. "I decided to put the pieces together in a sequence of my own subjective choosing, based sometimes on key relationships, at other times on contrasts. The idea behind this specific order is to create a sense of drama that suggests a cycle: 12 characters conversing with one another, mirroring each other." Anderszewski's last Erato album of Bach prompted BBC Music Magazine to write: "For anyone who loves Bach (or the piano)... this life-enhancing disc is required listening."

Maurice Ravel's music reflects the cultural and creative ferment of his times, as the heady sensuality of the Belle �poque made way for neo-classicism, the Jazz Age and modernism. Strikingly diverse in mood and scale, his works assert his distinctive identity, expressed through craftsmanship of the utmost finesse and beauty: deeply sensitive and balancing sincerity, irony and a touch of provocation. An essential collection of landmark performances, this 21-CD box of Ravel's complete works brings together major interpreters of the present day and preceding generations. There are even contributions from the composer himself, as conductor, pianist (on piano rolls) and artistic supervisor.

There is an indisputable historical link between Beethoven and Indian culture: in his quest to fathom the depths of this culture, and captivated by the translation of the Upanishads that was published in Germany in 1816, he immersed himself well and truly in these ancient texts, just as Schopenhauer did, or like Goethe discovering the great Persian poet Hafez when writing his last major collection, the 'West-Eastern Divan'. We see here a mystical Beethoven, scrutinising man and the cosmos and especially curious about other cultures.

50 of the best children's classics including works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy and Ravel.

Mariam Batsashvili combines solo works by Franz Liszt - a figure of special significance for her - and his contemporary Frdric Chopin. She left her native Georgia to study at the Franz Liszt Conservatory in Weimar and gained international recognition in 2014 when she won the 10th Franz Liszt Piano Competition. Chopin was just a year older than Liszt and the two became good friends in Paris. The two pianist-composers are, as Batsashvili explains, 'very, very different in the way they express themselves, but I can hear in their music that they respected each other greatly.'

The music of Jacques Offenbach defines the intoxicating, hedonistic spirit of Paris in the mid-19th century. Above all there is the 'Galop infernal' often known simply as 'The Can-Can'. This album is an irresistable collection of operetta, opera and orchestral music.

With Airlines, flautist Emmanuel Pahud transports the music of composer Alexandre Desplat to new horizons. The album includes unreleased recordings including revisited versions of music from Desplat's films, including the Oscar-winning The Shape of Water (2018) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). Pahud is accompanied by the National Orchestra of France, conducted by Alexandre Desplat himself.

Vilde Frang, partnered by pianist Michael Lifits, has assembled a programme that juxtaposes music by two violinist-composers of the early 19th century, Franz Schubert and Niccol� Paganini. While they lived vastly different lives and inhabited diverse aesthetic worlds, there are links to be found between them. Through the juxtaposition, Frang wants to highlight Schubert's capacity for virtuosity and Paganini's musicality and sensitivity. "It's the contrasts that appeal to me," she says. For her, the key connection between Schubert and Paganini is the inspiration they both found in the human voice. The album includes variations that Paganini wrote on themes from operas by Rossini (Tancredi) and Paisiello (La molinara), and the 'grand caprice' that the violinist Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst - considered Paganini's greatest successor - based on one of Schubert's most thrilling songs, Erlk�nig. It sets a poem by Goethe that tells of a frantic night-time horse-ride by a father and his young son, who is tempted by a wicked spirit, the Erlking. When they reach their destination, the child is dead. "This Erlk�nig is a gift to the violinist. There is such precision and accuracy in Ernst's transcription - it works so well that it sounds like it was written for the violin. And then there is the challenge of characterising the galloping horse, the father, the son and the Erlk�nig himself."

Dong Hyek Lim takes two pianistic roles on this all-Rachmaninov album: soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Alexander Vedernikov in the much-loved 'Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor', and duo partner to his mentor, the great Martha Argerich, in the composer's two-piano transcription of the enthralling and enigmatic 'Symphonic Dances'. Lim's credentials in Russian music are rooted in the formative period he spent as a young student at Moscow's Central School of Music and Conservatory.

Sir John Barbirolli began as an orchestral cellist, and played under Elgar's baton in the premiere of the Cello Concerto. Encouraged by Elgar, he moved into conducting and made his mark with the composer's Second Symphony in 1927. After Elgar's death, Barbirolli vowed to make the composer's music his special mission in life and to do his utmost to make it known all over the world. From the performances here, we can judge how well he kept his promise.