The Brazilian pianist is a master of infusing improvisational virtuosity into the spirit of a song, whether's it's by Jobim or The Doors, an original, or a Broadway classic from 'Man of La Mancha.'

Bach's contrapuntal masterpiece took flight in the hands of one of the world's premiere viol consorts.

The celebrated musician-scholar and eminence grise of the viol offers representative pieces of what can be broadly termed the "Musica Nova" movement of the 16th and 17th centuries in Italy, France, England, Germany, Spain, and Portugal. But you don't need experience with or knowledge of early music to appreciate the beauty, and the consummate expertise, of these performances.

With just four chairs and a keyboard director Scott Guthrie leads a full-tilt cast of five crisply through the sharp and funny series of twists and turns that make this epitome of self-referential shows shine.

The Brazilian jazz pianist goes full-tilt from the start, with dense and intense rhythms, indeed a florid, Lisztian intricacy, on "To Each His Dulcinea." One listen to Elias's substitutions on the theme and you know she's playing with a full quiver of creativity as well as a twinkle in her eye.

Among the fascinating objects associated with major artists and historical figures are a narwhal-tusk flute made for Frederick the Great, a 16th-century Amati violin made for the marriage of Philip II, guitars owned by Segovia, and a clarinet that belonged to Benny Goodman.

The venerable original-instruments orchestra presented familiar and seldom-heard works, including Brahms's 'Alto Rhapsody' and music by Schubert and Ferdinand Ries.

All told, these are some of Bach's most compelling and beautiful works, and it's hard to imagine a finer performance than this.

Western Europe's earliest known dream-vision poem, newly translated from the Anglo-Saxon and adapted for the stage.

There's a feeling of fine control you get when you listen to a Kim Richey album. Her songs dig outward in two directions from country/americana, into both folk and pop. And her silvery vocals, burnished with a constant, cool vibrato, lack twangy affectation, sounding almost weirdly non-manipulative – to paradoxically emotional effect.