Lloyd Schwartz

Herrmann composed some of the best-known film music ever written — especially the scores he wrote for Alfred Hitchcock. Now a new CD shows another side of Herrmann that's equally memorable.

A new installment of the PBS series American Experience centers on the legendary Black contralto, her extraordinary artistry and the important place she holds in the civil rights movement.

Price, now 93, was the first African American soprano to have a major career at the Metropolitan Opera. Critics and fans agreed that she had one of the most beautiful singing voices they'd ever heard.

Fitzgerald's warm, yet ultra-cool voice was at the opposite pole of jazz singing from Armstrong's gravelly growl. There's absolutely no reason their voices should blend so effortlessly — but they do.

Two new CDs of serious music feels just right: Johnny Gandelsman plays violin transcriptions of Bach's Complete Cello Suites, and Kate Lindsey sings arias by Handel, Haydn, and Scarlatti on Arianna.

Ellen West, a new one-act chamber opera presented by Opera Saratoga, is based on a tragic poem by Frank Bidart, while Poul Ruders' The Thirteenth Child draws on Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

Maria by Callas weaves together performance clips, home movies, interviews and poignant diary excepts to present an intimate portrait of the singer in her own words.

Choreographer Bob Fosse and dancer Gwen Verdon light things up in this recently reissued movie version of the musical Damn Yankees. It was the only time the pair danced together on the big screen.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra's 2017 performance of Ferruccio Busoni's monumental concerto met all the composer's impossible demands. A new live recording of the event is both serious and fabulous.