WRTI Picks from NPR Music

The world mourned the death this week of the Indian maestro whose name became synonymous with the sitar. Closer to Shankar's home, Indians mourned the man they affectionately call Pandit-ji, or Teacher. "He changed the whole approach to how an artist is perceived," says sitarist Shubhendra Rao.

In the liner notes to his 2012 trio album Accelerando, the pianist and composer Vijay Iyer wrote: "[T]his album is in the lineage of American creative music based on dance rhythms." Dancing in rhythm and exemplifying creativity, here are 10 records which belong to that great lineage.

For its 25th anniversary, the vocal quartet commissioned a new piece from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang. Despite the fact that the group is mostly famous for singing very old music, love fail reflects the world we live in — not some distant and remote mythology.

At a time when British music needed a boost, Victorian era composer, teacher and scholar Hubert Parry came to the rescue. A new album of his neglected works by the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales and conductor Neeme Järvi swells with English pride.

Check out a duo riffing on the Goldberg Variations in a very cool way: beatboxing and piano.

A computer science study shows that when an orchestra's musicians closely follow the lead of the conductor, rather than one another, they produce better music.

This fall marks the centennial anniversaries of two all-time great improvisers, born in 1912. The fat-toned saxophonist and the fleet, sparkling pianist were peers, and if they didn't record a lot together, the story of their generation comes out in their shared histories.

The violinist attempts to mix jazz, classical and traditional Chinese music with his octet on Burning Bridge.

The young composer from Brooklyn battles stereotypes in classical music with her DIY aesthetic, her penchant for blending genres, and her new opera, Song from the Uproar, based on the early 20th-century adventurer Isabelle Eberhardt.

Conductor John Eliot Gardiner and author Matthew Guerrieri explain the incredible resonances, past and present, behind one of the most famous phrases in music: the start to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.