English conductors, including Thomas Beecham, John Barbirolli, Anthony Collins, and Colin Davis, have an excellent track record recording the symphonies of Jean Sibelius. Thus, when Simon Rattle first took a shot at Sibelius with his 1981 recording of the Fifth with the London Philharmonia, hopes were high that the next generation of English Sibelius conductors was ready to take up the torch.

Eschewing its usual heavy orchestral sound in favor of a more stripped-down instrumentation, Dutch violinist Janine Jansen's second album offers a fresh interpretation of one of the most performed classical works, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. The 2005 follow-up to her Barry Wordsworth-conducted debut, the subtle but passionate renditions of the "La Primavera," "L'estate," "L'autunno," and "L'inverno" concertos are performed with a sparse, eight-piece ensemble including Lithuanian violinist Julian Rachlin, her cellist brother Maarten, and harpsichordist father Jan.

There is no question that Kennedy believes Bach is the greatest of composers. He has said so when giving his inimitable introductions to encore items at concerts, and his commitment to Bach's cause is the foundation upon which these recorded performances is based.

With the performers on this disc, you would expect first-rate performances of Dvorák's Violin Concerto and his Piano Quintet. Unfortunately, no matter what you think of the performances, the sound quality of the recording will leave you disappointed. In both the concerto and the quintet, the sound from everyone is rather thin and flat. The depth of the vibratos, the reverberation of the strings, and the orchestra in general are all very shallow.

A terrific idea that almost but not quite comes off, this disc called Chaconne takes as its basis Bach's Chaconne from his D minor Partita for solo violin and adds transcriptions of the work for piano by Johannes Brahms, Ferruccio Busoni, and Rudolf Lutz, the last named the teacher of pianist Edna Stern. It nearly succeeds. Stern's playing in the transcriptions is far more than professional, but not quite up to the level of the music.

Sparkling performances of Mozart's piano concertos No.18 and No.19 by keyboard virtuoso Melvyn Tan, "that princeling among fortepianists" (San Francisco Examiner). "Nimble, thoughtful musicianship… a sweet, crystalline tone" - San Francisco Chronicle "Two of the most seductive Mozart performances available" - Chicago Tribune

Dieterich Buxtehude was a Danish-German organist and composer of the Baroque period. His organ works represent a central part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals and in church services. He composed in a wide variety of vocal and instrumental idioms, and his style strongly influenced many composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach. Today, Buxtehude is considered one of the most important composers in Germany of the mid-Baroque.

Sophie Yates follows her French and Iberian collections (11/93 and 11/94) with an English one, an overview of the period that ended in the 1620s after the death of Byrd, its central figure, Gibbons and Bull, though Tomkins delayed the stylistic rigor mortis for another 30 years. The anonymous My Lady Carey's Dompe and Aston's Hornepype provide quasi-improvisational precursors (though they are not so placed in the programme) of the ubiquitous divisions upon whatever, including Byrd's or Aston's Ground – he looked both backwards to Aston and sideways to Dowland and Harding in writing divisions on their works.

These are exuberant performances, overflowing with arch character and impish brio. Lortie doesn't merely phrase responsively; he deftly teases and articulates, so that even routine passage-work lifts into scintillant repartee, wittily met by Pehiavanian and The Hague Residentie Orchestra. For salient instance, this is the first time I've heard the young Liszt's hilariously slapdash, formally sprawling Lelio Fantasy actually.

Rarely if ever have music festivals gathered together such a stellar array of names as those in Prades and Perpignan, thanks to the glory of Casal's name and the force of nature which was Alexander Schneider. This release of the Prades Festival is rarely heard and contains the most stunning performances of the 'Brandenburg Concertos', together with items from 'The Musical Offering'.

Karajan was unquestionably a great Tchaikovsky conductor. Yet although he recorded the last three symphonies many times, he did not turn to the first three until the end of the 1970s, and then proved an outstanding advocate. In the Mendelssohnian opening movement of the First, the tempo may be brisk, but the music's full charm is displayed and the melancholy of the Andante is touchingly caught.

What is this Bryn Terfel collection, exactly, that contains "Simple Gifts," the beginning of Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater," "Send in the Clowns," and even "The Rose" (not the one e'er blooming, but the Bette Midler or Conway Twitty vehicle)? It is, per the back cover text, Bryn's "personal collection of sacred, spiritual, and meditative songs." The album still might seem like quite a hodgepodge to a browser reading the tracklist, but it is exactly the elusiveness of the thread connecting these songs that makes this a superior example of the crossover vocal species.

A double anthology from the celebrated Welsh opera and concert singer Bryn Terfel. At His Very Best takes in recordings from his recent duet album with tenor Rhys Meirion, several of Bryn's earlier albums on Wales's Saydisc label and a recording of a newly commissioned work performed together with the Rhuthun Choir.

FIRE & ICE, Sarah Chang's eleventh recital album, is a throwback of sorts: an old-fashioned star turn packed with virtuosic showpieces that would test the mettle of any violinist. But the precociously talented Chang is not just any violinist and she certainly proves it here. As usual, she rises to the occasion and offers a dazzling, bravura performance of a crowd-pleasing program, guaranteed to make even the most jaded listeners sit up and take notice.

Guiomar Novaes was one of the greatest Brazilian pianists but I didn't know that when I bought this two-disc set. What originally attracted me to this collection was the conductor, not the soloist, leading the three Piano Concertos, Otto Klemperer. Indeed, the Beethoven 4th, Chopin 2nd and Schumann are performed well with the Vienna Symphony, in good sound from the 1950s, but it is the various solo pieces that are the true highlight of this set, and showcase the real magic of Novaes' playing.