The Crestfallen EP (1992). The style of early Anathema was a strange juxtaposition between smooth, melancholy guitar leads and deformed death metal children with one leg longer than the other trying to dance. The rhythms are sometimes absolutely horrible and do not even create distinctive riffs, just juddering patterns that do nothing for atmosphere or heaviness. Many of the riffs are dominated by bass and drums, but when we get something with recognizable shapes and moods it picks up something from the scuzzy production and works a treat, conjuring real feeling with ease. The first two songs definitely have the pick of the riffs and manage to express their anguish a little better: the melodies are also all over them, and these features give the release its character…

This 1990 disc featuring Grieg's Piano Concerto and Liszt's Second Piano Concerto, with six of Grieg's Lyric Pieces for solo piano, was Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes' big label debut as a soloist. It was a smash, and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. Andsnes has gone on to one of the most successful careers of any pianist of his generation. Hearing the performances in this un-remastered reissue, it's easy to understand why: Andsnes is a fire-eater of a piano player.

Of the large crop of tenors reaching their prime years in the late 2010s, Malta's Joseph Calleja has shown strong signs of breaking out from the pack, and this Verdi recital can only help him. Calleja combines a rich, smooth middle range with a bright, edgy top in which he can convincingly explode in emotion. Album buyers have been primed for a new recital release from Calleja and would probably have been perfectly satisfied with an album covering Verdi's greatest hits.

Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony, a tone poem based on a detailed program drawn from Lord Byron's epic poem Manfred, lasts for close to an hour and is rarely performed, although somewhat more often recorded. When conductor Semyon Bychkov proposed the present performance to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the players were unenthusiastic. But then, he recalls, "something wonderful happened…

A Colorado-based legend, pianist Joe Bonner (joined by an unidentified bassist on two of the six songs) for the first time is heard doubling on electric piano. The music (five originals, including "Primal Scream" and "Ode to Trane," plus Thad Jones' "A Child Is Born") is intense at times and displays Bonner's roots in 1960s-type modal music and his earlier association with Pharoah Sanders.

Fans of complex German space progressive rock fans will groove with this release. "Here It Is" combines the keyboard workout of ELP with the atmosphere of Grobschnitt and Genesis. This is a purely instrumental album featuring a five-piece lineup of dual keyboards, electric and acoustic guitars, bass and drums. The music has intricate layers combined with sharp soloing.

Maurizio Pollini's 2011 concert recording of Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor is an important document because it not only captures his return to playing with the esteemed Staatskapelle Dresden (his first performance with the group since 1986), and his first collaboration with conductor Christian Thielemann, but it presents the very work the pianist played at his Staatskapelle debut in 1976. All of this background is helpful to know, to understand the significance Deutsche Grammophon attaches to this release, even at the risk of offering a CD that runs just over 45 minutes, without any filler for added value.

This is a reissue of the 1993 Chandos recording which was welcomed by Michael Oliver, who heard Prokofiev in the background of the solo piano concertos. The first version of No 1 (1939) was for strings and percussion but three years later Rawsthorne rescored it for full orchestra and in that form the work became popular. The whirligig semiquavers in the fast movements create a scherzo atmosphere and the last movement is a tarantella. In between comes a grave chaconne full of Rawsthorne’s fingerprints.

While these recordings by the Hungarian Quartet contain perfectly acceptable performances and adequately idiomatic interpretations of Schubert's later chamber music for string quartet and quintet, they contain nothing more than that. In the late '50s and early '60s, the Hungarian Quartet was a widely respected group playing in the central European tradition of plumy intonation, sugary sonorities, sometimes scrappy ensemble, and often sentimental interpretations.

German musician Frank Dorittke, aka F.D. Project, is originally a guitarist from the Dinslaken-based band Imagine. He got interested in electronic music around 1991, and became influenced by the music of Tangerine Dream. The versatile and accessible music of F.D. Project is not that simply to depict as it’s influences range from Tangerine Dream to Mike Oldfield, at other occasions keenly blending elements from the Berlin School and guitar riffs. At times it can be melodic and up-tempo, then switching to captivating atmospheric textures and soundscapes.

Eliza Carthy officially inherits the British folk crown from her parents with the willfully traditional Rough Music. Described in the liner notes as "a form of community punishment practiced all over England" (basically a public beating for a heinous social crime), Rough Music sounds like a lost pre-percussion Steeleye Span record filtered through A.L. Lloyd's whaling collection Leviathan! Carthy's strong fiddling and powerful vocals – she really is beginning to surpass Norma – are ably enhanced by the chiseled performance of her backing band, the Ratcatchers. Together they celebrate longstanding English traditions like public execution ("Turpin Hero"), syphilis ("The Unfortunate Lass"), and alcohol ("Tom Brown") with equal parts reverence, earnestness, and mischief. Primarily arranged for violin, viola, double bass, and melodeon, Rough Music also features lovely a cappella cuts like "Maid on the Shore" and enough fiery instrumentals to keep your feet on the cobblestones during the long walk home from the pub. In fact, there's not a moment on Rough Music that isn't essential listening. Highly recommended.