‘Essential listening’ … ‘fabulously assured’ … ‘unequivocally excellent’: just a few of the critical superlatives earned by Martyn Brabbins’s magnificent Vaughan Williams symphony cycle. In this, the penultimate release of the series, two of the late symphonies are coupled with more rare RVW.

The second studio release with "Ripper" Owens, Demolition is an intriguing album. Listening to this one sometimes makes you wish that they had decided to go with a moniker other than Judas Priest. The reason is that, although this album is very strong, it really does not fit in with the historical sound of the band. It seems like a completely new group might have released it. Such a distinction almost seems to deserve a different band name. There are moments that do feel like older Priest, but the overall texture is harder and more modern. At times Owens comes across like Rob Halford (listen to the first verse of "Blood Suckers"), but he is really working to carve out his own identity. If you are a fan of classic Priest, maybe you should hear this one first, but if you are into more modern dark metal, by all means, pick it up.

Uversal Music/Polydor will release 30th anniversary editions of Nirvana‘s classic 1991 album Nevermind album, in November. While the 4CD+DVD set from ten years ago was concerned with alternate mixes, rehearsals, BBC sessions and Live at the Paramount, a decade on and there is a big focus on live performance. In the 5CD+blu-ray super deluxe, the album itself has been remastered from the original analog tapes (the previous remaster was generally disliked by fans) and added to that are four complete concerts from the Nevermind tour from Amsterdam, Netherlands; Del Mar, California; Melbourne, Australia and Tokyo, Japan.

This has been around as a bootleg for some time, a great radio broadcast from February 1972 featuring mainly Bonnie with Freebo on bass but also T. J. Tindle on lead guitar and John Davis playing harp on a couple of tracks. The sound quality isn't perfect but it's pretty good and it captures Bonnie doing material from her first two albums as well as some songs that have never been officially released - Steve Winwood's 'Can't Find My Way Home', John Hurt's 'Richland Woman Blues' and her own song 'Blender Blues'. Although Bonnie sounds young (she was only 22) she also sounds very confident and relaxed, her voice is perfectly controlled and her guitar playing is particularly good on blues like Robert Johnson's 'Walking blues' and 'Richland Woman Blues'.

Having successfully crossed over from the bedsit to the mainstream throughout 1989 and 1990, independent artists quickly began to dominate the British musical landscape, bringing an authentic new energy to a stagnant, Thatcherite pop scene. 1991 saw countless indie artists score hit singles and albums as the scene continued to mutate and adapt regionally, politically and aesthetically - from Manic Street Preachers’ urgent, punk-infused anthems and the outer edges of shoegaze and psychedelic songcraft offered by Chapterhouse and Levitation, through to the dancefloor friendly adventures of Flowered Up and St Etienne, the art-school informed Kingmaker and established baggy favourites The Charlatans, 1991 offered up the broadest and richest smorgasbord of accessible, street-level artists the UK’s youth had known in a decade.

When you've got a good thing going, as Russian-born Israeli cellist Mischa Maisky did with his first two solo cello albums, Meditation and Adagio, why not continue? So here is his third collection of lovely and well-loved classical themes, most of which are specially arranged for cello and piano, several by Maisky himself. Included are Debussy's Clair de lune and Saint-Saëns's Allegro appassionato.

The issue of authenticity of Bach’s so-called lute music is one that continues to perplex artists today; most of the recordings of Bach’s lute music range from transcriptions of the cello and certain solo violin suites to other more capriciously chosen works that are made to “fit” the instrument. Indeed, one of the best (and most popular) of such collections, that by Nigel North (Linn Records, “Bach on the Lute”), consists entirely of these violin and cello works, albeit with the not-uncommon idea of such works finding their way into the repertoire of all sorts of related instruments.

1964's Vibrations is another fine set by Milt Jackson. This time Jackson is joined by four horns and another strong rhythm section. Tenor player Jimmy Heath, sounding satisfyingly like John Coltrane circa the start of his Atlantic period, is featured prominently. The interaction of Jackson and Heath with pianist Tommy Flanagan, drummer Connie Kay, and bassist Alvin Jackson provide the main interest. The set is nicely rounded out by two tracks with guitarist Kenny Burrell, and a small, vocal ensemble that sings wordless arrangements on the cooly swinging title tack and the hard bopping "Let Me Hear the Blues," both by Jackson.

Mats Lidström is that rare thing, an original musician. The sheer mercurial energy which drives his performances can be both engaging and disturbing, but there is always a searching intelligence at work. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra lost much when its compelling, if unpredictable, lead cellist departed. These two concertos show him at his persuasive best, bringing lesser known works to life. Kabalevsky’s 1964 Concerto stretches and yawns with slow pizzicato before springing into urgent life. Sub-Shostakovich in its motifs and tonality, it is nevertheless well-constructed and uses the saxophone to great effect. In both Allegro movements Lidström achieves a lightning speed and attack and, though Raphael Wallfisch’s recording on Nimbus has a more solid beauty of tone, the Swede’s nervous anticipation makes up for the thinner sound of his Grancino cello. Khachaturian’s 1946 Concerto would make a wonderful soundtrack to a cinematic faux-Oriental extravaganza, with its twisting major and minor intervals, and almost sleazy chromaticism. Lidström really knows how to swing, and makes the most of the memorable melodies.

Chicago-based guitarist Melvin Taylor is a star in Europe, but it may take some time for U.S. audiences to catch on to just how phenomenally talented a bluesman he is. Part of the problem for Taylor may be his own natural eclecticism. He's equally adept playing jazz or blues, but in the last few years, he's forged a name for himself as a blues guitarist with a slew of releases for Evidence Music. Taylor may well be the most talented new guitarist to come along since Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Considering how lackluster some of David Byron's early solo work (and final days with Uriah Heep) sounds today, it is not only refreshing, but astonishing, to run head first into On the Rocks and find the old voice box sounding better than it had in years. Packed with some of the most menacing riffs of his career – check out "King" – and a voice that roars on the right side of anger, On the Rocks is the sound of classic Heep, shot through with both the fresh adrenalin of the NWOBHM and an ear for what was going on elsewhere in the world. "Start Believing" layers in Mel Collins' sax to add an almost funky feel to the proceedings, even as "Piece of My Love" echoes on bluesy piano, while "Bad Girl" is simply slinky.

In music as in love, one + one can add up to not two but a new and greater one. On Heart Songs two of the world's greatest guitarists, Tommy Emmanuel and John Knowles, make this clear. Both are masters of their instrument, honored by the iconic Chet Atkins with the rare designation of CGP (Certified Guitar Players). Emmanuel has twice been voted "Best Acoustic Guitarist" by readers of Guitar Player Magazine and honored as both a "Member of the Order of Australia" and an official "Kentucky Colonel". Knowles is a Grammy winner, a member of the National Thumb Picker's Hall of Fame, and editor of the respected FingerStyle Quarterly.