This Montaigne disc (a 2001 reissue of 1990 recordings) contains string quartets by three contemporary composers in the post-Webernian tradition. In the spotlight is Gyorgy Kurtag, the Hungarian composer who famously bloomed late with a relatively small body of music, who contributes three pieces. The disc is filled out with the string quartet of Witold Lutoslawski and the second quartet of Sofia Gubaidulina. Kurtag's quartets are some of the finest of the 20th century, clearly fusing Webern and Bartok.

The other woodwind instruments have had their avant-garde champions, so why not the bassoon? French virtuoso Pascal Gallois, one-time member of Boulez’s Ensemble Intercontemporain and currently a professor in Zurich, is certainly well qualified. His agility seems to know no bounds, circular breathing is second nature to him, and he can ease into and out of multiphonics with apparent ease.

I'm giving this disc five stars even though the Bruch really isn't very good (at least, in the orchestra - the winds are horribly out of tune; also, some solo trills are quite sharp [mic was probably too close, since you do have to trill sharp to get it to sound in tune at a distance]). I didn't buy it for the Bruch, I bought it for the Brahms sonatas, and wow, are they fantastic. The characteristic energy and instantly recognizable sound are both there, and du Pré and Barenboim are perfectly on the same wavelength regarding rubato and tempo fluctuations.

Pizarro's acclaimed second disc of Beethoven sonatas, beautifully played on a Blüthner piano. Beethoven's last three sonatas mark a culmination in the classical-romantic sonata form, and Beethoven's farewell to the genre. Pizarro explains: "Beethoven not only aesthetically and emotionally heralds the arrival of the Romantic Age in music but also profoundly alters what had been the accepted parameters of sonata form. Man has become the centre of the universe as can be heard through the outpouring of emotion, as human condition and the circle of human life is depicted in these three works.

Following a successful recording of Dvorák's Violin Concerto with French violinist Isabelle Faust accompanied by Jirí Belohlávek leading the Prague Philharmonia, Harmonia Mundi has returned from the Czech Republic with a recording of French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras accompanied by Belohlávek and the Prague Philharmonia in Dvorák's Cello Concerto. The results this time are even better than before. As Queyras showed in the previous disc's performance of Dvorák's F minor Trio, he is a passionately expressive, technically faultless, and ever-so-slightly reserved player and his performance here of the Cello Concerto is all those things and more.

Chamber music has never been John Adams' most natural outlet for expression; he tends to work on a large scale, in both duration and the performing forces his music calls for. Violinist Angèle Dubeau, who had already released "portrait" albums featuring the string works of Philip Glass and Arvo Pärt, therefore didn't have a large range of choices of Adams works to fill out this CD, but the three pieces included are all winners. Shaker Loops (1978) for string septet was Adams' first big success and it remains one of his most frequently performed works, probably at least in part because of the relatively modest size of ensemble it requires.

Canadian violinist Angèle Dubeau and her ensemble La Pietà pay homage to Philip Glass with this disc of some of his music for strings, plus arrangements of other works of his. The arrangements are by Michael Reisman, who has collaborated closely with Glass since the period of Einstein on the Beach, so they are idiomatic and persuasively transfer the works to a new medium. Two of his arrangements, the Overture to La Belle et la Bête and The Hours Suite, taken from the film soundtrack, include an amplified arsenal of instruments, including piano, harp, and celeste.

As an artist, French singer-songwriter Yves Simon (born in Choiseul, France, 1944) lived two lives. On one hand, he was a writer, publishing almost one book a year since 1971 and eventually being rewarded (in 1988 and 1991). On the other hand, he was an almost as prolific recording artist, having released around twenty LPs since 1967, though his two first outings remained under the radar.

Out there on the extreme fringe of the repertoire is Karol Szymanowski – the Polish modernist composer whose opera King Roger is occasionally revived by non-Polish opera companies. Somewhere further out past Szymanowski is Mieczyslaw Karlowicz – the Polish fin de siècle composer whose three-movement tone poem The Eternal Song is very occasionally recorded by non-Polish performers.

These live recordings of Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and CosÏ fan tutte are a fine tribute to celebrate 40 years of La Petite Bande. They have released an Anniversary Series to mark the oustanding achievement of this highly regarded Belgium-based ensemble.

This is a repackaging in a budget priced twofer of previously released singles, both Read more Legends for cello and piano, received two reviews, one by William Zagorski and another by Martin Anderson, both in 24:4. By now it is well known that Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843–1900) practically worshipped Brahms. But it wasn’t enough for him to try to imitate the elder composer’s style; he ended up marrying the woman that Brahms had proposed marriage to and then reneged on.

There have been a number of outstanding recordings of the Dvorák Concerto since this DG record was made, but none to match it for the warmth of lyrical feeling, the sheer strength of personality of the cello playing and the distinction of the partnership between Karajan and Rostropovich. Any moments of romantic licence from the latter, who's obviously deeply in love with the music, are set against Karajan's overall grip on the proceedings. The orchestral playing is superb.

Gidon Kremer, instead of coupling the Shostakovich Second Concerto with its natural partner, No. 1, enterprisingly chooses a concerto which Shostakovich labelled as his own Op. 129, but which in fact confusingly enough is Schumann's Op. 129. This is a novelty on two counts. Not only does it bring us Shostakovich's orchestration of the work, aiming to improve on Schumann's own, but for the first time to my knowledge puts on disc Schumann's violin version of his cello concerto. Shostakovich's aim in renovating the orchestration with changes predominating in the tuttis was to improve the work for his protege, Rostropovich.

“Though the musical languages are so different, parallels do emerge; the Schumann performances are enhanced by Enders and Hering's keen awareness of the importance of expressive nuance - and subtle changes of colour, microtonal inflections and dynamic contrasts are all important coponents of Isan Yun's style…All the performances are passionate and strongly committed. Enders has a splendidly clear, penetrating tone.”

This CD is one of the hidden gems in the huge Naxos catalogue; three German musicians displaying consummate skill in a less well-known Beethoven work and the equally attractive Ries piece. Ries deserves the attention in my opinion as, although often described as a mere epignone of Beethoven, he is clearly his own man! Of course he was influenced by Beethoven, having served as Beethoven's factotum for some years, but Ries often has something interesting to say in his music. Ries' Op.28 is a lovely clarinet trio lasting 23 minutes, wonderfully played by Jurgen Demmler (clarinet), Markus Tillier (cello), and Peter Grabinger.