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'.

None of these reconstructions are included in Teldec’s Bach 2000, although the better-known ‘originals’ obviously are. The real newcomer is the Sinfonia, BWV1045 (5'34'') ‘to an unknown cantata’ which – as befits a BWV number that immediately precedes the First Brandenburg Concerto – is rumbustious, festive and thematically likeable. Time and again I could sense allusions to other Bach instrumental pieces, though the soloist’s ceaseless arpeggiating is sometimes a distraction. We’re told it’s authentic (the manuscript source suggests a violin concerto in the making) but something about its harmonic language doesn’t quite ring true, though that reaction might well be due to lack of familiarity.

This two-CD set is actually part of an ambitious undertaking: ESS.A.Y Recordings recorded these sonatas in two different versions, this one featuring Ms. Tenenbaum on a modern violin and accompanied by a modern piano played by Richard Kapp; the other recording (reviewed below) features Ms. Tenenbaum playing an older violin and accompanied by a harpsichord played by Gerald Ranck.

It is a joy to have access to these two performances of the Goldberg Variations. Choosing between the American interpreters is not an easy task. Edward Aldwell is not a name familiar to many in Britain, but the fact that historical specialists Biddulph have chosen to record a new disc with him should alert us to the fact that here is something of rare quality. At times, Aldwell’s interpretation feels like one long meditation: his tempi are somewhat slower than most, he observes every repeat and no note is touched with less than total care.

Swiss-French flautist Emmanuel Pahud, named "one of the finds of the decade" by Gramophone Magazine, is one of today's most exciting and adventurous musicians. Appointed Principal Flute for the Berliner Philharmoniker aged just 22, his solo albums have sold over 400,000 copies worldwide, including a Mozart Concertos disc that has sold over 70,000 units.

This is no ordinary recording of J.S. Bach’s six masterpieces of Baroque instrumental music. For starters, the pieces are interwoven with period-instrument transcriptions of piano music written in the early 1950s by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

Despite his Italian name, Mario Bernardi was a native-born Canadian and one of his country's leading conductors. His family sent him back to the Old Country to study music as a child, though, and this was through the entirety of World War II. He studied piano, organ, and composition at the Manzato Conservatory in Treviso (1938 - 1945) and the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice (1945). Young Bernardi returned to Canada after the war to complete his studies in piano and conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto (1948 - 1951).

This recording brings together all the arrangements for harpsichord by Bach of instrumental concertos by his Italian contemporary Antonio Vivaldi, adding those of one concerto each by the brothers Alessandro and Benedetto Marcello. They are performed by Sophie Yates who has made a series of solo CDs for Chandos, many of which have won international awards. She has been described by Gramophone as ‘hugely talented’ and by BBC Music as playing ‘with exceptional poise’.

Freddy Kempf is a fast-rising young star of the piano literature known for his outstanding virtuosity and independence. Any complaints about Kempf's music-making concern the issues of mannerisms and characterization. Unfortunately, these complaints rear their heads in Kempf's new Bach recording of two of the six keyboard partitas. First, the good stuff. Kempf has 'flying fingers' and an overall technique that is very impressive; just listen to his dynamic accounts of the Gigues from each Partita.

Jumping from Mozart on Deutsche Grammophon to Bach on Decca, oboist Albrecht Mayer continues to explore transcriptions as well as works originally for his instrument on Voices of Bach. This is a good and necessary thing since neither Mozart nor Bach wrote a sufficient number of works for the oboe to fill out a single disc. In the case of Bach, Mayer has hit on the ingenious solution of including not just Bach's canonical Oboe Concerto, plus his concertos for oboe d'amore and English horn, but also eight arrangements of well-known chorales for chorus and oboe.

Alexandre Tharaud follows his dazzling album of Scarlatti sonatas with another fusion of modern and historically informed performance styles. Joining him in this new collection of Bach keyboard concertos is the dynamic period-instrument ensemble Les Violons du Roy, under its director Bernard Labadie.

A superb 4 CD set of Sinfonie Concertanti and oboe concertos by J C Bach. Played by Lajos Lencies, Janos Balint, Bela Banfalvi with the Budapest Strings. This a wonderful collection of these suplime works, presented at a very special price.

Originally two separate albums recorded in the late days of stereo LPs, this two-disc set of Bach's works for harpsichord was released together for less than the price of a single LP. But even at twice the price of the original LPs, these performances would be worth purchasing for two reasons. First, the harpsichordist is Gustav Leonhardt, and while there are surely more virtuosic harpsichordists in the world, there are few finer musicians and fewer still finer souls.