The G minor Symphony, the second of Vanhal’s symphonies in that key, is an absolute delight, full of good ideas The C minor Symphony (1770) is also a work of originality Matthias Bamert and the London Mozart Players give an excellent account of themselves, and are recorded with clarity and warmth.

Paul Ji, winner of the Prodiges competition in 2019, is a 16-year old pianist, born in Chicago, USA to a Chinese family and raised in France since the age of five. This album, contains a selection of 16 romantic masterpieces for the piano.

Founded in Paris in 1978 the Ensemble Clément Janequin devotes itself principally to the secular and religious music of the Renaissance. Its interpretations of the Parisian chanson are regarded as authoritative, and recordings of works like Les Cris de Paris, Le Chant des Oyseaulx, Fricassée Parisienne and La Chasse have brought back to life one of golden ages of French music. Now available to a wide audience, the music of Janequin, Sermisy, Anthoine de Bertrand, Costeley, Roland de Lassus and Claude Le Jeune illustrates the contrasts in which the Renaissance took such delight…

Icy strings swoop and sway in an ocean wave of sound on Percy Faith's Bouquet, one of this talented conductor/arranger's most popular albums. Piano chords swell and xylophones delicately plink in the distance, but Faith's arrangements are really all about the massed strings: the melodies, the counter-melodies, the gorgeous undulation of violins (32 of them!). If you have a good stereo system, find a CD or clean vinyl copy of Bouquet and turn up the volume – immerse yourself in the glorious flux and reflux of pure sound. This is one of the most beautiful and distinctive mood music albums ever made, and if hearing it does not give you a new appreciation for the genre, then there is no hope for you. Highly recommended.

Austrian Syndicate…the phrase immediately brings to mind the best-known and most influential of all Austrians in jazz, Joe Zawinul. And yet David Helbock’s project is much more than just a homage to his compatriot. It is a return to the roots of fusion jazz and how things developed from then on. It is also a new direction stylistically for Helbock, who has harnessed a panoply of inspiration with a refreshing openness to new sounds from far and wide. As Helbock himself puts it: "This is close to my heart." Helbock has been able to enlist the best rhythm section in Austria for the Syndicate: Raphael Preuschl on bass and bass ukulele, drummer Herbert Pirker and percussionist Claudio Spieler. The quintet also has an American in it, one for whom becoming Austrian was a matter of choice: pianist Peter Madsen. This Austrian supergroup is also a place where Helbock’s stellar international guests shine brightly: Maria João, Fred Wesley, Dhafer Youssef, Alex Acuña and Lakecia Benjamin.