Ian Bostridge brings his characterful lyricism, and singing of beautiful intelligence, to a welcome sixth volume in Graham Johnson’s comprehensive series.

At the heart of this programme of Beethoven songs performed by Ian Bostridge and Sir Antonio Pappano is the song cycle 'An die ferne Geliebte' (to the distant beloved). Bostridge describes it as 'the distillation of Beethoven as a lover'. Among the other items are the rapturously lyrical 'Adelaide', the sombre 'In questa tomba oscura' and a selection of Beethoven's settings of folksongs from the British Isles, which elicit the participation of violinist Vilde Frang and cellist Nicolas Altstaedt. 'When we all play together,' says Pappano, 'it's like a family making music at home.'

Johann Sebastian Bach's monumental St. Matthew Passion was first performed on Good Friday in 1727 at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. It is the largest single composition Bach ever wrote, both in terms of length and in terms of instrumental and vocal forces. It requires two choruses, two orchestras, four vocal soloists for the arias and vocal soloists for each of the various character parts. Philippe Herreweghe's 1999 recording of Bach's masterpiece features a stellar cast and was a perennial catalog bestseller.

John Beard, Francesco Borosini, Annibale Fabri: these three men helped to revolutionized music in the 18th century. Their voices moved the greatest composers of the time to increasingly write for tenors, a move from the Castrati, which had dominated opera since 1600. Now, three centuries since this trio’s brilliance encouraged a surge of new repertoire for the vocal range, world renowned tenor Ian Bostridge celebrates their legacy with his stunning new release, Three Baroque Tenors.

It is more or less axiomatic now that anything Graham Johnson turns his hand to will be perfectly realised, and here it proves once again to be the case. That he is accompanying eight of the finest voices in the young and middle generations of British singers can only have helped. Hyperion supplies full texts and a recorded sound of complete fidelity. These are, moreover, well filled discs. It is plain that nothing short of a strong recommendation will do.

This is a St Matthew Passion which should please many readers. Bruggen’s interpretation is eloquent, thoughtful in matters of style and expressive content, and it benefits from a textural clarity which few competitors can rival. All aspects of Bach’s miraculous score are taken into account.

Despite its brevity, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas holds many charms for audience and performers alike, so it's no wonder that there has recently been something of a boomlet in recordings and reissues (certainly, it doesn't hurt that this mini-sized opera fits easily on one disc). This particular traversal is helmed by the rising young French conductor and harpsichordist Emmanuelle Haïm, whose snap and vigor in this repertoire is immensely appealing. Another real pleasure is getting to know the stylish Concert d'Astrée, whose poise and elegance is a welcome addition to the roster of Baroque ensembles.

Composing has always formed an integral part of the artistic life of pianist-conductor Olli Mustonen (b. 1967) and he first emerged as a symphonist in the early 2010s. This album by the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra with Olli Mustonen conducting contains two of his most latest symphonies, both dramatic works firmly rooted and continuing the tradition of the great classical composers. Seeking inspiration from multiple sources, the theme of Mustonen’s 2nd Symphony, ‘Johannes Angelos’ (2013), is the ancient city of Constantinople and its mysticism.

Composing has always formed an integral part of the artistic life of pianist-conductor Olli Mustonen (b. 1967) and he first emerged as a symphonist in the early 2010s. This album by the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra with Olli Mustonen conducting contains two of his most latest symphonies, both dramatic works firmly rooted and continuing the tradition of the great classical composers. Seeking inspiration from multiple sources, the theme of Mustonen’s 2nd Symphony, ‘Johannes Angelos’ (2013), is the ancient city of Constantinople and its mysticism. Mustonen’s 3rd Symphony, ‘Taivaanvalot’ (Heavenly Lights) (2020) is based on a section in the Finnish national epic Kalevala and inspired by the cosmic and shamanistic elements in Finnish mythology. In this recording, the solo part is being sung by internationally acclaimed tenor Ian Bostridge.

Bostridge is sharply attuned to the subtlety of Handel's work setting, colouring his sound with a rich palette of timbres and effects: sonorous and sensuous in 'Ombra mai fù', hauntingly stark in 'Total eclipse'. …Harry Bicket's direction is sensitive and unfussy - tempos are well-judged, allowing him to shape Handel's long-breathed melodic lines with supple grace.

The marvelous voice of tenor Ian Bostridge could not be more perfect for this program of Bach cantatas and arias. Like Hans Hotter before him, Bostridge's voice has a unique ethereal quality, a hollow distance that identifies less with the character and more the spirit of the subject. His singing clearly captures the "disembodied presence", as Michel Roubinet aptly puts it in the booklet's notes, of the mortal somewhere between resignation of the world and the ultimate union with Christ–the theme that links every selection here.

Brad Mehldau presents The Folly of Desire, a song cycle inquiring the limits of sexual freedom in a post-#MeToo political age, together with tenor Ian Bostridge, one of the greatest song interpreters of our times. Setting poetry by Blake, Yeats, Shakespeare, Brecht, Goethe, Auden and Cummings, Mehldau’s music shifts seamlessly between a jazz idiom and Classical art song, and the work explores a theme as timeless as it is topical. The stylistic diversity of this project is underlined by adding a selection of jazz standards, as well as a Schubert lied.