For his first recording on the Alpha label, Sergey Kasprov, a young Russian artist trained at the Moscow Conservatory, defies the laws of time. He has in fact chosen to create a dialogue between great Baroque geniuses and Russian Romantics: Rameau, Lully, Loeillet, Bach and Scarlatti revised by Tausig, Godowsky and Rachmaninov.In the tradition of Marcelle Meyer, Glenn Gould or, more recently, Alexandre Tharaud, Sergey Kasprov pulls off the tour de force of freeing himself from Baroque interpretative codes and, at the same time, from those of the 19th century, to better get back to the essential.The excellent recording quality attests ideally to the discourse, respectful of the original counterpoint as well as unfailing digital dexterity necessitated by appropriate ornamentation and the amazing sound palette required by late Romanticism, all on a Steinway contemporary with Rachmaninov.

GRAMOPHONE AWARD 2015 WINNER (RECITAL CATEGORY). A welcome return of Carolyn Sampson and Ex Cathedra to Hyperion, performing the rich, fulsome music of the French Baroque. Their recording of love songs from Rameau’s operas (Hyperion CDA67447) was hugely acclaimed for Sampson’s stylish, fluid, seductive performances, and ten years later her artistry is even more dazzling. This album is of particular interest as rather than concentrating on one composer it showcases the works written for the premiere soprano of the day, Marie Fel. Voltaire called her his ‘adorable nightingale’. For d’Aquin, she was an enchanted being. Marie Fel was the soprano who held an entire generation spellbound at the Paris Opéra and at Louis XV’s court during one of the most glorious periods of French music. With a voice described as ‘pure, charming, silvery’ (La Borde), ‘touching and sublime’ (Grimm) and ‘always lovely, always seductive’ (d’Aquin), she inspired some of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s finest music and introduced a whole new level of virtuosity and expression into the French singing tradition. Her long, triumphant career is traced through this fascinating recording.

Vivaldi, Handel, Purcel, J.S. Bach and now Rameau: London Baroque is proceeding through the Baroque Masters at an impressive pace. After acclaimed recordings of the Fantazias of Purcell and Bach's trio sonatas the turn has come to Pièces de Clavecin en Concerts, Jean-Philippe Rameau's important collection of chamber music works. The title (Concert pieces for harpsichord) is actually misleading, for although the harpsichord does play an important role throughout, the violin and viola da gamba are indispensable. Here London Baroque members Ingrid Seifert, Charles Medlam and Terence Charlston again prove their almost uncanny ability to play as one. Being mainly famous for his operas and stage works, Rameau in his Pièces has created a series of character pieces of which many are portraits of friends and acquaintances of the composer. Among the titles are the names and colleagues such as Marais and Forqueray but there is also a delightful self-portrait in La Rameau. A kaleidoscopic journey through the artistic circles of Paris in 1740, which can only be recommended.

Rameau on the piano? It's not altogether unheard of – there were a handful of classic recordings made by Robert Casadesus back in 1952 – but, despite many recordings of Bach, Handel, and Scarlatti on the piano in the digital age, there's been precious little Rameau on the piano until this Angela Hewitt recording of three complete suites from 2006. By choosing the Suite in E minor from the Pièces de clavecin of 1731 plus the Suites in G minor and A minor from Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin, Hewitt has for the most part stayed away from the more evocatively titled works and stuck to the standard stylized Baroque dance forms of the allemande, courante, and gigue. Justly celebrated for her cool and clean Bach recordings, this strategy works well for Hewitt. Without seeming to resort to the sustain or the mute pedal, she floats Rameau's lines and melodies, and without seeming to exaggerate the accents or dynamics, she gives Rameau's rhythms a wonderful sense of lift. In the deliberately evocative movements from the G minor Suite – "La poule," "Les sauvages," and especially "L'egiptienne" – Hewitt seems to bring less to the music – her interpretations are remarkably straight – and to get less out of it – her performances are remarkably bland.

An opera of adventurous and lavish scope, Rameau’s magical Achante et Céphise receives its world premiere recording – 270 years after its staged premiere at the Académie royale de musique in celebration of the birth of Louis XV’s grandson. The first French opera to feature clarinets, it offers a rich sequence of choruses, ballets and virtuoso ariettes and opens with a celebratory overture which includes a graphic musical depiction of a fireworks display. Alexis Kossenko conducts tenor Cyrille Dubois and soprano Sabine Devieilhe in the title roles, Les Ambassadeurs – the orchestra he founded in 2010 – and the choral singers of Les Chantres du CMBV (Centre de musique baroque de Versailles).

Gramophone-Award-winning harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani has recorded Rameau's Pièces de clavecin in the historic setting of the Music Room at Hatchlands Park in Surrey. This is a masterclass for the instrument, confirming this young artist as a truly great player: in the words of International Record Review his technique is beyond criticism and his inherent musicianship goes far deeper than mere surface understanding it is difficult not to warm to such a musician'. This double album comprises the whole of Rameau's output of keyboard suites, and Esfahani rejoices in its wealth of genius, its excitement and drama. Rameau is a composer whose revival is ongoing, and his unique combination of the witty and the cerebral, the light and the curmudgeonly, abounds throughout his harpsichord music.

Trevor Pinnock is one of the world's leading exponents of historical performance practice, and this collection of Baroque keyboard favorites is one of his most successful attempts to communicate his musical values to a broad audience. These popular works are often anthologized, but seldom have they sounded as fresh and exciting as they do here. Handel's Harmonious Blacksmith and Bach's Italian Concerto are the best known of these selections, though Pinnock's playing liberates them from their use as flashy encore pieces and instead treats them as more intimate entertainments. François Couperin's magical Les baricades mistérieuses and Rameau's Gavotte Variations are also well known, and their inclusion on any disc of the harpsichord's "greatest hits" is de rigueur. Domenico Scarlatti's two Sonatas in E major are still brilliant, even at the lower tuning (A=415). The remaining works of this collection are perhaps less-widely heard, but each offers insights into both Pinnock's interpretive skills and the instrument's wealth of possibilities.