When Joshua Rifkin began recording Bach vocal works to demonstrate his one-singer-per-part thesis, he started not with the lightly scored early cantatas but rather with the Holy of Holies–the B-Minor Mass. (Don't accuse the man of starting small.) Predictably, outrage ensued: detractors far outnumbered supporters at the time (though this seems to be gradually changing). Musicology or not, Rifkin's approach works. Bach's florid vocal parts are far more negotiable for soloists than for chorus; period instruments never overwhelm the voices. Certainly the standard of baroque- instrument playing, particularly brass, has improved since 1980; but Rifkin's instrumentalists, especially woodwinds, are quite listenable.

Having been relegated to a moral space of exclusion and fear in the Middle Ages, madness subsequently became a major social phenomenon. Brought under control and personified as 'Folly' in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it provided scope for social and moral criticism, leading composers and librettists to give it a prominent place on the operatic stage. Here Stphanie d'Oustrac and the Amarillis ensemble present its multiple facets, from seduction to passionate love, from despair to joy, revealing the underlying truths of humanity in the Baroque era.

This release offers four works [by] Johann Ernst Bach (1722-77), Johann Christoph Altnikol (1719-59), Johann Bernhard Bach (1676-1749), and Georg Gottfried Wagner (1698-1756)…The level of craftsmanship in these works is indicative of Bach's art. Stylistically, they range from the foursquare formality of the baroque to the charm of the emerging rococo…The singing is light-toned and agile, with proper weight of emotion and excellent dynamic range…

Paul McCartney must not only have been conscious of his slipping commercial fortunes, he must have realized that his records hadn't been treated seriously for years, so he decided to make a full-fledged comeback effort with Flowers in the Dirt. His most significant move was to write a series of songs with Elvis Costello, some of which appeared on Costello's own Spike and many of which surfaced here. These may not be epochal songs, the way many wished them to be, but McCartney and Costello turn out to be successful collaborators, spurring each other toward interesting work.

The ensemble Musica Antiqua Roma specializes in the vast and partly forgotten repertoire of the music by Roman composers from the 17th and 18th centuries. Here they turn their attention to Corelli and his contemporaries, including Sonatas by Corelli himself Carbonelli, Mossi, Viconti, Castrucci, Locatelli and Montanari. Many of the works here are world premiere recordings.