Masterful Norweigan storytellers Wardruna reveal yet another masterstroke in their mission to understand and integrate ancient thoughts, tools and methods to produce something relevant to the moderne era.

German-born baritone Benjamin Appl studied with the legendary Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, whose voice his own resembles on the surface. But then he moved to England and has stayed on there. Heimat (Homeland) is not just an exploration of that German concept, but a personal statement and even a bit of an autobiography, with notes from the artist himself (find these if you listen via download or stream) explaining the resonances of each individual song. This kind of personal connection is what classical music in general needs right now, and all the more so in the rather closed tradition of the German Lied.

Frifot's self-titled 1999 album shows why they are among the flagship artists in the Swedish folk revival movement, melding traditional instruments like flutes, mandola, dulcimer, pipes, octave fiddle and fiddle with folk and jazz idioms. The trio, which consists of Per Gudmundson, Ale Moller and Lena Willemark, turns in a less jazz-oriented work than their prior albm Nordan. Instead, Frifot brings the folk aspects of the group's vocals and fiddling to the forefront, particularly on songs like "Abba Fader," "Vindlaren" and "Om Stenen."

Following their acclaimed collaboration in Percy Graingers Folk Music, soprano Claire Booth and pianist Christopher Glynn turn to the Lyric Music of Edvard Grieg, an apt sequel as the elder composer befriended Grainger- who idolized the Norwegians folkloric idiom- immediately on their first encounter in London in 1906. Interspersing intimate vocal miniatures with lyrical solo piano pieces, Claire and Christopher mirror many of the programmes that Grieg and his wife Nina performed on their many recital tours together. Each of the works on Lyric Music tells a story as does the album as a whole ranging in mood from bright, youthful innocence to shades of autumnal twilight. Sung in the original Norwegian, Claires and Christophers performances are as evocative as Norways varied landscape.

Beecham had an exquisite ear for detail, and his Peer Gynt has more fantasy — more subtlety, too — than anyone else's: Ase s Death and Anitra 's Dance are simply magical. So is the Symphonic Dance, and if In Autumn and the variations occasionally seem a litde thin musically, Beecham makes amends with keenness of attack and eloquent phrasing. The orchestra is superb and the transfers (which give us the variations in stereo for the first time), excellent.

If ever there was a baritone voice made for this music, Bo Skovhus’s is it…Except for the Lange-Müller and Malling items here making their debut on disc, most of the songs on this CD have been recorded before, but mainly in mixed programs, and not, in my opinion, as consistently well sung and beautifully played as they are on this Chandos release. Bo Skovhus is phenomenal, and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Michael Schønwandt is equally magnificent. This is a must-have CD.

Jazz musicians in the main rarely take music from ancient times and advance it with improvisation, as modernity generally speaks for itself. Jan Garbarek has always been the type of performer interested in taking natural and spiritual elements from his native Norway, incorporating them into his personalized saxophone sound, but here with Rosensfole he's outdone himself, adapting historic period medieval folk songs toward a futuristic mood. The singing of Agnes Buen Garnas and Garbarek's various percussion or synthesizer sounds surround a minimal complement of tenor or soprano saxophone, reminiscent of aural imagery perhaps from the Moors, the upper atmosphere, or the cold waters of his homeland.