Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Piano Music (SOMM)

(Déjà Review) All credit to Bebbington and Somm for opening this stimulating door [RB]

Schreker: Irrelohe (Sony Classical)

Exotically scored but melodically diffuse, this melodrama is given the best possible advocacy [RMo]

Maskats: Tango (Ondine)

Attractive, often beautiful works in superb performances and recordings, worth repeated hearing [HC]

Kapustin: Piano Concerto 5 (Capriccio)

Kapustin’s jazz-based music brought to life in brilliant fashion [JW]

Iannaccone: Looking Back, Moving On (Navona Records)

Aureate radiance: radiant in calm; radiant in storm [RB]

Dukas: Complete Piano Music (Piano Classics)

Maltempo captures the romantic sweep of the music and its nuances wonderfully well [JF]

Barrueco: Complete Recordings (Warner Classics)

A goldmine for guitar aficionados, and general music lovers, too; the excellence of the playing can be taken for granted [GF]

Beethoven: Piano Concertos 1-5 (Warner Classics)

(Déjà Review) A revelation of what can still be revealed by dedicated musicians [RB]

Allegri: Miserere (Coro)

(Déjà Review) Those famous tumbling high Cs in the Allegri are piercing in their exaltation – tonal splendour and vocal blend a joy throughout [TH]

Alkan piano RCA09026633102

Alkan & Liszt: Piano Works (RCA)

Utterly commanding – refuses to let you do anything other than flinch, succumb, brave it out and celebrate [RB]

Schubert mullerin CR063

Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin (Convivium Records)

Very touching – anyone with an inclination for the intimate format should definitely lend an ear to this [GF]

Haendel Hassid PACL95011

Ida Haendel & Josef Hassid (violins) (Parnassus)

Polish contemporaries – violinistic brilliance [JW]

hildegard chants signum

Hildegard of Bingen: Sacred Chants (Signum Classics)

This disc goes straight to my list of recordings of the year [JV]

Wang project 4864478

Yuja Wang (piano) The American Project (Deutsche Grammophon)

Yuja Wang scintillates in an exciting new large-scale American concerto [NB]

VW Syms CDA68405

Vaughan Williams: Symphonies 7 & 9 (Hyperion)

Vividly recorded and handsomely played accounts of two great, but challenging, symphonies [RMo]

Prospice Songs Meridian DUOCD89026

Prospice (Meridian Records)

A recording which has somehow failed to attract much notice but proves to be a complete revelation [LF]

Walton choral 8555793

Walton: Choral works (Naxos)

Some very fine music in absolutely top class performances which are accorded recorded sound of comparable excellence [JQ]

Szymamowski Hagith PMoC SMP201404

Szymanowski: Hagith (Polish Ministry of Culture)

A reissue of a unique and valuable recording undermined by catastrophic failures of presentation [PCG]

shostakovich berliner

Shostakovich: Symphonies 8-10 (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings)

Bravo, bravo, and thrice bravo; Kirill Petrenko’s Shostakovich sweeps the board [DM]

Cherubini Les Abencérages Bru Zane BZ1050

Cherubini: Les Abencérages (Bru Zane)

This first studio recording of Cherubini’s Les Abencérages is especially valuable [MC]

Edwin Fischer Concert in Strasbourg 1953 Maestro Editions ME221

Edwin Fischer (piano): Concert in Strasbourg, 1953 (Maestro Editions)

Edwin Fischer’s elevated live Mozart performances in imperfect sound [JW]

German Symphony 2 Penny Naxos 8555228

German: Symphony 2 (Naxos)

A worthy re-issue of one of the finest pre-Elgarian British symphonies [GH]

David Rizzio Makaris Olde Focus FCR921

The Galant David Rizzio (Olde Focus Recordings)

An interesting contribution to our knowledge of the music scene in 18th-century England and the history of Scottish traditional music [JV]

Chinoiserie Lin BISCD1110

Chinoiserie (BIS)

A veritable treasure trove of delights [CC]