By the early 1620s – when Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla migrated from Cádiz to New Spain (modernday Mexico) in search of new horizons as a music director, composer and instrument-maker – the colony was an important and wealthy outpost of the Habsburg Empire, keen to maintain the religious and musical customs of its mother country. The cathedral of the young, thriving city of Puebla de los Ángeles was still a magnificent work in progress, but its music provision could already rival its European counterparts. Padilla stayed there for forty years, composing prolifically right up to his death in 1664, and had at his disposal a sizeable body of men and boys who not only sang but also played instruments – including guitars, sackbut, dulcian, and simple percussion such as the cajón.

The predominantly Viennese quartet Polwechsel have exhaustively explored the grey areas between composition and improvisation, electronic and acoustic, jazz and classical for much of the past decade. Austrian Christian Fennesz, while initially a guitarist, is primarily known for his abrasive yet melodic laptop explorations on labels such as Mego and Touch. Wrapped Islands documents the much-anticipated first meeting of these two driving forces of contemporary music.

Of all the reconstructions prompted by the 1991 Mozart jamboree, Philip Wilby’s recreation of the Violin and Piano Concerto of 1778 was the most worthwhile. Wilby skilfully completed the 120-bar fragment of the first movement and took the slow movement and finale from the unusually brilliant, ‘public’ D major Violin Sonata, K306. There are problems – not least of dates – with Wilby’s thesis that the Sonata is the ‘last resting-place’ of the projected double concerto. But the three movements certainly make a satisfying entity. Midori and Eschenbach give an immensely polished reading, phrasing with unfailing subtlety and sophistication.

This is the first in a series of four albums recording all 80 of the folk songs in English that Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged for voice and piano or violin. 57 of the 80 songs have not previously been recorded in these arrangements, so there is a good deal of unknown - but very beautiful - music to be found here.

« Pour écrire ça, il faut être un poète », confie Massenet à Reynaldo Hahn en lisant la partition de L'Île du rêve. Composé alors que le jeune homme n'a pas encore dix-huit ans, ce « lever de rideau » possède déjà les qualités des grandes oeuvres de l'époque. S'y révèlent les talents de coloriste d'un Bizet, les élans passionnés d'un Massenet et même l'originalité prosodique du premier Debussy.

Festive baroque or sparkling virtuoso: the trumpet has many faces, and it is still an absolute exception to find a woman among the great virtuosos of this instrument. The young British trumpeter Alison Balsom is one of these exceptional phenomena. In 2006, Alison Balsom was crowned "Young British Classical Performer of the Year" by the quality watchdogs of classical music; the British Gramophone magazine also awarded her a Gramophone Award 2006. Their current album "Caprice" combines exotic and high virtuosity, lyrical and romantic.

The viol consort was introduced to England in the early sixteenth century and was mainstay of domestic music until the middle of the seventeenth century. After the Restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660, things rapidly changed with the rise in popularity of the violin amongst court musical lfe and amateurs. Composers soon ceased to contribute to the viol consort repertory, with some of Purcell's contemporaries such as Roger North regretting the change. North acknowledged that the violin was 'very excellent in it's kind', but thought that the 'noble Base Viol' embodied all its 'sublimitys'. As North recognised, the viol was not entirely supplanted by the violin in the Restoration period. The bass viol remained in use as a continuo instrument in chamber music until the early eighteenth century, and the instrument acquired a new repertory of solos, duet and trios with continuo. This recording is a survey of this little-known but rewarding repertory.

Bruckner's E Minor Mass and a selection of his profoundly beautiful motets were selected by Sir Stephen Cleobury as his last album at King's, recorded only a few months before his death. Perhaps the deepest and most spiritual of Bruckner's masses, the 'Mass in E minor' is unusual in its scoring for choir, wind and brass. It is recorded here by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in King's College Chapel. The album is accompanied by a specially-commissioned Appreciation for Sir Stephen, written by Professor Iain Fenlon, as well as Shades of the Past in Bruckner's Sacred Music - another commissioned essay on Bruckner's works by Dr. Martin Ennis.

Completion of an internationally acclaimed series: Aapo Häkkinen and the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra conclude the cycle of Bach's harpsichord concertos with the concertos for 3 and 4 harpsichords.Here, too, Häkkinen surprises in terms of instrumentation: The harpsichords represent different schools of instrument building (German, Flemish, French and Italian), resulting in a remarkably differentiated sound. With Miklós Spányi, Cristiano Holtz, and Anna-Maaria Oramo, Häkkinen is supported by experienced companions. This keyboard festival is rounded off with the monumental Duetto by the eccentric Bach pupil Johann Gottfried Müthel, presented by specialists Miklós Spányi and Aapo Häkkinen on two historical clavichords. The SuperAudioCD, recorded in Finland and Sweden, offers stereo and surround sound.

The RAI Pasquale of 1955 is almost as good as the two Verdis [#4 Otello and #551 Traviata], marred only by Italo Tajo's overdone mugging in the title-part. Alda Noni, remembered affectionately by older opera-goers in the same part at London's Cambridge Theatre in the late 1940s, remains a charming, minxish though now more buxom Norina. Sesto Bruscantini is a model of a Malatesta, Cesare Valletti even better as an Ernesto in the class of his teacher, Tito Schipa. Erede's seasoned conducting and a resourceful staging makes this a delightful experience.

Amore is the eleventh studio album by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, released on 31 January 2006, for the Valentine's Day season. This album features a remake of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love"; "Because We Believe", the closing song of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, which Bocelli wrote and performed; "Somos Novios (It's Impossible), a duet with American pop singer Christina Aguilera; and his first recording of Bésame Mucho, which eventually became one of his signature songs. Amore debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, which at the time was Bocelli's highest chart position in America yet. It went on to sell 1.66 million copies in the United States and was certified Platinum. Bocelli was the seventh best-selling artist of 2006, in the United States, and was also certified Gold and Platinum in several other counties.

Alison Balsom’s fourth CD for EMI Classics features Franz Joseph Haydn and Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s evergreen trumpet concertos, coupled with concertos by Johann Baptist Georg Neruda and Giuseppe Torelli. Balsom also directs Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

The Emerson String Quartet makes its Pentatone debut with a recording of Schumann’s three string quartets. Penned in the summer of 1842 during an exceptional peak of creativity, these quartets formed the beginning of a six-month surge during which most of Schumann’s best chamber music saw the light. Inspired by the example of Beethoven, Schumann’s quartets display a mastery of traditional forms, combined with typically Schumannian fantasy and lyricism, particularly in the inner movements. As such, they underline a new level of maturity in Schumann’s artistic development, surpassing the fantastical aesthetic of previous years.

Composed in 1866 for the inauguration of a votive chapel in Linz Cathedral, Anton Bruckner’s Mass no. 2 is a fine example of modernity blended with a centuries-old religious tradition, in that wind instruments are set in dialogue with choral writing inspired by Gregorian chant. Shorter in duration but scored for chorus and large orchestra with four soloists, his Te Deum of 1881 was acclaimed by such illustrious contemporaries as Hans Richter and Mahler, while the composer, usually very self-critical, opined that the score of this work would make God ‘judge him kindly’.

Richard Strauss was appointed co-director of the Vienna State Opera in 1919 and soon set about composing a new ballet for the refurbished historic Redoutensaal in the city. At carnival in February 1923 the work was unveiled - a delectable series of eight arrangements of music by François Couperin called Tanzsuite. For the Divertimento, an orchestral suite that includes characteristic Straussian orchestration, and which was written many years later, Strauss rearranged six movements from the earlier work and added two further dances.