Portuguese virtuoso Artur Pizarro makes a welcome return with works by two brilliant pianist-composers. The Brazilian Henrique Oswald and the Portuguese Alfredo Napoleão were born in the same year, less than three months apart. Both were child prodigies who became concert pianists, pedagogues and composers. Oswald's Piano Concerto dates from about 1886. Although influences of Faure can be detected, its overall character owes more to the late Romantic German style. Napoleao's Piano Concerto No.2 is undated but was probably composed around the same time as Oswald's. Pizarro is only the third pianist to champion this spectacular work.

Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 is the daddythe most popular ever written. Much recorded, Jack Liebeck turns in a dazzling performance of youthful vigour, prefacing the Concerto with the gorgeous Serenade and a Romance.

Previous BIS releases of works by John Pickard have mainly featured instrumental compositions. This recording presents another facet of the British composer’s work, with compositions for choir under the expert direction of Martyn Brabbins as well as two instrumental pieces. The five short Latin motets as well as Ozymandias, Pickard’s opus 1, can be described as ‘occasional pieces’ composed during the composer’s student years or for the choir he conducts at the University of Bristol.

A bracing excursion to the Indian subcontinent via the Scottish Highlands: the compelling force of Scottish Modernism that is Erik Chisholm makes a welcome reappearance on Hyperion. Matthew Trusler and Danny Driver are the committed soloists in the two large-scale concertante works.

The centuries do indeed ‘roll away’ as the libretto addresses questions of empire—Roman and Victorian—and Britain’s place in the world. But that shouldn’t detract from the music; this is simply glorious and worthy of the mature Elgar.

Two late, great Vaughan Williams symphonies: with the ‘Antartica’ and No 9, Martyn Brabbins and his BBC forces complete a cycle enthusiastically acclaimed by Radio 3 Record Review as ‘unmissable’.

Our survey of orchestral music by Cyril Scott comes to a close with the premiere recording of the Cello Concerto and Symphony No. 1. The BBC Philharmonic is conducted by Martyn Brabbins, with Paul Watkins as the cello soloist. From an early stage of his musical education Scott was influenced by German artistic ideas and his Symphony No. 1 is dedicated to the poet Stefan George. We have Percy Grainger to thank for preserving the score, in which Scott experiments with a modern rhapsodic style. The Cello Concerto is a later work and shows the influence of Ravel and Debussy. This is a virtuosic and extravagant work full of mysticism and haunting melodies.

Cyril Scott's music inhabits a sound-world that is very much its own, despite the inevitable comparisons to composers such as Scriabin, Sorabji, and even the French impressionists. This new recording of the First Piano Concerto – the first one in over 30 years – takes a fresher, lighter approach that is absolutely thrilling in the outer movements.

This Hyperion's release reaches Belgium and the music of Joseph Jongen, a composer more celebrated for his organ music now, but who was equally admired in his day for his orchestral and chamber works. On this new album Philippe Graffin collaborates with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic and Martyn Brabbins in Jongen's Violin Concerto, one of the composer's first substantial works. Also included are other works for violin and orchestra, and a Rapsodie by Italian Romantic Sylvio Lazzari who was influenced - as was Jongen - by the music of Cesar Franck.

MacMillan’s viola concerto was written for Lawrence Power, who brings a unique authority to this, its first recording. The fourth symphony—a major addition to the repertoire—is a generous and appropriate coupling, both works incorporating and alchemically transforming musical elements from the distant past.