This "Idomeneo" takes us to Zurich from Vienna and again Harnoncourt finds much fire and passion in a work which is notoriously difficult to bring off. My selected comparison here was the indefatigable Peter Maag (Arts Archives) whose litheness of tempi and superb singing team is given a good run for their money by Harnoncourt and in particular the booming voice of Hollweg who can safely lay claim to be one of the finest Idomeneo's on record. Yet again Harnoncourt is a thrilling exponent of the Mozartian idiom and the opera really finds a dramatic twinge especially in the final act.

Surely a Judas Maccabaeus recorded on modern instruments nearly twenty years ago is one to ignore? Well, no. Charles Mackerras is one of music’s fresher minds, and he has always favoured incisive rhythms, clear textures, light bowing and carefully varied articulation in Baroque music. The ECO responds with verve to the wondrous grace and variety of Handel’s music. The late Russell Burgess’s Wandsworth School Choir is an eloquent testament of what is possible in an inner-city comprehensive given will-power and a gifted enough teacher.

Nurtured by Sunday radio broadcasts of cantatas in his youth, Michel Corboz very soon developed a deep admiration for Bach, whose music was the guiding thread of his career. He approached every major sacred work, some more than once, always questioning the score and exploring new interpretive options. This album is a selection of the best moments from the passions, masses and oratorios, featuring beautiful vocal soloists such as José van Dam, Sandrine Piau and more. It also includes some instrumental tracks with keyboard concertos by Maria João Pires.

The particular strength of the Teldec reissue is its splendid cast, all of whom are technically outstanding, invest their every word with meaning and make recitatives fully alive. The titlerole is in fact one of the smallest, but Tear makes a burly, headstrong king, who handles the scene of the writing on the wall with fine dramatic instinct… Palmer is immensely moving… Esswood, as Daniel, impresses by the beauty of his tone and his command of long phrases; Lehane's brilliantly exuberant ornamentation, apparently improvisatory, marks her as a natural mistress of the style…and van der Bilt shows a rich voice throughout… The Stockholm Chamber Choir is firm-toned and tidy.

This is the sixth set in this comprehensive and excellent Handel edition from Warner. This volume deals with an important oratorio in the shape of "Saul" as well as the "Utrecht Te Deum" and the famous "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day" and "Alexander's Feast", another splendid cantata. The recordings date from the early 1970's to 1990 and come from the prolific Teldec stable under the indefatigable Nikolaus Harnoncourt who conducts in his exemplary no nonsense fashion. "Saul' is a fine interpretation although I still feel that John Eliot Gardiner comes to the core of the work better. "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day' is also given a pomp and circumstance treatment whilst the Utrecht Te Deum is winningly done. The team of soloists is also very good and the recordings are fine and well balanced in proper Teldec tradition.

Britten’s dramatic cantata Phaedra is the resonant centre of this new release in EMI’s excellent British Composers series. The steely gleam at the core of Felicity Palmer’s mezzo-soprano, and the hard white light of the Endymion’s outstanding ensemble playing make for a fierce kindling of Britten’s music with Robert Lowell’s words at one exceptional moment in the work’s performing history. John Whitfield’s direction ensures that the Five French Folksongs are nicely poised between raw simplicity and elegant sophistication, while the Endymion’s incisive playing warms to the sensuousness of Jill Gomez’s Les Illuminations.

Celebrate the 250th anniversary of Handel's death with this impressive box set. 30-CD box set of the composer's most celebrated works–including the Royal Fireworks and Water Music, The Messiah, concerti grossi and much more! Featuring conductors Sir Neville Marriner, Christopher Hogwood, Trevor Pinnock, Mark Minkowski and others. Performances by the Gabrielli Players, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, English Baroque Soloists and others.

This anthology of devotional music from 18th-century Venice and Naples offers an interesting and varied programme. Best known is Pergolesi’s Stabat mater, but the settings by Domenico Scarlatti and Bononcini stand well in comparison. The motets by Lotti, Caldara and Alessandro Scarlatti are real discoveries; Norrington’s performances of the latter are particularly fine. Guest’s Pergolesi suffers from a focus of sound which makes the interpretation seem somewhat generalised. However, all these performances give pleasure, while the music is melodically fresh and rhythmically vital.

Alessandro Corbelli takes the title role in Annabel Arden’s whirlwind production of Puccini’s compact opera, in which the scheming Gianni Schicchi retrieves for himself the spoils of a disinherited family to pave the way for his daughter to marry her love. As performed at Glyndebourne, Gianni Schicci is here combined in a double bill with Rachmaninov's dark setting of Alexander Pushkin's 'little tragedy'. The Miserly Knight, also directed by Annabel Arden and featuring an outstanding performance from Sergei Leiferkus in the role written for the great Russian bass Fyodor Chaliapin.

This is one of Handel's most inspired and invigorating works. Relatively short (50 minutes), it is an ode to music itself, with arias and choruses in praise of the attributes of various instruments, from the "trumpet's loud clangor" to the "soft complaining flute", of course featuring solos for those players. It also has one of Handel's most rousing final choruses, depicting the end of the world, when "music shall untune the sky".