Yevgeny Sudbin made his sensational début on disc with a programme of sonatas by Scarlatti, but soon continued with recordings of music by later composers from his native Russia. 2010 saw Sudbin’s return to the 18th century, with a Haydn recital which has confirmed his reputation as a highly versatile musician ‘whose exquisite nuances, shimmering colours and rare rhetorical power make him an ideal Haydn interpreter’ (Pizzicato). Now, he presents his first disc in a series of Beethoven’s piano concertos. Opening with the composer’s final two works in the genre, Sudbin shares the stage with Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, a team whose Beethoven credentials are assured after their recent cycle of the nine symphonies – ‘unquestionably one the great Beethoven cycles’ according to ClassicsToday.com. If Beethoven’s first works in the concerto genre are indebted to Mozart, the composer had found his own when he came to compose his fourth. This is evident from the very beginning of the work where, instead of the expected orchestral introduction, the solo piano enters, signalling the intimate and lyrical quality of the work. No less innovative is Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat major – considered by many to be the finest of all piano concertos.

Austrian composer-conductor HK Gruber and Swedish trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger are collaborators of long standing, whose previous joint projects include the highly successful trumpet concerto Aerial. Busking, too,was also composed at the instigation of Hardenberger. In his own liner notes, Gruber relates how the piece, which here receives its premiere recording, came into being. The original commission was for string orchestra and solo trumpet in C, without the use of mutes, slides or unorthodox playing techniques, but this soon developed into something rather more complicated, partly through Hardenberger’s own insights. The solo trumpet part of the finished work involves both E flat and C trumpets, as well as the flugelhorn, and the soloist is also required to play on the mouthpiece alone; it furthermore employs various mutes and techniques such as multiphonics. The final score also includes solo parts for banjo and accordion, as well as some highly involved writing for strings, making Busking, in Gruber’s own words, ‘one of my most difficult pieces, a tour de force for the soloists and orchestral musicians alike.’

The Hermitage String Trio's new release highlights some of Mozart’s lesser-known works: the Divertimento in E flat major, KV 563 and two of the Fugues with slow Preludes from the set of six, KV 404a (after Bach). The Divertimento is not only Mozart’s sole large-scale composition for string trio, it is also one of the first works ever written for the combination of violin, viola, and cello. It was composed in 1788, the same year as three of Mozart’s greatest and best-known works, the symphonies in E flat, G minor, and C (the ‘Jupiter’). Mozart was at the absolute height of his powers as a composer, and at the premiere of the divertimento in Dresden in 1789, he himself played the viola part. The Fugues With Slow Preludes featured on this release are transcriptions of works by Bach. In No. 4, the prelude derives from Bach’s organ trio Sonata No. 3, and the fugue is Contrapunctus VIII from Die Kunst der Fuge. The fifth prelude and fugue are formed from the second and third movements of Bach’s second organ sonata. Steeped in the Russian tradition of string playing, the Hermitage String Trio has performed with such great musicians as Yehudi Menuhin, Martha Argerich, Anne-Sophie Mutter, and Gidon Kremer.

Elisabeth Söderström (1927–2009) stars in this live BBC broadcast of Richard Strauss’s comic and pioneering opera Intermezzo, recorded at Glyndebourne in 1974. The unique performance is now available on CD for the first time as part of Chandos’ Opera in English historical series. One of the great sopranos of the twentieth century, Söderström appeared in some thirteen Glyndebourne festival seasons over a period of twenty-five years, her performances of Richard Strauss particularly admired. Invited to sing the central role of Christine in the first performance in Britain of Intermezzo, this Swedish-born, multi-lingual artist insisted it should be sung in English – contrary to the company’s policy at the time. Glyndebourne’s George Christie sums up the soprano's brilliance: ‘She was a consummate singer / actress – a mistress of pathos and an exquisite comedienne. She was beguilingly beautiful. Audiences fell in love with her as did her team-mates on stage – and off-stage. At Glyndebourne she reigned supreme.'

Edward Gregson is one of Britain’s most versatile composers, whose music has been performed, broadcast, and recorded worldwide. This is the third volume in Chandos’ series devoted to concertos by Gregson, of whom International Record Review said: ‘He speaks to a large audience, without sacrificing integrity. With superb performances and sound… this [CHAN10105] is a release of vital, attractive and immensely likeable music.’ Gregson's lifelong fascination with the concerto form began early but as he was brought up in a Salvationist family it was inevitable that the brilliant sound of the British brass band should play an important role in the formative years of his composing career. This led to a parallel universe of musical experiences: ‘On the one hand I was playing music by some fine brass band composers and on the other being absorbed in the music of Bartók, Prokofiev,  Hindemith, Webern, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Tippett, and others.’ On this release, the solo trombone part is performed by Peter Moore, who at the age of twelve years was the youngest contestant ever to win BBC’s Young Musician of the Year award in 2008. Gregson describes the writing for the soloist as ‘virtuosic, encompassing the whole range of the instrument, but it also exploits the rather beautiful lyrical sound of which the trombone is capable’.

This SACD-Hybrid recording presents six of the most important choral works by Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (b.1932), four in world première recordings. Ars Nova Copenhagen and their conductor, Paul Hillier, enjoy a longstanding friendship with the Danish composer, who has made a very special contribution to the contemporary choral music repertory. Like Arvo Pärt, Gudmundsen-Holmgreen is aligned with the New Simplicity in his use of lucid textures and diatonically saturated harmonies, but doesn't shy away from the full gamut of avant garde vocal effects to create a vibrant, arresting sound world.

Although he never won the coveted Prix de Rome Camille Saint-Saëns and the Prix de Rome and never took up residence in the famous Villa Medici, Camille Saint-Saëns entered the competition on two separate occasions twelve years apart, in 1852 and 1864. On the first occasion he was still an adolescent, devoted to worshipping the memory of the great Mendelssohn; by the time he submitted his second entry, a number of his masterpieces were already behind him; he had become acquainted with Verdi and had also discovered Wagner. If the music he composed for the competition in 1864 was not deemed worthy of the illustrious prize, perhaps it was due to its disquieting sense of modernity, with the cantata Ivanhoé yielding comparisons to Il Trovatore. In the period between the two competitions Saint-Saëns's reputation in church music flourished thanks to a collection of magnificent motets. Hervé Niquet, the Brussels Philharmonic and Glossa are now presenting the second volume in their survey of music composed for the Prix de Rome (first volume: Debussy GCD922206).

CD 1 : Antiquité / The Ancient World
CD 2 : Les premiers chrétiens / The Early Christians
CD 3 : Le chant grégorien / Gregorian Chant
CD 4 : Trouvères et Troubadours / Minnesingers & Courtly Arts
CD 5 : La naissance de la polyphonie / The Birth of Polyphony
CD 6 : Ars Nova
CD 7 : Ars subtilior & Pre-Renaissance
CD 8 : Renaissance : Sacred Music
CD 9 : Chansons / Songs of the Renaissance
CD 10 : Renaissance : musique instrumentale / Instrumental Music

This latest reissue from Gothic Voices forms a pair with the Missa Caput (CDH55284). Missa Veterem hominem is an anonymous English Mass composed circa 1440. It is a work of intricate detail and great significance as one of the earliest examples of a composition for what we would regard today as a 'standard' four-part choir. It is performed here with captivating vigour and commitment. Also included are hymns from the Sarum chant books. The presentation of these monophonic songs makes this disc an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the tunes (Christe, qui lux es, Jesu salvator, and Salvator mundi, for example) which lie beneath so many later polyphonic works by Tallis and numerous others. But if that isn't enough, they are also sung with extreme conviction and an austere yet remarkable beauty.

In the eighteenth century the cantata was considered to be the supreme challenge for a composer's artistry. Here are recorded three fine examples from the enormous corpus of such works by Alessandro Scarlatti, two for solo voice with continuo, and one which includes a particularly demanding part for obbligato trumpet, faultlessly played by Crispian Steele-Perkins. These cantatas are joined by settings of the Salve Regina by Domenico Scarlatti (Alessandro's sixth son) and Johann Adolf Hasse (a pupil). The work by Hasse is distinctly operatic with florid vocal and instrumental lines, and the younger Scarlatti similarly finds himself drawn away from religious deference to a more flamboyant style.

Lawrence Power’s revelatory series of Hindemith’s complete works for the viola continues into a third and final volume with the music for viola and orchestra. Hindemith was an internationally renowned viola player himself, and his legacy for the instrument is an inestimably important body of work. Throughout this series, Power’s searingly vivid and eloquent performances have left critics and the listening public in no doubt that the somewhat ‘difficult’ reputation of the composer is ill-deserved; that this is music full of striking melodic ideas, deep lyrical feeling and high drama. The works recorded here include Hindemith’s only formally titled concerto for viola and full orchestra, Der Schwanendreher, based on old German folk-songs. Hindemith explained that in this concerto he saw the soloist as an itinerant fiddler who comes among convivial company and plays for them the repertoire he has learned on his travels, and like a good folk-fiddler, embellishes the melodies freely and sometimes fantastically. Also included is one of Hindemith’s most celebrated works: Trauermusik, written at great speed for a BBC broadcast of his music when King George V had died the day before and funeral music had to replace the planned programme. It is a shining example of an ‘occasional composition’ that far transcends its occasion and makes a distinct contribution to the general repertoire.

The Flemish composer-organist Flor Peeters was celebrated in his lifetime with a concert career that took him all around Europe, America, and South Africa and Australia, while remaining the organist of St Rombout’s Cathedral in Mechelen. He was trained as a Catholic church musician and Gregorian chant and the medieval modes remained a lifelong inspiration for his music. His mature music is often described as neoclassical, and most of it is essentially polyphonic, with an emphasis on simplicity and clarity, transparent linear textures and pungent, incisive tone-colours. Peeters was an almost exact contemporary of Maurice Duruflé, who shared his love of plainsong and the modes. But where Duruflé, with a typically French sensibility, conjured subtle impressionist soundscapes from his modal language, Peeters preferred sharper contours and brighter colours—Van Gogh, perhaps, compared with Duruflé’s Monet. This disc includes a wide selection of his works for organ, encompassing large-scale concert works as well as some of his many chorale preludes.

Handel spent the years 1707-10 in Italy, where he learned much from the composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli. The Italian master developed the concerto grosso form into the major genre for concertante instruments and orchestra. Handel not only drew on Corelli’s model and sequence of movements, he had also absorbed much from the French school of orchestral writing, especially the music of Lully. Handel had already composed the 6 concertos Op.3, and by the time he came to compose the 12 concertos Op.6 in 1739 his circumstances were very different to the heady days of the previous set. He had suffered a series of operatic disasters, and was at war with the notoriously partisan operatic establishment in London. On top of this, he suffered a severe stroke.He made a speedy and miraculous recovery, plunging back into the operatic fray, and produced the oratorios Saul and Israel in Egypt. What is remarkable is that despite such turmoil, he managed to compose all 12 of the Op.6 set of concertos during the month of October 1739. This set and those that Bach wrote for the Margrave of Brandenburg are justly renowned as the twin peaks of the Baroque concerto; for their elegance, variety, poetry and exuberance. Gramophone has praised I Musicia for 'the sumptuousness of their sound'.

Following a first-movement fragment of a symphony in D Major from 1811, Schubert completed six symphonies from 1813 to 1818. Of these, the Fifth in B flat is a masterpiece of Mozartian grace, and the others are fine works that show the young composer working within the confines of the Haydnesque model – though clearly the shadow of Beethoven’s first two symphonies is cast over these early works. After the Rossinian No.6, something strange happened. Of six symphonic works he attempted from 1819, only one was completed: ‘The Great’ Ninth Symphony in C Major. Schubert’s painstaking attempts to become a major symphonic voice can be seen in the sketches realised with great skill and affection by the Schubert expert Dr. Brian Newbould. In 1828 Schubert embarked on another D Major work, D936a, his Tenth symphony. This three-movement work contains a slow movement of great beauty, inhabiting the bleak world of Winterreise, and foreshadowing Mahler. Newbould’s realisations provides a tantalising view of the symphonic landscape Schubert would have created had he not died at the age of 31.

In 19 CDs, I Musici offers a complete survey of the dozen major Vivaldi sets of concertos and sonatas published with opus numbers. Apart from the famous named sets, L'estro armonico, Op. 3, La stravaganza, Op. 4 and Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, Op. 8 – all three dominated by the distinguished solo playing of Felix Ayo – and Severino Gazzeloni's splendid set of the Op. 10 flute concertos (still unsurpassed), most of this music is very little known. Even today there is little or no competition. ‘What comes over again and again when listening through some 19 hours of marvellous music, is the consistently high level of Vivaldi's invention, and this applies not just to the familiar works but also to the six solo violin concertos each of Opp. 6, 11 and 12, and the solo concertos for violin or oboe (the illustrious Heinz Holliger) of Op. 7. What makes these works special is not just the buoyancy of the allegros (just sample the remarkable harmonic clashes of the finale of Op. 7 No. 4 in A minor), but the consistent beauty of the slow movements...collectors will find unexpected rewards in these stimulating, unfamiliar works.’ -Gramophone

Hermann Baumann is one of the world’s greatest horn players. He won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich 1964 (Jessye Norman was 2nd that year, and won in 1965), and from then on he played with some of the greatest orchestras, conductors and ensembles in the world. A lifetime of concert giving around the world and an extensive discography has ensured that his stupendous technique, versatility, and characterful playing have been heard and admired by thousands of music lovers. This extensive survey of his art embraces the major concertos and some rarities, fascinating chamber works, and a selection of virtuoso showpieces that display the artistry of this multi-faceted musician. ‘He plays the whole programme very well…there is a real feeling of ecstasy at times. Excellent recording too, warm and full and not muddy’ -Gramophone

Igor Markevitch was one of the great Russian conductors of the 20th century. Originally he intended to become a composer, and he studied in Paris under Nadia Boulanger. At this time (1925) he met Diaghilev, who asked him to write a piano concerto and a ballet called Rebus: a spiky work infused with sweet-sour bitonality and rhythmic aggression. Although he had acquired the nickname ‘Igor II’ (the first being Stravinsky), he took conducting courses with Scherchen, and it was this great conductor who persuaded him to take up the profession, causing him to abandon composition in the late 1930s. His conducting style is incisive with an ability to build and control tension – ideal for Stravinsky and Bartók. His discography is extensive, but among the most highly regarded of his recordings is the cycle of Tchaikovsky Symphonies he made in the 1960s. Sadly these had a relatively short life in the catalogue and this Newton Classics set is a welcome return for these superb performances. 'These performances match the best available, with the adrenaline running free, a fine understanding of the music and a spontaneous Tchaikovskian feeling pervading the music-making throughout. This issue certainly represents outstanding value.’ -Gramophone

Jean-Marc Luisada was born in Tunisia in 1958, and studied with Nikita Magaloff and Paul Badura-Skoda after leaving the Paris Conservatoire. His international career launched when he won the 1985 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, and his talent was recognised by the French government when they awarded him the Chevalier des arts et lettres in 1989, later elevated to the Order of Merit in 1999. Although Luisada has recorded repertoire by Grieg, Schumann, Scriabin, Beethoven and Haydn, it is his recordings of Chopin that have cemented his reputation; particularly this set of the Mazurkas. He plays almost all the 58 that Chopin wrote and revels in the composer’s novel approach to the form.

This premiere recording of John Tavener's Towards Silence, written for four string quartets and a large Tibetan bowl, explores the nature of consciousness and the process of dying. Tavener had long wanted to write the work and persuaded Professor Paul Robertson (leader of the Medici Quartet and Co-Founder of the Music Mind Spirit Trust) to perform it. However, shortly after the manuscript was completed both men became critically ill and close to death themselves. By August 2008 Robertson had recovered sufficiently to resuscitate the project, which had now taken on a profound significance for himself and for Tavener. The members of the Medici Quartet immediately agreed to re-form and identified young professional string quartets with whom to perform and to act as musical mentors. Tavener's vision was for all four quartets to be positioned high up in the cathedral dome, invisible to the audience, and arranged in the shape of a cross, bringing the Christian, Bhuddist and Hindu religions together. This sense of space has been captured in the recording, which is an SACD hybrid that can also be enjoyed in a surround sound setup.

Recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in February 2006, the next disc in Signum's series of live orchestral recordings with the Philharmonia features the late Sir Charles Mackerras conducting Mahler's Symhpony No.4. The concert was a memorable one, as this review demonstrates: "This performance was inspired and interesting...Setting off at a no-nonsense, fastish speed, Mackerras's appreciation of the numerous changes of tempos was a miracle of refined music-making that enhanced the rustic joys of the first movement. What impressed so much was the innate humanity of this music that in other hands can come across as insincere sentiment that lies behind the notes; the slow movement in particular was of a poise and serenity that was truly touching. The singing of Sarah Fox in the finale embellished the entire sense of naturalness that was enshrined in this memorable rendition, a triumph for the partnership of the Philharmonia Orchestra, on riveting form, and the venerable Mackerras.' -Classical Source

Arthaus presents Pierre Lacotte’s landmark reconstruction of La Sylphide. The original choreography by Philippe Taglioni changed the world of dance forever, cementing the features of Romantic ballet as we know it. These include dance en pointe and the tutu, which owe their omnipresence in ballet to the success of the 1832 staging of La Sylphide in Paris. Everything about the event combined to transform the ballet into a magical spectacle: the synopsis inspired by Romantic literature, the bucolic exoticism of the village wedding festivities, the dramatic realism of the Sylvan forest, the eerie halo of the gas lights, the aerial flights of the dancers, the long diaphanous tulle costumes, and the ballerina’s variations en pointes. Taglioni achieves a magical fusion between mime and artistic dance in a light and flowing style that gave birth to the first 'white' act in the history of ballet. Pierre Lacotte’s 1972 reconstruction returns to the very roots of Taglioni’s work. While writing a book on Romantic ballet in 1968, he discovered documents about La Sylphide which enabled him to present his historical reconstruction.

A true Salzburg success story on DVD. Così fan tutte is the third most-frequently performed work at the festival after Le nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte. This 2-DVD set provides a closer look at a classical staging from the Salzburg Festival in the series of important opera productions seen at the festival in the last decades. Riccardo Muti made a sensational Salzburg début in 1971 and this Così fan tutte was his first Mozart opera at the festival. It was acclaimed by both the general public and international critics, who were unanimous in their praise of the aesthetic quality of the production. Muti was praised for his authoritative approach to Mozart’s music, while the remarkably homogeneous team of international soloists was equally applauded. The singers form an admirably cohesive ensemble, all outstanding Mozartians. The production has become a staple at the Salzburg Festival and remains hugely popular with audiences. Muti gives both the musicians and the audience time to appreciate Mozart’s music in all its beauty, formal mastery and, above all, in the endless variety of its essays on human foibles. The Vienna Philharmonic’s playing is fresh and relaxed, yet always imbued with great intensity.

In August 2007, Anne-Sophie Mutter performed the world premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina‘s Violin Concerto No 2 in Lucerne with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. This performance of a new work by the Russian composer (born in 1931) was an important event in many respects. Gubaidulina is one of the world‘s leading contemporary composers. Her international breakthrough came in 1980 with her First  Violin Concerto, Offertorium, which she wrote for Gidon Kremer. To this day, it remains her most often performed piece. In spite of many other fine works she has written in the meantime, it is her second violin concerto that violinists, conductors and orchestras around the world have eagerly been awaiting since she was commissioned to write it in 1992 by Paul Sacher, the Basel conductor and patron of the arts. It was his wish that Gubaidulina‘s new violin concerto be premiered by Anne-Sophie Mutter. Fifteen years later, that dream finally came true. The film focuses on the piece - from its inception through the many stages of the creative process, to its world premiere - but also explores the great expectations of the music world and the resulting pressure on Gubaidulina, documenting the collaboration and affinity between Anne-Sophie Mutter and the composer.

With this opera, Verdi composed a true music drama. Written early in his career, he demanded from his librettist Francesco Maria Piave a text that would have 'extravagance, originality brevity and sublimity.' Thomas Hampson made his triumphant début in the title role of Macbeth in this Zurich Opera production, with Paoletta Marrocu as his beautiful, power-hungry wife. In David Pountney’s hard-edged, post-modern production, duality of man and woman is constantly brought into question. His Macbeth is not just a story about the usurpation of a crown through supernatural intervention; it resonates with symbolic references to the battle of the sexes and throws into sharp relief the link between power and gender. A strong supporting cast cements this unforgettable performance from the Zurich Opera.

This DVD presents a lavish and naturalistic staging of Eugene Onegin performed in Moscow, the city where the work had its world premiere on 29 March 1879. The Bolshoi not only adopt a traditional music theatre approach, they also successfully revive a classic production. A feast of music is spread before the audience for their pure enjoyment. The gifted singers are so secure in their command of the Russian idiom that the music’s inner content, its lyrism, is constantly at the fore. Vladimir Redkin with his profound, glowing baritone takes the title-role, and Maria Gavrilova sings Tatyana, her soprano gleaming at the top. This Eugene Onegin is a sumptuous feast of singing. But it is also a feast of good theatre, because it brings out above all on the tragedy of the human soul and its suffering.

This DVD shows an impressive staging of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor filmed at the opera house in Genoa, directed by Graham Vick with an all-star cast that includes Marcelo Álvarez, hailed as one of the hottest tenors on the international scene. In this staging, Vick concentrated all his attention on the performers and employed the simplest of means to create intangible, atmospheric spaces rather than concrete physical settings. In spirit, his production remains loyal to the libretto by Salvatore Cammarano, the music by Gaetano Donizetti and their concentration on the story’s raw emotion.

The Scala Academy Project presents an opera by Donizetti never before performed on the La Scala stage. Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (Viva la mamma!) is a dramma giocoso which premiered in Naples in 1827. Italian actor, director and writer Antonio Albanese, a true master of wit and satire, made his debut as opera director. Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali was inspired by two comedies written by Antonio Simone Sografi between 1794 and 1816. It follows the theatrical tradition of Goldoni, Gozzi and Metastasio, and subjects the internal conflicts and absurdities of the operatic world to biting and sardonic criticism. The opera pokes fun at the rights, either real or presumed, that each opera artist assumes to possess and which leads them to reject the music on the page, irritate the public, ruin impresarios and ridicule virtuosos.

Falstaff, the bumbling, portly knight who has a habit of stealing the show in various Shakespeare plays, takes center stage in Verdi’s final opera. Two wealthy matrons, Alice Ford and Meg Page, receive identical love notes from Falstaff. The offended (and amused) women decide to have their revenge by pulling some pranks on Falstaff, with the help of Nannetta (Alice’s daughter) and Dame Quickly. Alice feigns attraction to the oaf, but when her husband returns home, angered after hearing word that his wife was having a romantic rendezvous, Alice convinces Falstaff to hide in a tub of dirty laundry which she tosses out the window and into the muddy river. Falstaff plays the fool again when he agrees to meet Alice in the park at midnight. The entire ensemble dresses up as goblins and fairies and tricks him into believing that the park is haunted. Only after he begs for mercy do they reveal their true identities. In the confusion, Mr. Ford accidentally blesses the marriage of his daughter Nannetta to her true love, of which he had previously disapproved. Both Mr. Ford and Falstaff are in good humor about being tricked, though, and the opera ends with everyone celebrating the mirthful aspects of life.

On the tenth anniversary of the European Concerts held annually since 1991 to commemorate the day the orchestra was founded – Mariss Jansons and the Berliner Philharmoniker are received in Istanbul with rapturous ovation. Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, in which both minute details and large-scale contracts are elicited, is an ebullient finale; soloist Emmanuel Pahud renders centerpiece Mozart’s Second Flute Concerto ever agile, emotive and refreshing, and Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 opens the gala with similar buoyancy and festivity. Recorded live at the Hagia Eirene Church, Istanbul, 1 May 2001.

Strongly influenced by the comments of Richard Wagner’s grandson, Wieland, about the importance of the orchestra in The Ring, Lorin Maazel created a symphonic synthesis of the tetralogy, which he called The Ring Without Words. It is a 75-minute orchestral distillation, bringing the magic of these monumental music dramas to a new audience through the sumptuous playing Maazel draws from the Berlin Philharmonic. Bonus features include an interview with Lorin Maazel.

Surely Bach’s French Suites, which he composed during his years at Cöthen (1717–1723), are among the finest inducements to practise that any teacher has ever made to a pupil. In this case Bach wrote them for his young wife, Anna Magdalena. The overriding impression left by these suites is one of endearing tunefulness. Clavier-Übung II is a later collection of didactic keyboard pieces. It comprises two greatly contrasted works: the Italian Concerto and the Overture in the French Style. These performances admirably demonstrate the thoughtful and persuasive approach that András Schiff adopts when performing Bach. Recorded live at the Bachfest 2010, Protestant Reformed Church of Leipzig, 11 June 2010.