Gerald Finley and Julius Drake's previous recordings of Schubert have been praised as "faultless" (Winterreise) and "richly satisfying" (Schwanengesang). These exalted standards are easily maintained on their new version of "Die sch ne Mu�llerin".

Piano recordings do not come much more exhilarating (or entertaining) than Marc-Andr� Hamelin's survey of some of his own recent works. Listening to one of the most formidably complex musical minds of today is a rare and rewarding privilege: prepare to be astonished.

The 'fount of grace' of the title is the Virgin Mary, to whom Machaut addresses his appeals for mercy during a turbulent period in France's history.

El León de Oro and Peter Phillips offer a collection of works representative of a school of Flemish composers living in Madrid towards the end of the Renaissance and all employed by Philip II of Spain, who held composers from the Low Countries in particularly high regard. La Hèle's Mass, here receiving it's first complete recording, is a major discovery.

This attractive and virtuosic program from pianist Piers Lane's features three substantial sets of variations-by Glazunov, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov-plus a delightful amuse-bouche from John Field, who settled in St. Petersburg in the early years of the nineteenth century.

Leonore Piano Trio - BARGIEL: PIANO TRIOS NOS. 1 & 2 - The name of Woldemar Bargiel may be little known today-although he was the half-brother of Clara Schumann, no less-but he was highly regarded by Brahms and the Schumanns. These are two delightful, richly melodic works.

The infallible Gesualdo Six trademarks of consummate musicianship and scholarly integrity are much in evidence here. Queen of Hearts addresses and reflects on queens spiritual (the Virgin Mary) and temporal (Mary Tudor and Anne Boleyn, among others) in a program of music largely of the sixteenth century, but spiced with two short works from the twenty-first.

Encountering a palace of riches is how pianist (and Hyperion debutante) Mishka Rushdie Momen describes her experience of playing Tudor keyboard music, a varied selection of which is included here. It's a description which could apply equally to the listener discovering the music in performances as convincingly idiomatic as these.

The challenges and rewards of performing early music are here vividly illustrated by The Binchois Consort, as creative scholarship comes to the aid of two substantial-but fragmentary-works by Jacob Obrecht, and an audacious recorded sound attempts to recreate the experience of the original performers 500 years ago. A novel twenty-first-century motet is also included, emerging from the prevailing Renaissance textures to reflect on themes of mourning and loss.

For Mahan Esfahani, Bach's Inventions and Sinfonias were more than just the tools by which his children and pupils were to acquire a prodigious technique. These 'tiny gems' (as Esfahani call them) reveal expressive depths to rival the major keyboard works and make considerable demands of the performer's musical mettle. The is the sixth instalment in his unmissable complete Bach keyboard survey.

The teenage Korngold possessed a compositional fluency and maturity which belied his youth. In contrast, Tchaikovsky feared - wholly unjustifiably - his own creative powers to be on the wane when writing "Souvenir de Florence". The Nash Ensemble brings passion and conviction to both.

From the late-Romantic Andante e Allegro con fuoco by Guido Alberto Fano and Dallapiccola's early wartime concerto to the final, much later work by Cristian Carrara, this album provides a welcome overview of the piano concerto in 20th and 21st century Italy. All four works benefit from the playing of Roberto Prosseda, whose talents as a champion of Italian contemporary music and of undiscovered piano music make him the ideal advocate.

The 11th and final release in The Orlando Consort's comprehensive Machaut survey easily maintains the standards of it's predecessors. The closing couplet of the final track - "Their singing will be sublime / Harmoniously will they render him praise" - might well serve as a motto for The Orlando Consort's achievement, not only in this album but throughout an illustrious career.

Polymath Sir Stephen Hough has a growing reputation as a composer of chamber, choral and above all solo piano music with four sonatas and a constellation of dazzling arrangements to his name. This album presents the premiere recording of his first piano concerto, recorded by the pianist with The Hall� under Sir Mark Elder. It's subtitle 'The world of yesterday' deliberately places the work in a broader context of the pianist-virtuosi of yesteryear who composed and performed their own piano concertos as they toured the world.

BALLAD SINGER

LISZT: ANNEES DE PELERINAGE TROISIEM ANNEE

SUK: PIANO MUSIC

NOVELLETTEN OP.21 NACHTSTUCKE OP.23

NEW LISZT DISCOVERIES 2

PIANO SONATAS OPP.90 & 101 & 106

Macmillan: String Quartets Nos.1-3: Royal String Quartet - The string quartet has been an important medium for Sir James MacMillan since his formative years. From the autobiographical to the abstract, each of his three numbered works, performed by the Royal String Quartet, is a major addition to the repertoire.

Simon Callaghan - Nicod�: Ein Liebesleben & Other Piano Works (CD) - Felix Draeseke's description of Jean Louis Nicod� (1853-1919) as 'more a moderate progressive than a cacophonist' - in contrast to his younger contemporary Richard Strauss - may have been intended as a compliment, but doesn't begin to do justice to this profoundly enjoyable music, it's several influences (most notably Schumann) never far away.

Performers: Laurence Perkins (bassoon), Sarah Watts (clarinet), Martin Roscoe (piano), Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Sian Edwards (conductor) - The Duet-Concertino is one of those lyrical, bittersweet scores from Strauss's Indian summer. Laurence Perkins argues that behind the notes lies a hitherto little-known programme-whence the album's title-and that this misunderstood work has good claims to be regarded as Strauss's final tone poem.

WORKS BY REBECCA CLARKE BRIDGE & VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The magnificent Christopher Purves performs a recital of Handel's bass arias. This unique collection demonstrates the range and brilliance of Handel's writing for this voice, featuring a selection from Italian and English operas, English classical drama, Biblical oratorios, literary odes and a masque. Handel's endlessly imaginative gift for characterization is fully explored here, with Purves commanding an extraordinary emotional and technical range from the buffo blustering of Polyphemus in Acis and Gatalea to the loving musings of Abinoam in 'Tears, such as tender fathers shed' from the oratorio Deborah. 'With his acting chops and weighty bass-baritone, Purves in full cry is a splendid and fearful spectacle' (The Times)