Mischievous Coupling ?

This month's BBC Music magazine is a Wagner anniversary issue. Unlike Radio 3 and this year's Proms, the free cover disc does not go over the top and just has the Act 1 Prelude from Parsifal played by the BBC Scottish SO conducted by Andrew Litton. The main work on the disc is ( mischievously given their rivalry ? ) Brahms's German Requiem. I don't otherwise have a recording of this and so am pleased to have it. Performers here are again the BBC Scottish SO, this time conducted by Donald Runnicles with the Edinburgh Festival chorus and soloists Lisa Milne soprano and Markus Bruck baritone.

Should Be More Widely Known

Goffredo Petrassi, Magnificat and Salmo IX. Performers : Orchestra Teatro Regio Torino and Coro Teatro Regio Torino conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. Soloist Sabina Cvilak soprano. Superb neglected mid 20th century repertoire. Now needs some concert performances.

Back From The Dead

Biber, Missa Christi Resurgentis Resurrection mass interspersed with various ensemble sonatas. Performers : The English Concert and The Choir of the English Concert conducted by Andrew Manze.

Seasonal Nights

Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night's Dream and The First Walpurgis Night. Performers : Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Arnold Schoenberg Choir directed by Erwin Ortner. Soloists Pamela Coburn soprano, Elisabeth von Magnus mezzo soprano and narrator, Christoph Banzer narrator ( Midsummer ) Birgit Remmert mezzo-soprano, Uwe Heilmann tenor, Thomas Hampson baritone, Rene Pape bass ( Walpurgis )

A French Classicist

Etienne Nicolas Mehul Symphony No 1 and Symphony No 2. Performers : Les Musiciens Du Louvre conducted by Marc Minkowski. Late Mozart / early Beethoven, though developed largely independently.

Spotlighting The Disciples

Elgar, The Apostles. Performers : Halle Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder, Chorus of Apostles, Halle Choir, Halle Youth Choir ( directors Frances Cook, Richard Wilberforce ). Soloists Rebecca Evans soprano, Alice Coote mezzo-soprano, Paul Groves tenor, Jacques Imbrailo baritone, David Kempster baritone, Brindley Sherratt bass.

Play Misty For Me

Leos Janacek Piano Music. Piano Sonata 1.X.1905, On An Overgrown Path, In the Mist. Performer : Charles Owen, piano.

The Last Word

Pergolesi, Septum Verba a Christo. Performers : Akademie Fur Alte Musik Berlin conducted by Rene Jacobs. Soloists Sophie Karthauser soprano, Christophe Dumaux counter tenor, Julien Behr tenor, Konstantin Wolff bass.

Swedish Pastoral ?

Kurt Atterberg Symphony No 6 Dollar Symphony, Symphony No 4 Sinfonia Piccola, Suite No 3, En Varnlandsrapsodi. Performers Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi. Soloists Sara Troback Hesselink violin, Per Hogberg viola. Swedish folk sources detectable but also an oddly Spanish feel at times.

It's All In The Bass

Rodion Shchedrin, The Sealed Angel. Choral music after Nikolai Leskov for for mixed choir acapella with reed flute in the Church Slavonic language. Soloists, Alexander Golrshev flute, Lolita Semenina soprano, Natalia Belova soprano, Tatiana Zhdanova mezzo soprano, Andrei Azovskr descant, Alexander Illarianov alto, Alexei Alexerev tenor ( but the real strars are those Russian basses ! ) The USSR State Academic Choir, The Moscow Chamber Choir. Choir masters Vladimir Urman, Ludmila Urman, Tatian Kurpokova. Conductor Vladimir Minin.