Arshavir Ter Hovannessian

If only for his melodic genius, Handel would have been forever acknowledged as one of history's greatest composers. These delightful sonatas for recorder provide abundant evidence to support that claim, and Marion Verbruggen's warm, resonant recorder and brilliant flute prove the perfect partners for bringing these rarely heard pieces to life.

Amid the sea of compositions Antonio Vivaldi left for the violin, the Red Priest was also gracious enough to enhance the cellist's repertoire with a nice assortment of concertos and even a handful of sonatas with basso continuo. These works, while satisfying and pleasing, are far from virtuoso works and as such have often been relegated to serve as teaching pieces for high school and college students. In the right hands, however, these nine sonatas can still engage and excite listeners. Cellist Jaap ter Linden would seem to be ideally suited for this task. His distinguished career includes cello performances with many of the world's top Baroque orchestras, as well taking on conducting duties with the same.

It's hard to believe this CD was done with only a violin, viola da gama and harpsichord. This is polyphonic music at its finest. It does tribute to Buxtehude, who preceded Bach. The ensemble is perfect - the instruments complement each other. When they go from slow to fast, it is remarkable to hear the contrast. These are expert musicians with a complete mastery of their instruments. They use loud-soft as easily as any masters of the Baroque. The result is joyous, lively and entertaining.

Pianist David Breitman writes of his new release of Beethoven music for piano and cello: “I first became interested in historical keyboards as a piano student in Boston in the 1970s. Boston was then, and is still, an early music centre, and I had frequent opportunities to hear renaissance and baroque ensembles in concert. I eventually decided to take some harpsichord lessons with Robert Hill, freshly returned from Amsterdam where he had been studying with Gustav Leonhardt."

Andrew Manze has been called "the Grappelli of the Baroque violin" because of the improvisatory liveliness of his approach; however, he can just as easily change personalities. Sometimes he pads along with sinewy grace like a panther ready to spring (the Preludio to BWV 1023, for example), sometimes he goes for a much more relaxed cantabile line, and sometimes he plays with a sparkling and infectious sense of fun (Presto, BWV 1021).

For Wilbert Hazelzet’s second disc for Glossa, the stylish Dutch flute player covers a selection of pieces of music by composers who, with varying levels of certainty, can be regarded as having been pupils of Johann Sebastian Bach: Abel, Kirnberger, Krebs, Müthel and Goldberg – whose C major Sonata was for a long time regarded as being by Bach himself (as his BWV 1037). Cellist Jaap ter Linden and harpsichordist Jacques Ogg accompanied Hazelzet on this beautiful recording.