Paha Perhe Bad Family (2010)

To celebrate Robert Plant's foray into the Country Rock scene, Mojo presents 15 original blues classics which influenced him and many other landmark acts. Featuring songs from Muddy Waters, Memphis Minnie, Jimmy Reed, Son House, John Lee Hooker and many more.

Mustering up his most menacing grimace for the front cover image and looking a little like the way Victor McLaglan looked in John Ford's The Informer bass-baritone Bryn Terfel delivers his latest DG offering, Bad Boys, a collection of arias drawn from the repertoire of the bad guys in opera: Mephistopheles, Scarpia, Iago, Sportin' Life, and others. Terfel is very much in his element and on his game here, and the recording is gloriously full and well detailed, featuring the Swedish Radio Symphony under Paul Daniel with the expert Swedish Radio Choir tipping in at key points.

This is a unique collection of largely unknown compositions of the Bach family, the largest and most incredibly talented musical family of all time. For nearly two hundred years, the Bach family dedicated themselves to singing God’s praises in music. Helmuth Rilling, who has made the works of J S Bach and his family his life work, performs these pieces with delicacy, energy and intelligence.