The Queen

The Wedding Present have been unanimously despised by the British music press following a brief honeymoon period in the mid-'80s. When they announced their desire to issue a single a month for a whole year, one particularly caustic Melody Maker journalist pointed out that she now had two low spots in her monthly cycle to endure. It must also be said that RCA were not too enamored of the projected release schedule when David Gedge first put his idea to them. For many, though – including discerning onlookers like long-standing friend and supporter John Peel – The Wedding Present's single-a-month blitz in 1992 was one of the highlights of that year. The band were at their peak: They'd just recorded their best record, Seamonsters, with Steve Albini, and they were beginning to stretch their sound beyond the coy romanticism of old. However, the real joy of the singles – good as they were – was Gedge's esoteric choices for B-sides, including the Go-Betweens' "Cattle and Cane," Altered Images' "Think That It Might" (Gedge was a huge fan of their overlooked Bite album), and the Monkees' "Pleasant Valley Sunday." Diverting, original, and great fun.

Mezzo-soprano singer Héloïse Mas is one of a long line of musicians who have won prizes in Belgium’s prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition while receiving acclaim from the jury, critics and audiences alike. Héloïse Mas stood out: as soon as she appears on stage, she inhabits her role entirely, her golden voice is able to combine tragedy with humour. It is a real privilege to hear such a talented singer at the start of her career; she was in her element, playing her roles without affectation, owning the stage and filling these vast architectural spaces with her powerful, rounded voice, with its irresistibly warm tone and crystal-clear diction that is as seductive in French as it is in Italian or German. It comes as no surprise that the competition jury was just as impressed as the audience!

Aretha Franklin's recordings for Atlantic in the late 1960s and early 1970s are universally acknowledged as her best, and this two-CD set draws exclusively from that era, spanning late 1966 to 1973. Aside from the B-sides "Pledging My Love/The Clock" and "Lean on Me," everything here is a demo, outtake, or alternate version - a real hoard of largely previously unheard material from the prime of one of the greatest soul singers. Franklin and Atlantic did exercise sound judgment as to what to select for release, however. So these recordings, as valuable as they'll be for soul fans to hear, are neither on par with her best official work nor revelatory insofar as uncovering hidden gems or unsuspected stylistic detours. Still, what's here is characteristic Franklin soul, which is satisfying enough…

It may seem surprising that this is the first complete recording of Gluck's one-act opera (or, as he called it, serenata teatrale) La corona (The Crown) after more than 240 years. The work was never performed during Gluck's lifetime; written for the name day of Francis I, husband of Habsburg empress Maria Theresa, it was rendered irrelevant by the dedicatee's death in 1765. The listener will discover soon enough why no one has thought to revive the work since then.

Excelling in recordings of Delius, Elgar, and Holst, Sir Andrew Davis here presents a spirited programme of works by Sir Arthur Bliss. It follows a recording of Morning Heroes that made the top recommendations of 2015; likewise recorded in surround-sound, it conveys the energy of both the exceptional soloists and the impeccable BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Premiered along with Britten’s War Requiem at the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral in 1962, but hardly ever heard since, The Beatitudes is remarkable for its dramatic intensity, ‘full of contrast and striking orchestral effects’, as The Times noted after a recent Barbican performance given by the same forces. The reviewer added that ‘soprano Emily Birsan was silvery clear, well supported by the tenor Ben Johnson. And the biggest round of applause should go to the BBC Symphony Chorus, full of passion.’ To complete the album are an arrangement of the national anthem having all the flair that made the tenure of Bliss as Master of the Queen’s Music distinctive and successful, as well as the virtuosic Introduction and Allegro, dedicated to Stokowski and inspired by the powerful sound of American orchestras post-World War I.