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Wilhelm Backhaus recorded Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas in mono for Decca in the early 1950s, and with the advent of stereo he began the process anew in 1958. Although he managed to finish 31 out of the 32, the pianist died before he got around to remaking the Hammerklavier (Op. 106). Consequently, the mono Hammerklavier fills out Backhaus’ stereo cycle that Decca now reissues in its Original Masters series. Although numerous piano mavens hold Backhaus’ Beethoven in high, nearly iconic esteem, I’ve always had mixed reactions to these recordings. In general, the pianist’s cavalier attitude toward Beethoven’s dynamics, articulation, and phrasing obscures the composer’s clearly specified linear trajectory and implicit drama.

Sir Andrew Davis here conducts the BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra in works by Sir Arthur Bliss, with Samuel West as orator. The disc was recorded after a remarkable performance of Morning Heroes at the Barbican in May 2015, The Guardian praising the 'excellent' Samuel West, and Davis who 'got [the] mood exactly right, and both the orchestra and chorus did everything that he asked of them… [producing] a convincingly symphonic shape'. 'One of the finest British choral works of its time,' it concluded, this work is 'now not heard as often as it deserves.'