Matthias Graziani

Matthias Bamert’s survey of music by Mozart’s contemporaries continues with this elegant programme of Cannabich Symphonies. Harmonically conservative, lavishly scored, and full of the mannerist crescendi and rising figures the Mannheim Orchestra was famous for, these are fascinating examples of the style gallant. Though Cannabich had found his way to sonata form in the G major symphony, something of Telemann’s programmatic writing hangs over the Symphony in A major, while baroque affects are yet more keenly felt in the D major Symphony. The London Mozart Players’ pristine sound and careful phrasing is highly enjoyable throughout.

The small-scale motet was at the heart of daily and weekly musical practice in the Roman Catholic Church of the mid-seventeenth century. One of the genre’s most distinguished exponents was the maestro di cappella in the Jesuit Church in Rome, Bonifazio Graziani.

If there’s one thing that makes Christmas what it is, it’s festive music and uplifting melodies: 'Festive Trumpets for Christmas' is the new Christmas album from Matthias Höfs, to be released by Berlin Classics on November 5. On this new album, the trumpeter joins his brass ensemble and organist Christian Schmitt in a wide-ranging programme. The instruments of the musicians ring out in triumphal tones, brilliantly nuanced, capturing the joy and splendour of the Christmas festival. There are works by Albinoni, Handel, Vivaldi, Morales and Scheidt, along with arrangements by Peter Lawrence, Nikolaus Herman and Matthias Höfs himself.