Crystal clear with plenty of punch

Marc-André Hamelin (piano) City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/ Mark Elder Hyperion CDA67143 The practical requirements of Busoni’s Piano Concerto – a chorus and enormous orchestra – on top of the f

Complete Suites and Other Music for Keyboard Cristian Sandrin (piano) SOMM Recordings SOMMCD0702 61:09 mins In the first complete recording of Purcell’s eight keyboard suites on the modern piano, Roma

Symphony No. 5; Swanwhite Suite etc Christian Tetzlaff (violin); Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Nicholas Collon Ondine ODE 1468-2 77:16 mins One of the features of Finland’s impressive music educati

Works by Joanna Marsh, Roxanna Panufnik, James MacMillan, Dobrinka Tabakova et al The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge/ Christopher Gray et al Signum Classics SIGCD893 68:02 mins Christopher Gray

Paavo Järvi (conductor) Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich Alpha 1004 With literally hundreds of recordings of the ‘Italian’ Symphony available, it might seem an impossible task to select a credible shortlist

There are gig venues, and then there’s York Minster, where symphonic metal band Plague Of Angels are playing a show backed by an enormous pipe organ. Unless a bunch of irate Christians get their way