Russo-British pianist Yevgeny Sudbin has traversed the Rachmaninov concertos at a deliberate pace, issuing a recording of the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40 in 2007 and rounding out the set with this reading of the Second and Third in 2018. His Rachmaninov is carefully wrought, subtly intertwined with the orchestral part rather than trafficking in high contrasts, and here the effect is heightened by Sudbin's unusual interpretation of the opening Moderato of the Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18.

Gösta Nystroem may have been diffident in his life decisions – he only chose music as a career in his mid-thirties – but it is clear from the two works on this 2004 BIS release that he was an earnest composer indeed when he set his mind to it. Perhaps too earnest: the Symphony No. 4, "Sinfonia shakespeariana," and the Symphony No. 6, "Sinfonia Tramontana," are long essays of some technical competence, but also unrelievedly gray, joyless creations that require a great deal of patience to get through.

His most loyal fans are trombone teachers and students, but Christian Lindberg deserves a much wider following, not only for his extraordinary technical gifts, but also for his refined and deeply felt interpretations of music from many periods. Classical Concertos is an excursion into charming eighteenth century works by Michael Haydn, Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, and Leopold Mozart second-tier composers, admittedly, but competent craftsmen who turned out admirable works for their day.

Christian Lindberg is perhaps the first classical trombonist to maintain a successful full-time performing career as a soloist. Though now considered among the instrument's foremost exponents, he actually took up the trombone fairly late, only starting playing at age 17 after hearing recordings by the great jazz trombonist Jack Teagarden. By 19, Lindberg was the principle trombonist of the Royal Opera Orchestra in Stockholm. But he left that position after just a year, saying he was bored playing in an orchestra.

Roland Pöntinen is a virtuoso pianist whose busy concert and recording schedule would seem to preclude work as a composer and arranger, but he has managed to produce a substantial and worthwhile output in both those creative roles. As a pianist Pöntinen has developed a vast repertory of standards by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Grieg, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev, to name just some.

This exciting programme is presented by Emma Kirkby and London Baroque, household names in the sphere of 'early music', and certainly no new-comers to th works of Handel. Indeed, when they last joined forces in a Handel programme the website MusicWeb International called the performances ones that 'make one wish that all Handel music making could be of this order', while the reviewer in BBC Music Magazine wrote 'Ive seldom been as moved by a recording, both music and performance'.

There's a little joke behind the innocuous name of Ernest Bloch's Symphony in E-flat. It is, in truth, one of his most harmonically acerbic works, very close to the tortured contrapuntal idiom of another famous Swiss composer: Honegger. The piece only really achieves its home key in the quiet, final bars, but along the way sparks fly in all directions, and no matter how dissonant the idiom the argument is very easy to follow, and melodies and motives have distinctive, easily recognizable shapes.

The Orpheus in England title of this release refers to the fact that both John Dowland and Henry Purcell were honored with the "Orpheus" designation after their deaths, nearly 100 years apart. The booklet for this Swedish release even comes with an anonymous poem telling the deceased Purcell to "Touch but thy Lyre, the Stones will come and dance themselves into a Tomb." The unusual idea of connecting the two composers, who shared a common tendency toward a mixture of melancholy and daring harmonic thinking, works well, and there are many lovely moments here.

The most substantial pieces here are the set of variations of La folia, and the Tombeau pour M-deSte Colombe in memory of Marais's mentor. His idiom embodies a paradox that's peculiarly French, in that it demands a very high technical standard, yet its proper expression requires the utmost restraint. The young Finnish viol-player, Markku Luolajan-Mikkola, is a founder-member of Phantasm.

Neeme Järvi, with his children now as rivals, remains a busy star on the international conducting scene. Born in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, on June 7,1937, and brought up within the USSR's system for developing musical talent, Järvi studied percussion and conducting at the Tallinn Music School. He made his debut as a conductor at age 18. From 1955 to 1960 he pursued further studies at the Leningrad Conservatory, where his principal teachers were Nikolaï Rabinovich and Yevgeny Mravinsky.

John Storgårds is a Finnish conductor and violin virtuoso, known for his strong interest in playing and promoting contemporary music. After studying violin with Esther Raitio and Jouko Ignatius at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, he went to Israel to study with Chaim Taub. While performing as an orchestra musician, Storgårds frequently led as concert master, and he developed an interest in conducting, particularly after receiving an offer to conduct the Helsinki University Symphony Orchestra.