Handel wrote ‘Arresta il passo’ (which Hyperion has renamed after its hero and heroine) for Rome’s Arcadian Academy in 1708. A suitably pastoral cantata for two voices, strings and continuo, it depicts the shepherd Aminta’s wooing of the initially reluctant nymph Fillide in a series of charming arias (some of which Handel reused in Agrippina and Rinaldo).

The great Australian countertenor, Graham Pushee with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra directed by Paul Dyer, stuns us all in this program of favorite arias by Handel.

Attilio Ariosti was a particularly versatile Italian composer, musician and poet, known throughout Europe. As an operatic composer his name was joined in London by those of Handel and Bononcini, and his 'Carillano' of 1723 and 'Vespasiano' of 1724 were much acclaimed. The cycle of Six Cantatas 'The Flowering and Fading of Love', only recently discovered and here receiving its first recording, forms a sonnet sequence about the journey of love, ranging from 'La Rosa' (the Rose) to 'Il Naufragio' (The Shipwreck) and the final 'La Gelosia' (Jealousy).

During the long era when Bach, Mozart and Beethoven were creating the musical canon of Western Europe, the songs of African slaves resounded in the colonies on the other side of the Atlantic, expressing pain and longing, but also joy and the desire for freedom. The American countertenor Reginald Mobley - a rising figure in baroque music, notably under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner with whom he sings very regularly - and the French pianist Baptiste Trotignon, winner of numerous awards (Victoires du Jazz, Django d'Or) have combined their talents and sensibilities to celebrate these spirituals and the music of Black composers including Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949) and Florence Price (1887-1953), whose beautiful transcriptions and melodies blend with Baptiste Trotignon's subtle arrangements of the famous.

The acclaimed recorder player Dorothee Oberlinger and her ensemble 1700 team up with famous countertenor Andreas Scholl for this inspiring new album featuring the work of J.S. Bach. The album includes arias from Bach cantatas for alto, a concerto for harpsichord arranged for flute, the cantata BWV 170 “Vergnügte Ruh” and the famed Brandenburg concertos No. 2 and No. 4. Dorothee Oberlinger is one of the most amazing discoveries of recent years, an expressive virtuoso who - quite rightly - received numerous awards while still very young.

Immortal Memory is a collaboration between vocalist Lisa Gerrard and Irish composer Patrick Cassidy. Billed as a cycle of life and death and rebirth, Immortal Memory is better described as an orphaned film score. Cassidy's warm arrangements allow the former Dead Can Dance singer to step out of the dark medieval world that she's called home for nearly 20 years – though there is much of that world within these castle walls – and focus on the simplicity of love, faith, and loss with a grace that's bereft of the icy perfection of her previous work. Gerrard, whose voice has aged like the finest oak, displays an almost supernatural mastery of the material. Her effortless contralto wraps itself around the ten Gaelic, Latin, and Aramaic spirituals like an evening prayer, making each stunning entrance the equivalent of audio comfort food.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is the most famous of the sons of J.S. Bach. His magisterial oeuvre contains, notably, a large number of concertos for various instruments and keyboard pieces. But the composer also excelled at vocal music, thus continuing in the family tradition by composing, among other genres, sacred and secular cantatas and songs. His works respect the rules of Baroque style while also hinting at the dawn of the Classical style subsequently represented by Haydn and Mozart. Café Zimmermann has been including the music of C. P. E. Bach in its programmes for years, notably in a recording (ALPHA 107) that marked a turning point in the discography.

This album compares hits from the Renaissance (by Rore, Lasso, Arcadelt and others) with their instrumental ornamented arrangement published in 1591 by Venetian Giovanni Bassano, author of a reference treatise on arrangement. It also includes some Paladino transcriptions for solo lute, performed by Anthony Bailes.

Honegger was an eclectic composer whose achievement is well reflected in this stimulating compilation. Dutoit’s recording of the oratorio King David is particularly compelling: on hearing it one understands why the composer frequently returned to the formula of narrator, soloists, chorus and orchestra.

May 23rd: centenary of the great pianist Alicia de Larrocha. Here is a live recording made in New York’s Hunter College in November 1971 with Larrocha’s close friend and the other great figure of Spanish classical music of 20th-century, Victoria de los Ángeles. A perfect communion between two artists at the height of their powers in a beautiful program including songs by Falla, Granados, and excerpts of zarzuelas.

Antonio Caldara, a native of Venice, spent almost two decades at the beginning of the 18th century in the service of the Habsburg Emperor Charles VI as Vice-Kapellmeister.

Handel's Italian cantatas date from early in his career, with few exceptions (none on display here). As a group they are less well-known than his operas, but they're equally virtuosic, and performances of the cantatas whole, as with the three here, are a bit more satisfying than with the operas. The cantatas were composed for parties among powerful Roman cardinals, and they catch the young Handel at the peak of his first success, as Roman audiences hailed him as "il caro Sassone" (the dear Saxon).