Back in the 70s, the rapid development of synthesisers and electronic keyboards had a huge impact on popular music, with Isao Tomita among the leading exponents of multi-media, surround-sound events associated in Western Europe with such very different musicians as Rick Wakeman and Jean-Michel Jarre. The present disc has less grandiose aims, being a well-balanced selection of, to quote the original liner notes, "Virtuoso electronic performances of Debussy's beautiful tone paintings". It's easy to scoff at the concept behind Tomita's approach-take some of the most poetic music around and give it the consistency of aural cotton wool-yet there's no denying the skill with which he translates Debussy's sound world, preserving the harmonic interest of the piano originals, and bringing out many subtleties of texture. Inevitably the slower numbers come off best-"Clair de lune" or "Reverie" could easily become "chill-out" favourites. "Preludeto the Afternoon of a Faun", however, is not so much a travesty as a vaporisation of the orchestral masterpiece. A mixed bag, but with enough musical interest to make Tomita's "sound clouds" of more than just curiosity value. -Richard Whitehouse.

Discover why Mozart is the world's most popular composer in this glorious selection of highlights on two discs, performed by some of the foremost interpreters of his music. Almost every genre is represented, so if you are only familiar with one area of the great Wolfgang's output, this is an ideal way to explore others. Highlights from the operas include sopranos Renée Fleming and Anne Sofie von Otter poignantly sighing through the farewell trio from Cosí fan tutte, Bryn Terfel singing Don Giovanni's charming, chilling serenade, and Sumi Jo shattering glass in the Queen of the Night's aria from The Magic Flute. Other great moments include legendary horn-player Barry Tuckwell in the finale from the fourth horn concerto, King's College Choir singing a ghostly Ave Verum, and revered Mozartian Radu Lupu playing the slow movement of Piano Concerto no. 21 ("Elvira Madigan"). Obviously with recordings from so many different times and places, the acoustics and recording levels vary between tracks so a little ear-adjustment is necessary: but quibbles aside, this is a generous compilation of some great playing and singing. -Warwick Thompson.

This package presents two of Arvo Pürt's most familiar works-already indisputable classics-Tabula Rasa and Fratres. For all of their "minimalist" technique, there's a fathomless-call it timeless, if you will-beauty to these scores the deeper you plunge into their hypnotic sound world. The best place to discover them remains ECM's breakthrough release Tabula Rasa. Unlike Gidon Kremer (the superb interpreter of that recording), and despite an epiphany he mentions in the booklet-likening this music to the desert landscape of Utah-Gil Shaham doesn't seem to grasp one of the key components of that beauty: its austerity, its distance, as through a glass. There's an exquisite finish to his tone, to be sure, but Shaham essentially over-romanticises this music, coating it with a lovely but undifferentiated sheen, although he does hint at the vocal character of his lines. Passages of Fratres thus sound curiously tamed, as if we could be listening to such pastoral blandishments as The Lark Ascending or, in Tabula Rasa, to a Vivaldi andante. Despite this disappointment, the disc offers a thoroughly compelling account of the Third Symphony (1971) by its dedicatee, Neeme Järvi. It's fascinating to hear Pärt's points of origin-Soviet music, chant from the Orthodox Church, the fascination with bell sounds-so clearly delineated and transmogrified as in this work. Järvi molds its colourful but sombre scoring into vividly dramatic shapes, hinting at Shostakovich in the chasm-deep bass lines tugging against the piercing treble or-as in the haunting opening solo-at the bleak majesty of a Sibelius landscape. The very success of Pärt's better-known works has tended to obscure the quality of such earlier pieces, but this performance helps widen the perspective to a more inclusive one. [+]

The 1978 recording of Reich's seminal Music for 18 Musicians still astounds. Listeners aware of the talents of such bands as Tortoise or Gas or of DJs such as Vladislav Delay or Aphex Twin and fans of Warp records or the click, cut and glitch of recent post-techno could all do with checking out what continues to be vital source material. Lovers of Bach, Satie, Stravinsky, Nancarrow, Cage, Stockhausen, Budd, Eno or Phillip Glass will all find this a very special and rewarding listening experience. Reich's 1970's Pulse work is often recalled as repetitive, which it unarguably is, but the artfulness, intricacy and the seamless layering of this beautiful piece is less often noted. Reich builds and deconstructs, endlessly moving what turns out to be not merely a work of huge intellect and technical skill but an emotional and complex and hugely satisfying piece of music. This is no post-Gamelan pose but a highly accomplished and stirring piece of music that deserves a lot more than cult status. -Mark Thwaite.

It is well known that most of Bach's harpsichord concertos began their lives as violin concertos. Since only three violin originals survive-the ones designated as BWV 1041-43-and since these are among his greatest instrumental works, musical scholars and performers have been reversing the process, turning the harpsichord concertos back into violin originals. BWV 1060 is one such case, a concerto for two harpsichords, which sounds much less clangy and bangy in this reconstructed version for two violins. Now Andrew Manze is simply the finest baroque violinist alive, and so this recording is self-recommending on that count alone. It is just about perfect. -David Hurwitz.