C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)

Jubilo is, says Balsom, ‘a celebration’ of early music by Bach, Corelli (a concerto grosso), Fasch (a concerto) and Torelli (a trumpet sonata with strings and continuo), where she plays both a natural and a modern trumpet. The Corelli is a new arrangement of the ‘Christmas Concerto’ (to which purists might take exception, though somehow the baroque trumpet seems to ‘fit’), while the eight Bach tracks include pieces with organ – ‘In dulci jubilo’, ‘Wachet auf’, ‘Kommst du nun’, etc, from the Schübler Chorales – and with the Cambridge Choir, ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’, sounding a bit rushed here. About half of the programme was recorded at King’s College, and half in the more intimate acoustic of St Jude on the Hill, London. Alison Balsom’s legato lines, varied dynamics and overall technique make this a really enjoyable issue, and one that’s been well produced too.

Making his (Schumann) recording debut in 1973, Murray Perahia has always stayed with CBS/Sony, but has now signed to Deutsche Grammophon starting with this mid-2013 Berlin studio set of the six French Suites. His producer Andreas Neubronner was also responsible for the 1997-8 Perahia/Sony English Suites. We get all the repeats, because Perahia says he likes to introduce variation there, adding ornamentation, etc. And of course he’s long preferred his Steinway to any harpsichord (which he studied for four years).

96kHz/24-bit, FLAC; CDA68133 (supplied by www. hyperion-records. co. uk) Vol 1 in this survey of the major solo piano works was my Sep ’16 Album Choice.

Glazunov’s romantic concerto provides a balm after the terrors and intensity of the Shostakovich: held back from performance until Stalin’s dictatorship was over. There was far slighter music by that composer – ‘Romance’ from The Gadfly – in Benedetti’s 2012 Decca collaboration with the Bournemouth Orchestra and its Ukranian chief conductor, The Silver Violin. Here, she rises to the challenges of music written for Oistrakh, whose 1955 New York benchmark recording is now on Sony. There’s something of a Heifetzian concentration in her playing (and the coupling sounds even more like a live performance) so it’s a shame she’s given full stage width for the long cadenza and we briefly get a ‘wrong end of a telescope’ effect as the Burlesque opens, although the ear quickly adapts.