The Suite for Cello and Orchestra, in five brief but hugely appealing movements, lasts as long as either of the concertos and ought to be trotted out now and then in concert. Where has this music been? Try the lovely second-movement Serenade, or the delicious Romance. It's not as if there are many such works in the repertoire. The three shorter pieces make perfect encores. Ever notice how much the main theme of the Allegro appassionato resembles (rhythmically at least) the prelude to Carmen? Moser closes the disc with an orchestral arrangement of The Swan, the icing on this positively scrumptious musical cake. The sonics are perfectly balanced and as vivid as the interpretations, while the Stuttgart Orchestra sounds excellent. This is a major release, and Moser is without question an artist worth watching.

The C-sharp minor Piano Quintet dates from the end of the composer's long life, and it proves a far more interesting, texturally varied, and musically wide-ranging piece, from the first movement's jagged urgency and the Adagio's gorgeously unfolding long lines to the third movement's Hungarian Dance breakouts and the finale's jaunty, narrative drive and weird thematic allusions to "Hail To The Chief".

The Quatuor Sine Nomine members aim for all the tonal variety they can muster in these works, even when both violinists occasionally push their vibratos into cloying territory. The ensemble's kinetic interaction with Oliver Treindl's rock-solid and imaginatively-shaded keyboard work certainly will please collectors who know the pianist's other CPO releases devoted to other chamber rarities of the Romantic Era. As is often the case, CPO's co-production with Bayerischer Rudfunk yields superb sonics, although the German booklet notes' English translation leaves a lot to be desired. Warmly recommended.

The CD cover shot has Sir Roger Norrington looking at the camera, hands spread wide as if to say “ That’s it,folks .What more do you want ?” Perhaps it was for real. At the end of the performance there’s a sense that the Stuttgart audience can’t quite believe what it’s just heard.

Bruckner’s Sixth has always been the most elusive of the composer’s mature symphonies.Treat it  “ as a kind of music we have never heard before” wrote an admiring Donald Tovey in 1935 . But few have. Only that grand old iconoclast Otto Klemperer, and now Sir Roger, have had the courage  to recognise the piece as an epic off-the-wall revel.

Not that Norrington downplays the symphony’s moments of introspection. No symphony, not even Beethoven’s revel in A, can be a total knees-up. Norrington is aware where the outer movement song-subjects and their attendant harmonic adventures are going to land us. Even more than Klemperer, he takes the main themes of these movements at quite a lick (the finale especially so, at some cost to orchestral equanimity in the lyric countersubject) though as with Klemperer the pulse of the lyrics subjects remains proportionate. Where Norrington is fearless is in Bruckner’s on-the-spot shifts of tempo or key. But, then, he always rather relished the shock of the obvious.

It is difficult to outsmart Klemperer in the Adagio since he too divides his fiddles and deploys minimal vibrato. He is also a touch quicker than Norrington and has a more keenly recorded first oboe. That said, Norrington generates real tension in the harmonically indeterminate climax before the recapitulation. And Norrington’s is more gamesome third movement, the downbeats in the Scherzo’s plodding string ostinato cheekily accented.

So that’s it, folks. With its rustic vigour and devil-may-care insouciance, this is a performance that really does tell it as it is.

The  string quartet has been a magnet for composers since the 18th century. It has lost none of its eloquence and suspenseful interaction three centuries later, as this mesmerising recording of Leon Kirchner’s complete quartets richly demonstrates. The American composer explored the medium in the 1940s through the 1960s until he took a four-decade hiatus. His Fourth Quartet dates from 2007, when he was 88.

Kirchner studied with Arnold Schoenberg while absorbing the music of the past and  the surrounding present. In the First Quartet, echoes of Bartok’s revolutionary essays in the form can be heard in the snapping rhythms, haunting conversations, tightly organized structures and string possibilities. The four movements comprise the longest of Kirchner’s  string quartets and they’re explosive harbingers of even more daring creativity.

The Second Quartet is succinct in rhetoric and texture , with thematic connection between movements and sudden shifts of mood that take the ear by surprise. Kirchner acknowledges the impact of electronic music in Quartet No 3, in which the strings go about their skittish or reflective ways as taped sounds occasionally add piquant or ethereal commentary. Unlike many scores of this era, Kirchner’s sounds organic, without intrusive gimmickry.

Forty-one years separate the Third and Fourth quartets, during which Kirchner had a distinguished career at Harvard University and as conductor of contemporary music. The Quartet No 4 summarises his art in the genre, its mixture of yearning and exuberance revealing an octogenarian composer at the top of his game.

The Orion Quartet plays each score as if inhabiting its unique expressive world. The playing is at turns fierce, exquisite and detailed. It would be difficult to imagine Kirchner’s music treated with more loving attention to the introspective and arching aspects of this composer’s compelling art.

Ms Geoghegan recently was runner up in the BBC 2 Classical Star competition performing the Hummel concerto, which opens her program here. Moreover, her program is an appropriate and respectful debut album; it includes standards and a couple works for the performer to let her hair down. This balance, as opposed to all light or new pieces, identifies a performer as a legitimate participant and willing competitor in the field of performance. It introduces a new musician to listeners and establishes points of reference for the listener or critic with respect to previous performances. Performers who do not  do this eliminate themselves from any ranking or standing.

At 19 year old, she clearly ranks as one of Britain’s top bassoonist; she learned violin starting at the age of 5 and began studying bassoon at 12. An unknowing  listener could not possibly imagine that the performer had only been playing this instrument seven years! She has complete technical mastery of the instrument and very well-developed tone. Even her musicality is advanced. All around, you will want to hear this performance. This would be a mandatory purchase for any of my students.