Blues master Doug MacLeod and audiophiles have had a love affair for several decades. A damn good one. Blues, for musical and/or acoustic reasons, lends itself to quality recordings. Muddy Waters, Philadelphia Jerry Ricks, and a host of others, are blessed both sides of the microphone. We audiophiles and blues fans are the richer for it. And we expect a lot from our ‘own’ Doug MacLeod.  

MacLeod was producing legendary audiophile blues records before receiving the fairly recent Reference Recordings benediction. Come To Find on AudioQuest (my copy is on the magnificent LP) and You Can't Take My Blues also on AudioQuest  (mine is on a superb JVC XRCD Reissue) are but two recorded in the 90s that will stand the test of time. Both, like this fabulous new Reference Recording, highlight MacLeod’s ‘storytelling’ singing style, with his penchant for toe tapping, up tempo rhythms interspersed with soulful songs. 

Break the Chain does not do musically what the title implies. We have brilliant consistency. Here, you’ll find eleven songs and a ‘holler’ (story). Audiophiles will especially like the spoken voice track as they are so difficult to get right on recordings.

Brahms’ glorious Fourth Symphony is the crowning achievement of a well nigh perfect collection that set the standard for the symphony as a form since those of Beethoven. 

In the four movements, Brahms moves from a flawlessly executed Sonata Form opening movement, to a gloriously elegiac Andante to a rollicking third movement, culminating in the famous, granitic Passacaglia serving as the finale. 

As befits one of the great masterpieces of Western Music, recordings are legion, many of them very good. And to be honest, you can never have enough great Brahms recordings in your library.

We will focus on my two favourites, the great Chesky/Reiner/RPO and this incredible performance by the magician of conductors, Carlos Kleiber.  

More magic music making from this team. You’ll find my first DG reissue review of Brahms Fourth Symphony above. This superb Schubert release from Carlos Kleiber and the Wiener Philharmoniker is the second, and I’m scheduled to review the other two DG released of the great conductor on vinyl, Beethoven 5 & 7. 

This is the tale of two worlds, one the bright, happy Schubert of the coffee houses and Saturday morning gossip. The other, the dour, brooding Schubert, musically ominous, yet featuring incredible imagination producing an unfinished masterpiece.  

Whether sunny or cloudy, Kleiber brings great energy and imagination to both performances. You won’t hear better playing anywhere — even the vaunted Sinopoli DG Philharmonia can’t compete. The balance of the sections, the articulation of the unique Puchner oboes and Viennese Horns (single F horns with piston valves), and the sound of the wonderful clarinets and trombones (Kleiber’s direction of them in the Unfinished’s syncopations is marvellous) is echt Vienna/Schubert. Hard to replicate echt anything on rainy winter morning session in a London studio! 

Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic continue to be top of the classical music pile. They boast a full complement of recordings that sell extremely well and the orchestra’s own benchmark digital delivery system, the Digital Concert Hall. The ‘Hall’ is sponsored big time by Deustche Bank and is state of the art in HD, production and direction. That it has the world’s greatest orchestra and finest conductors doesn’t hurt, either.

Rattle can (and does) conduct and record whatever he likes — a testament to his incredible musicianship, the love the players have for him and the esteem in which he is held by recording companies. Everyone wants Rattle.

The striking women on the cover is the London Philharmonic's new star principal flute, Juliette Bausor.

London and Paris trained, Bausor is but one of a long list of wonderful young players filling important posts worldwide. Bausor follows in the footsteps of some wonderful long retired LPO principals like Richard Adeney and Jonathan Snowden, both of whom recorded superb Mozart Concertos, much like the fabulous Mozart heard here on Bausor's new Signum Records release.

Coupled with the Mozart G Major Concerto (and his lesser known works for flute, the Andante in C and Rondo in D), is the problematic child of 'modern' flute concertos, the eccentric and enigmatic Flute Concerto (1926) of Carl Nielsen.

We'll give Supercuts the best Heldenleben sound award but also laziest, poorly designed cover. How long did it take to cobble that together? A last minute afterthought, surely? Each original EMI cover is much better and reissues from Biddulph and Testament. 

Enough of that nonsense, let's get to the glories of this reissue, the performance and sound.  

I'm ashamed to say I did not know this recording. I've played the piece so many times, the middle 'war' section, which goes on far too long, put me off buying many recordings. 

I've known the work since I was a baby. My father, a Strauss expert, had a recording with what I felt was a very scary cover with a scary man on it. Turns out it was von Karajan, who, it turns out became my own Strauss hero. 

There's no in between with the recorder. It's either a toy in a child's hands or you're an international virtuoso like Marion Verbruggen or Michala Petri. Yet in Lucie Horsch, we have that rarity. Both. At 17, the Dutch girl already has an enviable reputation as soloist on her instrument. And what other recorder player gets a Decca recording contract while still at school?

Presently, Horsch is a student at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam. She has an assured technique paired with outstanding musicianship and musicality. Her playing is so good, it invites comparison with the best recorder players such as the two ladies mentioned above. Horsch matches both for technique and musicality. 

This magnificent box set came after the somewhat ill advised 2012 Stereo Box Set. Those LPs were remastered from digital masters and have received mixed reviews. For most, the stereo records would be perfectly satisfactory. But for many Beatles enthusiasts and completists, back to the originals are the recordings they lust after.

Reflection informs most of the performances on the latest CD release from the great Italian pianist, Maurizio Pollini. He recently celebrated his 75th birthday, maybe the perfect time for reflection, especially with the autumnal works chosen here. But let's not forget, 'autumnal' in Chopin years is 30 to 35, young by any other standard. He died at 39 of tuberculosis. And it seems a lot of worldly stress was informing his life. A break up with George Sand, fights with her kids, money troubles and lingering illness. All affected his inspiration.

Pierre-Arnaud Dablemont’s CD of Beethoven Sonatas on Resonus Classics brings a fresh approach and a superb recording to these often recorded works. The Parisian born and Brussels based French pianist has a fluent technique and produces a lovely tone, but it’s his musicality that wins here.

One can never have enough Mozart or Brahms Clarinet Quintet recordings in a collection. With both composers in mind, I wish Jörg Widmann would have added the Brahms to the Mozart rather than the accompanying Mozart String Quartet K421. His playing is that good. A revelation, actually.

Not that you’ll be slumming with the superb Arcanto Quartet (founded in 2002). They perform Mozart as well as any and you’ll love their performance of the second of the so called ‘Haydn Quartets’ (No. 15 in D minor K.421). Dedicated to ‘To my dear friend Haydn’, the performance by the Arcantos will have you wishing for a complete set.

German clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld (1856 – 1907) must have been one hell of a player. His artistry nudged a semi retired Brahms to write the seminal chamber work for the instrument, the Clarinet Quintet (1891), a fine trio and the two most famous sonatas for the instrument.

The same could be said for Austrian clarinettist Anton Stadler (1753 – 1812). His playing inspired Mozart to write an equally wonderful Clarinet Quintet (1789) and the instrument’s greatest Concerto (1791).

Andreas Staier, the German-born, Hanover and Amsterdam-trained pianist/harpsichordist is fast becoming the harmonia mundi go to man for recordings of modern instruments and the fortepiano.

For this recording of Schubert Trios, Staier is joined by Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie concertmaster, Daniel Sepec and Roel Dieltiens, cello. All three play period instruments. Happily, Staier's fortepiano, a copy of an 1827 Graf, sounds nothing like others I've heard -- poor tone and sounding hideously out of tune. Staier's piano sounds wonderful. And, in tune.

Many people consider the companion recording to this Beethoven 7 DG classic (Beethoven's 5th Symphony with the same forces) as not only the greatest Beethoven recording of all time but the greatest recording of all time. I'm inclined to agree. It's perfection in an imperfect setting. Have you heard it?

The Curzon Emperor Concerto is not only one of the finest performances on record of the great Concerto, it's one of the greatest performances on record, period. 

Sir Clifford Curzon is one of a handful of English pianists that can be compared with the best of the continent and the USA. I'd add Dame Myra Hess and Solomon to the mix. The difference between Curzon and many others that he made magic not only on stage but in the studio. No more than on this famous record. 

The 'dude', also known as Venezuelan conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, has a real affinity for this Russian music. He draws incredibly committed playing from the Vienna Philharmonic in a glorious sounding DG recording.

You can imagine a frosty Monday morning in Vienna. The orchestra members want to be home in bed and once again, the old warhorse Pictures at an Exhibition is on the stands. Again! It's at that moment the Vienna machine gets into gear. Dudamel is such a wonderful conductor, he could charm a great performance anytime, anywhere. But all musicians really outdo themselves, here.

Originally composed as a concertante for piano and orchestra, Stravinsky later cobbled it into the wonderful ballet Petrushka to satisfy a commission from Paris' Ballet Russe, the great impresario Diaghilev, in particular. After the grand success of his first ballet, The Firebird, the public wanted more from the young Stravinsky. Petrushka was also very successful and laid the groundwork for The Rite of Spring, an altogether different proposition.

This is the second album in a renewed partnership between Montreal's famous orchestra and Decca Records.

Although I have lived in Toronto, London and Victoria since, Montreal's my beloved hometown. The spectacular (and snowy) city is hard to remove from your DNA, even if you wanted. Montrealers don't. Some of my musical education was in Montreal. I have a lot of friends in the orchestra past and present.