Classical

Dvorak: Symphony No 7; The Wild Dove. Royal Concertgebouw/Nikolaus Harnoncourt (Teldec)

Dvorak approached his Seventh Symphony wanting to write a work that was "capable of stirring the world". What he produced is the darkest of his symphonies, still widely regarded as his finest, in spite of the greater popularity of the New World. Nikolaus Harnoncourt's avowed intention was to approach the piece with a clean slate; his manner is measured, eschewing excitability for a restrained thoughtfulness. In the process, it has to be said, the playing loses out in momentum and rarely conveys any sense of spontaneity, although the recording is live. The fine detailing pays greater dividends in The Wild Dove, one of the series of late symphonic poems Dvorak was inspired to write by the often gruesome, folk-inspired poems of Karel Erben. Michael Dervan

Mozart: Quintet K452; Beethoven: Horn Sonata; Quintet Op 16. Robert Levin (fortepiano), AAM Chamber Ensemble (Decca)

With Robert Levin at the fortepiano, you can always expect surprises. Mozart was pleased enough with his quintet for piano and wind to describe it as "the best work I have ever composed", but Levin doesn't allow this to inhibit his fondness for embellishing melodic lines. Some quavering tone from the oboe notwithstanding, the period wind instruments produce a distinctive tang, and, with forward balance, they not so much dwarf as appear to absorb the light-sounding fortepiano without detriment to the music. The biggest revelation on the disc, however, is Beethoven's early Horn Sonata. With Anthony Halstead a consistently persuasive advocate, it gains hugely in substance from the re-drawing of instrumental strengths. Michael Dervan

Scarlatti: 15 Sonatas. Christophe Rousset (harpsichord) (Decca)

In Lisbon and later Madrid, Scarlatti was tutor of the talented Infanta Maria Barbara. Yet the 15 sonatas he wrote for her document the explorations of an untrammeled imagination, often investigating the imitative possibilities of the harpsichord, following the traces of patterns that form into coils of recurring dissonances, or sending the player into cross-handed leaps from one end of the keyboard to the other. Christophe Rousset's high-spirited collection was recorded on two 18th-century instruments, a decidedly historic-sounding single-manual Portuguese harpsichord by Antunes and a brighter, double-manual English instrument by Kirckman. Michael Dervan