Classical

Bruckner: Symphony No 3 (1876 version). Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Georg Tintner (Naxos)

Bruckner's Third provides a greater array of versions than any of his other symphonies. For his highly-praised Naxos series, the late Georg Tintner opted for the version of 1873, the original and least well-known, which didn't make it into print until 1977. Tintner's Bruckner cycle, made in part with the NSO in Dublin, has turned out to be one of the gems of the Naxos catalogue. The conceptions are spacious but neither laboured or lumbering. Pacing which is natural, playing which is full of well-judged incident, and orchestral contours balanced with a fine Brucknerian ear have ensured music-making of a consistently high order. Glasgow's RSNO shows a few rough edges of detail in the Third, but nothing to detract seriously from another worthy addition to a valuable series.

By Michael Dervan

Schutz: Italian Madrigals.

Cantus Colln/Konrad Junghanel (lute) (Harmonia Mundi)

This set of 19 Italian madrigals by Heinrich Schutz, published in Venice in 1611, was intended as a testimony of what the 26-year-old German had learned from his teacher, Giovanni Gabrieli. The madrigals occupy a very special place in Schutz's output, as he was to devote the rest of his composing life to the cultivation of religious music for voices.

The sighs and plaints of dying, afflicted lovers, interspersed with momentary delights, provided the young composer with the spur to show off the full panoply of his musical resources. Cantus Colln's performances project the music with a chordal and often dissonant richness that can at times seem almost over-ripe, the agonies so achingly intense that you almost wish for an outcome more explosive than the smoothness of a resolving cadence.

By Michael Dervan

Marijn Simons: Cuddly Animals Violin Concerto; String Quartet; Capriccio for Stan and Ollie (Etcetera)

The titles don't tell the full story, but they do give a hint as to the real character of the composer/violinist Marijn Simons. This Dutch prodigy was born in 1982, was playing and composing by the age of four, and already features as both soloist and composer in the schedules of Dutch orchestras. His music is bold in colour and gesturally exuberant, lots of vivid use of low wind instruments in the toy-depicting Violin Concerto of 1997-8, with spiky percussion writing added in the ensemble piece, Capriccio for Stan and Ollie (1997).

The String Quartet No 2 (1996-8) may be a bit more problematic, but this young man clearly knows what he wants to do. His solo playing in the concerto is every bit as assured and a lot more mature-sounding than the compositions themselves.

By Michael Dervan