John Buckley: In lines of dazzling light (Black Box)

Hindemith was a young man when he set out on what became one of the most comprehensive of instrumental sonata-writing journeys. He was famous, too, for the number of instruments that he could actually play himself. I don't know how far John Buckley's ambitions stretch in this latter regard, but as for the Hindemithian ideal of grasping and exploiting an instrument's potential, Buckley probably aspires to it with greater fidelity than any other Irish composer. The pieces collected here include solos (for recorder, horn, flute, saxophone, and flute - Buckley's own instrument) and ensemble works (a saxophone quartet and the mixed quintet which gives the CD its title). The dominant style is a diligent demonstrativeness, typically leavened by moments of calmer lyricism.

- Michael Dervan

Mozart: String Quartet in C K465; String Quintet in E flat K614. Louise Williams, Lindsay Quartet (ASV)

It's easy nowadays to take the strangely clashing lines at the opening of Mozart's Dissonant Quartet for granted. When the autograph manuscript changed hands in the 19th century, the new owners were plagued with queries about the opening, from performers who had always assumed what they heard to be the result of printers errors! The Lindsay Quartet, whose recent recordings of Haydn's Op. 20 gave much pleasure, are here to be found in weightier mode, more prone to underline points through accents and stresses, and seek out aspects of gravitas. It's by no means an uncommon approach in this music. But in both the Dissonant Quartet and the last of the late quintets, the effect is to distance the playing style from the 18th century of the music itself.

- Michael Dervan

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli plays Brahms, Schubert, Beethoven (DG Originals)

Deutsche Grammophon has been very slow to let its Michelangeli recordings stray from full price. So it's particularly welcome to find this generous new collection (80 minutes) appearing in the mid-price Originals series, especially as it features repertoire - Brahms's Ballades, Op 10, Schubert's Sonata in A minor, D537, and Beethoven's Sonata in E flat, Op 7 - which is not readily encountered in the widely-circulating live recordings of Michelangeli's work. The early Brahms (like the Schubert, recorded on an instrument from the early decades of the 20th century) shows Michelangeli at his best, magisterial and ardent. The Schubert is rather breathless, but the rarely-aired and slightly enigmatic Beethoven is done with finely-balanced poise.

- Michael Dervan

Geoffrey Burgon: Merciless Beauty (ASV)

Geoffrey Burgon composed some of television's most memorable scores: Dr Who, Tinker, Tailor,]Soldier, Spy, Brideshead Revisited. But is he any good at songs, we cry? And the answer comes back via this world premiere recording: yes, he is. The seven-song cycle Merciless Beauty is sung by countertenor James Bowman as if he owns it (which he does, a bit, having partly commissioned it in 1996); it's mirrored by the 1991 A Vision, seven settings of poems by John Clare for tenor (Neil Jenkins) and string orchestra; and the CD is rounded off, literally, with the weird, wonderful, ballet-inspired The Calm. New century: new stuff. Excellent.

- Arminta Wallace