Prior to his highly regarded 2012 Decca release of the Elgar Cello Concerto with Alisa Weilerstein, Daniel Barenboim had made no albums of this composer's music since the 1990s. The acclaim that the Cello Concerto brought seems to have opened up the possibilities of presenting more Elgar, as this 2014 CD of the Symphony No. 2 in E flat major suggests. Performing with the Staatskapelle Berlin, which plays with great vigor and expressiveness, Barenboim explores this piece in light of Elgar's ambiguous situation in 1911, the year he completed the symphony.

Mstislav Rostropovich is the world's greatest cellist, and he has actually made at least five recordings of this greatest of all cello concertos. I have a certain preference for his later version, with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Erato. This version has long been a prime recommendation, and in this new remastering at mid-price, it's an even better deal now. Herbert von Karajan accompanies with his usual expertise, and the Tchaikovsky performance is quite simply the finest around. This concerto is one of those pieces of which you'll want to have five or six copies. Just make sure this is one of them. –David Hurwitz

The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists are renowned of their spectacular performances of Bach’s epic masterpiece, which they have toured extensively.