In Parma, where audiences are considered the most discerning in all Italy, the benchmark for vocal artists is set traditionally high. Operagoers here are intimately familiar with the works of their favourites, from Rossini to Puccini, and know every tricky corner by heart. God forbid any singer who fails to accomplish the task without due seemliness Unsurprisingly, then, this performance attempts no directorial experiments. The main setting for this realistically inspired production both indoors and out is Rosinas house, which is converted as required into its constituent parts.

When he died, Nicolaus Bruhns was just 31 years old, and only twelve of his vocal works and five organ compositions have survived. On the strength of these, he is nevertheless considered one of the most prominent North German composers of the generation between Buxtehude and Bach. Buxtehude was in fact Bruhns teacher, and thought so highly of him that recommended him for a position in Copenhagen. There he worked as a violin virtuoso and composer until 1689, when he returned to Northern Germany to become organist in the main church of Husum. It was here that most if not all of the extant works were performed.

Mozart’s sonatas for the fortepiano cover a period from 1766 to 1791, with a significant number of mature sonatas written during the years in Vienna. The sonatas include much fine music, ranging from the slighter C major Sonata for beginners, K. 545, to the superb and more technically challenging B flat Sonata, K. 570. In addition to his sonatas he wrote a number of sets of variations, while his ephemeral improvisations in similar form are inevitably lost to us. The published works include operatic variations as well as a set of variations on the theme Ah, vous dirai-je, maman, known in English as ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’.

This album features perhaps some of the best (certainly best-known) works by the top two violin composers working in Modena, Italy, at the end of the 17th century. Vitali and Colombi were both quite prolific and produced pieces of wide variety of form, not whittled down to the standard ‘dance suite’ of the middle and late baroque. While the Vitali works have been recorded previously in a version for ensemble, this is the first recording of the pieces in their solo format – and the same applies to the Colombi and anonymous pieces. The album is a fine and fitting sequel to Skærved’s previous solo recording “Florish in the Key” (Athene ATH 23211) which presented contemporaneous (late 17th century) solo violin music from London. “Genuinely intriguing” – Early Music Review; “Excellent… instantly attractive… uniformly high quality” – Infodad)

After their critically-acclaimed recording of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov continue their Pentatone Mahler cycle with a rendition of the composer’s Fifth. The Fifth Symphony marks an important turning point in Mahler’s symphonic output, away from the prominence of vocal movements in his previous symphonies. And whereas the Fifth seems to follow a teleology from darkness to light like its predecessors, the trajectory is much less straightforward, and full of enigmatic turns. Bychkov’s exceptional eye for detail and pacing make him an ideal guide through this work, while the Czech Philharmonic is capable of letting all the colours of Mahler’s score shine.

Paul Klee’s picture Ad marginem provides inspiration and context for the present programme and is a visual guide to performance for us as Talistrio: a radiant red circle in the middle, while around it - driven back to the margin - living creatures and abstract objects emerge. It is surely this mixture of melancholy and hope that links all the works listed below, be it Casella’s neoclassical dance on the volcano from the early 20th century, Tchaikovsky’s death and its shattering inspirational impulse upon the young Rachmaninoff, or the Japanese child scene at sunset.

A movie as appealing and savory as the heaping piles of dinosaur sh*t that pass for its sight gags, 1980's Caveman ranks among the worst bombs Hollywood ever produced. Though a vehicle for Ringo Starr, the erstwhile Beatle did not record the film's soundtrack, with that, uh, "honor" going to the great screen composer Lalo Schifrin. Somehow Schifrin manages to rise above it all – especially given the circumstances, his Caveman score ain't half bad: though its epic sweep would have been far better suited for a movie worth watching, this is the kind of melodramatic score harking back to Hollywood's golden era, complete with eruptions of brass and strings. And in keeping with the prehistoric plot, there's even a tribal energy to the percussion – sounds silly, but it works.

The film was a sensation and audiences all over the world were entranced. It was hugely influential and ushered in a whole era of Comedy, Italian Style. Aiding and abetting the mischievous fun was the wonderful score by Carlo Rustichelli. Rustichelli, born in 1916, had begun working in film in 1939 and by 1962 had become a hugely popular composer for Italian films. His first film for Pietro Germi was Lost Youth in 1948 and thus began one of the longest and most fruitful director/composer collaborations ever, with Rustichelli composing scores for all but the first of Germi’s films – eighteen in total. He also worked with other directors such as Billy Wilder, Mario Bava, Gillo Pontecorvo, Luigi Comencini, and provided scores for countless sword and sandal films, spaghetti westerns, crime films, and just about every genre imaginable. He was a superb melodist, and Divorce, Italian Style is rife with great themes, which all serve the film perfectly. In fact, the film would be unthinkable without Rustichelli’s wonderful and tuneful score.