REVIEWS: Sarasate: Music for Violin and Piano, Volume 4 (Naxos 8.572709) THE final disc of a successful series from Tianwa Yang and her accompanist Markus Hadulla, containing some of Sarasate’s greatest transcriptions and arrangements. Included are a magnificent Chopin sequence and arrangements inspired by the music of French Baroque violinists. Highly recommended.

Kaveli Aho (BIS1866)
A FASCINATING release of works by the acclaimed Finnish composer Kalevi Aho, including his Symphony No 15.

Music with an Oriental flavor, employing a variety of percussion instruments, such as Indian ragas, Japanese shakuhachi music and Arabian rhythms. Also recorded here are the single-movement concerto Minea and the Double Bass Concerto.

Wienberg Symphony No 12 (Naxox 8.573085)
St PETERSBURG State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Lande, perform Weinberg’s Symphony No12 – written in the spirit of Shostakovich it was in response to the death in August 1975 of his great friend.

Bellini, La Sonnambula (Euroarts DVD2059338)
BELLINI’S La Sonnambula recorded at Opera Stuttgart in June 2013. In this extraordinary production, voted Opera of the Year by Opernwelt magazine, the directing duo of Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito address the dormant and profound questions of our civilisation and its myths that trouble the eponymous sleepwalker.