Re-released on Capriccio this month is a disc of Italian Concertos performed by the Concerto Köln. Alongside masterpieces by Vivaldi and Pergolesi, this 2 CD set contains some rarities of Neapolitan composers such as Francesco Durante and Leonardo Leo.

Alexander Tcherepnin was a very good composer, and his six piano concertos, licensed from BIS for this Brilliant Classics release, constitute an impressive body of work, full of color, variety, and contrast. The first two are single-movement pieces, while in the third Tcherepnin expands the formal layout to two movements without exceeding the very modest length of his first two concertos. In the Fourth Concerto things get really interesting: it consists of three short tone poems based on Chinese stories and melodies. Now admit it, who can resist a slow movement called “Yan Kuei's Love Sacrifice”?

In 2001 this young British tenor became an international phenomenon with his platinum-plus debut album THE VOICE. With that blockbuster recording, he defined himself as the pop-opera crossover sensation of the 21st century. The appropriately titled follow-up ENCORE will likely be regarded with suspicion by those with their feet planted firmly in either the pop or operatic world. Those whose tastes fall somewhere in between are exactly the folks who've already made him a superstar, and it is for them that ENCORE was made.

If you might be interested in Early Music, you cannot go wrong with any CD's from David Monroe. These are historically accurate performances by one of the pre-emminent musicians of the early historical instrument repertoire. Unfortunately there is a somewhat limited number of his CD's available from the 1963-76. There are still ongoing professional discussions on what may be considered as an "historical performance" for this period music.

Here are some prime works by Vivaldi that are not hot from a recording studio, but bring a new Nibiru title to our catalogue. They feature Ensemble Inegal and Prague Baroque Soloists conducted by Adam Viktora, who are legendary for their performances of music by Zelenka. We know lots about him, but it is unclear if Antonio Vivaldi ever actually visited the Czech lands - Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. Certainly his music was circulating there, as some of his operas appeared in Prague.

Featuring Handel's substantial Neun Deutsche Arien (Nine German Arias), HWV 202-210, this engaging late-'80s Bis recording gives the composer's relatively neglected vocal chamber music the royal treatment. It is masterfully produced by the label's founder, Robert von Bahr, and realized with utmost love and expertise by soprano Christina Högman and I Quattro Temperamenti.

On two previous discs, London Baroque has explored the genre of the trio sonatas as it unfolded in 17th Century France and England. Both these issues have met with great acclaim: the English volume being described in Goldberg Magazine as ‘A programme of outstanding music … A gem of a disc’, while the French issue received top marks on German website Klassik Heute, with the following words: ‘Everything that one might possibly wish for in a performance of this music is present here: charm, elegance, eloquence, force, flexibility, fire, intimacy, and the most important: soul.’ The ensemble has now arrived in Germany, or more correctly: the German-speaking world of the time, as the programme also features works from the Low Countries and Austria.

Playlist: The Very Best of Laura Nyro gathers 14 tracks recorded during the singer/songwriter's tenure with Columbia. Included are the original versions of "And When I Die," "Stoney End," and "Flim Flam Man [aka Hands Off the Man]." While this budget-priced compilation should please most casual listeners, it does leave off "Eli's Coming," one of her essential songs.

After his Bach concertos, a classical bestseller in both France and Germany, the young French pianist David Fray brings his unique sensibilities to Schubert. David Fray has already declared his particular affinity with Austro-German music, and after two CDs featuring Bach (and a DVD featuring him in Bach concertos) he now turns to the early Romantic era and Schubert, with a programme of the six Moments musicaux D780, the four Impromptus D899 and the Allegretto in C minor D915, recorded in Berlin.

There are curiously few complete cycles of Beethoven's five sonatas for cello and piano, given that the five, unlike the violin sonatas, were almost equally distributed among the composer's early, middle, and late periods, and that each one was in its way a formally daring work. The last two sonatas in particular, with their mysteriously lyrical third relations and compact finales, fugal in the case of the Cello Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102/2, might be regarded as having inaugurated Beethoven's late period. Cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and pianist Alexander Melnikov (here playing a modern piano unlike on the trio recording the pair made with violinist Isabelle Faust) have an efficient, quick, tough style that beautifully fits these late sonatas.

Mindy McCready's debut album, Ten Thousand Angels, elevated her into Nashville's music spotlight and established her as a promising singer. Born and raised in southern Florida, McCready (born Malinda Gayle McCready) graduated from high school at the age of 16 with the intention of beginning her musical career early. Following her graduation, she took a part-time job in her mother's ambulance company and began concentrating on performing her music.

Recordings of Bach's violin concertos are not in short supply, but this one, nicely recorded at a small hall in the home city of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, is unusually satisfying. It does not exactly break new ground, but it improves on several existing ideas and puts them together into a nifty package. First of all is the program itself. The Freiburgers and their leader/violinists, Petra Müllejans and Gottfried von der Goltz (joined here by Anna-Katharina Schreiber), offer by way of conclusion the Concerto for three violins and orchestra, BWV 1064R, a lost work reconstructed from a later version for harpsichord.

Playlist: The Very Best of Dixie Chicks is the greatest hits album from American country band the Dixie Chicks. The album consists of twelve songs personally selected by the Dixie Chicks from their fourth through seventh studio albums. It was released in the United States on June 1, 2010. The group supported the album by touring with The Eagles in 2010. It is a part of Sony BMG's Playlist series. It was also re-released on Sony's midprice sub-label Camden entitled Wide Open Spaces: The Collection in 2012.

By all rights, Kellie Pickler's third album 100 Proof should've been a blockbuster. A savvy update of classic country in the Tammy Wynette tradition, the 2012 record confirmed that Pickler could be a hell of a country singer, but the record stalled out on the charts, moving just a handful of copies – a significant decline from 2008's eponymous album, which almost went gold. BNA Records left her behind and she signed to the independent Black River Entertainment, working once again with 100 Proof producer Frank Liddell but also Luke Wooten, coming up with The Woman I Am, a record that's a bit bright and sweeter than its predecessor.

Excellent music by a composer of the classical period not well known today. The performance was in keeping with the music and the sound was very well done. After listening to this music several times, I wondered how music such as this fades into obscurity even for those familiar with the musical history of the time.