#NowSpinning Mozart Symphony No.39, from the Cleveland Orchestra and Christoph von Dohanányi. This is an extremely pleasant set of late Mozart Symphonies. Plus the recordings are so detailed it really pays to listen with the score to hand.

#NowSpinning Alpesh Chauhan conducts one of my favourite Tchaikovsky works, Francesca da Rimini. Astonishingly good recorded sound! Let’s hope Chauhan finds all the tempestuous energy and fire this work deserves!

#NowSpinning Riccardo Muti’s Mahler 4 from the 1995 Amsterdam Mahler Festival. This is with the Vienna Philharmonic and shows off all sorts of elegance and glitter.

#NowSpinning Sibelius’s spooky and atmospheric melodrama Snöfrid. Paavo Järvi’s Estonian forces sound fabulous here.

#NowSpinning Strauss’s Alpine Symphony in Karajan’s first recording of the digital era, and his first DG recording released in the 1980s. It’s a spectacular performance and, frankly, is thrilling the pants off me once again. Dear God, I love music.

#NowSpinning Janaček’s First String Quartet, with the Medicis on Koch. A passionate, emotionally challenging work, this. Hopefully I won’t crash the car!

#NowSpinning Beethoven Piano Concerto No.4, with Murray Perahia and Bernard Haitink. Such a wonderfully glowing opening, both from the composer and from the musicians. This is fabulous music-making.

#NowSpinning Chailly’s Lucerne Stravinsky Rite of Spring. Chailly’s Cleveland version is one of my all-time favourites, but I haven’t yet heard this one properly. Let’s see.

#NowSpinning Arvo Volmer’s Sibelius 6 from Adelaide. There is a certain inflexibility of pulse here, which possibly undermines the atmosphere, but also brings structural benefits and a crystalline purity.

#NowSpinning Schubert String Quartet No.12. The Quartetto Italiano strut their stuff with customary virtuosity, but always magnificent musicianship. This music feels like it’s oozing from their collective souls!

#NowSpinning Solti’s Vienna Bruckner 7, to continue this curious box. I have not heard this particular recording of the Seventh before. So far, I’m finding it surprisingly earthbound. That first movement can sound vaulting and majestic, but here it feels even a little tepid.

#NowSpinning Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus. This is a marvellous gem. The composer casts a very special spell over and under the recorded bird sounds. It’s a desolate kind of beauty, but addictive and beguiling.

#NowSpinning Rimsky-Korsakov’s exotically intoxicating Antar, in Svetlanov’s RCA recording. It doesn’t quite have the magic of Järvi’s DG version, but it’s still lovely. This work does not get enough attention, but it is full of inspired ideas, all projected in Rimsky’s trademark colouring.

#NowSpinning Haydn Symphonies 85, 86 and 87 with Ansermet in Geneva. I really enjoyed the first disc of Paris Symphonies and look forward to this one.

#NowSpinning Karajan’s studio Mahler 9. This is the last in the 1970s section of his massive complete DG box. By the end of this I will be 182 discs into the box, which contains 356. So only just pat the half way point, with all of the Opera and 1980s recordings to go.

#NowSpinning Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, with Karajan in Berlin. I know how many people feel about Karajan and Bach, but it’s next up in his big box and so I am listening rather than making any assumptions about it.

#NowSpinning Karajan’s Bruckner 6 from the very end of the 1970s. I am following this with the score and writing this between movements. It’s astounding how much detail there is to take in, from the score itself.

#NowSpinning Mozart Symphony No. 38 with Dohnányi in Cleveland. The Cleveland box has some wonderful repertoire in it, but I have failed to get past the first disc so far!

#NowSpinning Tchaikovsky Symphony, recorded right at the end of the 1970s, along with 2 and 3, to complete Karajan’s DG cycle. Karajan has a real feel for Tchaikovsky and this First is coming off magnificently. But oh my god, the cover art! Weird.

#NowSpinning Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Herbert von Karajan. I can’t say I am particularly excited by this. It’s pretty. And impressive. But I am not sure it’s particularly…….interesting.

#NowSpinning Karajan’s incredibly beautiful Mahler 4. I haven’t heard this for probably 20 years at least. Karajan was probably wise to not record all of the Mahler symphonies - judicious repertoire choice has to be key for any conductor - but I am glad he did this one.

#NowSpinning Arvo Volmer’s Sibelius 5 from Adelaide. If it’s not already obvious, I am REALLY enjoying my second run through this cycle. The orchestra sounds gorgeously idiomatic.

Now onto the Rückert-Lieder from the same disc.

#NowSpinning Rimsky-Korsakov’s short, but very appealing Piano Concerto, with Malcolm Binns and David Lloyd-Jones. Works like this really deserve much more attention. The opening is especially evocative and it’s all gorgeously orchestrated.

#NowSpinning Glazunov’s Second Symphony, with Otaka in Wales. Having already loved the Serebrier and Järvi sets, I’ve bought up a good handful of others, including this one. Such heartwarmingly approachable works.

#NowSpinning Chopin’s Ballade No.4 with Samson Francois. Highly expressive and almost improvisatory, at least that’s my first impression.

#NowSpinning Dorati’s famous Mercury Firebird from London. I know some prefer his Detroit remake and some like neither, but I love both. This is an outstanding disc and I am glad to have reached it again.

#NowSpinning Arvo Volmer’s Sibelius Symphony No.4 from Adelaide. From the very outset this performance is moody and searching.

#NowSpinning Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, with Christa Ludwig and Herbert von Karajan. It’s been a long time since I heard these recordings. But I do love Ludwig most dearly. Let’s see how I feel.

#NowSpinning Respighi’s Pini di Roma with Dorati in Minneapolis. This is a performance of high contrasts. Very impressive.

#NowSpinning Arnold Bax Christmas Eve. Not a fairy tale work. But rather an emotionally charged night of contemplation in amongst Ireland’s strife. Merry Christmas, one and all

#NowSpinning Lutosławski and Janáček from Ozawa in Chicago. As before, the recording shows its age a little, but the playing is phenomenal And Ozawa delivers high octane energy.

#NowSpinning Seiji Ozawa’s Chicago Symphony Orchestra account of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra.

#NowSoinning Murray Perahia and Bernard Haitink with Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. These are supremely refined accounts of Beethoven’s concertos, but will they set everyone’s pulses racing? I’m not sure, but they are rather beautiful.

#NowSpinning Stravinsky’s wondrous Petrushka, with Vladimir Juowski and our good mate, London Phil. My initial impressions are of an interpretation brimming with care for detail and plenty of energy. But let’s see….

#NowSpinning Tamberg’s thrillingly skittish Concerto Grosso. This is FUN. At least the opening is.

#NowSpinning Magnard’s highly compelling and totally touching Fourth Symphony.

#NowSpinning this magnificently luminous account of Respighi’s Fontana di Roma. Such beauty and refinement!

#NowSpinning Injecting some energy into the day, with Dorati’s Mendelssohn Italian. There’s wonderful ‘bounce’ to the string playing here. It’s all snap and vigour.

#NowSpinning my playlist for a journey from Norfolk to Hertfordshire. Karajan’s Mozart 40 and 41, then his set of Verdi Overtures and Preludes. This is going to very entertaining.

What’s your favourite recording of Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony? I have two I go back to most often. Karajan’s Decca VPO charmer and Honeck’s Pittsburgh rollercoaster fight it out for me. What would your choices be?

#NowSpinning Per Nørgård Symphony No.3. This is new territory for me, though it’s absolutely in my wheelhouse! These Symphonies are clearly highly evocative and searching works. Sometimes magical; sometimes disturbing. Always personal.

#NowSpinning Neeme Järvi’s magnificent account of Tubin’s Third Symphony. This is a very heroic and uplifting work. The sense of discovery in this performance is inspiring. The orchestra sounds thrilled to be playing it.

#NowSpinning Grofé’s Grab Canyon Suite with Dorati in Detroit. I barely know this work and certainly don’t know this recording. The colours of the orchestra are glowing from the very start.

#NowSpinning Bartók’s Two Portraits and the Miraculous Mandarin, with Erich Binder and the Vienna Philharmonic. First disc in this recently-released box. I already had these performances on a Decca Double from Australian Eloquence, but great to hear it all again.

#NowSpinning Leonard Slatkin with Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony in St Louis. I already know his Naxos set, but have never really tried this Vox box. First impressions are of a dark, glowering interpretation.

#NowSpinning Karajan’s 1978 Mozart K.385 Symphony No.35, ‘Haffner’. Well this is….big. I will wait until I have actually heard it all before making any judgements.

Honestly? Just listened to these Walton 1 recordings and fell very strongly on the side of Thomson for many reasons. Mainly the explosive energy of the older recording really felt different. There is amazing subtlety in the new version, but it feels quite muted in several places.

#NowSpinning Messiah, with Paul McCreesh. Those who know me will probably suspect this is music that isn’t usually in my wheelhouse, and that would be partly right. But this is utterly stunning and I was totally in the mood for it.

#NowSpinning Mahler Symphony No.1, with Paavo Järvi in Zurich. Here is a conductor I usually really love, so I am curious as to how this Mahler cycle will turn out. The opening is certainly clear-sighted and evocative.