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Yannis Papaioannou lived mainly in Athens, but also experienced a crucial period of study in Europe with musicians such as Arthur Honegger, and encountering the richness of postwar Parisian musical life. Papaioannou’s stylistic phases reflect a panorama of 20th century Greek art-music. His creative absorption of Western techniques ranged from the impressionism of the Preludes to the more traditional nationalism of Island Dance, from a post-1950 experimentation with the modernism of Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Webern, to the deeply expressive works of his final years.

The Lamentations of Jeremiah may be unremittingly sad, but they have had a deep resonance for composers throughout the ages. This is a collection that reflects that diversity – from John Mundy’s setting, which highlights the grave concern over schisms in the Catholic Church of the sixteenth century, through to Rudolph Mauersberger’s motet, which mourns the destruction of the city of Dresden in 1945. Two new pieces were commissioned especially for this project, and are recorded here for the first time: John Duggan’s haunting set of three Lamentations for choir, trumpet and solo soprano; and Cecilia McDowall’s exotic and powerful The Lord is Good, which was shortlisted for a BASCA award in 2012.

Sospiri’s CD Requiem on the Gift for Music label was warmly received, the Oxford Times reviewer “captivated by these pieces when I heard them in performance, and they are just as mesmerising on disc.” The Lost City continues Sospiri’s winning combination of repertoire from early music through to the present day, creating their own meditative cutting edge by appealing to audiences both contemporary and conservative, secular and spiritual.

The winner of many prestigious awards for composition, Samuel Adler is also Professor emeritus at the Eastman School of Music. His Canto series was written to meet the challenge of providing concert etudes for every orchestral instrument. This program presents the complete Cantos for solo string instruments, exploring the great possibilities in each instrument from virtuoso feats to lyrical poignancy, ‘moody’ pensiveness to sharply observed wit and humor. The duet Close Encounters expresses ecstatic feelings of love, while the string trio Five Snapshots reflects contrasting scenes of nature. Samuel Adler’s Of Musique and a selection of other chamber works can be found on Naxos 8559602. His Fifth Symphony can be heard on 8559415.

Landscapes is a journey through the rich tapestry of American wind band music, performed by one of the country’s leading ensembles. One of Michael Torke’s most admired works, Javelin has been described as a ‘sonic olympiad’, while his arrangement of Mojave was made especially for Ji Hye Jung and the University of Kansas Wind Ensemble.

Frank Ticheli explores vibrant colors in sound in his moving An American Elegy, while the Copland arrangements encapsulate the depth and variety of his imagination.

The Cello Concerto is one of Anglo-Irish composer E. J. Moeran’s most important works. Composed in 1945, its deft scoring and memorable melodic material mark it as a work of his maturity. At its heart is the raptly lyrical and profoundly felt slow movement but the whole concerto reflects the singing qualities of the solo instrument. The much-admired Serenade is heard in the 1996 edition of the original 1948 version with eight movements. Lonely Waters is a brief but evocative orchestral rhapsody, and Whythorne’s Shadow a touching fantasy based on an Elizabethan madrigal.

The outstanding young soloist Guy Johnston (winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 2000) has been receiving superb international reviews, and this disc marks the early partnership of the Ulster Orchestra with JoAnn Falletta.

This is the second disc of works focussing on Peter Maxwell Davies’ continuing artistic relationship with the Ceccanti family. The Second Strathclyde Concerto is notable for its eloquently expressive cello lines and the composer’s signature transparency of orchestration. The Sonata ‘Sequentia Serpentigena’, written for Vittorio, was inspired by early medieval stone carvings in Tuscany and uses Gregorian chant to bring the serpent’s symbolism of temptation and betrayal to life. The Little Tune for Vittorio is a song based on an original theme in a Scottish folk style. Vittorio and Mauro Ceccanti can be heard in Maxwell Davies’ Linguae Ignis and Vesalii Icones on Naxos 8572712.

Completed in 1936, two years after the hugely popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony was considered by the composer to be one of his finest works. Both this and the Symphonic Dances, his last work, offer a summation of his late style in blending intense rhythmic energy with rich romanticism. Leonard Slatkin and the DSO’s recording of the Second Symphony (8572458) was hailed by BBC Music Magazine as “a performance warmed by musicians who clearly love this symphony”.

The Third Symphony and the Symphonic Dances are late Rachmaninov and go together very well. Both illustrate Rachmaninov taking new directions in his compositions, sparer in the Symphony and rhythmically charged in the Dances.

“I like nothing better than chamber music,” Saint-Saëns once wrote to a violinist friend and, indeed, he did much to promote the genre in Paris during the second half of the 19th century. Prominent among his works for violin and piano is the technically challenging 1885 Violin Sonata No. 1 which balances passion with clarity. The Triptyque of 1912 shows his mastery of melody, rhythm and metre, and elsewhere in this first volume one finds numerous examples of his instinct for charm and characterisation.

Renowned as a virtuoso jazz clarinetist and legendary bandleader, Benny Goodman is also remembered for the works he commissioned from leading composers of his day. Poulenc’s strikingly beautiful Clarinet Sonata was his last composition, while Bernstein’s was his first published piece. Both Gershwin and Stravinsky added their distinctive stamp to the swing vibe which was all the rage in the early 20th century. The jazz flavour of Morton Gould’s Benny’s Gig is heightened by the unusual coupling of clarinet and double bass, while pungent folk rhythms define Bartók’s virtuoso Contrasts.

Zdenĕk Fibich’s career overlapped those of his countrymen Smetana and Dvořak, but his music remained poised between the twin poles of Czech Nationalism and the New German School. His earliest surviving symphony is No. 1 in F major, Op. 17, completed in Prague in 1883. Whilst it is the most conventional of his three symphonies it is excellently proportioned and reveals the influence of Schumann on his developing art. Impressions from the Countryside, Op. 54 is, in effect, a symphonic suite and was highly influential on the younger generation of Czech composers.