Every extreme inevitably breeds its opposite. In a world of increasingly overwhelming complexity minimalism is looming large on the other end of the spectrum. Minimalist music for meditation, for innerness, for immersion. for reaching out to simplicity from out of the midst of all the complexity. So a title like Bach minimaliste is immediately appealing. However, don’t be fooled by the title.

An album of Monteverdi arias, canzonettas, madrigals. That already sounded promising. How could I resist? Monteverdi was a musical genius from the 17th century who well and truly put opera on the musical map. While not strictly speaking the first opera composer (that honour went to members of the Florentine Camerata who thought they were reviving Ancient Greek drama)…

I must confess to a love for the soprano voice, especially one oozing with power and passion and possessing the added bonus of an expressive low register. So when I came across Walking in the Dark, the debut album of American soprano Julia Bullock, I was immediately excited and intrigued, not least by the eclectic mix of music on the album ranging from modern classical to folk rock to jazz-based to spirituals.

I still remember the first time I got to experience a clavichord. It was at the private home of a lady my piano professor and I were visiting in the hope of obtaining a sponsorship for the Conservatorium. And there it was, so small and intimate, standing modestly in a back room and not taking up much space at all. Not much aural space either, as I was soon to discover. I was invited to play it. Of course Bach came to my mind straightaway.

For this review I thought I would turn to my own instrument, the piano, and a recently released double album by Víkingur Ólafsson, an Icelandic pianist who has been hailed as the “new superstar of classical piano” (Daily Telegraph). He describes this release, From Afar, as his most personal yet, and it is easy to see why.

For this review I thought I would choose a classical composer completely unknown to me. And yes, I have to admit that this particular composer’s name appealed to me – Still. Still-ness is something we could all use in a world that seems to be rapidly spinning out of control.

Who said classical music is moribund? Or even old-fashioned for that matter? Just because too many recordings of the old great composers - great for a reason as they have survived the passage of decades and centuries - have been presented as museum pieces, all imperfections edited out, does not mean that is all that they are. These works live and breathe in the hands of each new interpreter, that is, as long as that interpreter is not just a proficient musician but, above all else, an artist.

enargeia, released in October 2021, is the debut album of a stunning new arrival on the classical music scene, Italian-Canadian mezzo soprano Emily D’Angelo, who has just been signed as an exclusive artist with the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label. Only 26 years old, she is already the winner of multiple opera awards.