Stravinsky: The Firebird; Scriabin: Prometheus. Alexander Toradze (piano), Kirov Orchestra/Valery Gergiev (Philips)

The past is a lot more keenly felt in Stravinsky's first great ballet, The Firebird, than in either of its immediate successors. The truncated 1945 version is said to contain all the older Stravinsky really liked from the piece. But the lavish 1910 original retains its full allure in the splendid hands of Valery Gergiev. He conducts it as a man of the theatre, as sensitive to every shift of mood-painting as to its multihued scenes of picturesque exoticism. Premiered a year after the Stravinsky, Scriabin's Prometheus (Poem of Fire) strains at leashes philosophical, voluptuous and practical (the score has a part for a keyboard to project colours). Toradze and Gergiev press and caress it for all that it's worth.

Michael Dervan

Christian Thielemann conducts Wagner (DG). Barry Wordsworth conducts Wagner (Carlton). Wagner conductors on record (Pearl, two discs)

Here are three different angles on Wagner. There's the full panoply of a great modern orchestra (the Philadelphia with Thielemann), through a re-creation of period sound and practice (Wordsworth and the New Queen's Hall) to a historic selection from closer to Wagner's time than our own, by 17 men, most of them born in the composer's lifetime. Whether excitingly driven (Weingartner and Richard Strauss), slow (Knappertsbusch and Furtwangler), or unexpectedly light (Karl Muck), the older performances share a long-lost spareness of vibrato, steadiness of line and scrupulousness of legato (not to mention their intensity and incandescence). Wordsworth's players offer intriguing detail but looser focus. Thielemann mixes lean sensuality and rhythmic volatility in recorded sound that lacks body.

Michael Dervan

Rossini: "Il Turco In Italia" (Decca)

A flirtatious wife, a jealous husband and a pining manservant would spell trouble in any opera buffa, but when a band of gypsies, a Turkish prince and a manipulative poet turn up as well, the stage is well and truly set for generous helpings of bubbly coloratura, sparkling comic repartee, light-hearted interchanges and the occasional blazing row. There is a vicious streak in Il Turco In Italia, but if it's done with a suitable sense of fun, it works, and the central role of Donna Fiorilla is certainly an impressive showcase for a star soprano. Cecilia Bartoli fits the bill perfectly, and she is aided and abetted here by a fabulous selection of voices, in particular Michele Pertusi as the perfidious Turk, Alessandro Corbelli as the outraged Husband. Riccardo Chailly conducts the La Scala orchestra and chorus with a relish that verges on OTT. You need sunshine on a dull summer's day? You got it.

Arminta Wallace