Weber: Works for clarinet. Kari Kriikku (Ondine). Crusell: Clarinet Quartets. Kari Kriikku, mems Avanti Quartet (Ondine)

Two separate discs find the Finnish clarinettist Kari Kriikku, a dedicated exponent of contemporary music, exploring works from the first half of the 19th century. In the concertos, concertino and quintet by Weber he mines a rich vein of fantasy, finding the means to engage in romantic indulgence while retaining a sense of classical poise. It's really impressive to hear a player at once so wittily balletic and yet so sensitive to the music's moments of pathos. His hand-in-glove partners are Sakari Oramo (Simon Rattle's successor in Birmingham) with the Finnish RSO, and the New Helsinki Quartet. Three clarinet quartets by fellow Finn Bernhard Crusell (17751838) find Kriikku and members of the Avanti Quartet (with Sakari Oramo on violin) matching the music with charm and chaste elegance. Michael Dervan

Schutz: Musikalische Exequien; Deutsches Magnificat; Motets. The Sixteen / Harry Christophers (Collins Classics)

Schutz is one of those composers who can use the simplest of musical means to produce the most profoundly moving of effects. Collins Classics' new collection is mainly valedictory. The Deutsches Magnificat was the last work Schutz wrote. The biblical and Lutheran settings of the Musikalische Exequien were written for use at the funeral of an aristocrat who sang in performances of part of it during his lifetime. The approach of Harry Christophers' Sixteen and Symphony of Harmony and Invention has a satisfying directness, trustful that this most plain-speaking of music can be unfussily relied upon to make its quietly splendid effect. Michael Dervan

Cecilia Bartoli: "Live in Italy" (Decca)

This red-hot mezzo-soprano has always been something of a live wire, so it's no surprise to find that she can take the somewhat prim world of art song and turn it exuberantly on its head. This programe runs an impressive gamut from Handel and a vicious bit of Vivaldi - which bubbles out of her with awesome effortlessness - through the usual suspects, Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, with a few curiosities and surprises along the way, including a breathy Voi Che Sapete from the Marriage of Figaro (with a marvellously impertinent piano accompaniment from the fine French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, whose playing is a joy throughout) and a storming, swirling Lillas Pastia from Carmen as a house-demolishing final encore. The audience had a ball at this recital at the Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza last June; you will, too. Arminta Wallace