A Guide to the Concerto, edited by Robert Layton (OUP, £12.99 in UK)

Having already guided the world through the symphony, Robert Layton turned his attention to the concerto form with these 12 essays by a glittering assemblage of musicologists, including H.C. Robbins Landon, Lionel Salter and Joan Chissell, the latter familiar to Irish music lovers as a judge at the Dublin piano competition. It is immediately apparent from the introduction that we are in the territory of the serious student of music, and the scholarly, copiously illustrated essays on "The Baroque Concerto", "The Concerto in pre Revolutionary Russia" and "The Concerto in the Nordic Lands" are not for the fainthearted. Despite his misgivings about going out of date, Layton includes a discography with recommendations for works as diverse as Nikolai Miakovsky's Cello Concerto and John Corigliano's Clarinet Concerto. It may already be out of date, though; has anybody seen a copy of Stephen Hough's marvellous recording of the Hummel piano concertos knocking around the shops lately?