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Sir Peter Maxwell Davies began work on his parodic opera Resurrection whilst studying at Princeton in the early 1960s but it wasn’t until the 1980s that he resumed composition. It was finally staged in 1987. Its violent diversity – though any stylistic jolts are deliberate – takes aim at a series of targets (state, church, and media) and is expressed in a dazzling but masque-like succession of scenes, and through the blackly comic pastiche of hymn tunes, marching bands, saccharine waltzes, and banal TV advertisements.

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Myroslav Skoryk holds the title of People’s Artist of Ukraine and is one of his country’s outstanding composers. Both the Cello Concerto and the Seventh Violin Concerto combine bittersweet lyricism with explosive dynamic contrasts. With its swinging rhythms and folk-music pungency the Carpathian Concerto is one of Skoryk’s most engaging and popular works. The pensive Melody for strings propelled him to the forefront of Ukrainian music, while the slapstick in his transcription of Paganini’s Caprice No. 19 reveals the composer’s humorous side. These live recordings were made at Myroslav Skoryk’s 75th anniversary concerts in Odessa.

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What if four celebrated nineteenth-century composers – Mendelssohn, Schumann, Bruckner and Brahms – had written original works for brass septet? This disc explores that fascinating counterfactual twist, re-imagining choral and organ works by those composers. The arrangements call on the full dynamic and tonal range of the instruments – often extended with a multitude of mutes – to imitate the expressivity of the choir, the power of the organ, and the versatile sonorities of its different registrations and manuals. In dazzling and varied combinations the arrangers and performers together persuade us that this could indeed be original brass chamber music.

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2014 is the centenary year of Andrzej Panufnik and, while his orchestral music has received attention, his innovative string quartets remain neglected. Bitter-sweet harmonies characterise the First Quartet. The Second Quartet, whose subtitle ‘Messages’ refers to the mysterious sounds of telegraph poles vibrating in the wind, is notable for its motivic coherence and emotional intensity. The Third Quartet, subtitled ‘Wycinanki’, a reference to paper cuts familiar in Polish rustic art, ends with one of Panufnik’s most moving statements. Lutosławski’s dramatic and experimental String Quartet was written when he was at the forefront of the European avant-garde.

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Emanuele Buono has established himself as one of the most highly regarded and active guitarists of his generation. His numerous achievements include winning the prestigious Pittaluga competition in 2013. This fascinating programme brings together music from Renaissance Italy, the golden age of the guitar in early 19th century Europe, and modern classical sounds from 20th century Spain.

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In the latest volume of this critically admired series, a number of rarely heard pieces from Albéniz’s first compositional phase can be savoured. They were composed between 1881 and 1892 and reveal the variety and flair of which he was capable, even in the smallest of musical forms, such as the delicious mazurkas. The Siete estudios (Seven Studies) are no mere exercises – rather they fuse the colour of Iberian music with the rigour of Central European traditions. Les Saisons is an evocative portrait of the seasons and can be seen as a forerunner of the impressionistic writing that would soon appear in French music.