Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna: "Verdi Per Due" (EMI)

Gorgeous pictures of opera's superstar duo; a sumptuous selection of duets from Verdi operas; the impeccable presence of the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado; beautifully-produced sleeve notes with introductions to each of the operas and a typically pointed preface by the critic J.B. Steane; this should be the CD that has everything. Unhappily something is missing, and even more unhappily, that something is the kind of sparkle which was evident on the pair's first arias/duets CD, or the assured, tender performances on last year's superb recording of Puccini's La Rondine. Alagna in particular often sounds blustery when he should sound merely confident - and though both he and his partner produce some beautiful soft singing in Verdi's tenderer moments, I just don't think they're at their brilliant best here. Arminta Wallace

Alessandro Scarlatti: "Il Primo Omicidio". Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin/Rene Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi, 2 discs)

The "first murder" in this 1707 oratorio by Alessandro Scarlatti is that of Abel by Cain. The composer brings to the work those skills of dramatic narrative and characterisation which served him so well in his large operatic output. He sets the scene with Adam and Eve (Richard Croft, tenor, and Dorothea Roschmann, soprano), bemoaning their fallen state, persuasively introduces the contrasting personalities of Cain and Abel (Bernarda Fink, alto, and Graciela Oddone, soprano), and pictures with incisive strokes the destructive insinuations of the Voice of Lucifer (Antonio Abete, bass) and the caring, sometimes explosive Voice of God (Rene Jacobs, countertenor). The vivid performance should add to the reputation of a composer still overshadowed by his more famous sonata-composing son. Michael Dervan

John Feeley: "E-Motion" (Black Box)

Here are works for guitar written since 1970 by eight Irish or Irish-based composers. In lighter mode, Michael Howard's Niagara Falls On Thomond is poppily balladic, Andrew Shiels' Voyage Of Maeldun suite, dreamily programmatic, Ciaran Farrell's Shannon Suite, pictorially colourful, and Dawn Kenny's E-Motion, simplistically motoric. The title of Eric Sweeney's Figurations, in his pre-minimalist style, is self explanatory. The fluctuating moods of Jane O'Leary's Four Pieces stay within a framework of comforting recursiveness, Jerome de Bromhead's Gemini is clear-headedly guitaristic, and it's Brian Boydell in his Three Pieces who most studiously tries to avoid the commonplaces of the guitar. The performances are polished. Michael Dervan