CLASSICAL HOT TRACKS

If that normally sedate clerk in the glass-encased classical section starts looking a little hot under the collar, it's only because there are so many strong new releases hitting his shelves. Anyone who has heard Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez ace that treacherous second-act aria in The Barber of Seville will want a copy of his upcoming Bel Canto CD. A new recording of Leos Janacek's Jenufa by Bernard Haitink and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, stars the Finnish soprano Karita Mattila, who sings the role with the Met next January. Tenor Roberto Alagna and soprano Natalie Dessay pair up on the Opera National de Lyon's two-disc package of Donizetti's Lucie de Lammermoor (in French), conducted by Evelino Pido. On The Art of Cecilia Bartoli, Decca bundles some of the beloved Italian mezzo-soprano's most famous performances. Keyboard kings: It's impossible to choose a favorite among pianists Leif Ove Andsnes (Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 2), Andras Schiff (Bach's Goldberg Variations), and Murray Perahia (Chopin's Etudes). So why try? American mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves found time between nights at the opera (she's singing Carmen at the Met this season) to cut Lost Days, a collection of songs in Latin. The Cleveland Orchestra's new music director, Franz WelserMost, guides the young musicians of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester in Bruckner's Symphony No. 8, while Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in Mahler's Symphony No. 5. Valery Gergiev, the Met's principal guest conductor, continues to demystify the Russian repertoire, recording three lively pieces by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Aleksandr Borodin, and Mily Balakirev with his hometown orchestra, the Kirov. The choir and orchestra Les Arts Florissants, led by music director William Christie, records Michel Pignolet de Monteclair's rarely performed 1732 sacred work, Jephte, for Harmonia Mundi. San Francisco's Chanticleer celebrates 25 years of singing a cappella with Our American Journey, spanning four centuries, from the Mexican Baroque to the present. On the horizon: cello god Yo-Yo Ma continues his global walkabout with a Brazilian album, and Emanuel Ax plays Haydn on solo piano.

MICHAEL HOGAN