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Classical home listening: from Tabea Zimmermann to Walter Kaufmann

• If you’ve queried the point of listening to a Bach cello suite played on the viola, Tabea Zimmermann’s Solo II (Myrios Classics; released 16 October) renders the question unnecessary. Her new album comes a decade after Solo, in which she recorded the first two suites. Now she tackles, with supreme elegance, No 3 in C and No 4 in E flat, her performance buoyant, lithe, with a flexible attention to ornament and phrasing. Using a classical bow, light and swift for clear articulation, she nevertheless plays a modern viola, her 1980 instrument made by the celebrated French luthier Étienne Vatelot. Its rich, even sound is given maximum bloom in this spacious recording.

The Bach is paired with Signs, Games and Messages for solo viola by György Kurtág (b1926): six movements, rhythmically free and dramatic, gathered together by Zimmermann. She is the dedicatee of … eine Blume für Tabea…, a shard of Kurtág enchantment.

• The Czech-Jewish composer Walter Kaufmann (1907-84) left a lasting impression on his adopted country, India, to which he fled in 1934: he wrote the signature tune for All India Radio, known to millions. Later he moved to Canada and America, where he became an admired conductor, pianist and teacher. During his time in Mumbai, Kaufmann explored Indian (as well as Chinese and Tibetan) musical traditions, some of which he incorporated into his own works. His considerable output of chamber music, six symphonies, several concertos and two dozen operas, mostly without opus numbers, is only now being catalogued.

All the Chamber Works by Walter Kaufmann (Chandos), performed by the ARC Ensemble, part of its Music in Exile series, are world premiere recordings of pieces composed during his time in India. Their strongly Czech accent, tuneful and melancholic, dominates, with sudden darts into raga mood. Kaufmann’s music, nuanced and unexpected, deserves to be heard.

• Catch up with more crossing of continents: the sitarist/composer Anoushka Shankar and conductor/arranger Jules Buckley joined forces with electronic music producer Gold Panda, percussionist Manu Delago and the strings of Britten Sinfonia for a mesmerising Prom (iPlayer/BBC Sounds).