By Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

If you're still seeking the right classical music gift, here are more stocking stuffers, from recent releases:

• Exodus. Isabelle van Keulen, violinist, City of Birmingham (England) Symphony Orchestra, Paavo J”rvi, conductor (ECM Records; $17.98). Van Keulen rips through Erkki-Sven Tuur's edgy Violin Concerto with verve and spectacular precision. (She and J”rvi gave the U.S. premiere with the Cincinnati Symphony two years ago.) J”rvi and the Birmingham players provide over-the-top energy in this electric performance.

• Thirteen Ways. eighth blackbird (Cedille; $17.98). Sparks fly in this scintillating debut from eighth blackbird, an award-winning ensemble formerly based at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

The players are astounding virtuosos. Joan Tower's Petroushskates, an homage to Stravinsky, is vivid, sweeping and full of humor. George Perle's avant-garde Critical Moments 2 has surgical precision, and Thomas Albert's Thirteen Ways travels through a range of emotions.

• 18th Century Bassoon Concertos. John Heard, bassoon; Camerata Kiev, Alexander Ostrowski, conductor (Kleos; $17.98). Heard, former chair of the music department at Miami University, turns in virtuoso performances of three rarely heard concertos for bassoon. His technical prowess and expression are impressive in Mozart's Concerto in B-flat Major, K. 191.

And here are some of my personal favorites:

• Bach Keyboard Concertos 1, 2 & 4, Murray Perahia, pianist; Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (Sony Classical; $17.98). Perahia plays these concertos with finesse and moving expression. Conducting from the keyboard, the pianist doesn't hesitate to add tasteful embellishments to the piano score.

• Murray Perahia Plays Bach (Sony Classical; $17.98). This attractive disc includes Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 (with Perahia leading the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields from the piano); Bach's Concerto for Flute, Violin and Clavier in A Minor; and the Italian Concerto for solo piano.

• Obrigado Brazil, Yo-Yo Ma, cellist, and others (Sony Classical; $17.98). An arresting album of unexpected composers and collaborations, it's not your usual album of sambas - though there are two tracks of Antonio Carlos Jobim.

• Classical Brubeck, London Symphony Orchestra, London Voices, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, soloists (Telarc; 2 discs, $17.98). Here's more of the unexpected. Jazz great Brubeck records his newest religious works: Beloved Son (an Easter oratorio); Pange Lingua Variations, The Voice of the Holy Spirit and Regret. It's composed in bold strokes, with the occasional jazz piano riff and other unusual touches.

• Leonard Bernstein, A Total Embrace: The Composer and Leonard Bernstein, A Total Embrace: The Conductor (Sony Classical/Legacy, three CDs each; $19.98).

These two extraordinary box sets, dedicated to the gifted composer/conductor, offer some inkling of his scope and presence. The Composer samples some of Bernstein's works for the concert hall, theater, film, ballet and Broadway. Highlights include violinist Isaac Stern performing Agathon and the original Broadway cast recording from On the Town.

The Conductor is a stunning array of previously unreleased material. Highlights include Mahler's Adagietto from Symphony No. 5, recorded at Robert Kennedy's funeral.