Yet, as they approach their Edinburgh opening and subsequent European tour of I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, all three insist they have a hit that will eclipse Adams's highly successful Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer. The digital recordings tell all, but don't switch on before fastening your seat belt.ROBERT COWANBach: Brandenburg Concertos Nos 1-3and Orchestral Suite No 1; BrandenburgsNos 4-6 and Orchestral Suite No 4Musica Antiqua Koln / Reinhard Goebel(Recorded 1985-1987)(Archiv Produktion Masters 447 287-2 and 288-2; two CDs). If insanity is defined by denying something that seems to be indisputably before one's face, then the composer John Adams, the director Peter Sellars and the poet June Jordan might be ready for some Thorazine. Goebel's own fiddle-playing is sleek and attenuated (the swirling violin embellishments in No 4's first movement sound crazier than ever) and No 5's first movement harpsichord cadenza features a fledgling Andreas Staier.The two Suites seem calmer, cleaner-shaven and altogether more civilised than the Brandenburgs, with a particularly mellifluous brass tone in the Fourth. Goebel's uptight, "period-instrument" Brandenburgs harbour all manner of textual surprises, some fairly forceful (the horns in No 1), others more discreet (the cleanly etched bass-line in the same concerto's Adagio).Musica Antiqua's playing is often astonishingly agile, although rhythmic emphases sometimes verge on the martial and there's the odd phrasal mannerism. True, there's some shellac surface noise - but the voice reproduces clearly and Gerald Moore's bench-mark accompaniments provide the musical props.

Essential listening. If Nikolaus Harnoncourt set the ball rolling, Reinhard Goebel gave it a hearty kick Nine years on, and we're still reeling from the shock. And if you think I'm joking, try either the second movement of the Third Brandenburg or the first movement of the Sixth, both of which spring into action with vein-bursting intensity.Quite how the Margrave of Brandenburg would have reacted is anyone's guess, though one thing's for sure: he wouldn't have been bored. This particular release includes a number of previously unissued tracks (two of them with Dame Maggie Teyte) plus superb annotation by Brian Fawcett-Johnston. McCormack's enunciation is exemplary, his feeling for musical line infinitely subtle and his sense of timing that of a born singing actor. To hear ballads like Little Boats, Linden Tree, She Moved through the Fair or I'll Walk Beside You (48 tracks in all) treated with such reverence and sincerity is to reaffirm the more creditable of our "old-fashioned" values.

Every word tells, every phrase spells its own special magic; and if the tone isn't quite what it once was (that is, in the Twenties), the manner of address makes ample amends. McCormack's opera performances were famous, but his finest roles were the mini-narratives and wholesome declamations found in Irish and English song, from the "sorrow bravely borne" of Baynes's Off to Philadelphia to the patriotic resolve of Parry's Jerusalem. John McCormack's greatness resided in a God-given tenor that aged gracefully and a feeling for words that transformed even the tawdriest lyric into a thing of beauty. These versions, recorded at two Edinburgh Festival concerts, are neither;but somehow the music never quite comes to life - the smiles are fixed, the dancing graceful but not wonderfully vital.Schumann's "Spanish love-songs", the filler, may not deserve their neglect, but it will take more spirited singing to save them - proof that a fine all-star cast isn't a fail-safe formula for success SJ. On paper they're deceptively simple, but the tone is so hard to get right - a blend of robust folkiness and ironic Viennese elegance They can easily sound coy or lumpen.