Etta James, “The Dreamer” (Verve Forecast). By all indications, this will be Etta James’ last album—the 73-year-old R&B great is reported to be in the last stages of leukemia. If it is, then the singer of such immortals as “Tell Mama,” “At Last,” and “I’d Rather Go Blind” is going out on a high note. “The Dreamer” presents James’ trademark blend of sophistication and sass. She can still display some grit, as she does on the jump-blues chestnut “Too Tired” and a groove-heavy reworking of Guns ’N Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle.” She sounds just as at home, however, with the elegant balladry of Ray Charles’ “In the Evening” and Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s “That’s the Chance You Take.” And her versions of two Otis Redding slow-burners— “Champagne and Wine” and “Cigarettes and Coffee”—are about as deep as soul gets. Three and a half stars out of four. ( Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer)

Polish Masterworks, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO, Naxos). The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra is greeting the new year with a new CD, “Polish Masterworks.” Produced with help from the Polish Cultural Institute and the Kosciuszko Foundation, it features music by Witold Lutoslawski, Henri Wieniawski, Karol Szymanowski and Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, recorded live at Kleinhans Music Hall in the autumn of 2010 and 2011. The disc’s centerpiece is Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2, with Concertmaster Michael Ludwig as soloist. Ludwig, quiet in person, can turn into a fireball on stage. He threw himself into this music, and BPO Music Director JoAnn Falletta and the orchestra followed suit, and the result is as good a performance of this beautiful and virtuosic masterpiece as I think you will find anywhere. Szymanowski’s “Concert Overture” jumps out at you in brilliant sound. Szymanowski clearly took his cue from Richard Strauss, with the music’s surging strings and blazes of trumpets and horns. In particular he must have been thinking of Strauss’ “Don Juan,” which as you listen keeps appearing like a Magic Eye picture. The BPO, with its feel for late Romanticism, gives the music a full and passionate sound. Lutoslawski’s “Concerto for Orchestra” is thrilling, with its assertive, percussive opening theme and the exotic concluding toccata, which starts deep in the basses and builds from there. Karlowicz’s “A Sad Tale,” recorded this past November with the Wieniawski, brings us back into lush Richard Strauss Romanticism.

Only one thing is arguably more glamorous than the music. That is the inside photograph of a cityscape at nightfall, with two church towers, peaked roofs and twinkling lights on the horizon. Where is this? Warsaw? Krakow? No, it’s Buffalo’s East Side. The disc is in so many ways a reminder of the beauty that lies right outside our door. Four stars. ( Mary Kunz Goldman)

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Pleasures and Torments, Johan Linderoth, tenor, Vegard Lund, lutes (Euterpe Musica). A Swedish disc distributed by Naxos, this is a shining survey of the popular art songs of 17th century England. If I have one criticism it is that, between the pleasures and torments, the torments dominate. Purcell’s songs are particularly dirge-like. “I take no pleasure in the sun’s bright beams,” runs a typical opening line, which made me think I had had enough. After such morose, minor-key melodies, the sunny songs of John Blow are a breath of fresh air. Both these men, though, were good tunesmiths, as is Nicola Matteis, who also contributes a few arias and dances. You are always being reminded you are hearing the work of masters. Several songs, like “ ’Twas within a furlong of Edinborough town,” you could imagine being sung by, say, Steeleye Span. Linderoth sings with zest and style. He is not one of those antiseptic tenors. Lund is adept on various lutes and baroque guitar, and I found myself looking forward to his solos. Three and a half stars. ( M. K. G.)

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Beethoven, Sonatas Nos. 3 and 21, Andante Favori and “Rage Over a Lost Penny” performed by pianist Alice Sara Ott (Deutsche Grammophon); Piano Sonatas Vol. 1: Nos. 5, 11, 12 and 26 “Les Adieux” performed by pianist Jonathan Biss (Onyx). The DGG photographers may pose the beautiful young pianist in all sorts of shots that almost seem as if they’d be appropriate in Vanity Fair, but Alice Sara Ott—still only 23—is very much a pianist who comes to play thoughtfully and exceedingly well without either burning the concert hall down or posing fetchingly at the piano. Yes, she made her disc debut on DGG with Liszt’s “Transcendental Etudes,” but in the life of every serious young pianist some Beethoven Sonatas must eventually fall, and her pairing of the C-Major No. 3 with the “Waldstein” No. 21 in the same key is artful enough, even without the “Andante Favori” that was originally intended for the “Waldstein’s” Second Movement and the famous “Rage Over a Lost Penny” Rondo a Cappriccio. The photograph of 31-year-old pianist Jonathan Biss on the first disc of his planned traversal of all 32 isn’t likely to be confused by anyone with glamour photography. Nor is there any hint of icy perfectionism in this disc. Biss is a truly fine young pianist already— mature in outlook, adventurous, dynamic and profoundly lyrical all at the same time. If you were to point out that with his family he could scarcely avoid it (Samuel Barber wrote his cello concerto for his grandmother Raya Gaboursova), you might be forgiven. In any case, a welcome addition, even in an era where new traversals of the Beethoven 32 seem to arrive every month. Three stars for both (Jeff Simon)

Charlie Haden and Hank Jones, “Come Sunday” (Decca). Considering the seriousness of the version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” on this disc, you might have thought it would be perfect for the Christmas season. It is, instead, being released Tuesday to coincide with the date of Charlie Haden being named a jazz master at the National Endowment of the Arts ceremony at Lincoln Center. This was recorded in February 2010, shortly before pianist Hank Jones— probably the grand old man of jazz piano at the end of his life —died at the age of 91. It’s a follow- up to their 1995 duet disc “Steal Away” and is similarly devoted to spirituals, folk songs and hymns. Don’t expect the kind of creativity John Lewis brought to “God Rest Ye,” etc., in his version called “England’s Carol.” All of this, and I do mean all, is played absolutely with no embellishment whatsoever that Jones’ church elder father wouldn’t approve of. It isn’t that there’s no improvisation or embellishment, mind you, it’s just that what’s here is so shockingly reverent and straightforward that it’s almost without interest. On the other hand, when Haden says of these duets that they’re “very simple and very soft and yet also very powerful,” you can almost hear what he’s talking about when they play the “Going Home” melody from Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony or “Come Sunday” from Duke Ellington’s “Black, Brown and Beige.” “Give Me That Old Time Religion” has no old-time religion in its improvisation but nor does it have any gospel fire. There’s much loveliness here, but to be frank, much of the music sounds as if it was intended to prove some things that it didn’t entirely prove. But then other ears might hear those very things. Two and a half stars. ( J. S.)

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Harry Allen, “Rhythm on the River” (Challenge). The addition of neo-trad cornet player Warren Vache gives the basic Allen quartet the kind of contrapuntal neo-New Orleans feel that Vache’s old discs with Scott Hamilton stole from the earlier era of Wild Bill Davison, Eddie Condon and Bud Freeman. Even so, all the “bopsiland” in the world (as a wag once described Gerry Mulligan’s piano-less quartet) can’t detract from the beauty of what Allen does when he’s in full 350-hp breathy Ben Webster mode, as on “Cry Me a River.” There’s nothing wrong with the uptempo swing-time swingers, but it’s Allen the solo balladeer and suave melodic charmer who demands attention from his guest Vache on cornet. Three stars. ( J. S.)