There are not many new recordings around to mark the 150th anniversary year of arguably England’s greatest — certainly most loved — composer. Many are reissues, but none the worse for that.

Natalie Clein’s new version of Elgar’s Cello Concerto has been compared with the superb Jacqueline Du Pre’s epic effort made against a background of coughing from the audience. It is, however, far less affecting in its impact, though finely wrought and executed. It’s unlikely to knock the Du Pre off its perch at Classic FM, though.

Here then is a short list of some of the new issues worth buying :

Natalie Clein’s version of the Cello Concerto with the Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Vernon Handley (EMI).

EMI’s magnificent The Collector’s Edition (30 CDs for under 40 quid [$80] ) mainly containing the Sir John Barbirolli versions, but not exclusively. Bargain

Nigel Kennedy plays the Violin Concerto in two brilliant versions. The first is from 1984 with Tom Handley and is issued on EMI’s Great Recordings of the Century. Kennedy has always loved a soupy tune, so is particularly attuned to Elgar’s music. The second is the much-treasured version with Simon Rattle and the CBSO in 1997 on the EMI bargain label.

There’s also the dazzling playing of Itzhak Perlman in the Violin Concerto with the Chicago Symphony from 1981. Conducted by Daniel Barenboim, it’s generally regarded as slighter than the Kennedy versions. (DG Original).

There are more, but these are probably the pick, with The Collector’s Edition taking pride of place as the Christmas gift of the century.

Frank Bridge (1879-1941) is not much heard of nowadays. He was born in Brighton of a working-class family and studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford and others.

Despite his “revolutionary” ideas, his composing career never took off. He later found success as a conductor.

Bridge’s pacifism didn’t go down well in World War I and his greatest solace came from the landscapes of the South Downs in Sussex. His biographer, Rob Barnett said, “Such was the spell cast by … the Downs and the seascape, that he was moved to write a musical nature poem, Enter Spring, which was his masterpiece.

Frank Bridge played the viola in a number of string quartets, most notably the English String Quartet, and conducted, sometimes deputising for Henry Wood, before devoting himself to composition, receiving the patronage of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. He privately tutored a number of pupils, most famously Benjamin Britten, who later championed his teacher’s music and paid homage to him in the Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937), based on a theme from the second of Bridge’s Three Idylls for String Quartet (1906). Bridge died in Eastbourne.

Among Bridge’s works are the orchestral The Sea (1911), Oration (1930) for cello and orchestra and the opera The Christmas Rose (premiered 1932), but he is perhaps most highly regarded today for his chamber music. His early works are in a late-Romantic idiom, but later pieces such as the third (1926) and fourth (1937) string quartets are harmonically advanced and very distinctive, showing the influence of the Second Viennese School.