Classical CDs Round-Up 10

Anniversary Mahler sets, Schumann, Schubert, Messiaen and Dove, among others

by Graham RicksonSaturday, 24 July 2010

Gustav Mahler would be 150 this year: 'few other composers projected their personalities with such force and panache'

It’s the 150th anniversary of Mahler’s birth, so we investigate a 16-disc box containing his (almost) complete works, along with two other recordings of Mahler symphonies. There’s an impressive new set of Beethoven piano concertos, and there’s more quality keyboard playing in new discs of Schumann and Schubert, who’s also represented by a new Lieder recording. More vocal delights are found in two very different operas recordings and you could do worse than take a step back in time to celebrate the opening of St Paul’s Cathedral, or plunge into the perfumed, modernist sound-world of Olivier Messiaen.

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