Classical CDs
Classical CDs: Wolf-pelts, clowns and social realismSaturday, 01 November 2025
Bliss: Miracle in the Gorbals, Metamorphic Variations BBC Philharmonic/Michael Seal (Chandos)We are coming towards the end of the year marking 50 years since the death of Arthur Bliss, and I’m pleased to have covered a number of live... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Camels, concrete and cabaretSaturday, 18 October 2025
British Piano Concertos: Walton, Britten & Tippett Clare Hammond (piano), BBC Symphony Orchestra/George Vass (BIS Records)I really liked this programme of neglected British piano concertos by the always excellent pianist Clare Hammond,... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Voice flutes, flugelhorns and frothSaturday, 04 October 2025
Corelli/Handel: Sonatas Michaela Koudelková (recorders), Monika Knoblochová (harpsichord), Libor Mašek (cello), Jan Krejča (theorbo) (Supraphon)This disc’s bright, piquant flavour makes it an irresistible acquisition. I dived... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Shrouds, silhouettes and superstitionSaturday, 20 September 2025
Kabalevsky: Cello Concerto No. 2, Schumann: Cello Concerto Theodor Lyngstad (cello), Copenhagen Phil/Eva Ollikainen (OUR Recordings)This disc’s sleeve note suggests that Kabalevsky’s Cello Concerto No. 2 “owes an obvious debt to the composer’s... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Sleigh rides, pancakes and cigarsSaturday, 06 September 2025
Joan Sutherland: The Complete Decca Recordings - Operas 1959-1970 (Decca)The legend of "La Stupenda" was born at Covent Garden in 1959, when Joan Sutherland sang and – by all accounts – acted her socks off as Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Dungeons, microtones and psychic distressSaturday, 23 August 2025
Shostakovich: Symphonies; Concertos; Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District Yuja Wang (piano), Baiba Skride (violin), Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Boston Symphony Orchestra/Andris Nelsons (DG)Shostakovich: The Symphonies Gürzenich-Orchester Köln/Dmitrij... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Hamlet, harps and haikuSaturday, 09 August 2025
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Ravel: La Valse Orchestre de Paris/Klaus Mäkelä (Decca)Rereading the composer’s memoirs and performing the Symphonie Fantastique have rekindled my interest in all things Berliozian, so this new album arrived at... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Hens, Hamburg and handmaidsSaturday, 26 July 2025
Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht: The Complete Erato Recordings (Erato)We’re fortunate that Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht (1880-1965) actually got as far as making a career in music. The aspiring violinist and composer was expelled from the Paris... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Bells, birdsong and braggadocioSaturday, 05 July 2025
Thomas Adès, Oliver Leith, William Marsey: Shanty, Aquifer et al Hallé Orchestra/Thomas Adès (Hallé)This album on the Hallé’s own label, rounds up recent works by Thomas Adès, alongside pieces by two British composers he has... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Bells, whistles and bowing techniquesSaturday, 21 June 2025
Michel Béroff: Complete Erato Recordings (Erato)My associating French pianist Michel Béroff with ‘modern’ music says more about my age than it does about Béroff’s actual specialities. If you were looking for Messiaen in an early 1980s record... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Cannons, culverts and mooching cattleSaturday, 07 June 2025
Antal Doráti in London: The Mercury Masters Vol. 1 (Decca Eloquence)A couple of recent YouTube videos show DG engineers hard at work remastering Karajan’s 1970s Bruckner and Mahler recordings for new vinyl LP pressings. The process looks... Read more... |
Album: Anna Lapwood - FiredoveMonday, 26 May 2025
This album Firedove (Sony Classical), surely, has to be seen as part of a bigger story: that of organist, choir director and broadcaster Anna Lapwood, who, still in her twenties – just – has become an essential part of the (often cautious and... Read more... |
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