Classical CDs
Classical CDs Weekly: Jess Gillam, John Harle, Voces8Saturday, 17 October 2020
Jess Gillam: Time (Decca)Cellists, violinists and pianists have it easy. They’re spoilt for choice when it comes to solo repertoire, a point made when theartsdesk reviewed the BBC Young Musician 2016 final, the year when cellist Sheku Kanneh-... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Ole Bull, Vítězslav Novák, SchumannSaturday, 10 October 2020
Ole Bull: Stages of Life Annar Follesø (violin), Norwegian Radio Orchestra/Eun Sun Kim, with Wolfgang Plagge (piano) (2L)Schumann thought that the Norwegian violinist and composer Ole Bull (1810-1880) was as accomplished a player as Paganini,... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Kemel Belevi, Schoenberg, Ondřej VrabecSaturday, 03 October 2020
Kemal Belevi: Guitar Duos Duo Tandem (Naxos)I might have responded to Kemal Belevi’s music differently had I not encountered him straight after a few hours spent with Schoenberg (see below). These pieces for two guitars don’t do anything earth... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Mahler, Shostakovich, Chris Watson and Georgia RodgersSaturday, 26 September 2020
Mahler: Symphony No. 7 Orchestre National de Lille/Alexandre Bloch (Alpha Classics)Mahler 5’s five movements trace a lucid journey from darkness to light, and No. 6’s tautly-structured outer movements don’t contain a wasted note. Whereas... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: CPE Bach, Gershwin, King Frederik IX of DenmarkSaturday, 19 September 2020
CPE Bach: Complete Piano Trios Linos Piano Trio (C-Avi)13 piano trios squeezed onto just two discs is a steal, but we’re talking CPE Bach and not Schubert, and there’s the issue of whether these pieces are piano trios in the accepted sense.... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Mahler, Vaughan Williams, Sandbox PercussionSaturday, 12 September 2020
Mahler: Symphony No. 4 Turku Philharmonic Orchestra/Leif Segerstam, with Essi Luttinen (mezzo-soprano) (Alba)Leif Segerstam can be a maddeningly inconsistent conductor, a musician whose recordings can frustrate as much as they inspire. He’s... Read more... |
Classical Vinyl Weekly: Bruckner, SmetanaSaturday, 05 September 2020
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 Berliner Philharmoniker/Bernard Haitink (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings)Bruckner symphonies rarely include fast tempi and never feature Stravinskian changes of metre, but they do need conductors with enough stamina... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Feldman, Paul van KempenSaturday, 29 August 2020
Beethoven: Symphonies 1-9 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/William Steinberg (DG)Cologne-born Hans Wilhem Steinberg was a youthful Music Director of the Frankfurt Opera in the early 1930s. He was relieved of his role, mid-rehearsal, in 1933,... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Andrew Hamilton, NielsenSaturday, 22 August 2020
Bach Sean Shibe (guitar) (Delphian)The lute was mostly used as a continuo instrument during Bach’s lifetime though he did compose a small number of solo lute works. They were written using two-stave keyboard notation rather than traditional... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Debussy, Respighi, The Red Book of OssorySaturday, 15 August 2020
Debussy: Images, Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune Hallé/Sir Mark Elder (Hallé)That Debussy used the Geordie folksong The Keel Row in the first of his three Images for Orchestra is well known, and careful listening makes one realise that he... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: William Dawson, Ulysses Kay, Janáček, Norwegian Trombone EnsembleSaturday, 08 August 2020
William Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony, Ulysses Kay: Fantasy Variations, Umbrian Scene ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra/Arthur Fagen (Naxos)William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony was, briefly, a roaring success after Leopold Stokowski gave... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bruckner, Elgar, ProkofievSaturday, 01 August 2020
Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 Australian World Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle (ABC Classics)I love Bruckner’s mature symphonies, but they still baffle me. Mostly in terms of how certain performances work, or don’t work, and the near-impossibility of... Read more... |
