Classical CDs
Classical CDs Weekly: Axel Borup-Jørgensen, Purcell, Ostrobothnian Chamber OrchestraSaturday, 28 September 2019
Floating Islands: Guitar music by Axel Borup-Jørgensen Frederik Munk Larsen (guitar) (OUR Recordings)Carl Nielsen cast a long shadow over the generation of Danish composers who succeeded him, and there's mention here of post-war musicians... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Eleanor Alberga, Parry, BlondelSaturday, 21 September 2019
Eleanor Alberga: String Quartets 1, 2 & 3 Ensemble Arcadiana (Navona Records)Eleanor Alberga’s String Quartet No 2 popped up on my iPod’s shuffle setting whilst driving few months ago, provoking me to pull over and spend the next 13... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Haydn, Korngold, Philippe ManourySaturday, 14 September 2019
Haydn, arr. Stegmann: Symphonies 44, 75 and 92 Ivan Ilić (Chandos)The easiest way for amateur music lovers to get to know orchestral pieces used to be through piano transcriptions and chamber arrangements. Liszt’s versions of Beethoven... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Albert Roussel, Roy Budd, PropellorSaturday, 07 September 2019
Albert Roussel Edition (Erato)Be grateful that Albert Roussel became a composer at all. Born in 1869 and orphaned at a young age, he was a talented pianist who joined the French navy as a teenager. Music was an enjoyable distraction during his... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Saint-Saëns, Yolanda Kondonassis, Konstantin Reinfeld & Benyamin NussSaturday, 31 August 2019
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos 3, 4 & 5 Alexandre Kantorow (piano), Tapiola Sinfonietta/Jean-Jacques Kantorow (BIS)Saint-Saëns’ five piano concertos are a pleasure no one need feel guilty about indulging in. My current go-to cycle is a... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Christophersen, Mr McFall's ChamberSaturday, 24 August 2019
Bach: Keyboard Music Nils Anders Mortensen (piano) (Lawo Classics)There's so much to love about this Bach keyboard disc: namely attractive artwork, glowing sound and an intelligent programme clearly chosen by the artist. And there's the... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Gounod, James MacMillan, Johannes PramsohlerSaturday, 17 August 2019
Gounod: Symphonies 1 and 2 Iceland Symphony Orchestra/Yan Pascal Tortelier (Chandos)Roger Nichols’ lucid sleeve note underlines the point that Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique singularly failed to kick off a 19th century French symphonic... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bartók, Howells, Third Coast PercussionSaturday, 10 August 2019
Bartók: The Wooden Prince, Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/Susanna Mälkki (BIS)Bartók's The Wooden Prince is a one-off in the composer's output, an evocative, expansive ballet score that will surprise anyone... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Isabelle Aboulker, Swan Hennessy, SchubertSaturday, 03 August 2019
Isabelle Aboulker: Mélodies/Songs en français and in English Julia Kogan (soprano), Isabelle Aboulker (piano) (First Hand Records)Never heard of Isabelle Aboulker? Now in her 80th year, she's worked as a choral director and a singing... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Sibelius, Thomas WilsonSaturday, 27 July 2019
Brahms: The Piano Quartets The Primrose Piano Quartet (Meridian)Schoenberg complained that performances of Brahms’s G minor Piano Quartet never pleased him (“the better the pianist, the louder he plays and you hear nothing from the strings”).... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Stewart Goodyear, Nielsen, WeinbergSaturday, 20 July 2019
Stewart Goodyear: Callaloo, Piano Sonata; Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue Stewart Goodyear (piano), Chineke! Orchestra/Wayne Marshall (Orchid Classics)Callaloo is Stewart Goodyear’s indecently entertaining suite for piano and orchestra, the title... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Jupiter String Quartet, Bruce Levingston, Paul McCreeshSaturday, 13 July 2019
An English Coronation Gabrieli Consort & Players/Paul McCreesh, with Gabrieli Roar and Simon Russell Beale (Signum)The snatch of ambient noise before this set’s first item, coupled with the Gabrieli Players’ performance, could convince the... Read more... |
