Classical CDs
Classical CDs Weekly: Hindemith, Cantelli, Karajan, Peabody Cello GangSaturday, 10 March 2018
Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphoses, Nobilissima Visione, Concert Music for Strings and Brass WDR Symphony Orchestra/Marek Janowski (Pentatone)Instrumentalists appreciate Hindemith (all those solo sonatas!), as do those orchestral musicians lucky... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Gibson, GungeSaturday, 03 March 2018
Bach: French Suites Zhu Xiao-Mei (piano) (Accentus Music)The sheer perfection of Bach’s output can be unsettling, and faintly terrifying. So it's pleasing to find a musician who's so keen to highlight his friendlier, cuddlier side. Zhu Xiao-Mei... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Tchaikovsky, Fred Hersch, Sheku Kanneh-MasonSaturday, 24 February 2018
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 MusicAeterna/Teodor Currentzis (Sony)There's a left field vintage recording of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique conducted by Otto Klemperer, a reading totally devoid of hysteria, complete with a laughably slow third movement... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Diethelm, Grieg, TippettSaturday, 17 February 2018
Diethelm: Symphonic Works Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Rainer Held (Guild)Swiss composers? There's Honegger, and Frank Martin… add to that list one Caspar Diethelm (1926-1997), a prolific musical polymath and teacher who also dabbled in... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Shostakovich, Christoph Prégardien, Nataša MirkovičSaturday, 10 February 2018
Shostakovich: Symphony No 6, Sinfonietta (Quartet No 8, arr. Abram Stasevich) Estonian Festival Orchestra/Paavo Järvi (Alpha Classics)The one false note here comes in the form of Paavo Järvi’s description of Shostakovich's Symphony No 6, referring... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Sterndale Bennett, Fieri ConsortSaturday, 03 February 2018
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2, Strauss: Burleske Joseph Moog (piano), Deutsche Radio Philharmonie/Nicholas Milton (Onyx)It's not you, it's me. That’s probably what I'd say to Brahms in attempting to explain why I generally prefer his craggy D minor... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Stravinsky, TallisSaturday, 27 January 2018
Beethoven/Liszt: Complete Symphonies Yury Martynov (Erard, 1837 and Blüthner, 1867) (Alpha Classics)These performances were recorded between 2011 and 2015 and originally released as single discs. If you missed them first time round, snap up... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Bennett, Béla Fleck & Abigail WashburnSaturday, 20 January 2018
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos 1-6 Berliner Barock Solisten/Reinhard Goebel (Sony)This set’s arrival sent me scurrying back to listen again to Reinhard Goebel's 1985 DG set of Bach’s Brandenburgs with Musica Antiqua Koln: hyperactive, sharp-... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Janáček, George Martin, Dmitry MasleevSaturday, 13 January 2018
Brahms: Clarinet Sonatas, Janáček: Sonata (arr. Brill) Shirley Brill, Jonathan Aner (piano) (Hänssler Classic)Brahms's pair of clarinet sonatas are the epitome of autumnosity, were such a word to exist. Pipe-and-slippers music, which isn't... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Feldman, Schumann, Vaughan WilliamsSaturday, 06 January 2018
Morton Feldman: Piano, Violin, Viola, CelloMark Knoop (piano), Aisha Orazbayeva (violin), Bridget Carey (Viola), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello) (Another Timbre)Morton Feldman's output can serve as a useful post-Christmas palate-cleanser. His is... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: CPE Bach, Martinů, WaltonSaturday, 30 December 2017
CPE Bach: Tangere Alexei Lubimov (tangent piano) (ECM)The term "tangent piano" suggests something hard-edged and angular, but no: the latin word tangere means "to touch", and the mysterious-sounding tangent piano was an expressive, short-lived... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly Special: Callas LiveSaturday, 23 December 2017
Remastered they may be, but the 20 live operas recorded here between 1949 and 1964 vary soundwise from clean at best to atrocious, with all the caprices of stage noise and audience participation seemingly acceptable at the time (so often there's the... Read more... |
