Classical CDs
Classical CDs Weekly: Antheil, Debussy, Hosokawa, SchmidtSaturday, 17 June 2017
Antheil: Symphonies 4 and 5, Over the Plains BBC Philharmonic/John Storgårds (Chandos)American composer George Antheil boastfully described himself as the early 20th century’s "bad boy of music", though a few hours sent in the company of this... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Mahler, Shostakovich, Michael BarenboimSaturday, 10 June 2017
Bach, Bartók, Boulez Michael Barenboim (violin) (Accentus)Michael Barenboim’s disc consists solely of pieces by composers whose names begin with B, but it’s effectively an A-Z of solo violin technique, as well as a demonstration of his winning... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brian Elias, Stravinsky, Palaeolithic Bone FlutesSaturday, 03 June 2017
Brian Elias: Electra Mourns Psappha/Nicholas Kok, Britten Sinfonia/Clark Rundell (NMC)Bombay-born British composer Brian Elias has been active since the 1960s. A slow and fastidious worker, his 1992 score for the Royal Ballet’s The Judas Tree is... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Kleiberg, Legrand, Aida GarifullinaSaturday, 27 May 2017
Ståle Kleiberg: Mass for Modern Man Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Choir/Eivind Gulberg Jensen (2L)There's a reference in the sleeve notes to Norwegian composer Ståle Kleiberg’s use of “a highly distinctive form of extended tonality.”... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Joubert, Mahler, Simon Thacker & Justyna JablonskaSaturday, 20 May 2017
John Joubert: Jane Eyre April Frederick, David Stout, English Symphony Orchestra/Kenneth Woods (Somm)This is the second Brontë opera to have come my way in the past year; Carlisle Floyd’s Wuthering Heights is now joined by this involving adaptation... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Eisler, Janáček, RavelSaturday, 13 May 2017
Eisler: Hangmen Also Die and other film scores Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin/Johannes Kalitzke (Capriccio)Holed up in Los Angeles, Schoenberg never wrote a Hollywood film score. Unlike his pupil and fellow exile Hanns Eisler, whose music for... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Gražyna Bacewicz, Stravinsky, Nathan WilliamsonSaturday, 06 May 2017
Gražyna Bacewicz: Chamber Music Diana Ambache and friends (Ambache Recordings)This is an easy disc to love. Gražyna Bacewicz’s music is consistently good, often exceptionally so, and it's gratifying that new recordings on Hyperion and Chandos... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Laurence Crane, Martinů, ProkofievSaturday, 29 April 2017
Laurence Crane: 6 Trios, 2 Solos and 1 Quintet The Ives Ensemble (RTF Classical)It's a rare pleasure to discover a contemporary composer whose work speaks with such effortless clarity. You'll know within a few seconds of Laurence Crane’s Trio for... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Harald Genzmer, Mendelssohn, Nicholas PhanSaturday, 22 April 2017
Harald Genzmer: Music for Trautonium Peter Pichler (mixture trautonium) (Paladino Music)The trautonium is described here as “the instrument of a lone man”. In this case, one Oskar Sala, who spent his long musical life associated with this... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Chopin, Glass, Alec Frank-GemmillSaturday, 15 April 2017
Chopin: Mazurkas Ivana Gavric (Edition Classics)Ivana Gavric suggests that Chopin’s Mazurkas are “short, poignant, diary entries”, and her performances remind us how the greatest composers are never constrained when writing miniatures. As with... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Haydn, Vaughan Williams, Johannes PramsohlerSaturday, 08 April 2017
Haydn: Sonatas and Variations Leon McCawley (piano) (Somm)Haydn's keyboard music needs this sort of persuasive advocacy. Four sonatas and a set of variations is a lot to pack in to a single disc, but the composer’s inability to waffle on is his... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Bruckner, PoulencSaturday, 01 April 2017
Brahms: Serenades 1 & 2 Gävle Symphony Orchestra/Jaime Martín (Ondine)You know within seconds that this release is going to be good: droning string fifths introducing the catchiest of horn solos, the tune echoed in some style by a winningly... Read more... |
