Classical CDs
Classical CDs: Symmetrical storms, basset horns and a happy workshopSaturday, 27 August 2022
Jacqueline du Pré: The Complete Warner Recordings (Warner Classics)There’s something both humbling and miraculous that a great musician’s recorded output can be squeezed into a neat box. Most of the material in Warner Classics’ latest... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Snowy wastes, Alpine schleps and sand dunesSaturday, 13 August 2022
Fauré: Complete Songs Cyrille Dubois (tenor), Tristan Raës (piano) (Aparté/ Palazzetto Bru Zane)Forget streaming. Go and buy albums. This 3-CD box set of Fauré songs by tenor Cyrille Dubois and pianist Tristan Raës comes to life when it is... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Wedding cakes, nocturnes and survivalSaturday, 30 July 2022
John Ireland: Orchestral Music Sinfonia of London/John Wilson (Chandos)Anyone new to John Ireland’s music should start with his effervescent Piano Concerto, via the superb recording by pianist John Lenehan on Naxos. That disc is conducted by... Read more... |
Classical CDs: sound effects, football teams and waterfallsSaturday, 16 July 2022
Gail Kubik: Symphony Concertante, Gerald McBoing Boing Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose (BMOP Sound)Gail Kubik (1914-1984) should really be remembered for writing the score to William Wyler’s 1955 noir The Desperate Hours, but... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Nightingales, seasons and practical jokesSaturday, 02 July 2022
Beethoven, Berg, Bartók: Violin Concertos Frank Peter Zimmermann Berliner Philharmoniker/Daniel Harding, Kirill Petrenko, Alan Gilbert (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings)Recent Berliner Philharmoniker own-label releases have included hefty... Read more... |
Classical CDs: mediation, survival and the conquering of shynessSaturday, 11 June 2022
Karel Ančerl: Live Recordings (Supraphon)Karel Ančerl’s nascent conducting career was interrupted by World War II, Ančerl and his family being sent to the Theresienstadt camp in 1942. Two years later, he and his family were sent to Auschwitz.... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Forests, mountains, cowbells and cushionsSaturday, 28 May 2022
Jugendstil: Music by Mahler and Schoenberg Beatrice Berrut (piano) (La Dolce Volta)“Is transcription betrayal?” asks pianist Beatrice Berrut in her booklet essay. Emphatically not, Berrut seeing transcription as “an act of homage to the genius... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Double reeds, double pianos and double string orchestrasSaturday, 14 May 2022
Mozart, Hummel and Vanhal – Bassoon Concertos Sophie Dervaux (bassoon/conductor), Mozarteumorchester Salzburg (Berlin Classics)The performance of the Hummel Grand Concerto for bassoon from 1805 here is just superb. French-born Sophie... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Toyshops, begging gods and a good year for Austrian musicFriday, 29 April 2022
Mahler: Symphony No. 4 Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Semyon Bychkov,with Chen Reiss (soprano) (Pentatone)Semyon Bychkov’s Mahler 4 is the first volume of a projected cycle from an orchestra with a surprisingly small Mahler discography. Mahler... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Bounce, bluster and BlätterSaturday, 16 April 2022
JS Bach: Magnificat, CPE Bach: Magnificat Gaechinger Cantorey/Hans-Christoph Rademann (Accentus Music)Coupling this pair of Magnificat settings on a single CD makes so much sense. JS Bach’s 1723 Magnificat is wonderfully served here, Hans-... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Escalators, dead leaves and a sixth-century bardSaturday, 02 April 2022
Eric Nathan: Missing Words (New Focus Recordings)“Inspired by words from Schottenfreude by Ben Schott” reads this double album’s tagline, a high-concept project based on Schott’s 2013 lexicon of newly-invented German compound words. Words like... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Typewriters, cityscapes and sonic resourcesSaturday, 19 March 2022
Leroy Anderson: Complete Orchestral Works BBC Concert Orchestra/Leonard Slatkin (Naxos)There’s a lot more to Leroy Anderson than the ubiquitous Sleigh Ride. Though his teachers at Harvard included Enescu and Walter Piston, the polyglot... Read more... |
