Classical CDs
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Philip Sawyers, Ligeti QuartetSaturday, 14 November 2020
Brahms: Chamber Music Alec Frank-Gemmill (horn), Daniel Grimwood (piano), Benjamin Marquise Gilmore (violin) (BIS)An hour’s worth of Brahms’s chamber music for horn? Almost; we get the familiar Opus 40 Trio here, plus arrangements of the Op 38... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Josquin, Tabea DebusSaturday, 07 November 2020
Beethoven Transformed, Volumes 1 and 2 Boxwood & Brass (Resonus Classics)The Harmonie, a small instrumental group made up of pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons, hit its stride in late 18th century Vienna. Early repertoire mostly... Read more... |
Album: Martin Simpson - Home RecordingsFriday, 06 November 2020
It’s 50 years since Martin Simpson dropped out of college to follow his vocation as a guitarist and his intention had been to celebrate the milestone with a live album. The best-laid plans… Instead Home Recordings finds him live in his living room... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: US Election SpecialSaturday, 31 October 2020
A New Century The Cleveland Orchestra/Franz Welser-Möst (Cleveland Orchestra)Have we reached peak box set? This debut release from the Cleveland Orchestra’s own label ups the stakes considerably, an exquisitely designed and engineered... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Henrique Oswald, Saint-Saëns, Tilson Thomas, Smaro GregoriadouSaturday, 24 October 2020
Henrique Oswald: Piano Concerto, Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 Clélia Iruzun (piano), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Jac van Steen (Somm)You can never have enough of Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5, a piece tailor-made to soothe and... Read more... |
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... |
