Classical CDs
graham.rickson
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas 1-32 Igor Levit (Sony)“Beethoven paid no attention at all to the conventions of his own time In fact, he only ever wrote music for the future.” One strength of Igor Levit’s magnificent traversal of Beethoven’s piano sonatas is how contemporary, how disarmingly modern he makes many of them sound. Speeds in outer movements are generally swift, the dynamic contrasts extreme. Try No. 25’s tiny last movement, pushed to the limit here and almost buckling under the strain. But there's so much energy and joy; you suspect that Beethoven would have approved. He would also Read more ...
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Brahms: The Orchestral Music Gewandhausorchester Leipzig/Kurt Masur (Decca Eloquence)Conductor Kurt Masur's role in Germany’s reunification has tended to obscure his musical strengths. I'd previously dismissed him as a safe, reliable pair of hands, so exploring this Brahms set was an enjoyable surprise. The warm, dark brown sonority of the Gewandhausorchester is one plus, with some gorgeously idiomatic vibrato on winds and horns. Philips’s analogue engineering has scrubbed up well too, the sound consistently detailed and well balanced. And this is an ensemble which gave several Read more ...
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Heino Eller: Symphonic Poems – Night Calls, White Night, Twilight, Dawn Estonian National Symphony Orchestra/Olari Elts (Ondine)Heino Eller was described as the ‘Estonian Sibelius’ in the first decades of the last century. Predictably, the career of this versatile composer, musicologist and teacher didn't thrive during the early years of Soviet Estonia, poor Eller being labelled a formalist. Forced to apologise for his compositional misdemeanours on state radio, his reputation only recovered in the decade before his death in 1970. There's some wonderful music on this disc. Night Calls Read more ...
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William Mathias: Choral Music St John’s Voices, The Gentlemen of St John’s, Graham Walker (director) (Naxos)I've a soft spot for neglected instruments, so any CD which includes a credit for chime bars is all right with me. Here they're deployed by percussionist David Ellis in William Mathias’s sublime A May Magnificat, scored for double chorus. Mathias requested that the choirs be of equal size and placed apart, and this Naxos recording really lets the antiphonal effects register. Feeling a little deflated this morning? Buy or download this disc now; it's kept me smiling for weeks. Read more ...
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Ginastera: Harp Concerto, Variaciones concertantes Sidsel Walstad (harp), Norwegian Radio Orchestra/Miguel Harth-Bedoya (Lawo Classics)Alberto Ginastera divided his compositional career into three, later two, distinct periods, charting a move away from Argentinean folk influences to mainstream European trends. He's a fascinating figure, the best of his works suggesting a Latin American Bartók, a composer fluently mixing popular music with astringent modernism. You hear this in his Harp Concerto, premiered after a long gestation period in 1965. There's a typically restless, nervy opening Read more ...
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Sheku Kanneh-Mason: Elgar London Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle (Decca)Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s debut album included a brilliantly punchy account of Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No 1 alongside various odds and sods. This second CD repeats the formula, the Elgar concerto coupled with shorter numbers by Bridge, Bloch and Fauré. I wish he'd opted instead for Walton's underrated Cello Concerto – to my mind as good a work as Elgar's, and inexplicably neglected. Still, this account of the Elgar is impressive. Kanneh-Mason’s technique is staggering – his lightness of touch in the Scherzo is Read more ...
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Beethoven: Symphonies 1-9 Danish Chamber Orchestra/Ádám Fischer (Naxos)“I need to play the notes in such a way that we can recreate the feelings of the listeners which Beethoven would have wanted to invoke in his audience, rather than playing it exactly how we wanted it to sound.” Ádám Fischer's pragmatic, humane approach to performing and recording Beethoven’s nine symphonies makes this one of the most entertaining modern cycles out there. We should be grateful that this covetable box set exists at all. Six of the symphonies were recorded in 2014 with the DR Chamber Orchestra, before Read more ...
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Schubert: Symphony No 9 Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Maxim Emelyanychev (Linn)There’s a telling photo of Maxim Emelyanychev on page 11 of Linn's booklet, the conductor beaming at the camera, the body language suggesting he's having a hard time actually sitting still. This performance of Schubert 9 is impulsive and upbeat, an irrepressibly positive statement. Yes, this is a Ninth Symphony (or eighth, depending on your point of view), but it's still very much a young composer's work. It's possible to make this music sound like Bruckner, but Emelyanychev’s light touch feels entirely right, Read more ...
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Classical CDs are still with us, even if the shops that sell them are rarer than hens’ teeth. Maybe this article should be renamed Downloads of the Year, or Cream of the Streams? That people are still listening to good music at all is a cause for celebration, and there’s still an abundance of interesting material being pumped out by labels great and small. Much of what really tickled my ears this year was off the beaten track. Here, in roughly chronological order, are twelve releases which got my pulse racing:The first volume of Santtu-Matias Rouvali’s projected Sibelius cycle coupled Read more ...
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Schütz: The Christmas Story Yale Schola Cantorum/David Hill (Hyperion)Heinrich Schutz’s parents did their best to dissuade him from becoming a professional musician in 17th century Dresden, arguing that a legal career was a better option. Luckily, a wealthy patron sent him to Venice to study with Gabrieli, Schütz later recognising no conflict between his love for the music of Catholic Italy and his Protestant faith. His Historia der Gerburt Christi is a lovely work, concise and elaborately scored. A pair of chirping recorders accompany the shepherds, and Herod gets some suitably Read more ...
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Bach: Christmas Oratorio Thomanerchor Leipzig, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig/Gotthold Schwarz (Accentus)Another year, another new Bach Christmas Oratorio. This one is happily among the best, its plus points including a slimmed down Leipzig Gewandhausorchester as backing band, and the city's Thomanerchor, a group tracing its history as far back as 1212. The choir's bright, clear timbre sits very nicely against modern orchestral instruments, and Gotthold Schwarz’s flowing speeds invariably hit the mark. Patrick Grahl gives us a very human Evangelist, and there's sterling work from soprano Read more ...
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Josquin: Missa Mater Patris, Bauldeweyn: Missa Da pacem The Tallis Scholars/Peter Philips (Gimmell)Josquin's Missa Mater Patris is a late work, the composer's florid style pared down and clarified to the extent that some commentators suggested it was written by someone else. Peter Phillips rightly stresses that clarifying and simplifying ones musical language shouldn't be mistaken for a sign of fading gifts, and listening to The Tallis Scholars’ version is an electrifying, visceral experience. Lean, open textures dominate, giving the music a tremendous sense of space and light, the Read more ...