Classical CDs
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In Márta’s Garden Katharina Weber (piano) (Intakt)The Márta of the title of this solo piano album by many-faceted Swiss pianist, composer and teacher Katharina Weber (b. 1958) is Márta Kurtág (1927 -2019). Weber first got to know the Kurtágs in 1989, and stayed in dialogue with them for three decades. She has performed and taught their music extensively (two of her previous albums on Intakt include it), she visited them often in Hungary, and her own compositional practice has been influenced and mentored by them. This solo piano album both starts and finishes with a piece by Read more ...
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GoldMund, Anna Veit: Mehr Oder Weniger Lametta – arrangements of Tchaikovsky, Bach, Humperdinck, Martin Luther, John Rutter (Solo Musica)What works best here are the classy, and occasionally witty and wacky brass arrangements, plus some very fine brass and percussion playing indeed from a group of top players from the Munich Philharmonic, above all their fabulous Portuguese-born principal tuba, Ricardo Carvalhoso. Some of this album needs to be filed under "you probably have to be Bavarian", and with no translations in the brochure, a lot does go missing. "Lametta" in the album title is Read more ...
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Secret Love Letters – music by Franck, Szymanowski, Chausson and Debussy Lisa Batiashvili (violin) Giorgi Gigashvili (piano), Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin (DG).The concept and the packaging had made me far too sceptical. Once I had listened, I was won over by the sheer emotional presence and the persuasive whole-heartedness of Lisa Batiashvili’s violin playing. “Secret Love Letters” is a programme of four works. On the surface, they are loosely themed around whether emotional truth is to be hidden or revealed. "We often even define our daily life by the things we keep to Read more ...
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Hélène de Montgeroult: Études Clare Hammond (piano) (BIS)“How can music of this quality and vision be forgotten so comprehensively for so long?”, asks pianist Clare Hammond. It is the right question. The piano music of Hélène de Montgeroult (née Hélène Antoinette Marie de Nervo, 1764-1836) is becoming better known, not least because of the detective work of musicologist Jérôme Dorival. Belgian-Israeli pianist Edna Stern released a selection on a period Pleyel piano in 2017. Then came the complete Piano Sonatas from Monaco's Nicolas Horvath. And now come 29 of the 114 Études of de Read more ...
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The Playhouse Sessions: Bjarte Eike, Barokksolistene (Rubicon)The Playhouse Sessions is a follow-up to the irresistible Alehouse Sessions, in which Bjarte Eikke and his Barokksolistene recreate a 17th century London pub gig, where sea shanties and rumbustious dance tunes rub shoulders with Purcell. I was very disappointed to miss the recent live London outing for both these projects (reviewed by David Nice for theartsdesk) and while nothing can quite match being in the room, the Playhouse Sessions in recorded form still offers more musical revelation and sheer fun than anything else I Read more ...
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Colourise London Choral Sinfonia/Michael Waldron, with Roderick Williams (baritone), Andrew Staples (tenor), Elena Urioste (violin) (Orchid)Colourise, the latest album from by the London Choral Sinfonia, proved revelatory: I came for the Vaughan Williams, but got unexpectedly drawn in by the Lennox Berkeley. His Variations on a Hymn by Orlando Gibbons gets its premiere recording and is a piece I am very pleased to know: it grows engagingly from a humble beginning, solo strings quietly mimicking viols, before growing to fill its 19-minute duration without feeling a moment too long. Read more ...
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Mozart: The Piano Sonatas (Robert Levin, playing Mozart’s fortepiano) (ECM New Series)There is no doubt about the brilliant uniqueness of pianist, conductor, musicologist and one-time Nadia Boulanger pupil Robert Levin, an influential Harvard Professor for more than two decades until his retirement in 2014. Turn the clock back 30 years, and Levin’s presentational style was much more disputative back then than it is these days: in a memorable contribution to Derek Bailey’s 1992 Channel 4 series on improvisation “On the Edge” he railed against Mozart performances that were “ Read more ...
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Brahms Lieder Anna Lucia Richter (mezzo-soprano), Ammiel Bushakevitz (piano) (Pentatone)Ein süßes Deingedenken: A Tender Memory of Thee – Lieder by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn Kateryna Kasper (soprano), Dmitry Ablogin (piano) (TYXArt)These two recitals of German Lieder, both of them gloriously and intelligently sung, offer really interesting contrasts. Anna Lucia Richter is the better-known singer of the two and more frequently recorded. Her new album consists mostly of better-known Brahms songs. She has fabulously clear diction, and her booklet essay demonstrates quite how deeply she Read more ...
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Berlin Philharmonic Horn player Sarah Willis’s Mozart y Mambo caused a stir in 2020, its mixture of Mozart and traditional Cuban music making it a bestselling crossover disc.Two years on and the second volume has just been released, the sessions held in Havana in January and April this year. As with the first album, a percentage of the proceeds will go towards raising money for new instruments for the Havana Lyceum Orchestra. We discussed the project over Zoom in August.What prompted you to record a second CD?Second albums are notoriously difficult! The mixture of Mozart and mambo proved Read more ...
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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 Jacqueline du Pré collection has been reissued before, but one suspects that this will be its final appearance in CD format. Multiple sclerosis ended du Pré's playing career in 1973; 50 years on, one wonders whether her stellar reputation was justified, and whether these recordings stand up. Asking a couple of string playing contacts and trawling Read more ...
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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 paired with its brilliantly put-together 140-page booklet, of essays and words and translations, making the whole enterprise worthwhile. The essays tell the story of the phases in Fauré’s songwriting clearly and thoughtfully. And if there’s a single unidiomatic translation or misprint lurking somewhere in the acres of text, I haven’t yet found Read more ...
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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 John Wilson, who returns here with his Sinfonia of London to give us this fizzing anthology of orchestral music. There are some wonderful things here. Take A Downland Suite, composed in 1932 as a brass band test piece. Ireland later arranged two of its four movements for strings, the task completed by his pupil Geoffrey Bush in 1978. The brass Read more ...