Classical CDs
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Louis Frémaux, Les Passions de l’AmeSaturday, 22 July 2017
Beethoven: Symphonies 1-9 Gewandhausorchester Leipzig/Herbert Blomstedt (Accentus)There's already an excellent set of Beethoven symphonies conducted by Herbert Blomstedt with the Staatskapelle Dresden, recorded in the late 1970s. It's now on a... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Leonid Desyatnikov, Dimitar Nenov, Ars Nova CopenhagenSaturday, 15 July 2017
Leonid Desyatnikov: Sketches to Sunset, Russian Seasons Roman Mints (violin), Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, both conducted by Philip Chizhevsky (Quartz)Violinist Roman Mints writes of discovering Leonid Desyatnikov’s... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Peter Eötvös, London Conchord Ensemble, Kate LindseySaturday, 08 July 2017
Péter Eötvös: Paradise Reloaded (Lilith) Soloists, Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Gregory Vajda (BMC)Experiencing new operas on disc without seeing them performed means that any judgements have to be based on the music alone. Péter Eötvös’s... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Haydn, GrauSchumacher Piano DuoSaturday, 01 July 2017
Brahms: Piano Concertos Sunwook Kim (piano), Hallé/Sir Mark Elder (Hallé)Compare the openings of Brahms’s two piano concertos and you'd be mistaken for thinking they were by different composers. The earlier work begins with the fiercest of... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Falla, Ravel, Antoine Tamestit, The American Brass QuintetSaturday, 24 June 2017
Falla: Nights in the Garden of Spain, Ravel: Piano Concertos Steven Osborne (piano), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Ludovic Morlot (Hyperion)Steven Osborne's solo Ravel anthology is among the best available, and it's good that he's now... Read more... |
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... |
