Classical CDs
Classical CDs: Big boxes, Russian ballets, wind concertos and baroque sonatasSaturday, 31 July 2021
Riccardo Muti – The Complete Warner Symphonic Recordings (Warner Classics)As with Warner Classics’s recent André Previn box set, begin at the end. Jon Tolansky’s audio documentary is on the last disc in this 91-CD box, chronicling Riccardo... Read more... |
Classical CDs: wolves, woodwinds and a masonic funeralSaturday, 17 July 2021
Martha Argerich Edition (EuroArts)Almost eight hours of Martha Argerich on film. What a glorious prospect! This six-DVD set mostly consists of recordings of live concerts. The set was released to celebrate the great Argentinian’s 80th birthday... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Solo harp, solo trumpet and two discs of orchestral jazzSaturday, 03 July 2021
Reicha Rediscovered, Volume 3 Ivan Ilić (piano) (Chandos)Antoine Reicha’s L’Arte de varier tantalises before you’ve heard a note; the composer’s Opus 57, its theme followed by 57 variations. Reicha was an exact contemporary of Beethoven and... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Bassoons, brass and symphonic compressionSaturday, 19 June 2021
One Movement Symphonies: Music by Barber, Scriabin and Sibelius Kansas City Symphony/Michael Stern (Reference Recordings)Placing these three single movements together serves to highlight just how great Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7 is, and just... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Three great conductors remembered, Mahler with accordion and a song cycle with no singerSaturday, 05 June 2021
André Previn: The Warner Edition – Complete HMV & Teldec Recordings (Warner Classics)Flicking through this box set will provoke a Proustian rush if you’re of a certain age. These recordings were mostly made for EMI, though Warner Classics... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Horns, musical autobiography and Australian landscapesSaturday, 22 May 2021
Dennis Brain: Homage (Warner Classics)Eleven CDs, assembled to mark the centenary of the legendary hornist’s birth. Whoop whoop. Start at the beginning, with a 1938 recording of Mozart’s K334 Divertimento. The horn writing isn’t spectacular... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Mexican brass, fairy gardens and a socially distanced orchestral recordingSaturday, 08 May 2021
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas 30-32 Boris Giltburg (Naxos)It's worth noting that Beethoven's final piano sonatas weren't his last works; there was still a lot of music in him. Performing them as weighty, epic closing statements can smother the... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Horses, hats and Hardanger fiddlesSaturday, 24 April 2021
Joseph Lauber: Symphonies 1 and 2 Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn/Kaspar Zehnder (Schweizer Fonogramm)Two CDs from boutique Swiss label Schweizer Fonogramm have recently caught my ear. One presents a pair of symphonies by the long-lived... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Dramatic symphonies, medieval bagpipes and a solo bassoonSaturday, 10 April 2021
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, Piano Concerto No. 4, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra/Lahav Shani (piano and conductor) (Warner Classics)Poor Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year saw most of the projected live events cancelled, but good new... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Music for Easter, vocal anthologies and a trip to DundalkSaturday, 27 March 2021
Bach: St Matthew Passion Gaechinger Cantorey/Hans-Christoph Rademann (Accentus)Your shelves may already be overburdened with recordings of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, but make a small space for this one. Recorded in November 2020 under lockdown... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Big symphonies, archlutes and the healing power of the violaSaturday, 13 March 2021
Bach: The English Suites Paolo Zanzu (harpsichord) (Musica Ficta)I’m a recent convert to Bach keyboard music played on harpsichord, having recently immersed myself in the Erato box set containing Zuzana Růžičková’s Bach recordings made in the... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Dusty graveyards, bell sounds on pianos and a cold Cambridgeshire fenSaturday, 27 February 2021
The Way of Light – The Music of Nigel Hess (Orchid Classics)You’ve probably heard Nigel Hess’s music without realising it. He’s scored multiple RSC productions and has provided incidental music for dozens of films and television programmes.... Read more... |
