Latest stories
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New and forthcoming Opera DVDs
9th Apr 2012
Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur from Covent Garden, Juan Diego Flórez, Diana Damrau and Joyce DiDonato in Rossini's Le Comte Ory from the Metropolitan Opera.
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Claude Debussy
2nd Apr 2012
James explores three collections marking the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, with highlights including Boulez’s Pélleas et Mélisande, Michael Tilson Thomas’s Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s Préludes.
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The Debussy Edition
Franklin Cohen (clarinet), Jean-Rodolphe Kars (piano), Vera Badings (harp), Krystian Zimerman (piano), Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (piano), Mitsuko Uchida (piano), Zoltan Kocsis (piano), Alfons & Aloys Kontarsky (pianos), Augustin Dumay (violin), Maria-Joao Pires (piano), Mischa Maisky (cello), Martha Argerich (piano), Wolfgang Schulz (flute), Véronique Dietschy (soprano), Philippe Cassard (piano), Emmanuel Strosser (piano), Maria Ewing, François Le Roux (Pelléas), Christa Ludwig (Genevieve), José van Dam (Golaud), Jean-Phillipe Courtis (Arkel), Patrizia Pac (Yniold), Rudolf Mazzola (Docteur), Suzanne Danco (soprano), Marie-Lise de Montmollin (mezzo), Nancy Wough (alto) The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Melos Quartet, Ensemble Wien-Berlin, Wiener Philharmoniker, Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor, Monteverdi Choir, Union Chorale de La Tour-de-Peilz, Pierre Boulez, Alexander Gibson, Bernard Haitink, Eduard van Beinum, Riccardo Chailly, Claudio Abbado, John Eliot Gardiner, Ernst Ansermet
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Wagner - Klaus Florian Vogt and a new Parsifal
26th Mar 2012
The sweet-toned German tenor presents a portfolio of heavyweight heroes, whilst Marek Janowski’s Wagner cycle on Pentatone continues with a marvellously paced Parsifal, starring Christian Elsner as the ‘holy fool’.
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Haydn from Thomas Fey and the Heidelberger Sinfoniker
19th Mar 2012
Chris applauds the ‘knowledge and sound musical instincts’ on show from the German conductor on this sixteenth volume of his Haydn symphonies cycle on Hänssler, which features Symphonies nos. 90 and 92 (the ‘Oxford’).
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Jules Massenet - Werther & Don Quichotte
12th Mar 2012
Rolando Villazón brings apposite wildness and fragility to Goethe’s tortured poet, with Antonio Pappano presiding over a visceral, near-Italianate performance from the Covent Garden orchestra, whilst Ferruccio Furlanetto is heart-breaking as the ‘knight of the doleful countenance’ from the Mariinsky.
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Massenet: Werther
Rolando Villazon (Werther), Sophie Koch (Charlotte), Audun Iversen (Albert), Eri Nakamura (Sophie), Alain Vernhes (Le Bailli), Stuart Patterson (Schmidt), Darren Jeffrey (Johann), Anna Devin (Käthchen), Zhengzhong Zhou (Brühlmann) Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Antonio Pappano
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Brahms choral discs from Gardiner and Herreweghe
5th Mar 2012
Gardiner follows his recording of the complete symphonies with an account of the Deutsches Requiem that scores highly on textual clarity, whilst Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent offer luminous performances of the Alto Rhapsody (with Ann Hallenberg as soloist) and Schicksalsied.
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Vivaldi: Sacred vocal works and concertos
27th Feb 2012
Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas joins the baroque ensemble Florilegium for Laudate pueri and Nulla in mundo, whilst the group’s founder Ashley Solomon takes centre-stage in the recently-rediscovered flute concerto Il Gran Mogol (receiving only its second outing on record here).
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Aleksandra Kurzak and Renée Fleming
20th Feb 2012
Up-and-coming Polish soprano Kurzak radiates ‘gioia’ in her debut solo album of operatic arias by Donizetti, Bellini, Puccini and others, whilst Fleming is on ravishing form in an all-French programme of orchestral song-cycles by Ravel, Messiaen and Dutilleux (the latter composed for her in 2007).
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Schoenberg and Berg
13th Feb 2012
Isabelle Faust pairs the Berg and Beethoven violin concertos to great effect with Orchestra Mozart and Claudio Abbado, whilst Pierre Boulez brings breathtaking clarity to Schoenberg’s densely-orchestrated Pelleas et Melisande with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester.
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Alison Balsom
6th Feb 2012
The British trumpeter’s new album Seraph takes its title from a new concertino composed for her by James MacMillan in 2010, and also includes music by Arutiunian, Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Takemitsu.
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Britten Violin Concerto
30th Jan 2012
Anthony Marwood’s rich, singing tone and the impressive precision of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov combine for a tremendously touching account of Britten’s underrated concerto, whilst violist Lawrence Power is equally moving in Lachrymae.
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Beethoven Symphonies from Thielemann and Chailly
23rd Jan 2012
Thielemann offers a cycle in the grand Germanic tradition with the Wiener Philharmoniker, whilst Chailly’s interpretations with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig emphasise lightness and freshness without ever sounding too hard-driven or breathless. James puts the case for each approach.
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New Year’s Concert from Vienna
16th Jan 2012
Mariss Jansons presides over the celebrations for the second time in his career in a sparkling, imaginative-planned programme which includes two little nods to the forthcoming London Olympics as well as the perennial favourites by the Strauss Family, Ziehrer and Hellmesberger.
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Mariusz Kwiecień
9th Jan 2012
The charismatic Polish baritone’s debut solo album offers a compellingly sung and splendidly varied gallery of ‘Slavic Heroes’, including Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Mazeppa, Szymanowski’s King Roger, Rachmaninov’s Aleko and Borodin’s Prince Igor, as well as two arias from operas by his compatriot Moniuszko.
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Fritz Kreisler
2nd Jan 2012
Chris enjoys two tributes to the violin virtuoso and composer Fritz Kreisler, who died fifty years ago this month: a 10-CD vintage collection entitled The Charming Maverick and Liebesfreud, Liebesleid, in which his own recordings sit alongside accounts of his music by an array of great modern violinists.
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Fritz Kreisler: The Charming Maverick
Fritz Kreisler (violin), Thomas Petre (violins), William Primrose (viola), Laurie Kennedy (cello), with Franz Rupp (piano), with Michael Raucheisen (piano), with Arpád Sándor (piano) Berlin State Opera Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, Sir Landon Ronald, Leo Blech, Malcolm Sargent, John Barbirolli, Eugene Goossens
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Two legendary performances
19th Dec 2011
Rostropovich’s legendary account of the Dvorak Cello Concerto from the 1968 Proms, and Václav Talich’s emotionally-charged 1939 performance of Smetana’s Má Vlast, given at the National Theatre in Prague shortly after the Nazis entered the city.
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Maurizio Pollini plays Chopin
12th Dec 2011
In the run-up to the great Italian pianist’s 70th birthday, Testament release a very early recording of the Études Opp. 10 & 25 (recorded when Pollini was just 18), and Deutsche Grammophon issue his complete Chopin recordings from 1972 to 2008.
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Christmas roundup
5th Dec 2011
Arthur Honegger’s Une Cantate de Noël from Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic, Vaughan Williams from Derek Welton and Iain Burnside, traditional carols from St. John’s College Cambridge, and an eclectic retelling of the Christmas story courtesy of Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices.
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Havergal Brian’s Gothic Symphony
28th Nov 2011
Hyperion release a live recording of the British composer’s gargantuan first symphony, captured at a rare performance at the BBC Proms this summer and featuring an orchestra of over 200 and a choir of 600!
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Duetti da Camera: Philippe Jaroussky & Max Emanuel Cencic
21st Nov 2011
Two of today’s leading countertenors join forces with veteran baroque specialist William Christie for a programme of non-operatic secular duets by composers including Porpora, Mancini, Bononcini, Marcello, Conti, and Alessandro Scarlatti.
