Latest stories
-
BBC Music Magazine Awards Shortlist
25th Jan 2010
-
Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet
18th Jan 2010
A ‘superb reading of Prokofiev's supreme masterpiece’ from Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra, two decades after the conductor’s landmark account of the piece with the Kirov Orchestra.
-
Bach for Violin and Voice
11th Jan 2010
Hilary Hahn, Christine Schäfer and Matthias Goerne join forces with the Münchener Kammerorchester for arias from works including the St Matthew Passion, the Mass in B minor and numerous cantatas.
-
A Ring cycle for the 21st Century
4th Jan 2010
La Fura del Baus brings Wagner’s eighteen-hour epic to life with striking choreography and special effects, and a superb cast including American soprano Jennifer Wilson as Brünnhilde and bass Matti Salminen as Fasolt, Hunding and Hagen.
-
Thomas Tallis's Secret Garden
14th Dec 2009
Graham O’Reilly’s Ensemble européen William Byrd explore the Renaissance composer’s music for the English Chapel Royal, spanning the reigns of four different monarchs.
-
El Sistema
7th Dec 2009
A life-affirming and moving documentary by Paul Smaczny charting the evolution of the Venezuelan music education programme which produced the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra.
-
Christmas Releases
30th Nov 2009
Festive albums from Ex Cathedra, The Choir of Westminster Cathedral, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and the Choir of Gonville & Caius College Cambridge.
-
Two important Elgar rarities
9th Nov 2009
Sir Andrew Davis conducts The Crown of India with the BBC Philharmonic, and Roderick Williams and others explore The Fringes of the Fleet, a patriotic song-cycle setting texts by Rudyard Kipling.
-
Cecilia Bartoli and the world of Castratos
26th Oct 2009
The intrepid Italian mezzo explores repertoire composed for Farinelli, Caffarelli and Senesino (including music by Porpora, Caldara, Vinci and Leo) with Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini.
-
Winterreise from Padmore and Lewis
19th Oct 2009
The British pianist and tenor launch a series of Schubert song-cycles with a spellbinding account of the late, great ‘Winter Journey’ which strikes Chris as ‘music-making of the absolute highest order’.
Featured product
Schubert: Winterreise D911
Mark Padmore (tenor) & Paul Lewis (piano)
-
Tchaikovsky's Moscow Cantata
12th Oct 2009
Valery Gergiev conducts the Mariinsky orchestra in a punchy, exciting account of the 1883 work written in honour of the coronation of Tsar Alexander III, plus the 1812 Overture, and the ‘Danish Overture’, composed for Alexander’s marriage.
-
The Quatuor Ebène and the Gramophone Awards
5th Oct 2009
The young French string quartet scoop the Record of the Year prize for their disc of Ravel, Debussy and Fauré on Erato, with Gerald Finley and Julius Drake, Stile Antico, Fretwork and Steven Osborne among the category-winners.
Featured product
Ravel, Debussy, Fauré - String Quartets
Quatuor Ebène
-
Unknown Britten
28th Sep 2009
NMC Records release a collection of rediscovered works by the British composer, including a clarinet concerto commission by Benny Goodman, and three songs originally intended for Les Illuminations.
-
Julia Fischer plays Schubert
14th Sep 2009
The German violinist and pianist Martin Helmchen convert Chris to the pleasures of Schubert’s violin sonatas in ‘by far the most convincing performances I’ve heard of these works’.
-
Rattle conducts Brahms
31st Aug 2009
The ‘incredible warmth and beauty of sound’ which Rattle coaxes from the Berliner Philharmoniker in the four symphonies echoes the achievement of their Gramophone award-winning recording of Ein deutsches Requiem in 2007.
-
Bruckner from the Concertgebouw
24th Aug 2009
Mariss Jansons conducts the Third and Fourth symphonies with the Amsterdam orchestra in performances which showcase their lustrous string sound and richly glowing brass section.
-
Gramophone Awards 2009 - Finalists
17th Aug 2009
Nominations includes Sir Mark Elder’s Dream of Gerontius with the Hallé, the late Richard Hickox’s recording of Britten’s Owen Wingrave, and Stephen Kovacevich’s Dabelli Variations.
-
Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle
10th Aug 2009
Sir Willard White is the bridegroom with skeletons in his closet, and Russian mezzo Elena Zhidkova his inquisitive new wife on this new live recording from Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra.
-
Diaghilev and The Ballets Russes
27th Jul 2009
The Mariinsky Orchestra and Ballet and Valery Gergiev commemorate the centenary of the Russian ballet company with a DVD which reconstructs Nijinsky’s original choreography for The Rite of Spring and The Firebird.
Featured product
Stravinsky and the Ballets Russes - DVD version
Ekaterina Kondaurova (Firebird), Ilya Kuznetsov (Ivan Tsarevich), Marianna Pavlova (The Princess) & Vladimir Ponomarev (Kachtcheï the Immortal), Alexandra Iosifidi (The Chosen One), Elena Bazhenova (300-Year-Old Woman) & Vladimir Ponomarev (Shaman) Mariinsky Orchestra & Ballet, Valery Gergiev
More products from this article -
Sir Edward Downes
20th Jul 2009
The British conductor and his wife Joan ended their lives together at an assisted suicide clinic in Zurich at the weekend; Chris pays tribute to ‘a thoroughly nice man’ who was particularly renowned in Verdi and Russian repertoire.
