Pick of the Gramophone crop this month is the phenomenal Russian-German pianist Igor Levit, with a wonderfully individual and vital recording of the Bach Partitas - a fitting follow-up to his Sony debut disc of the late Beethoven sonatas, which was a Gramophone Awards finalist this year and also scooped him the Best Newcomer prize at BBC Music Magazine Awards in the spring.
It's a good month for keyboard releases overall, in fact, with Steven Osborne's recital of Medtner and Rachmaninov, Maria João Pires's Beethoven Concertos Nos. 3 & 4 featuring as Editor's Choices, and a thought-provoking documentary on the blind Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii by Peter Rosen, in the DVD of the Month spot. There's also a healthy proportion of new music, in the shape of Gerald Barry's zany setting of Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, and a lovely collection of song-cycles by Jonathan Dove.
Recording of the Month
JS Bach Keyboard Partitas, BWV825‑830
Igor Levit
'Above all, they are fresh and joyous...Levit's achievement is to miss nothing of their scope and variety as compositions.'
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Editor's Choices
Medtner & Rachmaninov: Piano Sonatas
Steven Osborne
'What comes across most winningly is the ebb and flow of the work: the more inward passages are allowed to breathe; the extrovert ones are absolutely fiery.'
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Arvo Pärt: Choral Music
Polyphony, Stephen Layton
'This one is something special...In part this is because of the choice of repertoire...in part it is because of the exquisite sound produced by Polyphony.'
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Moulinie: Meslanges pour la chapelle d'un prince
Sébastien Daucé, Ensemble Correspondances
'[an] enthralling selection of five-part motets. Assured soloists are drawn from the ranks...such miniature pieces are capable of real grandeur in the right hands.'
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Perla Barocca Early Italian Masterpieces
Rachel Podger, Marcin Świątkiewicz, Daniele Caminiti
'It would be hard to imagine a more enticing introduction to the delights of 17th-century Italian violin music...Podger and her accompanists enjoy bringing out these pieces' sense of discovery.'
Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 4
Maria João Pires, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Harding
'Never for a moment does she over-reach herself or force her pace and sonority...Few pianists have ever been more true to their own lights...It is my dearest wish that this will become a complete cycle.'
Available Formats: CD, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Manfred Honeck conducts music by the Strauss Family
Wiener Symphoniker, Manfred Honeck
'Honeck twirls us through a winning programme with every solo beautifully pointed, every transition perfectly judged, while his orchestra responds as if he'd been conducting them for generations.'
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Gerald Barry: The Importance of Being Earnest
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Thomas Adès
'Barry magnifies the fizzing quality into a relentlessly high-wire act that has the audience relishing the stamina of the performers, here under the needle-sharp control of ringmaster-in-chief Thomas Adès.'
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Jonathan Dove: All You Who Sleep Tonight
Claire Booth, Patricia Bardon, Nicky Spence, Andrew Matthews-Owen
'If you want to find out what has happened to English song since Britten, this is as good a place to start as any...Here are four highly imaginative new song-cycles, each deserving a life of its own.'
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Reissue of the Month
Strauss: Elektra
Birgit Nilsson, Regina Resnik, Leonie Rysanek, Wolfgang Windgassen, Karl Böhm
'[Nilsson] is achingly tender in the recognition scene with Orestes, vividly obsequious as she lures Aegisthus to his death and tireless in her final, fatal dance...The conducting is beyond praise.'
Available Formats: FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
