His long-running Bach Cantatas series has made a few appearances in past Editor's Choices, but this month it's Masaaki Suzuki's skills as an organist that win him the laurels - his new disc on BIS, recorded at the Schnitger/Hinz organ of the Martinikerk in Gronigen, includes eloquent accounts of the famous D minor Toccata and Fugue BWV656, the 'Wedge' Prelude & Fugue, and the Canonic Variations on 'Vom Himmel hoch'.
Elsewhere, we have two very different choral discs - music by the contemporary Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov from the Latvian Radio Choir, and a varied programme of nineteenth- and twentieth-century favourites from The Choir of St John's College Cambridge. On the operatic front, there's another new recording of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, from Dmitrij Kitajenko and an all Russian-speaking cast, and Simon Rattle in a rare Wagnerian appearance with a Rheingold headed by Michael Volle as Wotan.
Recording of the Month
JS Bach: Organ Works
Masaaki Suzuki
'in a deftly balanced presentation of strikingly contrasting essays, Suzuki offers beautifully turned, reflective and buoyant readings of sui generis ‘concert’ works...Inexorable momentum here is born of fervent authority, a virtuosity of combined effects without gratuitous excess.'
Available Format: SACD
Editor's Choices
Brahms: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 3
Artemis Quartet
'the Artemis give us a Brahms of and for our time, inevitably informed by their work on Bartók and Ligeti just as much as on late Beethoven...The Artemis have both that taste and sense in abundance, and we could count ourselves very lucky to hear nowadays a performance of the C minor Symphony that matched this recording for its urgency and discretion of response.'
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Alessandro Scarlatti: Con eco d'amore
Elizabeth Watts, The English Concert, Laurence Cummings
'Watts seeks to create specific, individual characters rather than a series of generic portraits...The music is fascinating, often revelatory, the playing of The English Concert first-rate (Laurence Cummings always has a precise ear for texture and colour), while the mingled grace, brilliance and expressive intensity of Watts’s singing could hardly be bettered.'
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Wagner: Das Rheingold
Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Simon Rattle
'Rather than luxuriating in the sonorities of the Berliners in this music...the conductor now rediscovers in abundance the rhythmic energy and sheer enjoyment of the orchestration apparent in his reading from [his] first OAE concerts...Michael Volle...nails Wotan’s self-interest and short-sightedness from the beginning.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
The Romantic Cello Concerto, Vol. 7: Fitzenhagen & Tchaikovsky
Alban Gerhardt, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Stefan Blunier
'The successful resurrection of unknown works like these largely stands or falls on melodic potency and the advocacy of a great soloist. Alban Gerhardt...is such a one. Vital exuberance – the sort one usually associates only with a live recording – is matched by playing of great lyrical grace.'
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Adrian Chandler, La Serenissima
'Chandler is not only steeped in the musical language of Baroque Italy, both vocal and instrumental; he is also fully conversant with its humanist wellsprings...The result is an intensely dramatic account that will add new spice to what has for many listeners perhaps come to resemble a dreary domestic relationship.'
Available Formats: CD, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Tchaikovsky: Iolanta
Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne, Dmitrij Kitajenko
'Leading the cast is the excellent young Russian Olesya Golovneva as Iolanta...Popov is in mellifluous, heady voice as Vaudémont...A top-drawer recording of an increasingly significant opera...Vinogradov’s soft-grained bass is rock-solid and on magnificent form as Iolanta’s father...A top-drawer recording of an increasingly significant opera.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Valentin Silvestrov: To Thee We Sing
Latvian Radio Choir, Sigvards Klava
'this contemplative recital reveals an astonishing richness which invites repeated listening. It has the effect of a healing balm and I cannot recommend it too highly for those who require restoration from life’s vicissitudes...The Latvian Radio Choir under Sigvards Kl,ava sing, as expected, with a scintillating beauty.'
Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
The Call: More Choral Classics from St John’s
Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, Andrew Nethsingha
'Anybody with deep affection for the more noble anthems of the Anglican tradition will need no excuse to grab a copy of this tasty selection, especially so when it features performances of such tasteful restraint...in truth, 75 minutes of utter aural sublimity.'
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
