Latest stories

Sublime Schubert from Paul Lewis

31st Oct 2011by Chris O'Reilly

Following his ten-year immersion in Beethoven and critically-acclaimed recordings of Schubert’s three great song-cycles with tenor Mark Padmore, the British pianist brings unrivalled poise and intimacy to the Piano Sonatas D840, 850 and 894 and the Impromptus D899.

Franz Liszt

24th Oct 2011by Chris O'Reilly

Chris rounds up some of the many releases issued to commemorate the bicentenary of the Hungarian composer’s birth this week, including a song-recital from Diana Damrau and Helmut Deutsch, the Piano Concertos from Stephen Hough and the Bergen Philharmonic, and selected piano works from Lise de la Salle.

The Decca Sound

17th Oct 2011by Chris O'Reilly

A beautifully-documented 50-CD box charts the extraordinary history of the record-label, spanning six decades and featuring artists including Herbert von Karajan, Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, András Schiff, Emma Kirkby, and Alicia de Larrocha.

Pavel Haas Quartet the big winners at the Gramophone Awards

10th Oct 2011by Chris O'Reilly

Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts from Paul McCreesh

3rd Oct 2011by Chris O'Reilly

With a massed choir of English and Polish singers and an orchestra which deploys as many authentic nineteenth-century instruments as possible, McCreesh plays up not only the sound and fury of Berlioz’s super-sized Requiem but also the astonishing range of textures which the young composer summons.

Handel – Agrippina & Germanico

26th Sep 2011by Katherine Cooper

Bulgarian soprano Alexandrina Pendatchanska is the scheming anti-heroine on René Jacobs’s terrific new recording of Agrippina, Max Cencic stars in Gluck’s Ezio and Vivaldi’s Farnace, and Sara Mingardo takes the title-role in the serenata Germanico, rediscovered in Florence in 2007.

Wagner’s Flying Dutchman starts PentaTone’s 10th anniversary celebrations

19th Sep 2011by Chris O'Reilly

The first in a projected cycle of Wagner’s ten major operas from Marek Janowski and the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin stars Albert Dohmen in commanding form as the accursed sailor looking for love, Matti Salminen as a first-rate Daland, and Ricarda Merbeth as a stentorian Senta.

Schubert's Schwanengesang from Padmore and Lewis

12th Sep 2011by Chris O'Reilly

Padmore’s bright, light tenor is often hauntingly beautiful in Schubert’s ‘swan-song’, combining with Lewis’s imaginative and insightful playing in a performance of great musical integrity which is a worthy successor to their superb Winterreise and Schöne Müllerin.

Gergiev and the LSO conclude their Mahler cycle

5th Sep 2011by James Longstaffe

The Russian conductor’s painstaking attention to tiny issues of orchestral balance and uncharacteristic willingness to allow the music breathing-space make for a tremendously moving Ninth Symphony.

BIS - Maxim Rysanov, Sibelius and a special offer

29th Aug 2011by Chris O'Reilly

The Ukrainian viola-player persuasively appropriates works for cello by Tchaikovsky and Schubert, Okko Kamu conducts Sibelius’s suites from The Tempest, Tapiola and The Bard, and BIS’s mighty Sibelius Edition crosses the finishing-line with a collection of orchestral fragments and works with organ.

Sublime Ravel from Ibragimova and Tiberghien

22nd Aug 2011by Chris O'Reilly

Following their outstanding series of Beethoven sonatas from the Wigmore Hall, the Russian violinist and French pianist offer utterly absorbing accounts of Ravel’s complete works for violin and piano, plus Guillaume Lekeu’s Violin Sonata, composed at around the same time as Ravel’s first essay in the genre.

Gustavo Dudamel

15th Aug 2011by Chris O'Reilly

The young Venezuelan conductor proves himself to be ‘a great musician with sound musical instincts ‘ in live recordings of Bruckner, Sibelius and Nielsen with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.

Brahms/Schoenberg from Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker

8th Aug 2011by Chris O'Reilly

Rattle conducts Schoenberg’s orchestration of the Brahms Piano Quartet in G minor, plus the Chamber Symphony No. 1 and Accompanying Music to a Cinematographic Scene.

Lucia from the Mariinsky

1st Aug 2011by Katherine Cooper

Natalie Dessay brings fragility and neurosis to the title-role, contrasting powerfully with Gergiev’s red-blooded Donizetti à la Verdi, Piotr Beczała’s ardent, ringing Edgardo and Vladislav Sulimsky’s black-voiced Enrico.

Benjamin Grosvenor

18th Jul 2011by Chris O'Reilly

Fresh from his BBC Proms triumph last week, the eighteen-year-old British pianist makes a hugely impressive debut on Decca with a programme which includes Ravel’s formidable Gaspard de la Nuit and music by Chopin and Liszt.

Rossini’s William Tell

11th Jul 2011by Chris O'Reilly

Gerald Finley is the sharp-shooting Swiss hero on Antonio Pappano’s absorbing account of Rossini’s opera, with John Osborn sounding effortless in the taxing high role of Arnaud, and Malin Byström an expressive Mathilde.

Bach Motets from Herreweghe

4th Jul 2011by Chris O'Reilly

The Belgian Bach scholar and conductor and Collegium Vocale Gent return to works which they first recorded back in 1981, bringing crystal-clear textures, impeccable intonation and excellent ensemble to the six motets.

Sublime Vivaldi from Nathalie Stutzmann

27th Jun 2011by Chris O'Reilly

The French contralto sings and conducts her chamber ensemble Orfeo 55 (formed two years ago) with passion and panache in a celebration of the ‘Red Priest’’s roles for female characters – many of them originally portrayed by castrati.

Beethoven’s Fidelio from Abbado and Kaufmann

20th Jun 2011by Katherine Cooper

The German tenor is mesmerising from his very first note, whilst Nina Stemme is scarcely less compelling as his heroic wife Leonore in this exhilarating live concert recording from last year’s Lucerne Festival.

Byrd’s Complete Consort Music

13th Jun 2011by Chris O'Reilly

The Gramophone Award-winning viol consort Phantasm brings sweetness and sensuality to the English composer’s fantasias, In Nomines and pavans and galliards on Linn Records.