Classical Guides
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Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)
22nd Jul 2026
The life and works of the great English composer Gerald Finzi - born in London but profoundly associated with the countryside of Southern England, and known for his nostalgia-tinged vocal and choral music.
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Albert Roussel
3rd Jun 2026
The first of our new guides explores the life and legacy of one of the key French composers of the early twentieth century, sitting at the crossroads of Impressionism, Neoclassicism and early Modernism.
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Ernst von Dohnányi
15th Apr 2026
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the Hungarian composer, known particularly for a set of variations on a nursery tune, largely uncharacteristic of his wider musical style, which combines late Romantic influences with originality and astonishing technical accomplishment in music deserving of greater attention.
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Bernard Herrmann
26th Jun 2024
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the American composer and conductor, best known for his impressive roster of enormously successful film scores.
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Charles-François Gounod
20th Jun 2024
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the French Romantic composer, known for his operas, sacred music and songs.
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Gounod: Faust (1859 version)
Benjamin Bernheim (Faust), Véronique Gens (Marguerite), Andrew Foster-Williams (Méphistophélès), Jean-Sébastien Bou (Valentin), Juliette Mars (Siebel), Ingrid Perruche (Marthe), Anas Séguin (Wagner/Un mendiant) Les Talens Lyriques, Flemish Radio Choir, Christophe Rousset
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Ethel Smyth
22nd May 2024
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the late Romantic composer, known for her groundbreaking operas, her solo songs, and her fearless involvement in the suffragette movement.
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Arthur Sullivan
15th May 2024
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the great Victorian composer - best known for his light operas written in collaboration with William Schwenck Gilbert and for his hymn-tunes.
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Sullivan, A: The Mikado
Donald Adams (The Mikado), Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Nanki-Poo), Richard Suart (Ko-Ko), Felicity Palmer (Katisha), Marie McLaughlin (Yum-Yum), Richard Van Allan (Pooh-Bah), Nicholas Folwell (Pish-Tush) Welsh National Opera, Sir Charles Mackerras
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Louis Spohr
16th Apr 2024
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the early Romantic violin innovator - composer of eighteen violin concertos, thirty-six string quartets and more, and developer of two invaluable musical inventions: the chinrest and the rehearsal mark.
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Charles Villiers Stanford
28th Mar 2024
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the Anglo-Irish composer - known particularly for his sacred choral music but also a prodigious composer of chamber and orchestral works, songs, part-songs and more.
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Hugo Wolf
13th Mar 2024
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the arch-Romantic Lieder composer - best known for his intense, harmonically adventurous Mörike-Lieder, Italienisches Liederbuch and Spanisches Liederbuch.
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Bedřich Smetana
2nd Mar 2024
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the great Czech Romantic composer - best known for his stirring pictorial tone poem Má vlast and opera The Bartered Bride.
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Carl Friedrich Abel
11th Jan 2024
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by perhaps the last of the great viola da gamba players, in a slightly belated celebration of the 300th anniversary of his birth.
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Peter Maxwell Davies: A postcard from Hoy, and a farewell to Stromness
9th Sep 2023
An account of a miniature Presto Pilgrimage over the summer holiday, in search of the former home of Peter Maxwell Davies in the Orkney Islands.
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William Byrd
4th Jul 2023
A selection of some of the best recent recordings of music by the giant of English early music, for the 400th anniversary of his death.
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Sergei Rachmaninoff Russian composer
1st Apr 2023
A selection of some of the finest recent recordings of the Russian colossus, to mark his 150th anniversary.
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Valentyn Sylvestrov
29th Sep 2022
As the Ukrainian composer turns 85, David listens to some of the greatest recordings of his music - by turns introverted and reflective, rapturously spiritual, and politically impassioned.
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Weber’s Bassoon Concerto turns 200!
3rd Aug 2022
Our in-house Instrument Repairer Alex Preston (also a freelance woodwind player) celebrates 'one of the two titans' of the bassoon concerto repertoire, and selects some favourite recordings.
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Leonard Bernstein
25th Aug 2018
On the composer's 100th birthday, Chris recommends some favourite recordings of his key works across all genres, from the ever-popular West Side Story to comparative rarities like Trouble in Tahiti and the song-cycles.
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Edvard Grieg
3rd Apr 2015
David picks some of the best recordings of the works of the Norwegian Romantic nationalist, Edvard Grieg.
