Latest stories
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Ailyn Pérez and Stephen Costello sing Love Duets
5th May 2014
Katherine listens to the new CD of operatic love duets from husband-and-wife duo Ailyn Pérez and Stephen Costello.
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20th-Century Wind Quintets from Les Vents Français
27th Jan 2014
Emmanuel Pahud and company are on ‘beautifully burnished’ form in a 2-CD album of music by Paul Taffanel, Ligeti, Milhaud, Ibert, Ravel, Jolivet, Zemlinsky and more.
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Rachmaninov from Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker
26th Aug 2013
The Berliners afford luxurious treatment to the choral symphony The Bells (with soloists Luba Orgonášová and Mikhail Petrenko), whilst Rattle’s spacious approach to the Symphonic Dances pays huge dividends.
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Dame Janet Baker celebrates her eightieth birthday
19th Aug 2013
Curated to mark the great English mezzo's birthday, this 20-disc set from EMI includes classic recordings of music by Berlioz, Elgar, Mahler and Schubert as well as previously-unreleased material including Monteverdi and Scarlatti with Raymond Leppard.
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100th anniversary of the première of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring
27th May 2013
The centenary of one of the most controversial premieres in musical history is marked by a new recording from Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker, and a mammoth Collector’s Edition comprising 38 recordings dating from 1946 to 2010.
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Ian Bostridge sings Britten songs
29th Apr 2013
The tenor brings formidable musical intelligence to the Michelangelo Sonnets, Who are these children?, Winter Words and the Hölderlin Fragments (with Antonio Pappano), and is joined by guitarist Xuefei Yang for Songs from the Chinese.
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Pappano conducts Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle
22nd Apr 2013
So theatrical that you can practically smell the greasepaint, Rossini’s ‘old man’s folly’ receives luxury treatment from the conductor and his Roman orchestra, with Marina Rebeka, Sara Mingardo, Francesco Meli and Alex Esposito making up a full-blooded operatic solo quartet.
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Alison Balsom: Sound The Trumpet
8th Oct 2012
In her first solo album to be performed exclusively on the natural trumpet, Balsom joins The English Concert and Trevor Pinnock for a programme of music celebrating real or mythic monarchs by Handel and Purcell, including excerpts from The Fairy Queen, King Arthur and Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne.
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Carmen from Berlin with Kaufmann and Kožená
20th Aug 2012
The light-voiced Czech mezzo and heavyweight German tenor are an appropriately chalk-and-cheese pairing as the free-spirited gypsy and her obsessive soldier lover, with Kožená’s husband Simon Rattle conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker in a performance which emphasises the score’s opéra comique pedigree.
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Bruckner Symphonies from Rattle and Barenboim
28th May 2012
Daniel Barenboim conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin in the Seventh Symphony, whilst Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker tackle the Ninth.
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Kathleen Ferrier
23rd Apr 2012
On the centenary of Ferrier’s birth, Katherine pays to tribute to the great Lancashire contralto and explores her legacy on disc via two comprehensive commemorative sets from Decca and EMI, which includes folksongs, Bach and Mahler.
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Kathleen Ferrier: The Complete EMI Recordings
Kathleen Ferrier (contralto), Gerald Moore (piano), Isobel Baillie (soprano), Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano), Kathleen Ferrier (Orfeo), Greet Koeman (Euridice), Nel Duval (Amore) Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Symphoniker, Chorus & Orchestra of the Netherlands Opera, Bruno Walter, Herbert von Karajan, Charles Bruck
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Alison Balsom
6th Feb 2012
The British trumpeter’s new album Seraph takes its title from a new concertino composed for her by James MacMillan in 2010, and also includes music by Arutiunian, Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Takemitsu.
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Fritz Kreisler
2nd Jan 2012
Chris enjoys two tributes to the violin virtuoso and composer Fritz Kreisler, who died fifty years ago this month: a 10-CD vintage collection entitled The Charming Maverick and Liebesfreud, Liebesleid, in which his own recordings sit alongside accounts of his music by an array of great modern violinists.
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Fritz Kreisler: The Charming Maverick
Fritz Kreisler (violin), Thomas Petre (violins), William Primrose (viola), Laurie Kennedy (cello), with Franz Rupp (piano), with Michael Raucheisen (piano), with Arpád Sándor (piano) Berlin State Opera Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, Sir Landon Ronald, Leo Blech, Malcolm Sargent, John Barbirolli, Eugene Goossens
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Bruckner and Mahler from Haitink and Pappano
14th Nov 2011
Haitink conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, whilst Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia tackle Mahler’s Sixth in their first-ever recording of the composer’s music together.
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Brahms/Schoenberg from Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker
8th Aug 2011
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.
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Rossini’s William Tell
11th Jul 2011
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.
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New DVDs from Glyndebourne
23rd May 2011
South African baritone Jacques Imbrailo is endearing and compelling in the title-role of Billy Budd (directed by Michael Grandage), whilst Gerald Finley is an elegantly rakish Don Giovanni in Jonathan Kent’s 1950s staging.
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Rachmaninov's Second Symphony
28th Mar 2011
Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia bring unrivaled passion and commitment to the 1907 symphony in this live recording made in Rome in 2009.
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Kate Royal: A Lesson in Love
14th Feb 2011
The British soprano and Malcolm Martineau present an eclectic programme of German, French, American and Italian songs tracing a young girl’s first love-affair, including music by Debussy, Liszt, Wolf, Schumann and Bolcom.
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Simon Rattle's new Mahler 2
7th Feb 2011
24 years after his landmark recording of the ‘Resurrection’ Symphony with Dame Janet Baker and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Rattle returns to the piece with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Kate Royal and Magdalena Kožená.
