Latest stories
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The LSO performs orchestral works by Thomas Adès
3rd Mar 2017
James listens to a selection of fascinating and mould-breaking works by Thomas Adès, with the composer conducting the LSO.
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John Eliot Gardiner conducts Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream
3rd Feb 2017
James listens to John Eliot Gardiner's recording of Mendelssohn's delightful incidental music, with the LSO and Monteverdi Choir.
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John Eliot Gardiner conducts Mendelssohn symphonies with the LSO
9th Sep 2016
James listens to John Eliot Gardiner's latest volume of Mendelssohn with the LSO.
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Valery Gergiev and the LSO perform Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette
8th Jul 2016
James enjoys Berlioz's dramatic setting of Shakespeare's immortal love-story with Valery Gergiev and the LSO.
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Simon Rattle conducts Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri
9th Oct 2015
James listens to Simon Rattle's new recording of Schumann's rarely-heard Persian gem with Sally Matthews, Mark Padmore, Kate Royal and the LSO.
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John Eliot Gardiner conducts Mendelssohn and Schumann
20th Oct 2014
James listens to John Eliot Gardiner and the LSO's new disc of Mendelssohn and Schumann, with pianist Maria João Pires.
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Colin Davis conducts the LSO in Haydn Symphonies
30th Jun 2014
James listens to Colin Davis and the LSO's sparkling, poised accounts of late symphonies by Haydn.
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Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex from the LSO
7th Apr 2014
James takes a trip to Ancient Greece with John Eliot Gardiner and the LSO’s muscular renditions of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Apollon musagète.
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Presto Personal Favourites from 2013
23rd Dec 2013
Schubert from the Pavel Haas Quartet, Pierre-Louis Dietsch’s opera on The Flying Dutchman, two Turnage premieres, and masses by Cipriano de Rore.
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Valery Gergiev and the LSO begin a cycle of Szymanowski symphonies
3rd Jun 2013
The richness of the London Symphony Orchestra’s string section is showcased to great effect in the tender, lyrical slow movements of both symphonies, whilst Gergiev responds to the music’s more volatile moments extremely well.
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Weber's Der Freischütz from Sir Colin Davis and the LSO
6th May 2013
Fresh, full-bodied and raucous when required, the conductor’s final opera recording is a fitting valedictory tribute to a great man, with Christine Brewer on sublime form as Agathe and Simon O’Neill a steely and secure Max.
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Tchaikovsky’s Early Symphonies
17th Sep 2012
Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra makes hugely persuasive cases for Tchaikovsky’s neglected first three symphonies, Winter Daydreams, the ‘Little Russian’ and the ‘Polish’, in live performances given in London and Zurich last spring.
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Britten: War Requiem
7th May 2012
Gianandrea Noseda leads an Italianate performance of Britten’s great depiction of ‘the pity of war’, with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and soloists Sabina Cvilak, Ian Bostridge and Simon Keenlyside.
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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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Gergiev and the LSO conclude their Mahler cycle
5th Sep 2011
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.
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Nielsen Symphonies from Colin Davis and the LSO
10th Jan 2011
At the grand old age of 83, the British conductor ventures into new territory by embarking on a complete cycle of symphonies by the Danish, whose music he has only rarely conducted in the course of his long and illustrious career.
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Verdi's Otello from the LSO and Colin Davis
1st Nov 2010
Simon O’Neill is the jealousy-wracked general, Gerald Finley his nemesis, and Anne Schwanewilms his ill-fated wife in this edge-of-the-seat live recording, made at the Barbican last year and full of ‘savage and terrifying playing’ from the LSO.
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Strauss: Alpine Symphony
22nd Feb 2010
Bernard Haitink and the London Symphony Orchestra celebrate the awe-inspiring force of nature and Strauss’s ability to depict that in his writing.
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Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet
18th Jan 2010
A ‘superb reading of Prokofiev's supreme masterpiece’ from Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra, two decades after the conductor’s landmark account of the piece with the Kirov Orchestra.
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Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle
10th Aug 2009
Sir Willard White is the bridegroom with skeletons in his closet, and Russian mezzo Elena Zhidkova his inquisitive new wife on this new live recording from Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra.
