Classical Reviews
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Shostakovich Symphonies from Petrenko and the RLPO
11th Jun 2012
The seventh instalment of the Russian conductor’s acclaimed Shostakovich cycle finds his Liverpool orchestra on top form in the Second and Fifteenth Symphonies.
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Bach's St Matthew Passion
4th Jun 2012
Peter Sellars’s ‘ritualization’ of the work with Simon Rattle conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker packs a powerful punch, thanks in no small part to Mark Padmore’s harrowing central performance as the Evangelist.
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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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Handel in England
14th May 2012
The Edinburgh-based Dunedin Consort record Esther, Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company make a fine case for the incidental music for Smollett’s Alceste, and a legendary Glyndebourne Theodora makes its first appearance on CD.
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Handel: Esther
Susan Hamilton (Esther), Nicholas Mulroy (Mordecai), Matthew Brook (Haman), Thomas Hobbs (1st Israelite), Robin Blaze (Priest), James Gilchrist (Habdonah / Assuerus) & Electra Lochhead (Israelite Boy), Nicholas Wearne (organ continuo) Dunedin Consort, John Butt
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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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Hamilton Harty’s Chamber Music
30th Apr 2012
The Goldner String Quartet and Piers Lane bring out all the charm and flamboyance of the Irish composer’s two string quartets and piano quintet, dating from the early 1900s and composed shortly after Harty relocated to London.
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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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Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique from Ticciati and the SCO
16th Apr 2012
Now several years into his tenure as principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the young British conductor presides over a ‘deliriously orgiastic’ account of Berlioz’s ‘episodes in the life of an artist’.
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New and forthcoming Opera DVDs
9th Apr 2012
Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur from Covent Garden, Juan Diego Flórez, Diana Damrau and Joyce DiDonato in Rossini's Le Comte Ory from the Metropolitan Opera.
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Claude Debussy
2nd Apr 2012
James explores three collections marking the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, with highlights including Boulez’s Pélleas et Mélisande, Michael Tilson Thomas’s Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s Préludes.
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The Debussy Edition
Franklin Cohen (clarinet), Jean-Rodolphe Kars (piano), Vera Badings (harp), Krystian Zimerman (piano), Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (piano), Mitsuko Uchida (piano), Zoltan Kocsis (piano), Alfons & Aloys Kontarsky (pianos), Augustin Dumay (violin), Maria-Joao Pires (piano), Mischa Maisky (cello), Martha Argerich (piano), Wolfgang Schulz (flute), Véronique Dietschy (soprano), Philippe Cassard (piano), Emmanuel Strosser (piano), Maria Ewing, François Le Roux (Pelléas), Christa Ludwig (Genevieve), José van Dam (Golaud), Jean-Phillipe Courtis (Arkel), Patrizia Pac (Yniold), Rudolf Mazzola (Docteur), Suzanne Danco (soprano), Marie-Lise de Montmollin (mezzo), Nancy Wough (alto) The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Melos Quartet, Ensemble Wien-Berlin, Wiener Philharmoniker, Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor, Monteverdi Choir, Union Chorale de La Tour-de-Peilz, Pierre Boulez, Alexander Gibson, Bernard Haitink, Eduard van Beinum, Riccardo Chailly, Claudio Abbado, John Eliot Gardiner, Ernst Ansermet
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Wagner - Klaus Florian Vogt and a new Parsifal
26th Mar 2012
The sweet-toned German tenor presents a portfolio of heavyweight heroes, whilst Marek Janowski’s Wagner cycle on Pentatone continues with a marvellously paced Parsifal, starring Christian Elsner as the ‘holy fool’.
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Haydn from Thomas Fey and the Heidelberger Sinfoniker
19th Mar 2012
Chris applauds the ‘knowledge and sound musical instincts’ on show from the German conductor on this sixteenth volume of his Haydn symphonies cycle on Hänssler, which features Symphonies nos. 90 and 92 (the ‘Oxford’).
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Jules Massenet - Werther & Don Quichotte
12th Mar 2012
Rolando Villazón brings apposite wildness and fragility to Goethe’s tortured poet, with Antonio Pappano presiding over a visceral, near-Italianate performance from the Covent Garden orchestra, whilst Ferruccio Furlanetto is heart-breaking as the ‘knight of the doleful countenance’ from the Mariinsky.
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Massenet: Werther
Rolando Villazon (Werther), Sophie Koch (Charlotte), Audun Iversen (Albert), Eri Nakamura (Sophie), Alain Vernhes (Le Bailli), Stuart Patterson (Schmidt), Darren Jeffrey (Johann), Anna Devin (Käthchen), Zhengzhong Zhou (Brühlmann) Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Antonio Pappano
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Brahms choral discs from Gardiner and Herreweghe
5th Mar 2012
Gardiner follows his recording of the complete symphonies with an account of the Deutsches Requiem that scores highly on textual clarity, whilst Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent offer luminous performances of the Alto Rhapsody (with Ann Hallenberg as soloist) and Schicksalsied.
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Vivaldi: Sacred vocal works and concertos
27th Feb 2012
Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas joins the baroque ensemble Florilegium for Laudate pueri and Nulla in mundo, whilst the group’s founder Ashley Solomon takes centre-stage in the recently-rediscovered flute concerto Il Gran Mogol (receiving only its second outing on record here).
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Aleksandra Kurzak and Renée Fleming
20th Feb 2012
Up-and-coming Polish soprano Kurzak radiates ‘gioia’ in her debut solo album of operatic arias by Donizetti, Bellini, Puccini and others, whilst Fleming is on ravishing form in an all-French programme of orchestral song-cycles by Ravel, Messiaen and Dutilleux (the latter composed for her in 2007).
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Schoenberg and Berg
13th Feb 2012
Isabelle Faust pairs the Berg and Beethoven violin concertos to great effect with Orchestra Mozart and Claudio Abbado, whilst Pierre Boulez brings breathtaking clarity to Schoenberg’s densely-orchestrated Pelleas et Melisande with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester.
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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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Britten Violin Concerto
30th Jan 2012
Anthony Marwood’s rich, singing tone and the impressive precision of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov combine for a tremendously touching account of Britten’s underrated concerto, whilst violist Lawrence Power is equally moving in Lachrymae.
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Beethoven Symphonies from Thielemann and Chailly
23rd Jan 2012
Thielemann offers a cycle in the grand Germanic tradition with the Wiener Philharmoniker, whilst Chailly’s interpretations with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig emphasise lightness and freshness without ever sounding too hard-driven or breathless. James puts the case for each approach.
