Classical Reviews
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Timothy Ridout goes solo
21st Feb 2025
The British violist displays a bullet-proof technique and vast tonal palette allied to formidable musical intelligence in a programme of unaccompanied works by Telemann, JS Bach, Britten and Shaw.
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Telemann - Bach - Britten - Shaw
Timothy Ridout (viola)
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Caprices from María Dueñas
14th Feb 2025
The violinist presents a sparkling double album of caprices - a dazzling rendition of Paganini's famous set of twenty-four is complemented by works by Cervelló, Ortiz, Saint-Saëns and others.
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Lieder from Fatma Said and friends
7th Feb 2025
The Egyptian soprano is joined by pianists Malcolm Martineau and Joseph Middleton (and an array of special guests including clarinettist Sabine Meyer and rising young baritone Huw Montague Rendall) for a programme of favourite Lieder by Schubert, Brahms, Robert Schumann and the Mendelssohn siblings.
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Terra Mater from Christina Pluhar and L'Arpeggiata
31st Jan 2025
The experimental early music ensemble is joined by Swedish mezzo (and climate-change activist) Malena Ernman for an eclectic programme celebrating Mother Earth, taking in pictorial Baroque sonatas, English folksongs and dances, early Italian opera and a soupçon of jazz...
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Simon Rattle conducts Mahler's Seventh Symphony
24th Jan 2025
The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and their Chief Conductor continue their survey of Mahler’s symphonies with this live recording of the Seventh Symphony, replete with characterful, vivid woodwind playing and gloriously majestic contributions from the trumpets.
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Seong-Jin Cho in Ravel's complete solo piano works
17th Jan 2025
Seong-Jin Cho has established himself firmly as a musician and pianist who uses his fluid technique to express a carefully chosen repertoire, placing the voice of the composer as the focus of his playing. His latest release proves to be a deft and subtle exploration of Ravel.
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New Palestrina from Graham Ross and the choir of Clare College
10th Jan 2025
Graham Ross and his singers perform five previously unrecorded works for the 500th anniversary of Palestrina's birth, interspersed with settings by some of his English contemporaries.
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Ruth Gipps from Rumon Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic
3rd Jan 2025
This third volume of the British composer's orchestral works on Chandos features the world premiere recordings of Symphony No. 1, the Coronation Procession from 1953 and the elegy Ambarvalia, plus the Horn Concerto and Cringlemire Garden.
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Presto Personal Favourites from 2024
27th Dec 2024
Elgar and Walton from Gautier Capuçon, Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra, a collection of fantasias from Margherita Santi, French and Italian opera arias from Pene Pati, and Franco-Flemish polyphony from Graindelavoix.
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Barrie Kosky's phantasmagorical Fledermaus from Munich
20th Dec 2024
Georg Nigl, Diana Damrau and Katharina Konradi lead a stellar cast in the maverick Australian director's fever-dream production of Johann Strauss II's operetta about disguise, revenge and champagne, filmed last Christmas at the Bayerische Staatsoper with Vladimir Jurowski conducting.
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Tippett from Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic Orchestra
13th Dec 2024
Teeming with detail and infectious energy, these live recordings make superb cases for two works from the mid-1950s which had rocky starts in life: the Piano Concerto (with Steven Osborne on clear-headed form) and Symphony No. 2.
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Festive Rutter from the Black Dyke Band and Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus
6th Dec 2024
The soundworlds of the brass band and the massed chorus combine in a glorious celebration of the Christmas music of John Rutter.
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Benjamin Appl comes home for Christmas
29th Nov 2024
The German baritone reunites with his boyhood choir in Regensburg for a classy, introspective seasonal offering featuring oratorio arias and Christmas songs from Germany, England, France and Sweden, stylishly accompanied by the Münchner Rundfunkorchester under Florian Helgath.
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Hasse's Serpentes Ignei in Deserto from Thibault Noally and Les Accents
22nd Nov 2024
Philippe Jaroussky (as Moses) leads a cast which includes Julia Lezhneva, Jakub Józef Orliński and Bruno de Sá in Hasse's Old Testament oratorio, written for the girls of the Ospedale degli Incurabili in Venice when he was enjoying his first flush of fame as an opera-composer.
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Florian Sempey sings of medieval knights and legends
15th Nov 2024
The French baritone explores his family's lineage of blacksmithery to present an eclectic album centred around the theme of knights from the Middle Ages, with pieces by Wagner, Donizetti, and Carl Orff sitting alongside more unfamiliar works by Meyerbeer, Grétry, Vincent d'Indy, and Ambroise Thomas.
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Subtle Tchaikovsky from Bruce Liu
8th Nov 2024
Three years after winning the 18th Chopin International Piano Competition, Bruce Liu has made a leftfield choice for his second album on Deutsche Grammophon, bringing his precise and subtle playing to Tchaikovsky’s main work for the piano, The Seasons.
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Boccherini from Steven Isserlis and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
1st Nov 2024
A much-needed exploration of the elegant, sunny music of Luigi Boccherini - from ethereally-scored concertos and charming sonatas to a richly-textured double-cello quintet.
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Venezuela! from Domingo Hindoyan and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
25th Oct 2024
The Caracas-born conductor brings vivid colour, clarity and energy to a programme of orchestral music by his compatriots, including works by Evencio Castellanos, Juan Bautista Plaza and Inocente Carreño.
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Baroque Concertos from Alison Balsom
18th Oct 2024
Alison Balsom returns to the Baroque with a new collection of concerto adaptations by Simon Wright, and with the collaboration of Trevor Pinnock and Pinnock's Players.
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Daniil Trifonov's (North) American Story
11th Oct 2024
The Russian pianist presents a dazzling kaleidoscope of North American music, with a variety of genres and styles covering minimalism, jazz, film music, and concertos by Gershwin and Mason Bates.
