Signum
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Walton & Shostakovich: Cello Concertos
Jamie Walton (cello)
The Philharmonia Orchestra, Alexander Briger
Jamie Walton's warm and beautifully focused way with the work excels in its own right...The same unflashily vivid brilliance brings in a rich harvest in Shostakovich's First Concerto...his keening... —
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The recital gets off to an impressive start with expressive accounts of the early Elegie Op. 3 and the ubiquitous Prelude in C sharp minor. In both works, Filsell creates a rich and tonally... —
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Mozart: An Italian Journey
Jeremy Ovenden (tenor)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Jonathan Cohen
It's a fiercely taxing selection...In technical terms, and particularly in his outstandingly idiomatic Italian enunciation, Ovenden proves complete master of his chosen repertory...For some... —
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Walton's sound in this excellent recording is open and luminous. Daniel Grimwood is more than a match for his extravagant part [in the Saint-Saens]...There's plenty of Mendelssohnian magic here... —
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Christopher Warren-Green conducts Ravel, Fauré, Poulenc & Ibert
Pascal Rogé (piano)
London Chamber Orchestra (LCO), Christopher Warren-Green
with this programme of combined charm and exuberance, the London Chamber Orchestra deliver a crowd pleaser. Pascal Rogé has become something of Poulenc expert, and his sympathetic yet witty... —
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Salonen calcuates every detail prudently...But when I say Salonen calculates every detail that's not the same as being 'calculating', and his performance is purposeful and revealing. —
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With a smorgasbord of aesthetic approaches...some tracks inevitably appeal more than others. Finnissy's seditious upending of a classical minuet, with dance-steps forced to trip over themselves,... —
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Walton and Grimwood consistently bring out the echoes of Soviet music that Britten no doubt intended as a tribute to his dedicatee...The natural warmth of Walton's playing, matching that of... —
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Verdi: Requiem
Carmen Giannattasio (soprano), Veronica Simeoni (mezzo), Alexander Timchenko (tenor), Carlo Colombara (bass)
Mikhailovsky Theatre Chorus & The St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Yuri Temirkanov
The playing is… finely articulated, strong and fiery in the 'Dies irae', the brass expert and thrilling at the 'Tuba mirum'. And with many other instrumental highlights throughout. The tone... —
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He's at his best when the music is most abstract. In the Bach-Busoni Chaconne he grips the polyphony with a probing intensity, a manner revisted in miniature in the grave, brittle dance of the... —
