SOMM
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The First Night of the Proms 1943
Moura Lympany (piano), Heddle Nash (tenor)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Henry Wood
One would now be surprised to find such a first-half sequence as Bax’s London Pageant, Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No 2, a Handel aria and Beethoven’s Fifth,... —
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Perhaps the most telling illustration of Beatson’s powers of interpretation is that he gives the Grieg pieces real charm and poetry….But the triumph of the disc is the Brahms, an interpretation... —
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There may be balance issues in the Concerto BWV1059, and a few rough edges in the Musical Offering, but the latter's Trio Sonata is pithily managed, while the recorded D minor Organ Trio Sonata... —
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Chopin - Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Transcribed for Piano & String Quartet by Bartlomiez Kominek.
Tamami Honma (piano)
Vilnius String Quartet
Stripped of full orchestral accompaniment, the pieces naturally take on a lighter, less forbidding character; fresh air seems to blow through them, freeing them to be both more carefree but... —
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The 1977 Ballade is the best beneficiary, given a worried grandiloquence that stretches the work's significance beyond its modest span...But this CD can be cherished for McCawley's Ballade,... —
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Mátyás Seiber a capella
Yugoslav, Hungarian & Nonsense Songs & other choral music
Choir of the 21st Century, Howard Williams
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Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden gesellen & Das Lied von der Erde
David Stout (baritone), Emma Curtis (contralto), Brennen Guillory (tenor)
Orchestra of the Swan, Kenneth Woods
This set obviously outguns Glass’s own recordings – in terms of notes if not of historical aura – and, given that it’s been released on his own label, the composer clearly agrees —
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[Williams's] musicality, intelligence and pianistic command are evident here from the start —
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Mozart: Piano Concertos for One, Two and Three Pianos
Valerie Tryon (piano), Mishka Rushdie Momen (pianos), Peter Donohoe (pianos)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Jac van Steen & Boris Brott
[Valerie Tyron] modifies the composer’s Sturm und Drang in his D minor Concerto K466 with all of her impeccable taste and musicianship. Closer to Clara Haskil’s sobriety than to Argerich’s tempest-tossed... —
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Belle Époque 1886
Cello Sonatas by César Franck and Benjamin Godard
Corinne Morris (cello), Petr Limonov (piano)
Morris and Limonov have a very supple way of shaping phrases and at the same time supplying energy and rhythmic incisiveness when they are called for. Limonov’s fleet-fingered, articulate pianism... —
