Naxos
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playing of a formidable power and assurance. Her fugue is more pedestrian than concentrated but the pages before the valedictory coda, with its glassy sighs and veiled threats, take off like... —
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Ropartz: Le Miracle de Saint Nicolas
Didier Henry (baritone), Vincent Le Texier (baritone), Christian Papis (narrator)
Nancy Symphony Orchestra, Ile de France Vittoria Regional Choir, Michel Piquemal
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Special offer. Ravel: L’Heure espagnole & Don Quichotte à Dulcinée
Isabelle Druet (mezzo-soprano), Luca Lombardo, Frédéric Antoun (tenors), Marc Barrard (baritone), Nicolas Courjal (bass), François Le Roux (baritone)
Orchestre National de Lyon, Leonard Slatkin
the sound is exquisitely clear and the playing suave from the musky clarinets and ticking clocks of the opening to the sudden flush of hot-to-trot harps…[Druet] captures Concepcion's impatience... —
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Weiner: Csongor and Tünde, Op. 10
Máté Szűcs (viola)
Budapest Symphony Orchestra MÁV, Jubilate Girls Choir, Valéria Csányi
There's a shorter sequence on Hungaroton…but, good though it is, I think this version by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra is finer, not only because there's so much more music on offer, but because... —
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William Schuman: Violin Concerto
Philippe Quint (violin)
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Jose Serebrier
The rediscovery here is the William Schuman Violin Concerto. The work is in two substantial movements both showing Schuman's own kind of exuberant energy with brass and percussion as well as... —
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Lutosławski: Twenty Polish Christmas Carols, etc.
Olga Pasichnyk, Jadwiga Rappé
Polish Radio Chorus, Kraców, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (Katowice), Antoni Wit
The faster carols have the same sort of energy and modality that you find in Kodály… it's a lovely collection of pieces for dipping into, and they're affectionately performed and recorded. —
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