Latest stories

Wagner from Jonas Kaufmann and others

11th Feb 2013by Katherine Cooper

Gergiev conducts an electrifying Walküre starring René Pape as Wotan, Nina Stemme as his rebel daughter, and Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Kampe as the Walsung Twins; Kaufmann’s solo album of opera scenes and the Wesendock-Lieder, meanwhile, is the best thing he’s ever done.

James Gilchrist on Britten

1st Feb 2013by Katherine Cooper

The English tenor discusses his new recording of the Serenade for tenor, horn and strings with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, out now on Channel Classics.

I was glad: Sacred Music by Stanford & Parry

28th Jan 2013by Katherine Cooper

Robert King and his Consort present lavish orchestrations (on period instruments) of Parry’s Te Deum, I was glad, Blest Pair of Sirens and Jerusalem, and four of Stanford’s canticle settings, with Carolyn Sampson and David Wilson-Johnson as soloists.

Little Britten

14th Jan 2013by Katherine Cooper

Cellist Matthew Barley marks the centenary of the composer’s birth with a recital centring on the Third Cello Suite, whilst Edward Higginbottom and The Choir of New College Oxford bring a vital, pleasingly rough-round-the-edges approach that recalls Britten’s own children’s choirs to the scared choral music.

Looking ahead to 2013 - Verdi, Britten and Wagner

24th Dec 2012by Katherine Cooper

Previews of boxed sets and new recordings marking next year’s three significant anniversaries, including The Rape of Lucretia from Oliver Knussen (starring Ian Bostridge and Angelika Kirchschlager), Wagner scenes from Jonas Kaufmann, and a comprehensive Verdi collection from EMI Classics.

Alexandre Tharaud: Le Boeuf sur le toit

26th Nov 2012by Katherine Cooper

The French pianist and friends (including Natalie Dessay, Madeleine Peyroux, Juliette and Bénabar) get together for a joyous compendium of music by regular visitors to the eponymous Parisian nightclub during the 1920s, including Ravel, Milhaud, and Clément Doucet.

Rare baroque vocal delights

12th Nov 2012by Katherine Cooper

Philippe Jaroussky and Max Cencic lead an all-male cast (featuring no fewer than five countertenors!) in the world premiere recording of Leonardo Vinci’s Artaserse, and Christophe Rousset & Company make a splendid case for Antoine Dauvergen’s Hercule mourant.

Rodgers & Hammerstein at the Movies

29th Oct 2012by Katherine Cooper

John Wilson and his orchestra are joined by a stellar line-up of soloists including Maria Ewing, Joyce DiDonato and Anna Jane Casey for a programme of hits from South pacific, Carousel, The Sound of Music and others, given in their glorious technicolour film orchestrations.

Mission: Cecilia Bartoli

15th Oct 2012by Katherine Cooper

The intrepid Roman mezzo explores the music of Agostino Steffani - Italian composer, cleric, diplomat and spy – in a programme of blazing martial show-stoppers, coloratura pyrotechnics, long-breathed laments, and four delectable duets with countertenor Philippe Jaroussky.

Alison Balsom: Sound The Trumpet

8th Oct 2012by Katherine Cooper

In her first solo album to be performed exclusively on the natural trumpet, Balsom joins The English Concert and Trevor Pinnock for a programme of music celebrating real or mythic monarchs by Handel and Purcell, including excerpts from The Fairy Queen, King Arthur and Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne.

Mozart’s Don Giovanni

10th Sep 2012by Katherine Cooper

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s project cycle of Mozart’s major operas on Deutsche Grammophon gets off to a scintillating start with a starrily-cast take on ’Il dissoluto punito’, with Ildebrando d’Arcangelo as the eponymous libertine, and Diana Damrau and Joyce DiDonato as Anna and Elvira.

Stephen Hough's French Album

3rd Sep 2012by Katherine Cooper

The British pianist’s ‘musical dessert-trolley’ includes popular favourites by Ravel, Debussy and Bach-via-Cortot, curiosities by Chabrier, Alkan and Chaminade, and his own transcriptions of bonbons by Massenet and Delibes.

Max Emanuel Cencic on Handel's Alessandro

1st Sep 2012by Katherine Cooper

The Viennese countertenor talks to Katherine about recording the title-role in Handel's 1726 opera.

Carmen from Berlin with Kaufmann and Kožená

20th Aug 2012by Katherine Cooper

The light-voiced Czech mezzo and heavyweight German tenor are an appropriately chalk-and-cheese pairing as the free-spirited gypsy and her obsessive soldier lover, with Kožená’s husband Simon Rattle conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker in a performance which emphasises the score’s opéra comique pedigree.

Hans Rott’s First Symphony

30th Jul 2012by Katherine Cooper

Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra make a great case for the sole symphony by a composer who was described by his friend Gustav Mahler as ‘the founder of the new symphony as I understand it.’

L’Olimpiade: The Opera

23rd Jul 2012by Katherine Cooper

The Venice Baroque Orchestra and a fine line-up of singers present a pasticcio setting of a libretto by Metastasio, with contributions from composers including Caldara, Vivaldi, Galuppi, Hasse and Paisiello.

New Shostakovich discovery - Orango

2nd Jul 2012by Katherine Cooper

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the world premiere recording of an embryonic opera which Shostakovivch abandoned partway through the Prologue, fleshed out and orchestrated here by Gerard McBurney.

Two terrific Italian Renaissance reconstructions

18th Jun 2012by Katherine Cooper

A new Venetian Coronation from Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort, and a reconstruction of a typical Italian Vespers programme from circa 1612 from Robert Hollingworth and I Fagiolini.

Bach's St Matthew Passion

4th Jun 2012by Katherine Cooper

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.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

21st May 2012by Katherine Cooper