Latest stories

Richard Strauss round-up

9th Jul 2012by James Longstaffe

Elektra from Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra, Die Frau ohne Schatten from the 2011 Salzburg Festival, and the Four Last Songs from Anne Schwanewilms.

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.

Rachel Podger on La cetra

30th Jun 2012by Chris O'Reilly

Chris visits the baroque violinist to discuss her new recording of Vivaldi's twelve concerti Op. 9, recorded with Holland Baroque and released on Channel Classics earlier this month.

Vivaldi from Rachel Podger

25th Jun 2012by Chris O'Reilly

Following her Gramophone Award-winning recording of La stravaganza in 2003, the British baroque violinist tackles La cetra with Holland Baroque Society.

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.

Shostakovich Symphonies from Petrenko and the RLPO

11th Jun 2012by Chris O'Reilly

The seventh instalment of the Russian conductor’s acclaimed Shostakovich cycle finds his Liverpool orchestra on top form in the Second and Fifteenth Symphonies.

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.

Bruckner Symphonies from Rattle and Barenboim

28th May 2012by James Longstaffe

Daniel Barenboim conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin in the Seventh Symphony, whilst Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker tackle the Ninth.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

21st May 2012by Katherine Cooper

Handel in England

14th May 2012by Katherine Cooper

The Edinburgh-based Dunedin Consort record Esther, Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company make a fine case for the incidental music for Smollett’s Alceste, and a legendary Glyndebourne Theodora makes its first appearance on CD.

Britten: War Requiem

7th May 2012by James Longstaffe

Gianandrea Noseda leads an Italianate performance of Britten’s great depiction of ‘the pity of war’, with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and soloists Sabina Cvilak, Ian Bostridge and Simon Keenlyside.

Hamilton Harty’s Chamber Music

30th Apr 2012by Chris O'Reilly

The Goldner String Quartet and Piers Lane bring out all the charm and flamboyance of the Irish composer’s two string quartets and piano quintet, dating from the early 1900s and composed shortly after Harty relocated to London.

Kathleen Ferrier

23rd Apr 2012by Katherine Cooper

On the centenary of Ferrier’s birth, Katherine pays to tribute to the great Lancashire contralto and explores her legacy on disc via two comprehensive commemorative sets from Decca and EMI, which includes folksongs, Bach and Mahler.

Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique from Ticciati and the SCO

16th Apr 2012by James Longstaffe

Now several years into his tenure as principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the young British conductor presides over a ‘deliriously orgiastic’ account of Berlioz’s ‘episodes in the life of an artist’.

New and forthcoming Opera DVDs

9th Apr 2012by Katherine Cooper

Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur from Covent Garden, Juan Diego Flórez, Diana Damrau and Joyce DiDonato in Rossini's Le Comte Ory from the Metropolitan Opera.

Claude Debussy

2nd Apr 2012by James Longstaffe

James explores three collections marking the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, with highlights including Boulez’s Pélleas et Mélisande, Michael Tilson Thomas’s Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s Préludes.

Wagner - Klaus Florian Vogt and a new Parsifal

26th Mar 2012by Katherine Cooper

The sweet-toned German tenor presents a portfolio of heavyweight heroes, whilst Marek Janowski’s Wagner cycle on Pentatone continues with a marvellously paced Parsifal, starring Christian Elsner as the ‘holy fool’.

Haydn from Thomas Fey and the Heidelberger Sinfoniker

19th Mar 2012by Chris O'Reilly

Chris applauds the ‘knowledge and sound musical instincts’ on show from the German conductor on this sixteenth volume of his Haydn symphonies cycle on Hänssler, which features Symphonies nos. 90 and 92 (the ‘Oxford’).

Jules Massenet - Werther & Don Quichotte

12th Mar 2012by Katherine Cooper

Rolando Villazón brings apposite wildness and fragility to Goethe’s tortured poet, with Antonio Pappano presiding over a visceral, near-Italianate performance from the Covent Garden orchestra, whilst Ferruccio Furlanetto is heart-breaking as the ‘knight of the doleful countenance’ from the Mariinsky.

Brahms choral discs from Gardiner and Herreweghe

5th Mar 2012by James Longstaffe

Gardiner follows his recording of the complete symphonies with an account of the Deutsches Requiem that scores highly on textual clarity, whilst Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent offer luminous performances of the Alto Rhapsody (with Ann Hallenberg as soloist) and Schicksalsied.