Latest stories

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.

Vox Luminis’s Schütz disc wins Gramophone Record of the Year

1st Oct 2012by Chris O'Reilly

Glenn Gould

24th Sep 2012by Chris O'Reilly

To mark the eightieth anniversary of the birth of the extraordinary Canadian pianist, Sony Classical present two sets celebrating his legacy: The Schwarzkopf Tapes from 1966 (previously unreleased), and a handsomely-documented 38-CD box of his legendary Bach recordings.

Tchaikovsky’s Early Symphonies

17th Sep 2012by James Longstaffe

Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra makes hugely persuasive cases for Tchaikovsky’s neglected first three symphonies, Winter Daydreams, the ‘Little Russian’ and the ‘Polish’, in live performances given in London and Zurich last spring.

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.

Mendelssohn's Elijah from McCreesh

27th Aug 2012by Chris O'Reilly

A super-sized, historically-aware account of Mendelssohn’s Old Testament oratorio (with Simon Keenlyside offering a nuanced portrayal of the irascible prophet) sets a new benchmark for this oft-recorded work, with an orchestra of almost 100 and a choir of over 300!

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.

Mahler Symphony No. 1 from Iván Fischer

13th Aug 2012by James Longstaffe

The Hungarian conductor and his Budapest orchestra bring a wonderfully rustic, unrefined flavour to Mahler’s völkisch central movements, in an interpretation which benefits from Fischer’s ear for balance and attention to the smallest details of orchestration.

Rhapsody in Blue – Grosvenor and Kempf

6th Aug 2012by Chris O'Reilly

Two former BBC Young Musician of the Year prize-winners record Gershwin’s best-known work – Kempf as part of an all-Gershwin programme, Grosvenor alongside Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2.

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.

Holst and Delius on Naxos

16th Jul 2012by Chris O'Reilly

JoAnn Falletta conducts the Ulster Orchestra in Holst’s Cotswolds Symphony, and David Hill directs Delius’s Nietzsche-inspired Mass for Life with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

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.