Gramophone Choices,
Gramophone Editor's Choices - August 2018
First among equals this month is an exquisitely-sung new account of Bizet’s second-most-popular opera, using the original 1863 version of the score which was discovered in 2002 by the conductor Brad Cohen and published by Bärenreiter three years ago; the cast is led by Julie Fuchs, Cyrille Dubois and Florian Sempey, all of whom have impressive form in French baroque repertoire as well as historically-informed performances of nineteenth-century rarities.
Editor’s Choices include our antepenultimate Recording of the Week, Doctor Atomic (conducted by the composer and with Gerald Finley in the title-role), and a very welcome second helping of Handel’s ‘finest arias for base voice’ from Christopher Purves, who spoke to Katherine recently about the pleasures and challenges of bringing Handel’s gallery of heroes, villains and everything in-between to life…
Recording of the Month
Bizet: Les Pêcheurs de Perles
Julie Fuchs (Leïla), Cyrille Dubois (Nadir), Florian Sempey (Zurga); Orchestre National de Lille, Alexandre Bloch
'Bloch conducts the Orchestre National de Lille in a vivid account of the score, with muscular playing driving the faster music (a terrific storm) and the exotic dance numbers…But it’s the casting of the central trio of characters where this recording triumphs, with no grit in the musical oyster… Dubois is an outstanding Nadir… Fuchs’s Leïla is no less delectable…Sempey is a superb Zurga.'
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Editor's Choices
'At first glance, the selection looks challengingly serious… Yet Egarr has no problem keeping our attention. The sheer sound of his playing is one thing, produced on a crisp, punchy but resonant Ruckers copy… It has a fruity bass; but Egarr also manages to make it sing sweetly in the middle and high registers…An outstanding celebration of Byrd as one of the first keyboard greats.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'The range of colour and attack he conjures from [the Érard] is nothing short of breathtaking… Time and again markings such as ‘spiritual and discreet’, ‘soft and dreamy’ and ‘voluble’ register with uncanny precision, losing any suspicion of whimsy… and I can truly say that the duet version [of La mer] has never so completely made me forget about the orchestra…We’ll be lucky if the Debussy centenary throws up any release as distinguished as this one.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'This recording reveals her as a major artist…There’s a wealth of detail to savour in these performances…Conunova grabbed my attention from the first bars of Prokofiev’s First Sonata, employing a hoarse, beseeching tone… Remarkably, she and Lifits sustain this level of involvement and imagination…I can’t recommend their freshly considered, vividly recorded interpretations highly enough.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'It sounds as if Jonathan Plowright has thoroughly enjoyed his foray into the world of the character piece… If collective titles along the lines of Summer Impressions or Spring might smack of Walter Carroll, let me reassure you now that this is music of great inventiveness, full of flights of imagination and no small degree of virtuosity… Plowright’s affection for this music is palpable at every turn and he’s given a warmly immediate recording.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'[Niquet makes] a powerful case for works whose sheer scope is both their appeal and a significant barrier to their rediscovery…What’s startling here is the range and intricacy of the polyphonic effects woven through Benevolo’s Mass. Monumentality is never reduced to one-note grandiosity… As compelling sonically as it is historically, this is a recording whose interest extends well beyond the specialist – a glorious re-creation not just of a lost composer but of an era.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
John Adams: Doctor Atomic
Gerald Finley (Robert Oppenheimer), Julia Bullock (Kitty Oppenheimer), Brindley Sherratt (Edward Teller); BBC Symphony Orchestra, John Adams
'Finley is imperious once more as Oppenheimer…Bullock also produces an excellent, rounded performance as Kitty…But it is the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers who really stand out here. Razor sharp from beginning to end, the orchestra remain highly responsive to the work’s often complex polyrhythmic patterns and pulsations, with tempo and pacing perfectly judged under the composer’s own direction.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Handel's Finest Arias for Base Voice, Vol. 2
Christopher Purves (baritone), Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen
'This superb follow-up makes you wonder anew at the composer’s inventive variety…Purves is surely unique among today’s Anglophone singers in fusing an easily produced high baritone, by turns mellifluous and incisive, with a clean, resonant bass register… … Ever alive to texture and subtleties of colour, Arcangelo on their own give a fresh, spirited account of one of the Op 3 Concerti grossi.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
DVD/Blu-ray of the Month
Mozart: Lucio Silla (DVD)
Kurt Streit (Silla), Patricia Petibon (Giunia), Silvia Tro Santafé (Cecilio); Teatro Real de Madrid, Ivor Bolton, Claus Guth
'It’s a fascinating and demanding production, for the viewer as well as, clearly, the performers. In the title-role, Kurt Streit, a distinguished Mozartian who’s turned in recent years to heavier roles, is compelling, the voice’s sweetness now mixed with an extra stern virility…Anyone interested in the drama of this early Mozart opera seria should seek out Guth’s fascinating staging.'
Available Format: 2 DVD Videos
Mozart: Lucio Silla (Blu-ray)
Kurt Streit (Silla), Patricia Petibon (Giunia), Silvia Tro Santafé (Cecilio); Teatro Real de Madrid, Ivor Bolton, Claus Guth
Video: Colour, 16/9, Full HD
Audio: PCM 2.0, DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
Available Format: Blu-ray
Re-Issue/Archive Recording of the Month
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
