Gramophone Choices,
Gramophone Editor's Choices - September 2018
First among equals this month is a terrific set of the Bernstein symphonies from Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, released last Friday on Warner Classics; you can read Katherine’s recent interview with Pappano about the symphonies (and the orchestra’s relationship with Bernstein) here.
Three of our summer Recordings of the Week also crop up amongst the Editor's Choices: Steven Osborne's introspective yet supremely vivid accounts of Rachmaninov's Études-tableaux on Hyperion, Lionel Meunier's reconstruction of Buxtehude's 'Abendmusiken' concerts with Vox Luminis and Ensemble Masques on Alpha, and the third instalment of Andris Nelsons's Shostakovich cycle with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Deutsche Grammophon.
Recording of the Month
Bernstein: The 3 Symphonies
Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Sir Antonio Pappano
'Let me say straight away that these performances come at us with a theatricality that puts them firmly ‘on stage’ where they belong...[Barstow] is tremendous and far and away the most exciting, the most affecting, the most probing narrator of any on disc...Pappano’s knowledge of, and seeming instinct for, Bernstein’s sound world, rhythms and references, is hugely engaging – an excellent modern way of marking the composer’s centenary.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Editor's Choices
'This Nelsons cycle started with a bang – namely the most electrifying recording of the Tenth Symphony we’ve had in almost half a century. The excellence continues...Nelsons rejoices in the skewed logic and dotty tangents but does so with a gripping hold on the symphonic argument – tentative though that sometimes is. The impetus and tautness of his account intensify cohesion. And it is fabulously engineered.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Alissa Firsova: Fantasy
Alissa Firsova (piano), Simon Mulligan (piano), Mark Van De Wiel (clarinet), Tippett Quartet
'Firsova may be the mature side of 30 but this album radiates youth in all its wonder, complexity and heartening naivety. Any caveats implied by that observation are largely blown away by the ferocity of Firsova’s expression and there are countless moments on this disc where you feel her writing in the white heat of total inspiration.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
'What we get with Dunford’s Bach is a certain purity, a relatively unadorned line which assimilates articulation in favour of flow and clarity. The expression – of form or emotion – is all in the phrasing, which relies on the art of silence as much as a subtle rubato. It’s quite beautiful and refreshing, as though excrescences have been shorn away to reveal the classical architecture underneath.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'The insight is communicated by the fingers of Bavouzet and by his palpable affection for these works. As before, the score is a starting point for him, not holy writ, and he grants himself full liberty to negotiate with Haydn, ornamenting and varying as he goes along, yet never obscuring the music’s purpose or pulling the spotlight away from it and towards himself.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Would that half the seasoned Lisztians I know had Pierdomenico’s keen ear for stylistic differentiation within this half-century of repertory. His highly developed technique and cultivated sound, both adaptable to a variety of affects, are wedded to those twin essentials for artistic Liszt-playing: imagination combined with thoroughgoing, scrupulous musicality.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
'It’s perhaps no surprise that Osborne, the past master of the French Impressionists, should bring us so singular a Rachmaninov, at once architecturally magnificent and abundant in rich detail. These interpretations, with shadows of ambiguity, foreboding akin to terror and a profound, tender regret, anchor this music incontrovertibly in its historical moment: the waning of the Russian Silver Age. Rachmaninov fans won’t want to miss this; nor will connoisseurs of intelligent, meaningful piano-playing.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
'This is music of expressive variety and flexibility, ideally suited to the skills of Vox Luminis, whose name on a release these days is enough in itself to spark a tingle of anticipation. They do not disappoint, charting the emotional contours of Buxtehude’s music with exquisite understanding and demonstrating their now familiar deep but lucid choral blend, out of which expertly executed solos emerge and return.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'A truly lovely programme, this, as generous as it is absorbing… Connolly is at her characteristically supple, golden-toned and intelligent best throughout, and she enjoys impeccable support from Joseph Middleton. Chandos’s sound and presentation are likewise beyond reproach, and it all adds up to a disc that I have not the slightest doubt will give enormous satisfaction for many moons to come.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Halévy: La Reine de Chypre
Véronique Gens, Cyrille Dubois, Etienne Dupuis; Flemish Radio Choir & Orchestre de chambre de Paris, Hervé Niquet
'The Palazzetto Bru Zane has done Halévy’s reputation an enormous service by presenting this splendidly cast recording in a new edition painstakingly assembled by Volker Tosta… Gens, in superb voice, is dramatically convincing throughout, as though she were in a staged performance. Cyrille Dubois is equally magnificent as Gérard… Chorus, orchestra and Hervé Niquet’s conducting are exemplary. An absolutely thrilling recording.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs + Book, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
DVD/Blu-ray of the Month
Weinberg: The Passenger
The Ekaterinburg State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, Oliver von Dohnányi
'Strassberger’s production stands up well on its own terms…The Russian honours go to the singers, especially Nadezhda Babintseva as Lisa and Natalia Karlova as Martha… A highly commendable issue: with fascism on the march again in central Europe, and offshoots sprouting obscenely from North America to Russia, Weinberg’s opera is increasingly relevant.'
Available Format: DVD Video
Reissue/Archive of the Month
Mozart Live 1978
Jessye Norman (soprano), Hugh Maguire (violin), Alfred Brendel (piano) Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Neville Marriner
'With Jessye Norman somewhere near her vocal and theatrical best [in Non temer], and lovely solo playing from Hugh Maguire, Marriner’s former colleague and leader at the LSO, this is well worth disinterring…The merits of the fine performance of the C major Concerto, with which the concert ends, are well known…The slow movement is especially memorable, profoundly felt.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
