BBC Music Magazine Choices,
BBC Music Magazine - Christmas 2018 Choices
This month’s Choices include James Ehnes’s double-Grammy-nominated account of Aaron Jay Kernis’s Violin Concerto (written for and premiered by him last year) with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Ludovic Morlot, a ingeniously-conceived debut album from Franco-Danish soprano Elsa Dreisig, and a mesmerising collection of Debussy’s late chamber works on Harmonia Mundi which featured as one of our November Recordings of the Week.
Recording of the Month
'I expected this to be good; but just how good it was was still a surprise…Ólafsson creates a ravishing musical sequence. Every track has its own allure, and many reflect a virtuosity which is never flaunted; he treats the preludes and fugues as though they had been conceived as tone-poems or études.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Christmas Choice
'The London-based chamber choir Sonoro was founded just two years ago, yet has already developed a strong individual identity. It is immediately evident in the brightly rhythmic account of Malcolm Archer’s ‘A little child there is yborn’…There’s real joy in the interpretation, and the blend is not over-homogenised – you can hear distinctive individual voices without ensemble being disrupted…Neil Ferris’s conducting is full of interpretative touches which illuminate the music without compromising the spontaneity of the singing.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Orchestral Choice
'This latest instalment of Chandos’s survey of Holst’s orchestral works is far more than a predictable beachcomber’s delight. The quality of the performances is a feast in itself, the BBC Philharmonic playing with world-class precision that exactly matches the ceaseless quest for clarity in Holst’s idiom. The recorded sound, too, conveys needlepoint detail within a natural-sounding, non-clinical ambience.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Concerto Choice
Aaron Jay Kernis & James Newton Howard: Violin Concertos
James Ehnes (violin), Andrew Armstrong (piano), Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Ludovic Morlot, Cristian Măcelaru
'This disc showcases three commissions aimed squarely at the Canadian virtuoso’s dazzling skillset. At the centre is a concerto by James Newton Howard …The work is lyrical, wildly cavorting and – in the Andante semplice second movement – sweetly poignant. Aaron Jay Kernis’s preceding concerto requires Ehnes to delve even deeper into his virtuoso’s tool kit. With a highly charged first movement, Kernis sets out his stall with intense drama, before a fabulous film noir-ish second movement.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Opera Choice
Miroir(s)
Elsa Dreisig (soprano), Orchestre national Montpellier Occitanie Pyrénées Méditerranée, Michael Schønwandt
'This is [Dreisig’s] debut album and it is phenomenally good. First there is the concept of juxtaposing arias for the same dramatic character by different composers…Next, stylistic variety enables the marvellous flexibility of the Montpellier Occitanie orchestra to come to the fore…Finally, of course, there is Dreisig’s voice, youthful yet assured, agile yet fluid, and powerful through its entire range…we can certainly expect much more to come from this singer.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Choral & Song Choice
'An important contribution to our understanding of the ‘gentle master musician’…Stephen Rice brings perceptive musical insights to these accounts, and also sheds light on Févin’s idiom in the excellent CD booklet. His vocal ensemble may be slender but the singing is robust and buoyantly articulated. Boyish upper voices offset velvety tenors and basses, and the relatively close recording perspective produces a sound at once lucid and lustrous.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chamber Choice
'Until recently this music was almost invariably viewed and experienced through a prism of 19th-century rhetoric – listening to Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov deftly tracing the evanescent contours of the Violin Sonata comes therefore as something of a revelation…Most striking of all is the enchanting triple sonata, whose harp-inflected musings appear to float free of musical gravity in this hypnotic account…One of the most captivating releases of the Debussy centenary year.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Instrumental Choice
'These works have sometimes been handled as trifles or decorative miniatures, but Iranian-American harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani treats them as profoundly expressive and introspective works. Here measured, there free, his readings highlight the ebb and flow of their poetry and prose; phrases are rhetorically articulated.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Jazz Choice
'The somewhat passionless yet exhibitionist cast of some of his most famous recordings [is] displaced by affecting playing, imbuing enthralling, imaginative development and rich tone with real feeling. Some tracks have a strongly lyrical classical quality; others echo the percussive harmonic complexity of the post-Cecil-Taylor school, all united by depth of feeling and breadth of imagination. This is Jarrett on splendid form.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
