BBC Music Magazine Choices,
BBC Music Magazine - April 2019 Choices
The inaugural volume of Peter Donohoe’s projected series of the complete Mozart piano sonatas on Somm is top of the pile this month – the British pianist’s recent discography has focused on early twentieth-century repertoire, but his Mozart impressed reviewer Julian Haylock with the 'panoply of colours and subtle pedalling’ on display.
Other April stand-outs include an album of political protest music by the pianist and composer Adam Swayne, a contemporary staging of Verdi’s beleaguered 1850 opera Stiffelio by Graham Vick, and Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch from Diana Damrau, Jonas Kaufmann, and Helmut Deutsch, which was one of our January Recordings of the Week.
Recording of the Month
'Donohoe unashamedly claims these enchanting scores for the concert hall, blowing clean out of the water any sense of delicate inspiration designed for the intimacy of the drawing room...It was high time someone blew the interpretive cobwebs off this still under-appreciated repertoire, and Donohoe is clearly the person to do it. He appears to take early Beethoven as his interpretive trajectory with a gloves-off spontaneity that imbues these magical scores with a compelling vitality and freshness.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Orchestral Choice
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 & Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
London Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda
'I’m certain that LSO/Noseda would be [the lead recommendation for Pictures] now....Above all it’s the continuity that counts, essential because of the thematic connections Musorgsky often makes between promenades and pictures; from the plunge through the cracked looking-glass to see the gallery-goer transformed in ‘Gnomus’, we can trust in Noseda to make all those links…[In the Tchaikovsky] he knows how to land all the big climaxes.'
Available Format: SACD
Concerto Choice
Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen: Ophelia Dances
Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen (organ), Bjarke Mogensen (accordion) Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Århus Sinfonietta, Ari Rasilainen, Henrik Vagn Christensen
'This engaging disc offers beautifully-recorded performances of three substantial works from the contemporary Danish composer. Hvidtfelt Nielsen’s scores are renowned for their mesmerising delicacy of sound amid highly complex textures, and his music is performed here with impeccable clarity by the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and Aarhus Sinfonietta.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chamber Choice
Rossini & Hoffmeister: Quartets with Double Bass, Vol. 2
Minna Pensola (violin I), Antti Tikkanen (violin II/ viola), Tuomas Lehto (cello) & Niek de Groot (double bass)
'There are long stretches recalling Haydn and Mozart, and the overall tone has a quintessential Habsburg decorum, and although Rossini doesn’t follow strict sonata form – stringing his melodies together with gay abandon – he already knows how to create drama. His slow movements suggest operatic arias waiting to emerge: this is the future composer of Il barbiere di Siviglia eagerly flexing his muscles.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Instrumental Choice
'Amid snowballing political turmoil, protest piano music is enjoying a resurgence. A blistering account of Frederic Rzewski’s rarely heard Four North American Ballads is the cornerstone to Adam Swayne’s intelligently curated programme...Throughout, Swayne subtly underlines the popular protest song elements (such as ‘Down by the Riverside’), which are often hidden within fleeting atonality.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Choral & Song Choice
Wolf: Italienisches Liederbuch
Diana Damrau (soprano), Jonas Kaufmann (tenor), Helmut Deutsch (piano)
'Damrau evokes each scenario magnificently, savouring every word in a delightfully extrovert performance which sparkles and thrills. Slightly more subdued, Jonas Kaufmann offers an intimate and lyrical approach as an attractive counterpart. Helmut Deutsch’s experience with this repertoire is evident in his genteel, assured and measured performances, with exquisite soft playing.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Opera Choice
Verdi: Stiffelio (DVD)
Luciano Ganci (Stiffelio), Maria Katzarava (Lina), Francesco Landolfi (Stankar), Giovanni Sebastiano Sala (Raffaele), Emanuele Cordaro (Jorg), Sofia Koberidze (Dorotea), Blagoj Nacoski (Federico); Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Guillermo García Calvo, Graham Vick
'Graham Vick’s production of Stiffelio is a triumph. The lines between the viewer and the viewed are blurred, challenging the comfortable assumption that music drama is something that happens to other people across the footlights…Ganci is a splendid Stiffelio…[Katzarava] sings her heart out as she walks the line between scared and sexually profane love…This is music-drama with an equal stress on both words.'
Available Format: DVD Video
Verdi: Stiffelio (Blu-ray)
Luciano Ganci (Stiffelio), Maria Katzarava (Lina), Francesco Landolfi (Stankar), Giovanni Sebastiano Sala (Raffaele), Emanuele Cordaro (Jorg), Sofia Koberidze (Dorotea), Blagoj Nacoski (Federico); Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Guillermo García Calvo, Graham Vick
HD 16:9 PCM Stereo and DTS 5.1
Available Format: Blu-ray
Jazz Choice
Trio Tapestry
Joe Lovano (tenor sax, taragato, gongs), Marilyn Crispell (piano), Carmen Castaldi (drums)
'These are musicians who can play rough, tough and turbulent, but here the intensity comes not from ferocity but from depth of feeling. The sound-quality and character is predictably excellent.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
