Gramophone Choices,
Gramophone Editor's Choices - April 2020
Masaaki Suzuki’s ‘powerful, superbly framed and exceptionally judged’ second recording of Bach’s St Matthew Passion is pick of the crop this month; using several of the singers who featured on his 1999 account (also with Bach Collegium Japan), it impressed Jonathan Freeman-Attwood with its ‘emotional risk and dramatic thrust’ and ‘open-shouldered and passionately projected choral contributions’.
Editor’s Choices include our Best-Seller of the Month for March, Víkingur Ólafsson’s Debussy and Rameau album on Deutsche Grammophon, whilst the DVD/Blu-ray palm goes to Cyril Teste’s production of Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet from the Opéra Comique in Paris, starring French baritone Stéphane Degout as a ‘marvellously sung and acted’ Prince of Denmark.
Recording of the Month
JS Bach: St Matthew Passion
Benjamin Bruns (Evangelist), Christian Immler (Christus), Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki
'The lingua franca of this recording is Suzuki’s incessantly perceptive blend of directly projected imagery and inward devotion, underpinned by theatrical fervour in the narrative; one never doubts Bach or Suzuki’s belief in its importance for mankind. The musicians convey it with infectious zeal...Generic early music politesse is relegated to the shadows.'
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Editor's Choices
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 'Babi Yar'
Alexey Tikhomirov (bass), Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Riccardo Muti
'There are American ensembles with a more sustained Shostakovich tradition than the Chicago Symphony but the present recording, taken from the opening concerts of the orchestra’s 2018-19 season, can stand comparison with any of its distinguished predecessors, however different in tone...Strongly recommended.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'The performance from these Latvian musicians is as soulful as could be imagined...[Plainscapes] – with exquisite gradations of vibrato from the two strings – is invested with rare space, profundity and a sense of deep personal need. Most Vasks discs are worth hearing but this one is a cut above.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Here we have a disc of encores to hit all moods and genres...far from being a pick’n’mix standing at the ready to be chopped up into a multitude of playlists (not that I don’t hope it doesn’t turn up everywhere), this is a genuine, single, sublime work of art, and to achieve this from such a multi-angled selection takes unusual artistry.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'It could have been a triumph of style over substance but, like the Bach, the programming here is truly inspired...Where else could Ólafsson end but with ‘Hommage à Rameau’ from Images, Book 1? It not only brings the two composers together but offers the perfect distillation of all that has gone before.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
'The more notes per second – and Feinberg is up there with the notiest of them – the more the Canadian virtuoso is in his element...Hamelin does far more than tame these pianistic leviathans. He gives them momentum, character and individuality.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
There Will Come Soft Rains: Choral Works by Ēriks Ešenvalds
Pacific Lutheran University Choir of the West, Richard Nance
'This new release can stand proudly against all rivals. Richard Nance has polished his Pacific Lutheran choristers to perfection. Balance and tuning are beyond reproach, with superb control of a full dynamic range. The soloists’ contributions are another great attraction.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Parry: Judith
Sarah Fox (soprano), Kathryn Rudge (mezzo), Toby Spence (tenor), Henry Waddington (bass-baritone) Crouch End Festival Chorus, London Mozart Players, William Vann
'Every aspect of this performance sounds like a labour of love. Rudge’s soaring, expressive singing as Meshullemeth gives the piece its real heart, and she’s accompanied with intense sympathy by the conductor William Vann, who avoids any suggestion of bombast or sentimentality, and builds Parry’s great paragraphs so eloquently and with such assurance that you’d think he’d been conducting this music all his life.'
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Ingeniously programmed and impeccably delivered, with that undefinable excitement that comes from a group of musicians working absolutely as one, The Gesualdo Six’s ‘Fading’ is startlingly, urgently excellent...The Gesualdo Six are the real deal. Far from fading, they’re just coming into focus.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Brillez, astres nouveaux!
Chantal Santon Jeffery (soprano), Orfeo Orchestra, Purcell Choir, György Vashegyi
'One of the pleasures of the disc lies in noting the artful inclusion of orchestral numbers...Indeed, great care has evidently been taken over the order in which the items appear...the Orfeo Orchestra – and the Purcell Choir, too – perform beautifully under Vashegyi...Santon Jeffery – now without the hyphen – skilfully conveys a wide range of emotions.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
DVD/Blu-ray of the Month
Ambroise Thomas: Hamlet (DVD)
Stéphane Degout, Sabine Devieilhe, Laurent Alvaro, Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo, Nicolas Legoux, Julien Behr; Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Choeur Les Eléments, Louis Langrée, Cyril Teste
'[Degout] gives one of his greatest performances here, marvellously sung and acted...it’s an extraordinary achievement. Devieilhe makes an outstanding Ophélie, touching and vulnerable, her coloratura dazzlingly precise but never vacuously showy...Langrée really knows how to make this music live and breathe, and the playing, choral singing and recorded sound are all exemplary...Buy it and watch it, above all for Degout, who is unmissable and unforgettable.'
Available Format: DVD Video
Ambroise Thomas: Hamlet (Blu-ray)
Stéphane Degout, Sabine Devieilhe, Laurent Alvaro, Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo, Nicolas Legoux, Julien Behr; Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Choeur Les Eléments, Louis Langrée, Cyril Teste
Picture format: HD 16:9
Sound format: PCM stereo and DTS-MA 5.1
Available Format: Blu-ray
Reissue/Archive Issue of the Month
A Tribute to Ysaÿe
Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, François-Xavier Roth, Stéphane Denève
'An impressive five-disc Tribute which includes numerous works by Ysaÿe himself – most interestingly two substantial and virtually unknown concerto movements played by Jean-Jacques Kantorow – and masterpieces that were either dedicated to Ysaÿe (the Debussy String Quartet, for example) or closely associated with him...This is a truly fascinating collection.'
Available Formats: 5 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
