Gramophone Choices,
Gramophone Editor's Choices - September 2020
Early autumn is shaping up to be a bumper season for recordings of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, with forthcoming accounts from Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra on Channel and Het Collectief and the late Reinbert de Leeuw, conducting his own reduction of the piece on Alpha Classics - but pick of the crop in the latest issue of Gramophone is Vladimir Jurowski's 'cool and lucid and thoroughly autumnal' reading of the work with Sarah Connolly 'in her absolute prime', Robert Dean Smith (who also appears on Fischer's recording), and the 'individually and collectively outstanding artists' of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra on Pentatone.
Recording of the Month
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Sarah Connolly (mezzo), Robert Dean Smith (tenor), Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski
'This is a performance of such distinction that regardless of one’s personal view of the piece...it must be considered a prime contender for anyone’s library...I cannot stress enough how effectively Jurowski conveys the ethereal ‘natural world’ beauty of the score...I cannot imagine a more revealing exposition of Mahler’s instrumental colorations. Everything stands in such sharp relief.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Editor's Choices
'I might have predicted that this of all the Mahler symphonies would chime with Osmo Vänskä’s very particular gifts as a conductor. The brilliance and clarity of this performance (and recording – BIS’s technical prowess much in evidence), to say nothing of Vänskä’s way with rhythm and articulation, is in itself the source of much pleasure.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'The seven works on this terrifically played, imaginatively programmed disc cover over 30 years of John Pickard’s career. They are not presented chronologically, however, but sequenced rather to form a trajectory from darkness...The Nash Ensemble are on top form here, and BIS’s sound is stunning.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Handel: Semele
Louise Alder (Semele), Hugo Hymas (Jupiter), Lucile Richardot (Juno/Ino), Carlo Vistoli (Athamas), Gianluca Buratto (Somnus/Cadmus), Emily Owen (Iris), Angela Hicks (Cupid), Peter Davoren (Apollo) English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
'A new recording is always welcome, especially when it comes from someone who knows his dramatical business as John Eliot Gardiner does...Alder is a happy choice, her voice rich, fluid and precise, and her agile and alert acting skills finding ideal projection in the wonderful clutch of arias Handel sets before her..Hymas has just the smooth vocal beauty needed for a sympathetic Jupiter.'
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'As you’d expect from such an experienced Beethoven performer as Paul Lewis, there’s a confidence in every track...What is also particularly telling is the way he creates the sense of a bigger structure over the course of an opus, even where that involves a study in contrasts....Lewis always giv[es] due consideration to Beethoven’s highly contrasting musical ingredients....All told, another hugely impressive disc from one of our greatest Beethovenians.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Every now and then you hear a new work and feel that excitement, the knowledge that here is a piece that is going to become part of the landscape. Rooted in tradition but with a voice of its own, immediately appealing but refusing to reveal everything at first listen, Francis Pott’s At First Light – recorded here for the first time by the Oxford-based chamber choir Commotio – is one such piece.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'It’s great, in the first place, for an institution of this type to have approached a composer whose demands were always likely to challenge it. The Choir of St John’s College rise to those challenges gamely, their advocacy naturally essential to the success of the project. And it is a success. The Taverner parody and its organ double seem to me especially fine, both as compositions and performances.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'On paper, the 2019 GFA Competition winner Johan Smith’s recital programme looks unremarkable...Not that this recital fails to showcase his abundant talent to its best advantage. So as one are player and instrument that you’re reminded of the ancients who mistook warriors on horseback for centaurs. Particularly admirable is Smith’s tone, unmarred by the arbitrary use of sul ponticello effects.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'The Hermes Experiment’s calm exterior often hides a powerful force that darts about energetically beneath...[Its] main strength lies in its ability to adapt to the particular needs, demands and peculiarities of each piece contained on this deeply engaging collection: harp, clarinet, soprano and double bass locked in dynamic and synergistic fusion.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Her burnt umber tones – smoothly produced, never forced – are a pleasure in themselves. Beyond this, she brings to each of these Handel arias, mostly written for castrato, abundant musical intelligence and a specific sense of character...Amereau sets the seal on a more than promising debut recital with a true and tender performance of Ruggiero’s ‘Verdi prati’ (Alcina), subtly shading the vocal line and delicately ornamenting the refrain on repeats.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
DVD/Blu-ray of the Month
Wagner: Tannhäuser (DVD)
Stephen Gould (Tannhäuser), Lise Davidsen (Elisabeth), Elena Zhidkova (Venus), Markus Eiche (Wolfram von Eschenbach), Stephen Milling (Hermann); Bayreuth Festival, Valéry Gergiev, Tobias Kratzer
'Kratzer has found an interesting frame story through which to parallel and illustrate the dramatic conflicts of Wagner’s early Romantic opera...The cast here play as a really tight company...[Davidsen] acts and sings as if she’s already spent a life on this stage...Hugely recommended, unless you’re irretrievably addicted to medieval recreation – and you’ll even get quite a lot of that here.'
Available Format: 2 DVD Videos
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
