BBC Music Magazine Choices,
BBC Music Magazine - March 2022 Choices
Jennifer Kloetzel and Robert Koenig's set of Beethoven's complete works for cello and piano (subtitled 'The Conquering Hero', and released on Avie last month) takes top honours in the March issue, with Malcolm Hayes describing the recital as 'a masterclass (in the happiest non-academic sense) in how to engage with the most powerful creative personality that music has known, while at the same time drawing the listener’s awareness into each work’s inner processes and world of expression'.
Other Choices include Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos's set of Bach's solo sonatas and partitas on Sony, a 1967 BBC broadcast of Holst's one-act opera The Perfect Fool (starring the late John Mitchinson) on Lyrita, and French soprano Sandrine Piau's spellbinding Handel album Enchantresses on Alpha - you can read our recent interview with Sandrine about the project here.
Recording of the Month
Beethoven The Conquering Hero: Complete Works For Cello & Piano
Jennifer Kloetzel (cello), Robert Koenig (piano)
'If only more cellists played like this – and at this level of ceaseless musicianship...And there is a true musical team at work here. Robert Koenig’s choice of a mellow-voiced Blüthner piano for his alert accompanying connects exactly with Kloetzel’s artistry.'
Available Format: 3 CDs
Orchestral Choice
'Recorded in remarkably vivid sound at the Barbican in December 2019, this is an exceptionally fine performance. Gianandrea Noseda brings a tremendous sense of strength and purpose to the opening...The LSO’s principal wind players excel in their many solos.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Concerto Choice
'The works are markedly different in character, yet both exhibit an underlying enigmatic quality against which an array of moods and textures are explored through an ever-changing post-tonal sound-world. Both are performed with clarity and sweep by the soloists and Antwerp Symphony Orchestra under Olari Elts.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Opera Choice
'In this dazzling album, Sandrine Piau crowns her legacy as a Baroque prima donna...her informed additions subvert the original melodies and unleash a ferocious vocalism...Correas and the band add their own magic: whirlwind tempos, extravagant continuo realisations and slightly off-beat entries keep us guessing what the instrumentalists will do next.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Choral & Song Choice
Saariaho: Sumun Lapi; Anu Komsi (soprano), Pia Värri (piano)
'It’s a compelling collection spanning Swedish, French and Finnish poems – and painting a vivid portrait of a consummate art-song composer...The vocal and expressive range is astonishing, delivered with a poise and precision that goes to the core of Saariaho’s uniquely intense yet ethereal soundworld.'
Chamber Choice
'From start to finish Humphreys’s playing is a feast of flawless tuning, beautifully focused and coloured tone and rich characterisation. And there’s no mistaking how Joseph Tong’s accompanying, always immaculate in the earlier pieces, responds vividly to the stronger material in the later ones.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Instrumental Choice
'Kavakos’s stylistic sensitivities bring an element of decorative fantasy to the naked urtext, as would have occurred in the hands of any skilled player of the period. He uses vibrato very sparingly and with exquisite subtlety as a microcosmic timbral shading, and employs the bow...with a deftness and lightness of touch more suggestive of a Baroque original.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Historical Choice
Holst: The Perfect Fool
Richard Golding (Wizard), John Mitchinson (Troubadour), Pamela Bowden (Mother), Margaret Neville (Princess), David Read (Traveller), Walter Plinge (Fool), BBC Northern Singers, BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, Charles Groves
'Very much a radio adaptation, this 1967 BBC broadcast includes a personable narrator explaining the stage action. Allowing for this and the mono sound, this is a highly engaging production with a superb cast – with rich-toned bass-baritone Richard Golding especially compelling as the comically malevolent Wizard...this is a vibrant account, vividly characterised, with truly spellbinding music.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Jazz Choice
'I don’t always enjoy players who employ an abundance of notes to dazzle the ear, but Peterson’s work is so full of joyfulness, good humour, exuberance, wit and indeed elegance that it wins me over, and there is always musical logic and substance rather than mere virtuosity in his improvisations.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
