Gramophone Choices,
Gramophone Editor's Choices - October 2022
Featuring arias from operas including Ponchielli's La Gioconda, Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur, Giordano's Fedora and Verdi's I Due Foscari, Jonathan Tetelman's debut recording on Deutsche Grammophon is first among equals in the latest issue, with Mark Pullinger describing the Chilean-American as 'the most exciting tenor discovery to come my way since the appearance of Jonas Kaufmann on the big international operatic stages'. (We couldn't agree more: the album was one of our August Recordings of the Week , where Katherine observed that 'Tetelman’s resemblance to Jonas Kaufmann circa 2005 is so strong as to be positively uncanny'!).
Among the Editor's Choices is the third volume of Francesco Corti's super series of Bach harpsichord concertos on Pentatone, featuring his own reconstruction of one work from a single page of music: in case you missed it, you can read our recent in-depth interview with him about the pleasures and challenges involved in the process here...
Recording of the Month
'This is a fabulous debut disc. I hope you share my excitement, because Tetelman is the real deal.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Editor's Choices
Bach: Harpsichord Concertos Part III
Francesco Corti (harpsichord/director), Andrea Buccarella (harpsichord), Il Pomo d'Oro
'There is no audible way of knowing who is who unless you happen to be following the score. So enjoyable is the music-making, however, that you’ll soon want to stop doing that and just listen.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Secret Love Letters
Lisa Batiashvili (violin), Giorgi Gigashvili (piano),Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
'Batiashvili favours an interpretative line that is easier to experience than to describe, not self-effacing so much as intimate, flexible, unhurried.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Ermenegildo del Cinque: Sonatas for Three Cellos
Ludovico Minasi, Cristina Vidoni, Teodoro Baù (cellos), Simone Vallerotonda (lute/guitar), Andrea Buccarella (harpsichord)
'It’s all immensely elegantly shaped and dispatched, simultaneously understated and brimming with different shapes and shades of tone colouring and articulation.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Sextet; Piano Quartet; Piano Trio
Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective
'In sum, an exuberant, brilliantly executed celebration of the most prodigious brother-sister double act in music history.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Even knowing what’s in store from Prokofiev’s Sarcasms doesn’t entirely prepare you for the sheer venom he unleashes at the opening, nor for the intelligence with which he moderates that attack thereafter.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Senfl is a particularly endearing figure who undoubtedly deserves to be better known; this is an ideal introduction.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Wolf: Italienisches Liederbuch
Allan Clayton (tenor), Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)
'Choosing to present the songs in published order, they offer a performance to cherish: fresh, intelligent and beautifully sung and played.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Lieder: Berg, Schumann, Wolf, Shostakovich, Brahms
Matthias Goerne (bass-baritone), Daniil Trifonov (piano)
'Goerne and the equally probing Daniil Trifonov – a true conversational partner – seem to conceive the whole programme as a brooding mega-cycle on the human condition.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
John Frederick Lampe: The Dragon of Wantley
Mary Bevan (Margery), Catherine Carby (Mauxalinda), Mark Wilde (Moore of Moore Hall), John Savournin (Gaffer Gubbins/The Dragon) The Brook Street Band, John Andrews
'Mary Bevan and Catherine Carby are absolutely ideal... and the whole thing is exhilaratingly conducted by John Andrews.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
DVD/Blu-ray of the Month
'Here, in performances of rare empathy and recreative skill, both [early] works emerge as harbingers of miracles yet to come.'
Available Format: 2 DVD Videos
Reissue/Archive Issue of the Month
'These are strong, punchy performances with an added lyrical bias...The DG transfers are wholly natural, and Richard Evidon provides expert annotations. One to buy and relish.'
Available Format: 3 CDs
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
