Gramophone Choices,
Gramophone Editor's Choices - May 2023
The final instalment of Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew's 'compelling' series of Gesualdo's madrigals on Harmonia Mundi takes top honours in this month's issue, with reviewer Fabrice Fitch observing that 'these interpretations are all about risk' yet also 'achieve admirable clarity of form and argument in nearly every case'.
Recordings mentioned in despatches include young Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä's debut on disc with the Orchestre de Paris in Stravinsky's The Firebird & The Rite of Spring, a 'marvellous' account of Norwegian composer Arne Nordheim's ballet music for The Tempest from the Bergen Philharmonic and Edward Gardner on LAWO, and Michael Spyres's 'sensational' Baroque album Contra-Tenor on Erato - read our interview with him about the joys of exploring music written for 'the outsiders and the weirdos' here!
Recording of the Month
'Agnew is surely right to insist on the music’s ability to stand on its own terms. It bears repeating: those who have thought of Gesualdo as a one-trick pony now have more than six hours’ evidence to the contrary.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Editor's Choices
'It provides us with the best-realised, and best-recorded, account of the original version of the Fourth we have yet had.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Arne Nordheim: The Tempest - Suite from the Ballet
Beate Mordal (soprano), Jeremy Carpenter (baritone), Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardne
'A marvellous recording: I urge everyone to buy this and be enraptured.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
'Mäkelä, as expected, engages his keen ears and sense of orchestral drama to hear and to project their startling innovation.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Saint-Saëns: Violin Works
Cecilia Zilliacus (violin), Christian Ihle Hadland (piano), Stephen Fitzpatrick (harp)
'The word here is ‘fearless’...Zilliacus offers us a violin tone that is vibrant and guttural at the same time.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Seong-Jin Cho’s latest project shows all the consideration and respect for the music that we’ve come to expect from this South Korean artist.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'The overriding lesson to be learnt is just what a flexible and expressive medium the harpsichord can be – perhaps more than any of us had realised before.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Sparkling imagination, insistent characterisation and a satisfyingly resonant ensemble mark this out as an exceptional and original release.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'It’s sad that Nethsingha’s departure means that the next volume will be the last. I can’t think of a greater or more apt epitaph to the music director’s time at St John’s.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
'The speed with which his voice moves can be breathtaking...it’s an enthralling disc as one might expect, and the best of it is sensational indeed.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
DVD/Blu-ray of the Month
Blow: Venus & Adonis and Purcell: Dido & Aeneas
Ida Ränzlöv, Bernt Ola Volungholen, Christina Larsson Malmberg, Rupert Enticknap, Lisa Carlioth, Mathilda Sidén Silfver, Mikael Stenbaek, Arash Azarbad, Confidencen Opera & Music Festival Orchestra, William Relton (director), Olof Boman
'William Relton, the director, never puts a foot wrong...The orchestra of period instruments – the pitch is a semitone below today’s standard – can’t be faulted.'
Available Format: DVD Video
Reissue/Archive Issue of the Month
Primrose Quartet: The Complete RCA Victor Recordings
Primrose Quartet, with Jesús María Sanromá (piano)
'Includes an impassioned account of Haydn’s Seven Last Words (each movement sounding quite unlike its immediate neighbour, which isn’t always the case.'
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
