BBC Music Magazine Choices,
BBC Music Magazine - September 2023 Choices
Category Choices include Marek Janowski's studio account of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera (starring Freddie De Tommaso in his first complete recorded role as a 'bright yet masculine' Riccardo) on Pentatone, a 'resplendently recorded' Vaughan Williams's Job from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Manze on Onyx, and James O'Donnell's final recording as Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey - featuring music by Vaughan Williams, Macmillan & Tavener.
Recording of the Month
Bernard Herrmann: Suite from Wuthering Heights & Echoes for Strings
Keri Fuge (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Mario Venzago, Joshua Tan
'Through their two voices - a radiant Keri Fuge and a towering Roderick Williams - we're drawn immediately into their intense love-affair...This snapshot, stunningly recorded, serves as a tantalising example of what it might be to go on Herrmann's entire emotionally wrought journey.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Orchestral Choice
Vaughan Williams: Job, Old King Cole & The Running Set
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Manze
'Trepidation stalks Manze's Job from the outset, the ostensibly pastoral opening shaded by an undertow of dark foreboding...All told, this is a Job rich in colour and atmosphere, projected with stirring confidence and understanding by the Liverpool players.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Concerto Choice
Airat Ichmouratov: Piano Concerto, Viola Concerto No. 1
Jean-Philippe Sylvestre (piano), Elvira Misbakhova (viola), London Symphony Orchestra, Airat Ichmouratov
'The soundworld of both works is tonal, with Rachmaninov-style moodiness evoked in the opening bars of the Piano Concerto...While the textures of the piano concerto create a rich tapestry, those of the viola concerto are spare and very expressive.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Opera Choice
Verdi: Un ballo in maschera
Freddie de Tommaso (Riccardo), Saioa Hernández (Amelia), Lester Lynch (Renato), Elisabeth Kulman (Ulrica), Annika Gerhards (Oscar); Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Marek Janowski
'De Tommaso turns out to be the real deal, singing with a confidence and ease that seem astonishing for a singer who was only 28 at the time of the recording, His is a real spinto tenor: bright yet intensely masculine...There are no weak links in the rest of the cast either.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Choral & Song Choice
'This, apparently his last recording at the Abbey, sustains the remarkably high standards he and his choir consistently achieved during his tenure. A special sense of intimate devotion suffuses the opening Kyrie of Vaughan Williams’s Mass, the singing restrained but immaculately controlled technically.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chamber Choice
'Igonina combines a mellow luminescence with a sense of yearning...Emelyanychev is typically superb throughout, seeming at times to strum the strings directly, and a finely-judged performance of the ‘Louange’ from Messiaen’s Quartet provides a suitably mesmerising end.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Instrumental
'Hahn’s playing responds with enthralling artistry to every mercurial shade of the music’s flow of moods and ideas...It's a measure of Hahn’s mastery that not just all of violin playing seems to be here, but all of music itself too.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Jazz Choice
'There’s a wonderfully perverse appeal attendant on the idea of taking good-time forms and re-delivering them with this kind of manic energy via piledriving instrumental elements and snarly vocals.'
Available Format: CD
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
