Editor's Choices include orchestral works by Edward MacDowell from Xiayin Wang, the BBC Philharmonic and John Wilson on Chandos, Brahms and Schumann from James Ehnes (on viola) and Andrew Armstrong on Onyx, Gabriel Jackson's The Christmas Story from the Choirs of Merton College Oxford on Delphian, and a Mozart Requiem with a twist from Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon on Harmonia Mundi.
Recording of the Month
Brahms: Cello Sonatas
Alisa Weilerstein (cello), Inon Barnatan (piano)
'Now this is my kind of Brahms playing: open-hearted, elastic and generously phrased... The vivid and variegated colouring of Barnatan’s playing is largely responsible for this semblance of orchestral richness, although Weilerstein’s tonal palette is equally prismatic.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Editor's Choices
MacDowell: Orchestral Works Vol. 1
Xiayin Wang (piano), BBC Philharmonic, John Wilson
'MacDowell, that most European-sounding of American composers, deserves the innate stylistic understanding of genre that Wilson brings to the podium. Who has ever heard (of) MacDowell’s symphonic tone poem Lancelot und Elaine (note the ‘und’) and, after hearing it, asked why it is not in the regular repertoire?'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Ehnes & Armstrong Play Brahms & Schumann
James Ehnes (viola), Andrew Armstrong (piano)
'Ehnes is a natural Brahmsian. His playing is richly expressive yet also completely without affectation...In every way, in fact, Ehnes is very much the equal of the greatest viola players on record.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Concert de Chausson - Quintette de Vierne
Eric Le Sage (piano), Daishin Kashimoto (violin), Schumann Quartett
'Definitely a disc that invites and repays repeated listening: especially, for me, the Vierne, which now has a firm place in my heart of hearts.'
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Waley-Cohen: Spell Book
Manchester Collective, Heloise Werner (soprano), Katie Bray (mezzo-soprano), Fleur Barron (mezzo), Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin), Anne Beilby (viola), Nathaniel Boyd (cello)
'The reckless verve of ‘spell for joy’ comes in total contrast with the elemental starkness of ‘spell for change’ – which, in its turn, could hardly be more removed from the incremental patterns of ‘spell for reality.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 16 bit)
JS Bach: Complete Cello Suites (The 2023 Sessions)
Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello)
'There is the most satisfying sense that Queyras knows the place and function of every single note in each musical sentence but isn’t precious about it: it’s magisterial yet somehow casual in its state of play.'
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Gabriel Jackson: The Christmas Story
Oxford Contemporary Sinfonia, The Choir of Merton College Oxford, Benjamin Nicholas
'There’s often a strangeness to The Christmas Story – of instrumentation, style, text – that helps refocus the ear on a story blurred by over-familiarity.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Mozart: Requiem
Chadi Lazreq (treble), Ying Fang (soprano), Beth Taylor (mezzo), Laurence Kilsby (tenor), Alex Rosen (bass); Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
'This is a Requiem that goes all out for dramatic effect, the explosive choral consonants of the opening matched by acutely focused string syncopations.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Reissue/Archive Issue of the Month
Kolisch Quartet plays Mozart and Schubert
Hortense Monath (piano), Kolisch Quartet
'Schubert’s great G major Quartet, D887, [is] played with a degree of urgency that suggests these new music specialists have located dark prophecies in the score that other groups, even the finest of them – then and now – haven’t sensed.'
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 24 bit)
