Latest News: Classical
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Recording of the Week,
Bach's St Matthew Passion 4th June 2012
Peter Sellars’s ‘ritualization’ of the work with Simon Rattle conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker packs a powerful punch, thanks in no small part to Mark Padmore’s harrowing central performance as the Evangelist.
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Recording of the Week,
Bruckner Symphonies from Rattle and Barenboim 28th May 2012
Daniel Barenboim conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin in the Seventh Symphony, whilst Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker tackle the Ninth.
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Recording of the Week,
Handel in England 14th May 2012
The Edinburgh-based Dunedin Consort record Esther, Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company make a fine case for the incidental music for Smollett’s Alceste, and a legendary Glyndebourne Theodora makes its first appearance on CD.
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Recording of the Week,
Britten: War Requiem 7th May 2012
Gianandrea Noseda leads an Italianate performance of Britten’s great depiction of ‘the pity of war’, with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and soloists Sabina Cvilak, Ian Bostridge and Simon Keenlyside.
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Recording of the Week,
Hamilton Harty’s Chamber Music 30th April 2012
The Goldner String Quartet and Piers Lane bring out all the charm and flamboyance of the Irish composer’s two string quartets and piano quintet, dating from the early 1900s and composed shortly after Harty relocated to London.
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Recording of the Week,
Kathleen Ferrier 23rd April 2012
On the centenary of Ferrier’s birth, Katherine pays to tribute to the great Lancashire contralto and explores her legacy on disc via two comprehensive commemorative sets from Decca and EMI, which includes folksongs, Bach and Mahler.
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Recording of the Week,
Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique from Ticciati and the SCO 16th April 2012
Now several years into his tenure as principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the young British conductor presides over a ‘deliriously orgiastic’ account of Berlioz’s ‘episodes in the life of an artist’.
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Recording of the Week,
New and forthcoming Opera DVDs 9th April 2012
Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur from Covent Garden, Juan Diego Flórez, Diana Damrau and Joyce DiDonato in Rossini's Le Comte Ory from the Metropolitan Opera.
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Recording of the Week,
Claude Debussy 2nd April 2012
James explores three collections marking the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, with highlights including Boulez’s Pélleas et Mélisande, Michael Tilson Thomas’s Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s Préludes.
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Recording of the Week,
Wagner - Klaus Florian Vogt and a new Parsifal 26th March 2012
The sweet-toned German tenor presents a portfolio of heavyweight heroes, whilst Marek Janowski’s Wagner cycle on Pentatone continues with a marvellously paced Parsifal, starring Christian Elsner as the ‘holy fool’.
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Recording of the Week,
Haydn from Thomas Fey and the Heidelberger Sinfoniker 19th March 2012
Chris applauds the ‘knowledge and sound musical instincts’ on show from the German conductor on this sixteenth volume of his Haydn symphonies cycle on Hänssler, which features Symphonies nos. 90 and 92 (the ‘Oxford’).
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Recording of the Week,
Jules Massenet - Werther & Don Quichotte 12th March 2012
Rolando Villazón brings apposite wildness and fragility to Goethe’s tortured poet, with Antonio Pappano presiding over a visceral, near-Italianate performance from the Covent Garden orchestra, whilst Ferruccio Furlanetto is heart-breaking as the ‘knight of the doleful countenance’ from the Mariinsky.
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Recording of the Week,
Brahms choral discs from Gardiner and Herreweghe 5th March 2012
Gardiner follows his recording of the complete symphonies with an account of the Deutsches Requiem that scores highly on textual clarity, whilst Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent offer luminous performances of the Alto Rhapsody (with Ann Hallenberg as soloist) and Schicksalsied.
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Recording of the Week,
Vivaldi: Sacred vocal works and concertos 27th February 2012
Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas joins the baroque ensemble Florilegium for Laudate pueri and Nulla in mundo, whilst the group’s founder Ashley Solomon takes centre-stage in the recently-rediscovered flute concerto Il Gran Mogol (receiving only its second outing on record here).
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Recording of the Week,
Aleksandra Kurzak and Renée Fleming 20th February 2012
Up-and-coming Polish soprano Kurzak radiates ‘gioia’ in her debut solo album of operatic arias by Donizetti, Bellini, Puccini and others, whilst Fleming is on ravishing form in an all-French programme of orchestral song-cycles by Ravel, Messiaen and Dutilleux (the latter composed for her in 2007).
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Recording of the Week,
Schoenberg and Berg 13th February 2012
Isabelle Faust pairs the Berg and Beethoven violin concertos to great effect with Orchestra Mozart and Claudio Abbado, whilst Pierre Boulez brings breathtaking clarity to Schoenberg’s densely-orchestrated Pelleas et Melisande with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester.
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Recording of the Week,
Alison Balsom 6th February 2012
The British trumpeter’s new album Seraph takes its title from a new concertino composed for her by James MacMillan in 2010, and also includes music by Arutiunian, Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Takemitsu.
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Recording of the Week,
Britten Violin Concerto 30th January 2012
Anthony Marwood’s rich, singing tone and the impressive precision of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov combine for a tremendously touching account of Britten’s underrated concerto, whilst violist Lawrence Power is equally moving in Lachrymae.
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Recording of the Week,
Beethoven Symphonies from Thielemann and Chailly 23rd January 2012
Thielemann offers a cycle in the grand Germanic tradition with the Wiener Philharmoniker, whilst Chailly’s interpretations with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig emphasise lightness and freshness without ever sounding too hard-driven or breathless. James puts the case for each approach.
