Latest News: Classical
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Recording of the Week,
Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet 18th January 2010
A ‘superb reading of Prokofiev's supreme masterpiece’ from Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra, two decades after the conductor’s landmark account of the piece with the Kirov Orchestra.
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Recording of the Week,
Bach for Violin and Voice 11th January 2010
Hilary Hahn, Christine Schäfer and Matthias Goerne join forces with the Münchener Kammerorchester for arias from works including the St Matthew Passion, the Mass in B minor and numerous cantatas.
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Recording of the Week,
A Ring cycle for the 21st Century 4th January 2010
La Fura del Baus brings Wagner’s eighteen-hour epic to life with striking choreography and special effects, and a superb cast including American soprano Jennifer Wilson as Brünnhilde and bass Matti Salminen as Fasolt, Hunding and Hagen.
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Recording of the Week,
Thomas Tallis's Secret Garden 14th December 2009
Graham O’Reilly’s Ensemble européen William Byrd explore the Renaissance composer’s music for the English Chapel Royal, spanning the reigns of four different monarchs.
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Recording of the Week,
El Sistema 7th December 2009
A life-affirming and moving documentary by Paul Smaczny charting the evolution of the Venezuelan music education programme which produced the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra.
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Recording of the Week,
Christmas Releases 30th November 2009
Festive albums from Ex Cathedra, The Choir of Westminster Cathedral, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and the Choir of Gonville & Caius College Cambridge.
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Recording of the Week,
Two important Elgar rarities 9th November 2009
Sir Andrew Davis conducts The Crown of India with the BBC Philharmonic, and Roderick Williams and others explore The Fringes of the Fleet, a patriotic song-cycle setting texts by Rudyard Kipling.
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Recording of the Week,
Cecilia Bartoli and the world of Castratos 26th October 2009
The intrepid Italian mezzo explores repertoire composed for Farinelli, Caffarelli and Senesino (including music by Porpora, Caldara, Vinci and Leo) with Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini.
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Recording of the Week,
Winterreise from Padmore and Lewis 19th October 2009
The British pianist and tenor launch a series of Schubert song-cycles with a spellbinding account of the late, great ‘Winter Journey’ which strikes Chris as ‘music-making of the absolute highest order’.
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Recording of the Week,
Tchaikovsky's Moscow Cantata 12th October 2009
Valery Gergiev conducts the Mariinsky orchestra in a punchy, exciting account of the 1883 work written in honour of the coronation of Tsar Alexander III, plus the 1812 Overture, and the ‘Danish Overture’, composed for Alexander’s marriage.
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Awards,
The Quatuor Ebène and the Gramophone Awards 5th October 2009
The young French string quartet scoop the Record of the Year prize for their disc of Ravel, Debussy and Fauré on Erato, with Gerald Finley and Julius Drake, Stile Antico, Fretwork and Steven Osborne among the category-winners.
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Recording of the Week,
Unknown Britten 28th September 2009
NMC Records release a collection of rediscovered works by the British composer, including a clarinet concerto commission by Benny Goodman, and three songs originally intended for Les Illuminations.
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Recording of the Week,
Julia Fischer plays Schubert 14th September 2009
The German violinist and pianist Martin Helmchen convert Chris to the pleasures of Schubert’s violin sonatas in ‘by far the most convincing performances I’ve heard of these works’.
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Recording of the Week,
Rattle conducts Brahms 31st August 2009
The ‘incredible warmth and beauty of sound’ which Rattle coaxes from the Berliner Philharmoniker in the four symphonies echoes the achievement of their Gramophone award-winning recording of Ein deutsches Requiem in 2007.
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Recording of the Week,
Bruckner from the Concertgebouw 24th August 2009
Mariss Jansons conducts the Third and Fourth symphonies with the Amsterdam orchestra in performances which showcase their lustrous string sound and richly glowing brass section.
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Awards,
Gramophone Awards 2009 - Finalists 17th August 2009
Nominations includes Sir Mark Elder’s Dream of Gerontius with the Hallé, the late Richard Hickox’s recording of Britten’s Owen Wingrave, and Stephen Kovacevich’s Dabelli Variations.
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Recording of the Week,
Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle 10th August 2009
Sir Willard White is the bridegroom with skeletons in his closet, and Russian mezzo Elena Zhidkova his inquisitive new wife on this new live recording from Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra.
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Recording of the Week,
Diaghilev and The Ballets Russes 27th July 2009
The Mariinsky Orchestra and Ballet and Valery Gergiev commemorate the centenary of the Russian ballet company with a DVD which reconstructs Nijinsky’s original choreography for The Rite of Spring and The Firebird.
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Obituary,
Sir Edward Downes 20th July 2009
The British conductor and his wife Joan ended their lives together at an assisted suicide clinic in Zurich at the weekend; Chris pays tribute to ‘a thoroughly nice man’ who was particularly renowned in Verdi and Russian repertoire.
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Recording of the Week,
Tomás Luis de Victoria 6th July 2009
The Lay Clerks of Westminster Cathedral and Matthew Martin present the Spanish master’s Missa Gaudeamus, interspersed with passages of chant and organ music by Frescobaldi, in an account which impressed with its focus and purity.
